Student Journal: Cold War Simulation, Great Britain

Orientation Day: Great Britain 7 day 1

Initial Thoughts: My Initial thought was super confusing, but when Harms explained it to us it made more sense. I didn’t think the United States, France, and Great Britain were the only countries to get launch codes.

Strategy: My plans are to stay close with the United States and France and plan on attacking whenever they are attacking. Great Britain is a good country to control, but you can go over power with them. The codes are very useful, but they can be defective because they can go wrong if you send them the wrong time. We need to keep them in their own countries. We can’t let them go free roam. 

Day 1: Great Britain 7 day 1

Thoughts: I personally don’t want to send missiles back everytime they send them because we could make a come back (karma) if they run out of weapons. If we are getting destroyed or they are attacking us heavily then we will send our missiles back, but thats my prediction

Strategy: Soviet just closed the Berlin blockade. The Soviet Union is attacking Turkey right now with 881 troops. The Soviet Union took over turkey. We moved to defcon 4. Mostly just waiting for the warsaw to move or attack so I can get more plans in. They are moving troops upward closer to West germany. We are attacking east Germany. 150 west germany troops, 150 United states, 50 from Canada and 50 from lycanberg were sent to attack east germany. Poland, east Germany and Hungary are defending. Nato won the battle of East Germany just barely. Great Britain can’t move because I only have 300 troops in Great Britain. Soviet Union is attacking Greece with 548 troops. Warsaw took over Greece with ease. I didn’t know that you can move troops without the navy so I will be moving my great britain troops. The warsaw took back over east germany. I’m going to move my troops to France. We moved down to defcon 3 and Warsaw followed by going to defcon 4. The United States just opened a secret package. The United States talked to Great Britain and France and WE NEED to attack Cuba quickly before the Warsaw takeover. The wars were attacking italy. And they took over Italy. Plans are to wait for the warsaw to move their troops more and then attack. They just took over the battle box. The warsaw are attacking west germany. We just went to Defcon 2. And the warsaw went to launch on warning. 

Day 2: Great Britain 7 day 2

Thoughts: I plan on attacking Cuba with the United states. I plan on sending all of my troops to Cuba while the United States is sending 100. I think the United States needs to send more troops down into France because we need to defend West germany. I think we are testing the water too much and I think we need to come out strong. This is getting super slow because no one is attacking were playing the wait game.

Strategy: We sent 200 troops while The United States sent 300 more. France is using a nuke right now in West germany. Targets were destroyed in west germany. We just took over italy. We are moving our troops farther down to the germany and denmark region. The United States moved all of their troops from the west to the east. The USSR are moving their troops out of the USSR and spreading them out by putting them in Poland and romania. France is attacking Italy with 10 troops just to claim Italy. The United States sent 10 to west germany to claim open land. I moved 100 troops to France just in case of the Warsaw attack. The Warsaw nuclear attack hit everyone in Norway, and Warsaw nuked west germany and he took Italy back. Warsaw moved all of them out of the ussr. We are attacking the USSR to destroy their main land. That plan didn’t work because we could only send 400 compared to 500. The United States sent 200 troops to France while they sent another 200 to Cuba to back up the few great britain. Since the computer wouldn’t catch it, we just kept them in the east United states. Took Turkey back over with 40 troops since it was open land. France attacked Greece and claimed it back by sending 25 troops. We are testing the water to see how the warsaw reacts. They sent nukes to west germany, greece, turkey, and italy. We just activated defcon 1 and launched on warning. We are attacking east germany with 200 troops. Warsaw won, but still had 70 troops. Now we are counter attacking with 100 denmark troops to east germany. We are moving all the troops from the Netherlands into france. The warsaw are sending a nuke from poland to denmark to east germany. The warsaw are sending troops from norway into east germany attacking with 125 troops. They easily took over east germany. We just lost a 10 v 10 in turkey. The french are sending all of their troops into netherlands. We are just nuking everyone at this point. The whole battle sent their launch codes in. it will not be stopped. Nobody won because everyone died.

Student Journal: Cold War Simulation, Romania

Orientation Day:

Initial Thoughts: This war is no joke. There are many advances for army power and the nuke is the worst of them all. If one side felt they were losing they would do anything and everything to end the war. Even if it meant destroying the entire world with war. The tension going into the war is very high as each side is going to continue to pick at each other. Not in a friendly way either. After orientation, I feel it’s best I lay low and not make any big moves. In the end I can’t do anything as I am required to stay behind the Soviet Union and let them be the deciding factor for everything. 

Strategy: 

As we met with Arends he said his first move of attack is to go after Turkey because they have two different missiles sitting there. All of the other countries that make up this Warsaw pact are to just stick with the Soviet Union and follow in their footsteps. Unless we disagree then we can protect ourselves. We came to the senses to take over all of Europe, Arends however is nervous that as we move along with these attacks that the United States will launch their missiles at us. All of our army rankings are very high so we have no doubt in our attack plans. 

Romania 7 Day 1:

Thoughts: 

The Soviet Union’s leader, President Arends, gathered us in a secret location to express his thoughts as we began to prepare for war. We are aware of what the Nuclear war can do to the country, and we will make sure those effects stay fresh in our minds. It’s extremely destructible and for my country I feel as though it’s not necessary at all. 

As the day started with an announcement from President Arends, he expressed to everyone that he wasn’t going to put up with people leaving his country for the communism that the Nato had to offer. So he closed off the western side of Berlin so no one could get out. 

The Warsaw pact decided to go ahead with their attack on Turkey with 881 troops from the Soviet Union. Romania is a part of this alliance but I feel like attacking Turkey right off the bat will make Nato very angry, leading them to attack us in the most brutal ways. I’m going to sit quietly on this one and I’m going to hope and pray President Arends knows what to do. 

I’m glad I sat quietly as President Arends led us on a victory for this one. However, Nato moved closer to a nuclear war as they kept moving their Defcon down. 

Nato decided that they were declaring war on East Germany. They were successful as we had no one to help them at this time. Arends decides to attack Greece, East Germany, Italy, East Germany and Albania and I feel as though those are good moves as we continue to expand our territory. He led us to more victories.  

Strategy: 

 The strategy Arends had for us is out of our reach. By that I mean we have to side with whatever he says. He is working on moving troops out of the Sviet Union in case the Soviet Union were to get attacked. Besides this, it gives us a bit of wiggle room if any of our other allying countries were to attack. If they were to get attacked, the Soviet Union will be right there to help. We don’t want to lose another country, like we did with East Germany, due to lack of troops in the surrounding areas. I just sit back and observe as of right now. Although, it was brought to my attention that my troops had to be moved out of Romina. It’s necessary they are moved because there’s no need for them where they were placed on the map before the move. If the Romania troops are moved outward towards the end of our territories and their borders they will be a whole lot more useful. We voted and decided that if Nato moves to Defcon 2 we will be launching our missiles and attacking with nuclear war. 

Romania 7 Day 2:

Thoughts: Nato decided to move to defcon 2 and like our strategy plans say, we are going to launch our missiles on warning. Great Britain announced an attack on Cuba which is misleading to me as they have been all by themselves. They aren’t a part of the Nato’s and they aren’t a part of the Warsaw Pact. This really threw me off as the Nato aren’t attacking the Warsaw Pact but instead decided to attack a country that has been minding their own business.  It makes me wonder if this is a part of an even bigger plan. What could they have in store? France decided to launch their tactical missiles and were successful in two different territories affecting us and our army. President Arends had told me that I needed to have troops of the Soviet Union throughout my country. I didn’t have a say in this so I just did what he wanted. 

As I mentioned in my strategy plans below we are sending tactical nukes to Norway, West Germany, and Italy. Arends went ahead with these plans to lower numbers/ armored divisions as we all noticed that the Neto has been stacking a vast majority of these troops into the countries that I had mentioned. At this rate it seems as though Arends goal is to make the Neto mad in any and every way possible. We sent out even more tactical nukes as well as attacking Turkey. Arends announced to us that we are moving to Defcon 1, this makes things more anxious as the Nato also moved to Defcon 1 and both sides are now standing with launching missiles on warning. At this point in time I don’t think we will be the one to attack first but I think we might need to in order to win. If we keep waiting on the other side to make a move, the Nato might strike at us while we’re tired and weak. We don’t want them to hit our blindspots either. I’ll still sit quietly, but I’m not sure how long I can keep quiet. 

In my strategy plans I did state that our pact came to the sense that we wouldn’t launch missiles unless they were launched on us; however, the tactical nukes kept going back and forth between each side. We got sick of it and launched our missiles first. This resulted in them launching it back on us. 

Strategy: At the start of the day we moved down to Defcon 2. This means that both the Warsaw Pact and Nato are in Defcon 2. One step closer to a nuclear war. As of right now the Warsaw pact decided on the vote of not launching missiles first. We will only launch these missiles if they are launched on us first. However, this can change as the leader of the Soviet Union can change his mind at any moment, just like he has been the entire time leading up to this day. Since tactical nukes were launched on our army we are thinking about doing the same. If we go ahead with this plan we want to target Norway, West Germany, and Italy. All of the troops in these countries. We will do this with the hopes of lowering their army that they’ve been stacking up in these countries. We are sending tactical nukes to Turkey, Greece, Italy and West Germany. We are going to continue to lower numbers as we want to keep decreasing their army. Since we believe our army now has a high stance against Nato, we will plan on moving to Defcon 1. One more step closer to nuclear warfare. Our strategy still stands the same as it was at the beginning of the war. Same old same old. We are going to wait for them to attack us first. 

World War 2 Simulation Student Journal: Soviet Union

USSR 1938

Talk about straddling the middle! First, I spoke with the Axis leaders, then the Allied, and both make appealing cases for joining their sides. However, both come with their difficulties. Joining the Axis is only possible if they allow me to take Rumania and Finland, and I doubt the Germans want me to have a monopoly on the oil in Europe, plus I don’t fully trust them. On the other hand, I can’t help the Allies against Germany until I’m attacked by Germany, and going to war with Japan will be risky if they get their hands on the southern colonies to increase their rating. At least the Germans have agreed to not supply the Finns when I attack, though I’m still going to use an overwhelming force in case they break the agreement, which wouldn’t surprise me. I am pleased with my foreign minister, we see eye-to-eye on many foreign policy decisions, and he has some helpful input as well. It also seems that Germany may be supplying Finland against our agreement, so we could use that to persuade them to give us Romania.

USSR 1939

I didn’t do much this year, I spent most of my time positioning forces, however we did manage to take P2, and we should be in position to take Finland soon. The Axis Powers appear to be doing better, so perhaps we’ll join them. We have also reached an agreement with the Swedes to transfer 15 of their 17 surplus iron ore to us in exchange for one coal and one oil to improve both of our ratings. I am still having talks with both the Axis and the Allies, the Axis can offer me a greater chance of victory at the moment, but the Allies can offer me resources and are less likely to stab me in the back. But right now, my foreign minister and I are listening to our national anthem as we watch mayhem unfold. This is going to be interesting either way.

USSR 1940

This year wasn’t executed very well on my part. It started off well, with us coming to an agreement with the Germans that I would take Romania for my victory conditions and give them the oil, as well as join the Axis. That went off without a hitch, unfortunately I was unable to join the Axis, and my turn ran out before I could move to take Finland, which will be a job for 1941. Knowing that joining the Allies would be inevitable, I decided it would be better to join them now rather than wait for a German attack, which would throw a wrench in the Axis plans. (I also think Ribbentrop is secretly the one running Germany). Hopefully I’ll still be able to take Finland.

USSR 1941

Victory hinges on one thing: America joining the war. They cannot do this until they’re attacked, which means we have to provoke the Japanese into attacking them. I have been scheming with my allies to make this happen. We have several options: send American troops into crucial zones like F1 and Burma on ‘training exercises’ or ‘courtesy visits’ and have them fight if the zone is attacked by the Axis. If the Axis refuse, that’s great because we still have those zones and don’t even need to defend them unless the Axis want the US in the war. Another thing we can do is move the US Pacific Fleet into the Western Pacific, right next to Japan, put troops in the Philippines, and play chicken with the Japanese. The Germans will inevitably take Rumania and will likely support Finland when I attack. I plan to still go for Finland, but I may move my troops out of Rumania to fight another day. I should also be able to hit Manchukuo and hopefully divert the Japanese from Burma with my Siberian troops. Hopefully that goes well. Update: Well, we got Finland and the Baltics, though we lost Rumania, but managed to pull the rug out from under the Japanese by taking most of their iron and some of their coal in Manchukuo and Korea, in addition to severely weakening their army. I am happy, as although we lost Rumania, we took light casualties in Finland, and will be able to repel whatever forces the Germans can spare to attack us with.

USSR 1942

This year greatly improved our chances of victory. The Soviet Union did little more than tie down German troops in the east and reinforce the British in Iran, but we helped with the strategy. The British Prime Minister is a great ally to have, and together we have led our alliance to attaining a great position for the next round. The Japanese also made the unwise choice of attacking the US. Now, I can understand that it might be one of their victory conditions, but they could have taken what they needed in 1945 against a very weak US, but instead the US is now gearing up for war to help us, and is already sending us resources. My opinion is that we should secure the Middle East and reinforce France in 1943, then push the Germans out of Belgium in 1944 while I move my forces to Belarus to attack P2. Meanwhile, the British and Americans should build up forces in Australia to hit the Dutch East Indies and weaken the Axis’ rubber supply before invading the mainland via the DEI’s connection with Thailand.

USSR 1943

This year was good, I held my positions and received more resources from the Americans. My western troops have more than doubled in rating since the beginning of the game, and I am confident that they can fight off the German troops currently on my border. Meanwhile, I am assisting my Alliance in planning other maneuvers. We have all agreed that taking back the rubber in Burma or the Dutch East Indies is of the highest priority, with making a move against Germany with the troops in F1 coming in second. I wasn’t pleased to lose East Prussia after briefly conquering it, but the territory is of little use or value for the moment. The securing of Africa by conquering Egypt took a lot of stress off me as well, as I was worried about the Italians taking the Suez Canal. I just hope my Siberian troops can hold off the Japanese in the Far East.

USSR 1944

This was the most boring and anticlimactic year so far. The US retook Hawaii and the WAllies took Belgium at a great cost, but other than that we are simply waiting for the Americans to build up a big enough army for us to take down the Germans. The Germans will not be invading the Soviet Union it would appear, but I’m not moving my troops back. Hopefully in 1945 I will be able to launch offensives with my troops in China in coordination with the armies in Iran. The goal is to retake Burma and give our troops better ratings. This is a fairly short entry because there was really nothing to journal about, hopefully 1945 will be more interesting.

USSR 1945

As a result of having an army meant to take over France and the Soviet Union without the Siberian troops, the Germans pushed into the Soviet Union and destroyed our armies while the Siberians were holding the Japanese at bay. As a result of Allied failure in the Pacific, if I had withdrawn those troops I would have lost there too. Overall, compared to Period 3’s map, I feel great about my situation, the Soviet Union is still intact and Germany’s army was shattered taking Central. I was also close to retaking Finland and Norway before the Italians and map glitches killed all of my time. World War 2 Simulation

WWI Simulation Student Journal: France

The Point of View of France’s Foreign Minister  

WWI JOURNAL  

A TIME OF TOTAL WAR  

France 8  

YEAR 1913  

To start the year of 1913, it is no surprise that it will be a  challenging war. As Foreign Minister of France, I know how  important each and every decision the President and I make is. Our  alliance made with Belgium today was the start to WWI for us. This  ensures that we will send defense if Belgium is attacked. Once we  mobilize our troops tomorrow I will feel much more secure when it  comes to Germany taking action against us. The President and I plan  to keep close with our alliances and make decisions as a team to be  successful. We know that we can’t win the war without the help of  our allies. Today was a surplus of thinking ahead and making sure  we will be as prepared as possible for the next war years coming.  This will be no easy challenge for us, but we strongly believe that  with smart movement of our troops and with helping each and every  one of our allies, we will be able to make an impact. The allied  powers have high hopes for WW1.

France 8  

YEAR 1914  

The start of 1914 was slow moving. This was a bit nerve  wracking for us Allies, because we had no clue what the Central  powers had up their sleeves. The first few battles did not affect us,  so we choose to highlight our own country and securing it for safety.  We chose to move troops inward and way from the coastlines to  protect our borders. Our reasoning behind this was because we do  not feel threatened by our coastlines. We feel more danger by the  borders because we have Germany and Austria-Hungary that could  come for us. As an alliance we came up with and strategized for our  first battle. It was a little defeating seeing Russia lose to the first  battle in the war so easily. But I think our alliance did and  outstanding job making a comeback. As a group we started to plan  for the attack on the Ottoman Empire. We began to prepare troops to  travel by sea over to began the attack. Both the President and I were  very eager to see Italy join our alliance. We feel they have a lot to  offer, including a shared border with Austria-Hungary. This will  help us attack them in the future. They also have an inside look on  the Central Powers motives and strategies as the Central Powers  were working to get Italy in with them. I see success in the years  coming.

France 8  

YEAR 1915  

1915 was the most eventful year yet. Here we saw every country  in the Allied powers getting involved in battles and helping each  other out. To start off, we were more focused on helping other  countries defend from invasions and planning for attack. We did not  worry about defense for France, as we feel the entire country is off  the Radar of the Central Powers. We moved troops into another  allied country for the first time, which was a huge stepping stone for  us. This felt like a true start to the war for France. We moved over  troops to Italy as backup as we were suspecting an invasion from  Austria-Hungary. We were indeed correct. This battle we were  successful, managing to hold off the central powers. The year 1915  was a successful year for us Allied Powers. We also developed  poison gas, which was a game changer for battle. We helped Serbia  hold off Austria-Hungary yet again. I feel it was our luck though as  they chose to not use poison gas. It was a close battle. Finally our  biggest success was winning part of the Ottoman Empire. This was  the battle that we had been preparing for, for 2 years. We were  successful in doing so and managed to get Bulgaria too. I am proud  to be an Allied Power, and feel we have conquered so much, and are  still not finished. 

France 8  

YEAR 1916  

This year was something else, to say the least. As soon as we  started this year, The President and I were bombarded by the rest of  our group to sign this treaty. The treaty was to make peace with  Germany. We as leaders of France were extremely hesitant and  knew that this HAD to be violating more than just our objectives.  After talking things over and deeply thinking about this, we chose to  agree. Our reasoning behind this was because we were the last  country in the Allied Powers to sign and without our signature, we  were afraid to cause conflict with the rest of the alliance. If we chose  to decline the treaty, we were potentially risking loosing 3 of our  objectives. Plus we just straight up knew that isn’t what we were to  be doing in the first place. It was a tough decision for us, but we  chose to sign. It ended up throwing Germany out of the game, which  I guess was a bonus for us. Later that year we were victorious with  the Russians as the Central powers attacked us in Russia. That  whole year kind of honestly through us off, but we came to  realization that we needed to focus on our original country, before  we put the alliance first. So that is what we plan to do for the years  coming.

France 8  

YEAR 1917  

This year, France decided we shall focus on our individual  country. We focused on how we were going to achieve each and  every one of our objectives. We got in touch with the United  States, and learned that they wanted to take a part of Germany  too. We formed a secret alliance with the US and it was this year,  1917, that it officially became one of us. We are gaining many  countries that benefit France and we all are plotting something  big. This year overall was a year of preparation and placement.  We prepared our troops to go after Germany and Austria Hungary. We have troops waiting in Russia, Romania, Italy and  France. The Unites States and us have come to an agreement to  go after the same place, G2. With this we can finally achieve our  5th and final objective. All of the allied power troops are patiently  but also eagerly ready to take on war. We have completely  surrounded the Central Powers. We are ready for year 1918.

France 8  

YEAR 1918  

And just like that, WWI is over. As foreign minister of France  I am more than impressed with how both the President and I went  through this war. To end things off, both the United states and I  had plotted a huge, game changing attack. Unfortunately we lost  time within the snap of a finger. We managed to get our troops  moved and planned to carry out our attack on Germany. We were  devastated to learn we would no longer receive an offensive turn.  We were forced to make quick thoughtless decisions. This put our  countries leaders, including myself into a quick panic and we  made decisions that was going to help us in the next turn, little  did we know it would end shortly after. The allied powers as a  whole worked tremendously together and there are was nobody  else both the President and I would want to work with. Although  the war did not end that way would have liked to, looking back  we were more than happy with our success. We managed to  achieve 5 of the 6 objectives. We will call this a win for France.