Game 449: Balance of Power

In two years and eight bits we went from high school cliques to Kissingerian Realpolitik. Your goal is still to make the boys like you more, but now, in addition to strategic alliances, backstabbing, and rabble-rousing slander, you also have access to spies, assassins, embargoes, dark money, arms deals, and military intervention. If you're too mean, the other girls will nuke you, but they'll walk all over you if you're not mean enough!

RTFM. Seriously.

Mindscape was one of the earliest publishers to support the Macintosh, a true 16-bit machine and the first in the consumer class with considerably greater power (and price!) than the 8-bit microcomputers before it. With a high price tag, a distinctive high resolution monochrome screen, a built-in mouse-driven interface, and a "no fun allowed" directive from Apple, this would be an attractive platform for Mindscape's niche as a publisher of serious games, and for Crawford's vision of a multi-faceted simulation that would assume college-level education and subject familiarity. Mindscape would reach out shortly after a deal with Random House fell through, sign a contract, and assist greatly in putting the final touches on the product, including the name itself.

Years ago, when I first conceived of this blog, I knew Balance of Power would be on the master list and covered eventually, being one of 1985's biggest computer games and one of the first important Macintosh games, but at the time, the Mac version was presumed lost. I assumed I'd have to settle for the Windows version, published a year later. Happily, the original Mac diskettes have since been found and preserved, with a MOOF format image representing the original copy-protected disk, which can be played in MAME (but not Mini vMac, which I would normally prefer). The Windows version plays almost identically, and has a multitude of graphical modes in both monochrome and color, but the interface, which supports but does not require a mouse is less elegant than the original Mac version.

60 countries are represented, not including the USA and USSR, and each has uniquely tracked relations to the US and USSR, including disposition and policies. To win, you must keep your allies, weaken the Soviets' relations with theirs, and overall improve your prestige on the global stage and undermine theirs, which can manifest in four ways:

• A revolution occurs when a country's government is violently overthrown and replaced with a new one, which may or may not be friendlier to you than the last. You cannot directly cause a revolution, but may accelerate or hold back one through military policy toward that country, and intelligence will show how vulnerable a country may be. Revolutions simply do not occur in stable democracies, at least not in the time frame Balance of Power depicts!
• A coup, in the context of Balance of Power, means the government has been toppled politically, such as via electoral rout. Left-wing coups tend to favor the USSR, right-wing coups tend to favor the US, and extremist coups tend to hate everyone. Poor economic performance is the strongest predictor of a coup event; provocative policies can push them over the edge, economic aid can prevent them.
• Finland is not represented in Balance of Power, but Finlandization occurs when a stable government outside of your sphere of influence is intimidated into a friendlier disposition without directly changing their diplomatic status. Sabre-rattling can encourage this; treaties can negate it, but will also mean obligations with consequences should you renege.

 

The fourth means, we'll get to in a minute. Everything you do can be challenged by the USSR. Just about everything you do that would impact the playing field will be challenged by the USSR. Likewise, you can challenge anything they do. If neither side backs down when first given the chance, a crisis starts and prestige is on the table. Threats are made, the DEFCON level ticks down, and if neither side backs down before it hits DEFCON 1, you'll see this.

New game?

Whoever does back down will lose prestige on the global scale, and the other side will gain it. The more serious the action, the more prestige will be at stake, and prolonging the pissing match will up the ante further.

I quickly learned that the Soviets never back down when a very large amount of prestige is at stake, which consequently means that you can irreversibly ruin your game if you miscalculate the gravity of an action. You thought the Taliban could use a bit of help, and Moscow objected, but you didn't realize just how hard they'd object, and now you either back down and forever abandon your credibility as a world superpower, or you don't and face nuclear retaliation.

Truth be told, I had a hard time coming to grips with anything just from reading the manual. Even on the easiest difficulty, I couldn't see any sensible connection between my actions and what Russia's response would be. For that, I read and would recommend reading Crawford's Balance of Power the book, which serves as a history of the game's development, an in-depth look at the systems and rules, some philosophical thought on game development, and a primer on global geopolitics through the lens of the game systems.

My biggest takeaway from that, though, was learning the rules that govern how much your opponent cares about any given country. And this matters more than your specific actions.

Let's look at a sample country:

This is a lot of data, and there's far more data buried in the menus still, but three points matter more than any else.

First, always pay attention to Prestige Values, which can be taken as an absolute measure of how much a country likes you. At 23/USA and -18/USSR, Pakistan likes you more than it hates the USSR. The difference in absolute values gives a pretty good idea what you can get away with; if the USSR's absolute value is greater than USA by more than six points, then you'd better not try anything. If the reverse, then you'd better not let them get away with anything. Here, you are favored by five points, so Russia may try to muck in Pakistan's mud, but stand a good chance of backing down if you send them a strongly worded telegram.

Second, there are treaties. These can be thought of as enhancers to prestige value, though they do not directly impact your score; they only increase the legitimacy of your actions. A nuclear treaty enhances this by 127 points (and means dire consequences to the power that hesitates to comply with it), and other treaties enhance it by less. Think real hard before doing anything to a country that signed a conventional or nuclear treaty with the Soviets.

Third and less important than the other two is the sphere of influence. This isn't weighted as highly, but nevertheless you might not want to meddle with countries that are "Very Strong USSR" or "Absolute USSR."

 

Let's try a quick game on beginner mode. Here, the only form of political change is revolution, and the only policies one may enact to a foreign power are military aid or intervention, either for or against the government. All of these actions are considered drastic, and so Balance of Power will teach you early on the consequences of putting your thumb on the scale too heavily.

 

There have already been three revolutions, in Zaire, Mali, and Burma. All are fairly minor countries, but Mali alone has been beneficial to me.

I review USSR's actions.

• Vietnam receives a huge military intervention on behalf of the communist government, of about half a million men.
• Syria and Zaire receive a moderate deployment of 20,000 men each.
• Groups of advisors are sent to Argentina, Yugoslavia, India, Mexico, and Peru.
• Libya and Angola, firmly within Soviet sphere of influence, receive 5,000 combat troops each.
• A significant package of 100,000 troops and $400 million worth of military equipment is sent to Nicaragua's far-left Sandinistas.
• $20 million of arms are sent to Indonesia's rebels, who are fighting a civil war and on the verge of victory.
• Another $20 million is sent to Philippines' rebels, who are a bit farther from victory.
• Mozambique receives $400 million and 5,000 combat troops in support of the government.
• Care packages of various sizes are sent to terrorists in Chile, Honduras, Tunisia, Sudan, Mali, and Panama.

Let's start with the Philippines.

 

At 27 prestige, Philippines is one of our strongest allies outside of NATO. The Soviets are clearly testing us, and we will answer.

 I call their bluff, and they back down, but not before some voices are raised. This earns me prestige.

Next, I focus on my own hemisphere, and I quickly convince them to withdraw from Mexico, Honduras, Panama, Peru, and Chile. Some of these actions are beneficial to the right-wing governments, but you don't want commies getting too chummy with your allies either.

Abroad, I get them to leave Tunisia alone, but they hold firmer on India.

 

Now it seems I'm testing them, and they've answered. Rather than risk further loss of face or an accidental war, I let them have India and over half of the prestige earned so far. Painfully, I also let them continue their operations in Nicaragua without question.

That's it for Soviet plotskies, but how about some of our own? I check the insurgency map.

 

There are active civil wars against right-wing governments in Panama and Indonesia, and against left-wing ones in Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, and Mozambique. Smaller conflicts simmer all over Central America, South America's Andes region, Africa, and South Asia.

Indonesia is sadly a lost cause, but I rush as much hardware to Panama as we can move.

On the other side, Mozambique's rebels will just have to fight without my help - the Soviets got there first, and sending U.S. weapons there would immediately escalate things to a shooting war. Those Hollywood pinkos are still making sanctimonious hit pieces about 'Nam; too soon to start another one. Ethiopia, deep in the Soviet sphere of influence, is also too risky to assist. But Zimbabwe might be worth a shot, and I send the rebels a small ammo box as a feeler.

I also bolster military aid to Philippines, Peru, Chile, where terrorism is turning into guerilla war, and to Greece, Columbia, Mexico, and Pakistan, where terrorism is rising.

Moscow grumbles about almost all of this, but backs down on each objection one by one, earning me some decent prestige points. That is, until we get to Zimbabwe, when despite all signs indicating that my interference here is no more of a big deal than any of the crap I let them pull, a jumpy aide pushes the red button under increased readiness conditions.

 

We'll meet again
Don't know where, don't know when,
but I know we'll meet again some sunny day