Strategy
OK, now I've played this game a few dozen times and have it fairly well figured out, usually the most challenging way to play is to try and invade and hold onto as much of the world as possible without getting nuked. But (after nuking New Zealand) it's the first thing everyone does. So I'd like to share with you my strategy for building a peaceful world.
In every scenario Iraq will invade Kuwait in August 1990 so the first thing I do is go to Saudi Arabia(If SA won't allow you to place troops Kuwait or Iraq/Saudi Neutral Zone will do just as well) and Turkey and send as many troop as possible(about 2.1 mil)
if they won't allow you to send the troops try sending fewer troops to start with(even as few as 1) then up the numbers a few days later.
Then I go to the budget screen and and have a bit of fiddle with that
1) abolish sales tax
2) get rid of all investment(in the US Econ decline scenario this alone will actually increase growth as you are balancing the budget)
3) if you're not playing the US Econ decline scenario decrease taxes so the budget deficit is the same as it was before you got rid of investment. The people are now happier, you have higher growth and the budget is in the same shape.(I usually lower Corp. taxes to about 45% and then make up the difference with income tax)
4) increase foreign aid to about $50Bn, you'll need it later on.
Then I start handing out MFN trade status like there's no tomorrow.
First to any Western European country that doesn't already have it, also Poland, Czechoslovakia and Austria
Then Mexico, Brazil, India and Japan. Your budget should be in better shape now.
Giving out too much MFN is dangerous to your popularity though but giving it out to developed countries doesn't seem to hurt and the other big economies are well worth the small popularity hit for the extra cash.
Next I'll usually just hit 5 and wait for Saddam to invade Kuwait
I have my troops help defend Kuwait and invade Iraq at the same time. Sometimes Turkey will help you out with some troops but don't count on it.
Immediately hit Iraq 5 or 6 times with Surgical Strikes, don't overdo this, it'll make your human right and ethic scores plummet and make it nearly impossible to get anything done later on.
Unless Iraq does it first restrict trade, it'll be a blow to their leadership effectiveness.
The war should be over by the early 1991 if not before the new year.
Typically I'd put about 500,000 troops in Iraq as an occupation force and bring the ones from Turkey and the Arabian Peninsula home. Return trade status for Iraq to Regulated or MFN.
I'd usually hang onto Iraq for a while, doing Peace Envoy and Promote Human Rights until HR has reached 'Mostly Free' and peace has reached 'Just Peace'(Use the 'Filter View'), then return Iraq to autonomy and bring the rest of the troops home.
Ok, this is where the real statesmanship begins, armed with 90+% leadership effectiveness from the victory in Iraq I start doing Peace Envoy and Promote Human Rights in South and Central America until each country has 'Just Peace' and 'Mostly Free'.
I then give all these countries MFN and Economic Aid to have them growing at 3.6%(or 4.2% whatever the green level is) or above and Social Aid in proportion to the Social Aid Needed filter.
Mexico and Brazil will take ridiculous amounts of aid to get their growth up to scratch so I'll usually leave them out of this step.
You can also win over some small countries to your team by giving military and intelligence aid(as well as nuclear but i usually wouldn't, we're trying to build a peaceful world remember)
Now you have your own backyard in order, Economic Growth at about 5% and popularity of about 60%. Now you can start worrying about what to do with the rest of the world. Use similar patterns for the rest of the world. You have a lot of credibility so you can afford the occasional little war, Libya and Syria can be a pain in the ass so invade them and set up a friendly government like you did in Iraq, North Korea is a pain also but invasion will usually result in Soviet intervention so I'd leave that alone.
A few Misc. observations
The game is very heavily geared to a free trade ideology
ie:
Lowering Tariffs is good for the economy but disastrous for your popularity, don't touch it.
Investment will never get you as much growth as an equivalent tax cut(as mentioned above you should just do away with it early on)
MFN always gives growth benefits to both countries but is unpopular if you give it to poor countries.
The game model only really works well for about 7 or 8 years then weird things start happening (It seems to happen even quicker the more you upset the status quo, eg. if you are having a lot of wars or flinging nukes about the place)
As mentioned a few times in this forum quality of life starts going a bit wacky(I have a theory about this; that one country achieves a huge increase in QofL and as it is relative to highest ever reached other countries therefore have a lower ranking despite having not gone backwards, I don't know if the game gives enough data to verify this but Avg GDP seems to not change so who knows, it is just as likely to be me over-rationalizing a bug)
Also national ideologies start changing in unpredictable ways, you quite often see Russia or China adopting imperialism and joining a team with South Africa and one or two other randoms that have decided to adopt it as well.(this is just one example, I've also seen a socialist Mexico and a few other weird things along these lines)
Hope this is useful to someone.
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