Thailand's CVH, the Chakri Naruebet

Starting Position Explanations

Each stating position has a large number of unique characteristics, abilities, and goals that make the game interesting. Great effort has been expended to make the positions as realistic as possible, but some changes and simplifications had to be made to make the game fairer and more playable. If you have any questions as to how these numbers were arrived at, please email the General Moderator.

Each starting position is listed in the same format:

Map: At the top of each page is a small map of that position's homeland.

Real Name: The name this nation or group of nations calls itself in "real life".

Game Name: The name used for the game, such as The Azure Alliance or The Denim Democracy. Of course, no one would really call themselves The Magenta Mob, but it is these "Game Names" that allow this game to call itself "The Spectrum Wars".

Location: This lists the real-world countries or portions of real-world countries that are included in the "Homeland" of this position at the start of the game. This usually includes any outlying islands or overseas possessions controlled by that nation in real life, but not always. For example, the two halves of the USA in this game do not include such non-state US possessions as Puerto Rico or the Northern Marianas. Puerto Rico is part of the Green Guerillas, and the Northern Marianas are part of the Yellow Yakuza. If you have any questions about specific outlying possessions of your constituent nations, email the General Moderator.

Description: This is a brief description of the history and goals of your position. You are not firmly held to these goals, but going against the historic wishes of your citizens may lead to riots, strikes, or unrest.

Government Type: This is the type of government that your position has at the start of the game. Your government type affects the efficiency of your research, and can impact your ability to form alliances with certain other types of governments. You can change your government type, but it can be difficult, and it is best to discuss any change with the General Moderator before going forward with it. The different government types are:

• Alliance: Alliances are groups of independent nations that have agreed to defend each other against outside attack. They have a hard time undertaking offensive operations, and individual nations are vulnerable to being lured away by neighboring federations and taking their military forces and income with them.
• Federation: Federations are groups such as the European Union that are basically closer Alliances with less independence for the individual member nations. Less likely to have member nations drop out, and more likely to undertake offensive operations.
• Dictatorship: These are single nations that are controlled by a small group of leaders or even a single individual. Their lack of individual freedom makes their research less effective, and they frequently face rebellions by minority groups. They can attack anyone the leaders want to attack.
• Monarchy: Monarchies are nations led by a hereditary ruler such as a King, Emperor, or Czar, with varying levels of constitutional limits on their power. Their stratified social structure makes economic improvement difficult, and research similarly suffers. Monarchs can declare war on anyone they wish.
• Republic: A Republic is a nation with a Democratically elected leader who has substantial power. They have little difficulty in research or economic improvement, and can usually go to war with even flimsy reasons, but they must have some sort of reason.
• Democracy: Propaganda is to a Democracy what Oppression is to a Dictatorship. Democracies have elected leaders whose power is diluted by a large legislature that controls spending and the power to declare war. It is very difficult to wage an offensive war in a Democracy, but when attacked, their highly efficient research and high economic growth make them very tough opponents.

Political Alignment: This is the general political disposition of your nation. The most important distinction is between left-wing and right-wing political leanings, although religious traditions also come into play here. The different political alignments are:

• Defensive: The usual alignment for an Alliance is Defensive. Defensive nations are not interested in offensive warfare, they just want to be left alone, and their citizens are hard to convince that offensive wars are in their best interests.
• Imperialist: Imperialist nations wish to form a colonial empire that will provide raw materials and captive markets to make the Homeland richer.
• Rightist: Right-wing governments are conservative and do not like allying with left-wing or pseudo-Marxist nations like China and Russia.
• Leftist: Left-wing governments are liberal and concerned with things like Human rights and Economic Justice, and do not like allying with conservative governments like Argentina or Monarchies like Japan.
• Sunni/Shi'ite Islam: Muslim nations wish to convert the world to their religious faith, but just as Christianity is torn by strife between Catholics and Protestants, Islam comes in two flavors as well. The Shi'ite branch is a little more militantly anti-West, but the Sunni branch can still be pretty nasty when they want to be. Both types of Islam will work with fellow Muslims against Western powers like Denim or Crimson, but such alliances tend to be short-lived and both can easily attack the other type of Islam if the Western threat is lessened.
• Hindu: Hinduism is a polytheistic faith that had to learn intolerance from the monotheistic faiths of Islam and Christianity, but they learned it well. A thousand years of Islamic rule in India led to great hatred between Islam and Hinduism, and Hindus don't particularly like the Christian West either.

Mission: The Primary historical goals of each position are listed here. Carry out these goals, and you can say you won the game, even if you don't conquer the whole world. You are certainly not limited to these goals, but going directly against them will anger your people. For example, if one of your goals is to conquer one of your neighbors, fighting alongside them to expand their empire will not be a popular policy.

Other Goals: When your political leaders dream, this is what they dream about. Once their primary mission is accomplished, this is what they would like to do next.

Enemies: This lists the historical enemies and rivals of your position. Working alongside them is difficult, but not impossible. Fighting alongside one enemy will work if you are fighting against another of your historical enemies. But when the war is over, keeping the wartime alliance could grow unpopular among your people.

Friends: These are the nations that are popular among your people, or who have historically helped you against your common enemies. Fighting against these nations will be unpopular among the people without a careful propaganda preparation.

Economy (Cash/Limit): This is the measure of how much you can spend and how many units you can build. The first number is your Cash Income, the number of Cash Points your economy produces each turn and which you can spend on building units or conducting research, espionage, or propaganda. The second number is your Unit Production Limit, which defines the maximum number of units you can have under construction at any one time in your own factories and shipyards.

Resource (Supply/Demand): These numbers define your position's supply of raw materials such as food, oil, and metal ore. The first number is the supply of Resource Points that is generated each turn in your homeland, and the second is the number of Resource Points that must be consumed in order to produce your Cash Income. Any surplus resource points may be converted into cash or traded with other positions. Any shortfall must be made good through trade or buying resource points on the retail market, or the economy will crash.

Unit Picture: Each position page includes a picture of some real-world unit in that position's forces. This is included for illustration only, but it does frequently show something that is essential and definitive about that nation's military.

Military Forces: Each branch of your military has a defined quality and a list of units.

Quality (Equipment/Training): Each branch has a quality score made up of two numbers. The first number is the average quality of your equipment, such as tanks, aircraft, and ships. The second number is the average quality of the training, leadership, and experience of your soldiers, pilots, or sailors. Investment in extra training can bring up your training score, while rapid expansion of your military can bring it down. Buying new equipment or technology from more advanced military powers such as Denim can bring up your equipment score, while buying new equipment from less advanced powers such as Jade can make it go down.

Units: This is a list of all the units in your armed forces at the beginning of the game. To see what all these units are, see the appropriate page in the Unit listings. Your units start out wherever in your own territory you wish, and can be moved around throughout the course of the game.

Satellites: This is a listing of any satellites you have in orbit at the beginning of the game, as well as what orbit they are in and where.

Industry Levels: This is a listing of your various Military-Industrial Complex levels, from Tank Factories to Nuclear programs. This defines what type of units you can build at the outset of the game, and all of these can be improved with investment. Also included in this section is your position's Research Level, which along with your government type defines the effectiveness of your research into new technologies. Your Research level CANNOT be changed except through conquest of a more research-oriented country, since it would take a lot longer than the game is likely to last to really improve the average quality of a nation's research establishment.

Nuclear Weapons Stockpile: This lists your current stockpile of nuclear weapons, if you have one. Weapons such as ICBM's start out in their real-world positions such as missile silos, and cannot be moved. SLBM's are in your SSBN's, and any extra are stockpiled at naval bases. Other weapons like ALCM's and Air-dropped bombs are similarly stockpiled at military bases, and are only deployed to active units like SSGN's and Bombers if you specifically so direct in your orders.

Defensive Works: This lists your fixed defensive works like fortifications, minefields, and SOSUS nets that may not be moved. Each installation is given with its type and its location.

Starting Technologies: This defines which advanced technologies, if any, possessed by your empire and few others. Some of these allow construction of certain special units (Stealth Aircraft, AEGIS, AIP), and some of these give certain combat bonuses (Anti-Stealth Radar).

Position Bonuses: This lists certain bonuses that your position has due to culture or position. Some of these bonuses include:

• Counterintelligence Bonus: This gives a 50% bonus to any spending you do on counterintelligence, due to the fact that you have a large and experienced Secret Police.
• Offensive Spying Bonus: This gives a 50% bonus to any spending you do on offensive espionage operations, due to the fact that you have a large and experienced espionage community.
• Total Spying Bonus: This is a combination of both the Counterintelligence and Offensive Spying bonuses.
• Terrorism Bonus: This gives you a 50% bonus to Covert Operations you undertake. This is usually because your position includes several non-governmental terrorist organizations, who may be recruited to work for you, and who also can be used to provide "plausible deniability", so that if they are caught, you can blame it on the terrorists, not your official government.
• Combat Bonuses: These give a bonus to all combat points in certain conditions, usually involving terrain such as desert or snow.
• Virus Bonus: This gives you a bonus in developing offensive computer viruses or defensive anti-virus programs. The cost for each of these is reduced by 50%.
• Rebel Bonus: This means that all or a portion of your population is fiercely loyal to your leaders, or at least is fiercely independent and will not tolerate foreign rule. In addition to each free LI you get from Reserves when invaded, you also get a free division of Guerrillas, and any of your territory that is captured and occupied by any foreign power will be more difficult to garrison and prevent rebel uprisings, which can serve as a deterrent to invasion.

Position Handicaps: This lists any negative handicaps your position suffers due to culture or terrain. These handicaps include:

• Rebel Handicap: This means that all or part of your population is not happy with your rule, and that you are subject to periodic rebel uprisings and secessionist movements.
• Strike Handicap: This means that your workers have a tendency to riot and go on strike in response to unpopular government policies, and you need to spend more than usual on propaganda.
• Combat Handicap: This means that your troops are inexperienced in fighting in certain terrain such as Jungle and suffer a combat penalty in those battles.