Warfare Guide - SR2020

= SR2020 Warfare Guide = Submitted by Balthagor on Fri, 01/04/2013 - 23:36 This entry is for SR2020, but most of the concepts apply to later games in the series as well.

= Overview = The conduct of warfare in SR2020 is an important topic, if for no other reason than defending your Region from foreign agression. This section will discuss SR2020 warfare in depth and will include such topics as game settings, military spending, the development of an military/industrial complex, recruiting, military research and the fabrication and deployment of military Units. The deployment and use of all classes of Units such as Land, Air, Naval, Submarine, Missiles, Spies and Space will be explained. The mechanics of SR2020 warfare such as supply, intelligence, spotting and repair will be explored. Later we will discuss SR2020 warfare strategy and tactics. We will also touch on the economic and diplomatic repercussions of warfare in SR2020.

Chapters

 * 1) Defense Minister
 * 2) Military Facilities
 * 3) Unit Classes
 * 4) Research
 * 5) Unit Fabrication
 * 6) Unit Trades
 * 7) Reserves
 * 8) Unit Deployment
 * 9) Nuclear Weapons
 * 10) Intelligence
 * 11) Targeting
 * 12) Unit Statistics and Specifications
 * 13) Communications
 * 14) Supply
 * 15) Hotspots
 * 16) Land Units
 * 17) Air Units
 * 18) Naval & Submarine Units
 * 19) Missiles
 * 20) Satellites
 * 21) Diplomacy
 * 22) Strategy
 * 23) Tactics

Glossary
SR2020 has its own vocabulary of political, economic and military terms. A partial glossary of these terms is available here:Glossary

Game Settings
Your general military strategy is largely determined by your intial games settings. From the Campaign and Scenario game "Lobby" you are given the opportunity to select such militarily important aspects of the game as military, diplomatic and economic difficulty, victory conditions, fixed Regional Capitals, participation of Allies, availability of military Units, unit visibility and the use and consequences of nuclear weapons.

Many of these setting can also be changed in mid-game.

Will you select to becoming Supreme Ruler through war, peace or a political combination of both? Will your Allies contribute towards your victory? Will conquering another Region require taking their Capital or capturing their main command unit? Will your enemy's government be permitted to move to another Capital city once you forces take their old one? All of these game settings will ultimately determine your military strategies and tactics throughout the course of the game.

The details of various SR2020 game settings are explained in the following pages:

Difficulty Settings

Victory Conditions

Battle Sounds
New in Update 6 (Gold Edition) Battle Sounds.

Military Approval Rating
MAR is a measure of your Region's military morale and confidence in its Supreme Leader (you). MAR is increased by both morale and militry salaries. Military Morale is increased when you lead your military into consistant military triumphs and conquer enemy Regions. If you lead and pay your military well then they will give you their support (Approval).

MAR is like DAR - in a democracy if the player loses an election then staging a military coup is an option. But the success of this bid for power hinges upon the support of your military as reflected by its MAR.

In a dictatorship of communist form of government, your Region may also br subject to coups in which the MAR of you military is vital to your continued rule.

During war-time if you can soundly thwart an enemy Region in combat and drive the MAR of the opposing armed forces to a low enough level, then it is possible for that enemy region to surrender to you without you having to capture its capital or command unit.

Declaring War
It was once said that "War is politics by other means." and these other means are frequently used in SR2020. Control of the game map by the use of military force is a direct and often effective method of becoming Superme Ruler and of winning a Campaign. But before you jump into any wars, we need to first explain some of the ramifications and subtilties of declaring war on the other Regions of the game Map. Remember - victory in SR2020 can be achieved by non-military "other means" by using game Victory Condition settings such as "Diplomatic Score", "Unification" or "Total Score".

Diplomacy can gain you peaceful access to another Region's territory (especilly an Ally's) where you can stage your military units and access your supply system. But you cannot make foreign territory and its resources yours without a state of war in which your military Units can actually occupy and take possession of the foreign hexes. War is the only way to gain control of the resources and territories of other Regions, and you can only attack foreign units and capture the hexes of those Regions that you are at war with.

War in SR2020 is closely tied to a political quality that the game refers to as "casus belli" or CB. In Latin this means "justification for war" and the game tracks it for every Region in relation to every other Region on the Map. The game begins with certain pre-programmed amounts of CB between Regions, depending upon the game's difficulty settings and the cultural, religious, political and military contrasts between Regions. During the game the actions of other Regions towards you and to your Allies contributes positive or negative amounts to your CB towards them and vice-versa.

Glossary of Diplomatic Terms

A major source of CB against a Region (especially towards large, powerful ones) is that Region's military building capacity or "build cap" (MilCap). This is the "military contrast" that was mentioned above. If you Region's MilCap is one of the top five on the map then other Regions will automatically have a CB bias against you, and this CB can grow as time passes. The other Region's proximity to you also enhances this source of CB.

There are two types of war that you can initiate directly - a formal Declaration of War (DOW) via your State Department or a war sparked by your Region's unit(s) trespassing on the other Region without a transit treaty - a "War On Incursion" (WOI). A WOI may entail less CB than a DOW.

Declaring a war in SR2020 without adequate CB/justification has serious repercussions. A DOW without 100% CB will cost the attacking Region heavily in diplomatic standing (CB) with the rest of the world. And not just from the Allies of the attacked Region. Loss of diplomatic standing also means a loss of trade and standing with the U.N.

War is a two-way street - you may easily be DOWed long before you get the opportunity to DOW another Region. This could be good or bad, depending upon your intentions. If all you want is peace then this is an unfortunate turn of events. But you can reverse this because your will gain a great deal of diplomatic good-will if you are able to propose and successfully negotiate a peace treaty with the belligerent Region. Or you may have been spoiling for a fight - waiting for a good reason to conquer another Region or to appropriate some of its resources.

Allies, Neutrals, Enemies
Before you start a war you should know how to tell the difference between friend or foe. There are three classifications of Regions in the game Ally, Enemy and Neutral. In SR2020 an Ally is another friendly Region with which you have negotiated a "Formal Alliance" treaty with. For more information on how to cultivate Allies see the following article:Making Allies

An enemy Region is one with which your Region is currently at war. When war is declared all treaties with the Enemy are nullified. The only treaty that you can negotiate with an Enemy is a Peace treaty. If the Enemy suddenly DOWed you simply because you went to war with an Ally or neigbor of theirs, then negotiating a peace treaty with them might prove to be surprisingly easy and will bring you a lot of diplomatic good-will.

A Neutral is neither and Ally or Enemy, but may be friendly or hostile depending upon the current measurements of the state of diplomatic relations between your two Regions. In general the more trade and diplomatic treaties there are between two Regions, the more friendly they are and thus are closer to becoming Allies. See Glossary of Diplomatic Terms.

Your Units cannot move or "path" across Neutral hexes with first negotiating a transit treaty. Doing so without a treaty could result in the Neutral DOWing you and becoming a warring enemy. Treaty types are discussed here: Types of Treaties

Allies are "friends with benefits" - you are free to move your Units across any Allied hex on the map. Allies don't and cannot attack each other, however at the higher game difficulty settings, an Ally might break the Alliance and revert to being a Neutral. It is hard to predict what will happen then.

Allies share supply systems, which means that your military can access its own supplies and weapons (primarally missiles) while on supplied Allied territory. Also you can provide supply "drops" to your Allies using your supply trucks, aircraft and ships.

You can diplomaticly send "gifts" to any other Region (friend or foe) including units and missiles. You can only offer units and missiles in trade - you cannot request them. The appropriate GUI Window is described here:Diplomatic Exchange Window. For more information on exchanging units and missiles see here: AI Unit Trading and here: Exchange of Military Units

Territory
A Region's territory is the soverign land and sea hexs controlled by a Region and the air-space above them. All resources, settlements and other "improvements" like factories and military facilites located on these hexes are owned and controlled by that Region. A Region can only lose control of its territory through military aggression by an Enemy Region.

Pathing
In general "transit" or "pathing" across a Region's territory is allowed only by treaty, however your State Department has an "Intensions" sub-panel from which you can permit non-Allies pathing privlidges to your territory without triggering a WOI: State Department Sub-Panels.

Furthermore, your Units will not cross the boundries of another Region unless the appropriate pathing permissions are activated from this Defense Department panel:Defense Condition Panel

Supply
All production and Unit re-supply in a Region is facilitated by the presence of "supply" in its hex. The strength of this Supply can be viewed by pressing the 'S' key on the keyboard and can also be activated from the "Land/Filters" sub-panel.

Supply is generated by "settlements" - cities, towns and villages, complexes, military bases and supply depots: Sources of Supply.

The spread of supply is increased by roads and railroads within the Region.

For a full explaination of SR2020 Supply see : SR2020 Supply

Taking Territory
As has been established, your Units can capture Enemy controlled hexes. Normally the units of one region cannot enter an enemy hex if they have been spotted by that hex's defenders and so long as the hex is occupied by the enemy.

A hex that contains your unit(s) and at least one Enemy unit is a zone of contention (ZOC). This can only occur on land in two ways: when your units are set to Stealth Mode and enter an occupied enemy hex or when your airborne units air-drop into an occupied enemy hex.

If you stage a stealth attack or airborne assault on a garrisoned hex while all of the hex's defending garrisons are entrenched and hidden then when your attack force enters the hex and un-cloak the hex will change ownership and become yours.

Only combatant land and sea Units can capture territory. Artillery, aircraft and supply units cannot capture territory. Furthermore, combatant Units set for Stealth Mode cannot capture territory either. However if their Stealth mode is switched off while they are within an un-contested Enemy hex they can capture it.

When a Unit captures an Enemy hex there is a one-day delay before supply will flow to that hex plus another day for it to accumulate. This is easily seen after a Region is conquered - all of the Region's captured Unit's indicator bars will turn red for 24-hours, after which aircraft that have run out of fuel may be seen to fall from the sky and crash. Afterwards it may take a long time for supply to re-flow throughout the captured region.

This supply lag also represents a big obstacle to attacking Units that advance onto new Enemy territory. This will be discussed in detail later in this article.