Looking back at the Conquest Game

1. Which country were you? How did it feel to build your empire? Which countries had the advantage at the start of the game? Why? How did you empire compare to other empires?
Me and Nandini were the Austro-Hungarian Empire! At the start of the game, I felt ok about it. I knew that by far, we werent the strongest empire out there, but we definately were not the weakest. The paper that we got which described our empire, its allies, and enemies, also seemed pretty equalled out. I think the countries with the biggest advantages were USA, or the UK. They started with more of everything than other groups. But, I think what your started with didnt have much of an effect on who wins or loses the game. It was the people that could make good decisions at the correct moments who would succeed.

2. In the long run was it more important to buy armies, navies, industries or colonies? Why?
I think industries. With industries, you could just pull up a massive army from pretty much thin air in one round's time. Then again, if the opposition is smart, they would attack you when your high on industries and low on military. If I didnt have to choose just one, I would still say that there should a generally equal number of industries and armies, the 2nd least navies, and the least of colonies. Colonies indeed do help your buying power, but there is a limited amount of them, and navies, are always a good backup in a close war.
3. What did you do well? What would you have done differently?
I think we did well in keeping things equally distributed, although, i think that that wasnt necessary in this particular game...People just kept buying industries and would never go to way and just build up untill the end. I think that that build up of industries makes them vulnurable to attack, but nobody in our class made that move.
4. How successful were your alliances? Did they help or hurt you? Could they be trusted?
Not particularly for our group, but allainces cannot be trusted! Backstabbing was common among high ranking nations, and it payed off very nicely to the victors. Even if your so called "alliances" help you a bit, you OR them can still earn much more by just defeating them in a war.
5. What are three specific things you learned about conflict from this simulation?
1. Alliances, like rules, are made to be broken.
2. The more power you have, the more people are going to want to join you
3. The Less power your have, the more people will want to conquer you.