Campaign Walkthrough: Opening Moves
by Sean Drummy
The Bold First Step
While not intuitively obvious from one’s knowledge of military prowess across the country, the Great Plains Federation actually presents the best bet for victory. Provided that the player only fights battles they know they can to win, and a sharp eye for any points of weakness, the Great Plains can quickly usurp most of the West Coast as New England and the Confederacy bankrupt their armies with driving the European Union into the sea. One major advantage the player has in starting off as the Great Plains is their large reserves of cash. But don’t go on a spending spree just yet – being fiscally conservative in times of success with yield even better results when the tide begins to turn against one’s favor.
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As with the Great Plains, being smack dab in the middle of the country presents a long list of advantages and equally perilous dangers. Most notably, the player will have fantastic array of options at the outset of the campaign: the player can attack almost any faction he wants and still remained isolated from the factions that are one or two territories away (California and the Confederacy). The best initial attack option for the player at the outset of the game presents itself in Montana against the Pacifica faction. This frozen territory may not be a very appealing vacation spot for many, but Montana offers the distinct advantage of being isolated within Pacifica’s territory so in the event of a successful attack, the player will only stand to be attacked by Pacifica and no other jealous faction.
The attack on Montana also comes with the fundamental assumption that I’ve determined to be fairly accurate over the course of playing many Shattered Union campaigns. Given the massive threat the European Union poses to New England and the Confederacy, the AI generally dedicates several turns to trying to dislodge the European Union from their single territory in Washington. Through my own folly, I tried to do this as well when playing as New England with disastrous results. The likelihood of New England or the Confederacy actually expunging the European Union from Washington the first few turns (or at all, for that matter) is very remote. With a bit of luck, the East Coast will be tied up in their own bout for Washington to leave the Great Plains with open season on Pacifica and beyond.
The Nitty Gritty
The purpose of this walkthrough is more of an operational one than that of a tactical guide for the battle aspect of Shattered Union. Nevertheless, I’ll still make a few general comments about combat that will help the player within the context of the larger operational portion of the campaign. First, it is absolutely imperative that one conserves units as much as possible. Nothing is expendable, even when rolling in cash from a few lucky victories. Even the poorest units in the game cost some serious coin so treat them as so. If your army has several useless units in it: weak infantry, like AA/Humvee units, or anything else that is shaping up to be dead weight based on your playing style – sell it! It is of utmost importance that one’s army stays well repaired, efficient, and as large as possible. Avoid suicide missions, keep helicopters protected, and withdraw units that have no hope of dealing damage to a unit without destroying itself immediately afterwards. Repairing an entire army will cost a substantial sum as well – but this does not come anywhere near the cost of building a brand new army from scratch.
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Unit selection for battle is probably the most difficult aspect of the game. When one’s territory grows large enough to warrant attacks from more than one enemy in a turn, which units must remain for offense, defense, and reserves can get pretty tricky. No matter how important a battle is, never commit all of your forces to a single battle. Even if the battle is an overwhelming success, they’ll be nothing left to defend and advance from an enemy later that turn.