Conflict of Nations, As Kazakhstan

 

By Bixyl Shuftan

 

A few years ago, I did a review on the game Call of War. Soon after, I would give it's sister game "Conflict of Nations" a try.  Gameplay is much the same, build units in city, improve cities through buildings, research technology for better infantry, tanks, planes, helicopters, ships, missiles, and other units, etc. Nukes are devastating, but can be countered. But like before, be prepared to spend some gold currency if you want to win, and free players can be hard pressed against "wallet warriors."

 

Of the scenarios, there are several. There's the European war scenario, there's the American theater in which players fight over a fractured North America. There are scenarios in which the action takes place four times more than realtime, and then there's the zombie fights in which all players have a mutual enemy: the infected. And there are global map games in which players can pick any country on the map.

After playing a few games, I gave the global scenario a try. I looked over the available list of nations, and I noticed among them was Kazakhstan. This wasn't an ideal country in the game. There's no access to the ocean. The cities are a bit far apart. For most Americans, it's best known as the home country of the character "Borat." But those know know me recall my sense of humor can sometimes spark some interesting ideas. So I started a game, and after making a few army units made a declaration or war against a small computer-controlled neighbor, Kyrgyzstan.

I also decided to make an announcement in the news feed. Most of the bulletins there are reports of declarations of war and the results of battles. But players can make them as well. In previous games, they were often warnings against other players or trollish remarks. But I made up a press release ...

 

Hello, is Borat, Minister of Information of glorious nation of Kazakhstan. 

Today, our great leader make decision to restore order to unstable neighbor Kyrgyzstan. Our glorious troops are marching into their city to the cheers of local peoples.

 

*image of ragtag-looking soldiers, some with patches on their uniforms and dents in their helmets, making their way into a city, occasionally stopping as the people up front check the map, scratching their heads as the locals ignore or boo them*

 

Great glory to Kazakhstan!

 

I would do the same with Uzbekistan, and message my neighbors saying I wasn't looking to start any fights. Eventually, I began noticing some player-controlled units had stopped moving. I messaged them to make sure they had gone inactive. And once I was sure the player was gone, I would make my move. In these games typically a lot of countries go inactive as players give up after a difficult fight or having gone to bed or work log back in to see much of their land is overrun.

Hello, is Borat, is Minister of information of great nation of Kazakhstan. 

Today, our great leader ordered our glorious forces into (country) due to it's government collapsing after disappearance of leader. No truth to rumor we have anything to do with disappearance. 

Local forces are laying down arms after negotiations.

 

*image of Kazak troops turning around and running away from a well-defended building*

 

Great glory to Kazakhstan!

By this time, I had researched the ability to make tanks.

 

To those who think of challenging our mighty nation, beware! For our brave soldiers are backed up by mighty, state of art tanks!

 

*image of a somewhat antiquated T-55 with rust spots on it's paint job, lumbering forward, the tank tread breaking and it has to stop.*

 

Great glory to Kazakstan!

 

And was producing fighter jets. They could only damage ground targets a little, but they were great for scouting around.

 

Our most glorious army is matched by a most glorious air force. Behold our jets which will rain death from above on our enemies and will defeat any enemy planes!

 

*image of an outdated MiG-21, with a faded paint job, it's underpowered engine sputtering as it makes it's way down a runway, barely clearing the trees at the end*

 

Great glory to Kazakstan!

 

 To my surprise, among the countries going inactive early on, though after the mass resignation a few days in the game was Russia. This was a challenge and an opportunity, and I sent in a number of units to take over as much of the country as I could. 

 

It is with sorrow that we announce collapse of government of Russia. We are moving forces in before neighbors hostile to Russian brothers do so, so we create an autonomous area under our protection. Already there are reports of Russian soldiers joyously joining our cause. 

*image of Kazak troops turning around and running away from a well-defended building with a Russian flag*

 

Great glory to Kazakstan!

 

I managed to get the bulk of Russian territory, most of Siberia and much of European Russia including Moscow. But China got Vladivostok and bordering countries got some Russian cities including Ukraine getting Rostov, denying me a port. But I had other targets of opportunity, and was moving into Afghanistan, then Pakistan.

 

Our most glorious forces are moving south into Afghanistan in order to deal with most dastardly terrorists threatening our glorious nation and many others. We have recently captured video footage from terrorist training camp.

 

*image of a scruffy middle-aged man in Afghan garb and a turban before a small crowd of similarly dressed younger men*

 

"All right students, step number one, put on the vest" *the man takes a vest with it's insides stuffed with dynamite, with a wire attached to a rod with a red button on the top, then puts it on, holding the rod*

 

"Step number two, find a place with a number of infidels. Step number three, press the button."

 

*the man presses the button, followed by a huge explosion that knocks the camera to the ground. When the smoke clears, the crooked camera shows an empty pair of shoes where the man used to be, followed by a turban falling down*

 

Great glory to Khazakstan!

 

I do remember I was able to avoid fighting with Turkey and Iran. I don't remember how the fight with India started. It was also about this time I got into an alliance with Japan and Indonesia.  

Today, our most glorious nation signed pact with two most intelligent countries. The signing was followed by a performance by artists of our most glorious culture.

 

*image of a woman in an ethnic dress on stage singing very much off key, whom when finished walks aside as acrobats also in ethnic costume leap and flip over various farm animals to a confused audience of several diplomats*

 

Great glory to Khazakstan!

 

Indonesia took Malaysia, and Burma, and we ended up splitting India, with the Kazaks taking the larger share. We eyed China cautiously, but I don't remember any big incident. Lacking a port, my response was to build up my airplanes, helicopters, and easily transportable infantry, as well as factories, recruiting centers, and infrastructure.

 

Our glorious army is backed by a strong population, Here at our recruiting center, we see numbers of eager patriots signing up.

 

*image of several scruffy men lined up at a recruiting center, one looking to the camera*

 

"Actually, we were drafted. We're just here to turn in our papers."

 

Great glory to Khazakstan!

 

 

Our most glorious army and air force has mighty weapons. But mighty weapons need mighty factories. Behold our recently expanded arms factory!

 

*image of a very sooty brick building, with cracks in the older part and the newer part having uneven layers of bricks and an open double door showing some very rusty machinery inside*

 

Great glory to Khazakstan!

 

Then the player behind Ukraine attacked. My producing large numbers of planes and helicopters paid off as his few fighters were brushed aside and the attacking units were pummeled. This was followed by a counterattack which took the once-Russian city of Rostov. When cities change hands, infrastructure is usually damaged. But the port was intact. I quickly repaired it, and fast-tracked the building of a cruiser. I now had a navy.

Our most glorious army and most glorious air force is now joined by most glorious navy. Behold our mighty battleship!

 

*image of a Kirov-class cruiser with a worn and rusty paint job, the ship clearly having seen better days*

 

Great glory to Khazakstan!

 

The player behind Ukraine quit in the middle of the fight, either because he didn't expect a hard counterattack. Or maybe it was the forces from Romania. I can't remember if they were moving up before or after he quit. But in any event we ended up splinting Ukraine him getting Kiev. 

 

I forget exactly when, but someone sent a few spies at me. When one was caught, I made light of it.

 

Our most glorious nation was the target of most dastardly spy campaign. Here, we have footage of arrested spy confessing to crimes.

 

*image of a man in uniform standing over a harmless-looking young man wearing jeans and a t-shirt sitting on a stool*

 

"I tell you it's all a mistake! I'm just a tourist who got lost and - "

 

"We know you spy. You will confess, or we go third degree."

 

"I don't know anything, I swear!"

 

"Very well." *the official gets a tape player and presses a button*

 

"I loooovvvveee yooouuuu, yoooouuuu loooovvveee mmmmeeeee ...."

 

"WAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!! I'll talk! I'll talk! I'll taaaalllllk!! Anything but that!"

 

Great glory to Khazakstan!

 

And I responded by sending a few spies his way. 

 

While our glorious nation can beat any force against us, we can always use intelligence. So we send spies to unfriendly dastardly country. 

*image of a man in a trenchcoat, with noseglasses over his face*

 

"Hello. I am friendly tourist of friendly nation. Not spy from Kazakstan. Where is government building?"

 

Great glory to Khazakstan!

 

The first response to the spying got some chuckles, one player saying, "Hahaha! Bixyl is the soul of this game!"

 

Time went on. The leader of our alliance ended up tossing out Indonesia as Australia wanted to join. I kept close tabs on Indonesia, and asked the others to remain on friendly terms with them. But eventually the player quit, letting me know ahead of time and moving his units away from my territory and toward China and Australia.

 

It is sad that we report the collapse of most glorious government of Indonesia. Our forces our moving in before hostile neighbors do, so we establish autonomous zone.

 

Our glorious soldiers are meeting enthusiastic crowds as they enter cities.

 

*image of angry crowds throwing garbage at army transport trucks*

 

Great glory to Khazakstan!

 

From what I recall, a tiff started with China. So I was sending some assistance with planes and some ground forces. Then the Romanian player attacked, and he had help from the USA player who dropped nukes on a few of my cities.

 

We are sad to report nuclear reactor has exploded. Was not nuclear missile attack.

 

*image of a mushroom cloud going up*

 

We soon clean area and rebuild.

 

Great glory to Kazakhstan!

 

I fell back, managing to keep Rostov, but cruise missiles kept targeting the city, damaging the port and halting further ship construction. Thankfully I quickly developed anti-missile technology, and soon had ABM batteries over my best cities. I was able to slowly rebuild my factories, and the rate I was producing units.

Eventually, I got the city of Rostov producing ships again, and was able to push the Romanian player back, taking Kiev, and the rest of Ukraine. Then was going into Romania and the Balkans. My teammates were pressing against China, taking Indochina and going into China itself. I even managed an invasion of the USA's occupied territories in South America. Our point total got higher and higher.

 

Then the game announced it was over. Our faction had won, and I had the highest point total in the game!

 

It was time for one more bulletin.

 

Hello, is Borat, is Minister of Information of most glorious Kazakhstan.

 

Today, it is announced that negotiations have result in peace around world. All major countries order their men stop fighting. The Great War is over! Kazakhstan is strongest of all winning nations with most glorious empire ...

 

This just in. Great Leader announce formation of Kazak Commonwealth, with territories granted self rule, starting with countries who cooperate with Kazakhstan. Great Leader announce elections year from now, will not be running. 

 

Oh is sad. New leader mean new information minister. I Borat be looking for new job.

 

Great glory to Kazakhstan!

 

I would play a few more games of Conflict of Nations. But none would match the fun I had with this game I was prepared to lose as playing a second rate nation with a wacky minister of information, and ended up on the winning team.

 

Good gaming to you!

 

Bixyl Shuftan

 

Call of War

 
By Bixyl Shuftan

One of the games I see advertised numerous times online is "Call of War," also known as "Call of War: World War II" or "Call of War: 1942."  The game is a free-to-play browser-based World War Two style strategy game developed by Bytro Labs. The company also made "Supremacy 1914" and "Conflict of Nations: World War III," which play much the same.

After playing it a number of times, my conclusion is it's enjoyable, but be prepared to spend plenty of gold currency if you want to achieve victory in this Pay to Win game.

To play the game, make a new account, and after reading the rules go to "new games" and select a scenario. There are several from "Europe - Clash of Nations" in which 22 people can play to "World at War" in which a whopping 100 players can take part. games will list how many openings remain, so obviously the more who are already taking part the fewer nations that are left to play. In "American Homefront," some of the nations are really states or provinces in this "alternate history scenario." Once in, you pick one of the available nations. All start with a roughly equal number of cities and resources and a small number of units.

 All cities and provinces have build menus, though cities have larger ones. In cities, you can construct buildings, such as barracks, ports, air bases, factories, etc. Barracks allow you to produce infantry units. Ports allow you to make ships. Aircraft factories will allow you to make planes. Tank factories allow you to make tanks. Ordinance factories allow you to manufacture artillery and similar guns. Secret factories will allow you to make rockets, and eventually atomic weapons. In provinces, you can build infrastructure aka roads, that allow units to move faster, air bases that aircraft can fly missions from or stop to refuel on trips, local industry to increase local resources, and a few more.

But in order to make units, you need two things. You'll need to have researched the particular kind of unit, and you'll need the required resources. Provinces produce a small amount of manpower and money, which are needed for all units and all buildings need money. Cities produce much more of them, in addition to producing one of several resources: food, goods, metal, oil, and rare materials. Most units need some of most of these, though some more than others such as infantry needing more food, tanks ships and planes needing metal and oil, artillery needing goods. If you're short on one or more goods or have more of one or more than you need, you can buy and sell goods on the stock market. And once a unit is produced, that isn't the end. Each needs a small amount of manpower and resources to be maintained.

Research will make new units available. At first, you'll only be able to research a few units and the earliest tiers of, such as level one infantry and level one destroyers. But most of these only need a few resources and not much time. As time goes on, more are unlocked. But further ones available cost more units and take more time. You can research two kinds of units at once, and they are in several categories, such as infantry, tanks, naval, etc. Nuclear weapons are not available until late in the game. The highest tier units need blueprints that cannot be researched but found on the map via airdrops. When a new tier of unit is researched, you can upgrade old units, but that takes resources and time.

Each province has different terrain that various units can use to their advantage. Infantry are strongest in the city, and get smaller bonuses in hilly and wooded terrain. Tanks are strongest in open fields. If there are fortifications, defenders in the owner's province get a defensive bonus when attacked.

One new feature is Doctrine. Each of the nations subscribes to one of four doctrines, each with it's advantages and disadvantages. Countries with the Axis doctrine have more hitpoints and can deal more damage, but cost more to make. Pan-Asian countries move faster, can see further away, and get greater terrain bonuses, but have fewer hit points. Allied countries can produce units faster and can research and upgrade faster. Comintern countries can produce and maintain units using less resources, but they deal less damage.

In order to attack another country, there needs to be a declaration of war, either you on it, or it on you. Early in the game, it's unlikely a computer-controlled country will attack you. As the game goes on, there is that chance of it happening. Player-controlled countries can attack you at any time. When a territory is conquered, it delivers a fraction of the resources to the new owner as it did the original. It's morale also goes down to the point a successful rebellion is possible. Raising it will mean keeping a couple units there for a while. Capturing one of a country's core cities will mean a big loss of the production of one of it's resources, in addition to one less place they can raise units. The loss of two or three will mean the country's in serious trouble and defeat is near without intervention.

The score in games is determined by Victory Points. In most games, conquering cities will get you those, with capital cities delivering the most. But it's how many you have at the end of the game that determine who wins, so taking the lead in the middle of the game won't help if you lose it.

Diplomacy is a part of the game. You can message other players and make deals. You're free to honor them, or surprise and backstab. However, they're free to do the same. You can also join a collation of states, or form one of your own and try to attract members.

And then there are different maps. There's an European map in which players can take charge of a major country (or a faction of a broken-up major country). Or you could play on a world map, one with a moderate number of players, or one with a whopping 100 players. More recent maps include American Homefront in which the US and Canada are split apart, and Antarctica.

One interesting detail is the newspaper. There you can read about who's at war with who. Players can also write their own articles. Some write "news" stories describing why such a country was attacked. But gamers being gamers, there can be charges of certain players being cheaters, backstabbers, or "wallet warriors."

So how can such a detailed game be free to play? This is where Premium Accounts and gold come in. You have the option of paying to get a premium account, which means a few more options. And then there's buying gold. So why buy gold? With gold, you can get money and resources on the stock exchange, you can hurry up the construction of a building, hurry up the construction of a unit, hurry up the research of a technology, heal a unit completely, or raise the morale of a province to maximum. While you can get some gold by accomplishing achievements, such as destroying so many of a particular kind of enemy unit, the easiest way you can get it is to spend real-world money to buy it. So this puts the game in the category of "Pay to Win."

Another problem can be the real-time progress of the game. While someone is sleeping, working, or doing anything else, others are free to attack his country and units. So someone could easily go to bed in the middle of a campaign, and wake up to find his country attacked where his units aren't and the enemy already having marched over much territory and cities. This causes some players to walk away out of frustration, or not willing to play a losing campaign as they don't have the time to spend to make it a winning one.

Call of War isn't a bad game. It can be an enjoyable challenge to come up with the right combination of units for a successful military campaign, and if you have the time to spare, even better. But if you don't have a lot of time due to being a full-time worker (or working two jobs), playing other games, or other activities, then you're going to have trouble winning games unless you're a member of a league, and they may get unhappy if they think you're not playing very often. So some gamers are better off with playing "Hearts of Iron" or some other strategy game they can play whenever they have the time.

I rate the game a medium at three stars out of five. While I can't recommend this game, I won't call it not recommended either. For more information, check the wiki here.

*  *  *  *  *

When launching an attack on a country, leave a few units to help cover other parts of your lands to keep from leaving your backside completely exposed. You also might want to invest in infrastructure to speed up the movement of units from one part of your lands to another.

Different units have different strengths and weaknesses in different terrains. Infantry is vulnerable to armor in plains. But is stronger against it in woods, and moreso in cities.

Don't completely neglect artillery, especially when mobile artillery is available. A stack of units can defend itself from air attacks with an anti-aircraft unit or two. But there's no defense against an artillery bombardment, especially a bombardment from multiple artillery units, except to retreat out of range or attack. A computer controlled stack of units when under artillery bombardment will sometimes try to attack it, either splitting or sending everything. So be prepared.

Keep in mind the higher tier of a unit, the longer it takes to produce. So you may want to delay research for a while until you upgrade your barracks, tank factories, shipyards, etc.

If you have a coastline, watch out for the possibility of an invasion by sea. Make a navy when you can, and build battleships when you can (and don't forget to give them escorts). Seaplanes and artillery can help defend against bombardment by ships. Land units are vulnerable when being transported by water, and take time to disembark, where they can be attacked by land units or bombarded by artillery or bombers.

If you're a free player, save your gold for emergencies. If someone attacks you where you're wide open, you can use it to build units and buy resources for them, in a hurry.

A single game can last for many weeks. If a game isn't fun anymore, or if all of a sudden your real life demands a lot more time than you can spare from your game, don't be ashamed to walk away (after messaging any allies of yours). You can always start a new game later.

Bixyl Shuftan