# Any nuclear war/ww3 based strategy games? **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [April 13, 2008, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-nuclear-war-ww3-based-strategy-games/445220 "2008-04-13T23:07:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2008, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-nuclear-war-ww3-based-strategy-games/445220/1 "2008-04-13T23:07:36Z")
I know there are nuclear war elements in Civilisation II but that is only a small feature of the game. Are there other strategy games that focus on nuclear war? ---
**Author:** ![ToeJam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dfb087/32.png) [@ToeJam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ToeJam)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2008, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-nuclear-war-ww3-based-strategy-games/445220/2 "2008-04-13T23:19:00Z")
I can’t think of strategy games with it… I know that Command and Conquer had shades of a Nuclear weapon in its game for the NOD side, as did Starcraft with the Terran’s Ghost units who could direct nuclear attacks. And there’s the whole Fallout series, but that’s an RPG sort of game more so, dealing with the Aftermath of a nuclear war/scenario Strategy games don’t spring to my mind though. =( ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2008, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-nuclear-war-ww3-based-strategy-games/445220/3 "2008-04-13T23:22:19Z")
I vaguely remember a TSR-style el cheapo board game called WW3 from the early-to-mid-Eighties. Not sure it’s available anywhere. There was also a game included in _Military Wargaming_ magazine, IIRC, in the early Eighties, about a Soviet invasion of Pakistan that included an option for nuclear war. Avalon Hill had a game called Sixth Fleet in which NATO and the Warsaw Pact’s fleets could nuke each other. The modern version of Risk has an option for nuclear war, although it’s pretty rudimentary. ---
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2008, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-nuclear-war-ww3-based-strategy-games/445220/4 "2008-04-13T23:25:45Z")
Yeah I’m not sure how you’d make a worthwhile game with the premise but I would enjoy having maps and targetting cities etc. It’s been a rough week. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Terminus\_Est](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terminus_est/32/3087_2.png) [@Terminus\_Est](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terminus_Est)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2008, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-nuclear-war-ww3-based-strategy-games/445220/5 "2008-04-13T23:46:21Z")
[DEFCON](http://www.introversion.co.uk/defcon/). Everybody dies. ---
**Author:** ![keeper0](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b19c9b/32.png) [@keeper0](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/keeper0)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2008, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-nuclear-war-ww3-based-strategy-games/445220/6 "2008-04-14T01:11:04Z")
There is [Nuclear War](http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/713) . The strategy is relatively minor, since a lot depends on luck and most of the time everyone ends up dead anyway, but is a bizarrely fun way to spend an hour or so. ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2008, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-nuclear-war-ww3-based-strategy-games/445220/7 "2008-04-14T02:31:10Z")
Definately DEFCON—it’s pretty [easily moddable,](http://defcon.zanzer7.net/?modlist) too. To a point, anyway. The later Civilization games (III and IV) have elements of nuclear warfare, as well. Though it’s one of the expansion packs (“Warlords,” I think) that adds the more interesting nuclear elements back to IV. ---
**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2008, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-nuclear-war-ww3-based-strategy-games/445220/8 "2008-04-14T02:34:59Z")
DEFCON is fun, but it’s an abstract strategy game that just happens to use WW3 as a theme. It doesn’t actually resemble anything like nuclear war strategy in any way. I’d love a game that accurately simulated nuclear war on different scales (using a detailed and fully integrated SIOP and such), but I suspect the market would be pretty limited. ---
**Author:** ![Boozahol\_Squid\_P.I](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/d9b06d/32.png) [@Boozahol\_Squid\_P.I](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boozahol_Squid_P.I)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2008, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-nuclear-war-ww3-based-strategy-games/445220/9 "2008-04-14T03:51:32Z")
Would you like to play [Global Thermonuclear War?](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086567/) ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2008, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-nuclear-war-ww3-based-strategy-games/445220/10 "2008-04-14T04:20:21Z")
[QUOTE=SenorBeef] DEFCON is fun, but it’s an abstract strategy game that just happens to use WW3 as a theme. It doesn’t actually resemble anything like nuclear war strategy in any way. [/QUOTE] Well yeah, sure…Mutally Assured Destruction is kinda hard to impliment in a game, doncha think? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2008, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-nuclear-war-ww3-based-strategy-games/445220/11 "2008-04-14T04:23:44Z")
Well, there are hardcore wargames covering various subjects that strive and achieve a high degree of accuracy. You could do the same with a nuclear war simulator. I own Defcon and have played it quite a bit, I like it. But it’s a nuclear-themed abstract strategy game, rather than anything resembling a simulation. Sort of like how Bejewelled is a puzzle game that’s themed with jewels, and not a gemologist sorting simulator 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2008, 5:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-nuclear-war-ww3-based-strategy-games/445220/12 "2008-04-14T05:53:50Z")
> [@](#): > > I vaguely remember a TSR-style el cheapo board game called WW3 from the early-to-mid-Eighties. Not sure it’s available anywhere. There was also a game included in Military Wargaming magazine, IIRC, in the early Eighties, about a Soviet invasion of Pakistan that included an option for nuclear war. Avalon Hill had a game called Sixth Fleet in which NATO and the Warsaw Pact’s fleets could nuke each other. The modern version of Risk has an option for nuclear war, although it’s pretty rudimentary. [SPI](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simulations_Publications) was the company that made _World War 3_ back in the seventies heyday of wargaming. The company made some bad financial decisions and was bought out by TSR, which made a colossal mistake and killed off the company. _World War 3_ was not a mindless blow-up-the world game. It was a grand strategic level game about a global war between the United States/NATO and the Soviet Union/Warsaw Pact in the mid-seventies. You planned out your military operations, built up your armed forces, and tried to convince neutral countries like China, India, or Yugoslavia to join your alliance. Using nuclear weapons was an option but it was a bad plan; your opponent would shoot back and you’d usually ended up blowing up all of the countries you were both trying to conquer. And the game wasn’t cheap either - it cost twenty or thirty dollars, which was real money back in the seventies. ---
**Author:** ![Orbifold](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/779978/32.png) [@Orbifold](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Orbifold)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2008, 7:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-nuclear-war-ww3-based-strategy-games/445220/13 "2008-04-14T07:00:00Z")
Armageddon Empires is a post-apocalyptic strategy game, where you can occasionally find nukes hiding in the wastelands and use them against your opponents. But it can’t really be said to focus on the nuclear war aspect any more than the Civ games. A long time ago my cousin and I made up home-brew “nuclear war” rules for Risk. We played one game with the new rules, destroyed about 80% of the Earth’s surface, declared it a draw, and then shelved the idea. This may indicate the problem with the concept in general. (Later on I learned about “Supremacy”, a Risk-like board game with nuclear war rules, but that’s (a) a board game, not a computer game, and (b) doesn’t focus primarily on the nuclear war aspect any more than Civ.) ---
**Author:** ![puppygod](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@puppygod](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puppygod)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2008, 11:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-nuclear-war-ww3-based-strategy-games/445220/14 "2008-04-14T11:50:38Z")
[QUOTE=RoOsh] I can’t think of strategy games with it… I know that Command and Conquer had shades of a Nuclear weapon in its game for the NOD side, as did Starcraft with the Terran’s Ghost units who could direct nuclear attacks. (…) [/QUOTE] If we are talking about Command and Conquer series, then we cannot forget Red Alert sub-series, where 3-rd World War is kinda main theme and nuclear weapons are present. Also, C&C: Generals have nuke or quasi-nuke weapons. ---
**Author:** ![Martini\_Enfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/martini_enfield/32/11123_2.png) [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2008, 12:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-nuclear-war-ww3-based-strategy-games/445220/15 "2008-04-14T12:07:55Z")
[QUOTE=keeper0] There is [Nuclear War](http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/713) . The strategy is relatively minor, since a lot depends on luck and most of the time everyone ends up dead anyway, but is a bizarrely fun way to spend an hour or so. [/QUOTE] There was a computer game- on the Amiga Somethingorother, if I recall correctly- with the same title, that was a lot of fun to play. You took on the role of a cartoon caricature of Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher, Mikhail Gorbachev, Chairman Mao, Colonel Khadaffi, Fidel Castro, and so on, and basically started lobbing A-bombs and launching airstrikes at your enemies, issuing propaganda to convert people to your cause, and so on. It was also very silly (I recall Aliens showing up and Cow Launchers being deployed), but in the end the planet pretty much gets wiped out and the end-game animation is the appropriate character leaping up and down on the charred remnants of the planet shouting “I Won! I Won!” in a squeaky cartoon voice. It was also hideously addictive and a lot of fun to play, and I’m surprised no-one has remade it, to be honest. ---
**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2008, 12:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-nuclear-war-ww3-based-strategy-games/445220/16 "2008-04-14T12:20:29Z")
I think there was a BBS multiplayer door game (is that a contradiction in terms? I forget how it works) based on that way back. I kinda miss those. ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2008, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-nuclear-war-ww3-based-strategy-games/445220/17 "2008-04-14T13:56:48Z")
How about a nice game of chess? ---
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2008, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-nuclear-war-ww3-based-strategy-games/445220/18 "2008-04-14T22:34:37Z")
[QUOTE=Martini Enfield] There was a computer game- on the Amiga Somethingorother, if I recall correctly- with the same title, that was a lot of fun to play. You took on the role of a cartoon caricature of Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher, Mikhail Gorbachev, Chairman Mao, Colonel Khadaffi, Fidel Castro, and so on, and basically started lobbing A-bombs and launching airstrikes at your enemies, issuing propaganda to convert people to your cause, and so on. It was also very silly (I recall Aliens showing up and Cow Launchers being deployed), but in the end the planet pretty much gets wiped out and the end-game animation is the appropriate character leaping up and down on the charred remnants of the planet shouting “I Won! I Won!” in a squeaky cartoon voice. It was also hideously addictive and a lot of fun to play, and I’m surprised no-one has remade it, to be honest. [/QUOTE] I’d be interested to find out what the title of this game was as I own an Amiga. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2008, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-nuclear-war-ww3-based-strategy-games/445220/19 "2008-04-14T23:54:51Z")
[QUOTE=An Gadaí] I’d be interested to find out what the title of this game was as I own an Amiga. 🙂 [/QUOTE] The title of the game was Nuclear War. The game linked to in message 6 is the board game version of it. Some other (older) World War III games are Raw Entertainment’s “Bravo Romeo Delta”, which puts you in charge of the nuclear arsenals of either the US or Soviet Union in a nuclear war, and Simulation Canada’s “Red Sky At Morning” and “Northern Fleet”, both of which involve naval combat between the US and Soviet Union, and can involve nuclear exchanges. A World War II game that doesn’t include the nuclear element is the submarine simulator “Red Storm Rising”, based on the Tom Clancy book of the same name. Then of course, there’s always “Balance of Power”, which can end in a nuclear war (but if it does, you lose) ---
**Author:** ![Martini\_Enfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/martini_enfield/32/11123_2.png) [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2008, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-nuclear-war-ww3-based-strategy-games/445220/20 "2008-04-15T00:29:07Z")
[QUOTE=An Gadaí] I’d be interested to find out what the title of this game was as I own an Amiga. 🙂 [/QUOTE] [Nuclear War](http://www.mobygames.com/game/amiga/nuclear-war)- loosely based on the card game linked to earlier in the thread. I’d like to find a DOS/Windows copy- a while back I found a Civ mod that loosely approximated it, but it lacked the zaniness and silliness of the old Amiga game. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-nuclear-war-ww3-based-strategy-games/445220.md?page=2)