To What Ends for Victory

[Bison]

So I had a choice to make last night in the last 30 turns of my latest CIV 5 game.  George Washington's American empire and my English empire were running neck and neck for a point's victory.  There was no chance for a cultural or diplomatic victory.  Now I'd just taken Seattle which put me up 20 points.  It was a protracted war, which if I had known that George's army was as broken as it was I'd have pressed the attack and added another city or two before asking for a peace agreement and guarantying victory.    However...

I built the Pentagon and added about 10 points to my lead, or so I thought.  And with only 20 turns left to go, I'm only actually up by 4 points.   All I can think is that George was getting some serious cultural points and unlocking his policy trees.  He also started a war with the Iroquois.  I know the Iroquois will not be able to fight back.  They still had riflemen facing George's Mech Infantry and SAMS.  So I declare war and march off to hold Iroquois land hoping to preserve a points victory.

I'd built one nuclear bomb a few turns earlier just because I could.  I had no intention of using it.  However, George rushed and defeated an Iroquois city.  Now I'm down by around 40 points.  His planes are destroying my troops attempting to take Chicago.  I'm close to taking over San Francisco just a few turns of resistance remaining.  But time is starting to run out. 

Around 10 turns left in the game and I start building 2 more nuclear bombs, one will be ready in 5 turns and one in 6 turns..  I also purchase one straight out.  I have no desire to go nuclear, but the Americans are spamming fighters and bombers disrupting any gains I was making toward taking Chicago.  It's clear at this point I'm in dire straits for attaining victory even after taking San Francisco I'm down by 20 points.

England decides to go nuclear.  Target Houston.  9 turn countdown to 2050 A.D. and end of game.

Turn 9 Shift 2 artillery units and 3 mech infantry units to my border with Houston.
Turn 6 First nuclear strike on Houston.
Turn 5 Barbarian tank units, 4 to be exact, are advancing on London.  I have no idea where they came from.  Perhaps the nuclear strike spawned them, I don't know.  There is no barbarian camp on the map and certainly not within the English borders.  One is taken out by English modern tanks and London fire.
Turn 5 Second nuclear strike on Houston
Turn 5 One Barbarian tank destroyed outside London.
Turn 4 Third nuclear strike on Houston.  Mech infantry ordered into the radation cloud surrounding Houston to take the city.
Turn 4 Last 2 Barbarian tanks taken out near London.
Turn 3 Mech infantry with artillery support move into and control Houston.  England is now up by around 10 points.
Turn 3 American and English forces are clashing outside of an Iroquois city.  The Americans had been seiging to the point where city's health was red.  So the Americans should be able to take it with a single attack next round.  3 American units.  3 English units.  Combat leads to 2 injuried American units and 3 badly injuried English units.  Iroquois still hold the town.
Turn 2 English propose peace.  Americans accept.  It's a crazy agreement by the Americans, because I'm up by 3 points.
Turn 1 English sweating out the last round with the hopes the Americans don't have a cultural victory to pull out of their sleve.  I'm also starting to feel bad that I had to nuke Houston to give me a chance for a points victory.
Turn 0 English survive with a 3 point victory.

Now I guess it made for an exciting game, but I cannot help thinking that going nuclear first was never in my plans and I actually felt bad for a few moments for doing so afterward.  I get it is only a game, but to what ends for victory?   

[MetalDog]

In an odd way, could that scenario be a real life quandry?  Especially the justification for the nuclear option?  Not the gain in points, but, some more tangible asset or goal?

[republic]

Often even when playing a game I find it difficult to break my own moral code.  I can never play the badguy or even choose bad choices in RPGs without feeling badly, and in a strategy game I often try to 'rise above'.

However, there are times when I'm far behind with no chance of winning...I'll do whatever it takes.  I can recall a few games of Distant Worlds where I was being oppressed by multiple enemies so I threw my entire war effort into getting the Doomsday Machine going and began systematically destroying my opponents homeworlds.

I sometimes teach using Rise of Nations.  It is a great game because we can save our progress and play a game over the course of days or weeks as we have time to incorporate it into my regular lessons.  Its interesting to see how students react as they go down the tech tree.  As oil opens up former allies suddenly become adversaries and wars spark simply over resources.  Some students build up massive nuclear arsenals so that if they are attacked they will simply spam nukes to deplete the doomsday counter and cause no one to win.  Its great to compare their actions to the actions of nations in history.

[Bison]

I know what you mean Republic.  I almost never play the Germans in a WW2 game.  Somehow it just doesn't feel right wanting to help the Germans win.

[LongBlade]

I know what you mean Republic.  I almost never play the Germans in a WW2 game.  Somehow it just doesn't feel right wanting to help the Germans win.

I play Germans in most games, but I have to say that with Flames of War I *cannot* bring myself to play the SS. I really don't like how they are portrayed as just more elite troops.

Fortunately the game offers plenty of regular, airborne, and engineering units as alternatives.

[Bison]

Yeah that what I meant LB.  I don't really like playing the SS units too much.

[W8taminute]

I'm aligned with Republic in pretty much the exact same way.

Like all of you I have a moral code that I generally stick to whilst gaming.  Doesn't matter if the game in question is an RPG, FPS, TBS, or wargame. 

There are a few events, however, that I let my deepest emotions of anger and retribution surface and cause me to break my code.  See list below:

• Single player TBS/Wargame - If the only way for me to win is the use of nukes because I feel the ai cheated I will
• Multiplayer FPS - If some douchebag noob basher is camping at my teams spawn point and picking me off each time I spawn I go postal.  By that I mean I cease to play the game and resort to either voice or typing a pyschological war against the douche.  Don't ask me what I say because quite frankly it's absolutely ugly, however if someone is going to play like that I do everything in my power to spoil it for him, collateral damage be damned!

The one exception to this rule is when playing a TBS/Wargame with other human players, especially those who are friends.  (i.e. fellow Grogheads).  I don't have to get angry because the community here is civilized.  I don't care if I lose because the lessons learned from the level of expertise here at Grogheads is priceless.  I have fun playing these types of games with civilized humans. 

[Bison]

Hehe.   To be honest I get a real kick out of playing humans in Distant Worlds and crushing all of the bug races.  I also always develop good relations with the hot blue chicks.  It's what CPT James T. Kirk would want me to do.