The great Depression of 1969

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Kantismus
Sergeant
Posts: 21
Joined: Aug 02 2017
Human: Yes

The great Depression of 1969

Post by Kantismus »

Hello everybody,

I love the economic simulation of SRU and now, while i am facing a challenge in my latest game i wanted to share this event, when the ever growing NATO-capitalist heaven turned into a worldwide economic crisis.

Scenario 1949 Cold War start as Japan:
After some initial territorial gains in Europe the Warsaw Pact constantly lost ground to the NATO-Forces. Japan joined the western alliance after an early war with USSR and China and after rebuilding its military expanded from Bangalore and New Delhi in the southwest to Ulaanbataar and Vladivostok in the North and Tokyo in the east unifying 1,3b asian people. Economically these two decades of constant war between France, Italy and Norway (which liberated whole west Germany from the Sowjets early on) vs. USSR and it's allies, have seen an ever expanding market for military goods with high productivity gains and declining production in every other sector due to full employment over almost 20 years. Like the USA, Japan had it's own share in selling military goods to the world. market prices went up to 120.000 providing billions of dollars to the main producers. The GDP/c of the USA for example went up to 25.000$. For myself i failed to get so much out of it mostly because of conquering Korea, most eastern parts of USSR and a big part of china. Integrating bad treated people from communist states every few years is bad for average income i guess. But certainly it was a golden age for weapon dealers all over the world.

But now the time has changed - In the 60s India became more and more powerful, conquered most of southeast Asia from France (despite we where allied, i did not do anything about it) and got a direct border to Japan. India was the most important import country for military goods by now. In 67/68 India finally forced the inevitable Japan (blue) vs India (red). It was not really fair i guess. The by now most advanced combined armed forces of Japan against a massed army of TL1 Rover Tanks and Combat Engineers. Air superiority and a good tactical bomber fleet was decisive, millions of indian people died at Chengdu and with the Fall of New Delhi few month later India was gone. The People of Pakistan, Bhutan, South Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos where liberated.

So India vanished. Same time the USSR went bankrupt and their military resistance collapsed. No major military power within the red sphere was left, so the end of the cold war seemed close...

It is 1969 now. Nixon is President of the United States, The world has seen the first men on the moon (US first, Japan second) and the Warsaw Pact almost gone. The only notable threat to total NATO victory is the emergence of Saddam Hussein (1968) and it's rebuild of iraq in the former borders the ottoman empire. Sidenote: These where former spanish holdings liberated from the USSR and Egypt and Franco thought Verdeja II and MTC II are superior to TL-1 Rover and Combat Engineers so declared war on Saddam. And by now on a sunny summerday....the Military goods market started to collapse!

Oh man i love this game for moments like this. in a moment you think victory is certain and only a question of time suddenly the whole world economy goes bad. Especially the US gained a GDP/c of over 25.000$ over time, already lost 5000$ within a few month. The market price for military goods fell from it's peak over 120.000$ per unit to 22.600$ turned military goods production from a major source of income to a loss business. Almost every Region alive is loosing GDP by now. If the US is representative for the rest there where 15-20% of economic power gone within three month. Market prices for everything goes down as well. And there is still no end. That is the simulated mother of a global depression and in my opinion this one is totally plausible.

For Japan i have chosen a Keynesian approach to deal with the new situation. I have cut taxes and expanding my production especially building new nuclear reactors and hydropower. My own GDP/c went down from 5.700$ to 5.100$. Inflation drops and unemployment goes up despite i do everything i know against it. But like the US my own economy depended on military goods a lot. I was the second biggest producer of military goods now selling not a single peace and only produce for my own demand. All i can try is not to loose to much and hope for better times.

That was my story of the great depression of 1969 i wanted to share. I suppose many players would have conquered the world by now or started all over. Militarily i cannot imagine any challenge by now and red vs. blue should be over soon. But if you like to discuss: what do you think about the economy in SRU? Is managing the economy fun? Challenge? or simply annoying to you?

best regards
Ricent1
Captain
Posts: 110
Joined: Jan 15 2014
Human: Yes
Location: Sebastian, Florida

Re: The great Depression of 1969

Post by Ricent1 »

The economic tool is what makes things challenging. I play economy at the hard level mostly. Very hard is nearly impossible. I find the AI tends to not build new construction, or at least not often. If you start with default resour rd, the world begins to run out of resources that are strained due to population increase. Electricity, food, petroleum and consumer goods continue to become scarce in the games I've played. I can support a robust military by maximizing petroleum and consumer goods sales. Of course you need all the supporting resources to keep consumer goods rolling off assembly lines.

I also found that specific smaller nations are best colonized so you can withdraw their excess without having to support their population. Just be sure to discourage them from independence. I colonize Kuwait for petroleum, Liberia for rubber, and Madagascar for coal, uranium and iron ore. Agriculture can be located in multiple places, and the others you can produce yourself.
YoMomma
Brigadier Gen.
Posts: 768
Joined: Jun 27 2015
Human: Yes
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Re: The great Depression of 1969

Post by YoMomma »

Economy is a challenge, since most users have issues with it. I remember starting in SR2020 coming from HOI 3. I simply got overwhelmed by options and returned to HOI 3 for a few months. Then 1 day when i was bored i took my time screening all the tabs and realised it was very simple. Only challenge since then has been controlling units with as less losses as possible.

I like the economy alot. When i saw you get more population with low education spending for example.. SO realistic.. Look at Africa. When you come from Europe you have to realise this game is based on the American supply economy. Your domestic market is very important and basicly make or break your economy. If you want to improve your GDP/C, inflation plays a big part, so try to predict how many facilities your region can build and keep. Too many and your inflation is out of control (which can be fine), too few and your inflation wont be enough and your GDP/C will drop, lowering tax incomes. Expenses is often good, so maximising research is a no brainer. For the rest there are many ways you can run your economy. Low taxes, low domestic prices and very high gdp can be your endgoal for example. Your gonna need to import all raw resources for that so that can be a challenge, but it is possible if others produce enough.
Mostly i play like i want to control everything in the future. So self sufficient in areas i know the game gonna have problems with, and other areas are low priorities. For 2020 that would be self sufficient in rubber asap as long the region can handle the big expenses. Which is the biggest issue in economy if you think about it, but oh well. I think there are other issues as well with big numbers in the game, which can break your save game in several ways, for now dropping production is a big one.
How rubber production drops over time while the market availability is poor...
Gameplay 1st
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