Shattered Union
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| Shattered Union | |
|---|---|
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| Developer(s) | Pop Top Software |
| Publisher(s) | 2K Games |
| Platform(s) | Xbox, PC |
| Release | October 17, 2005 (Worldwide) October 19, 2005 (GameFly) October 25, 2006 (Steam) |
| Genre(s) | Turn-based tactics |
| Mode(s) | Simultaneous, Story, Versus, Full Mission Single-Player, Quick Match, OptiMatch, Training, Campaign, Challenge |
Shattered Union is a turn-based tactics computer game developed by PopTop Software and published by 2K Games in 2005.
Story
In 2008, David Jefferson Adams is elected president following a disputed election and a tie vote in the Electoral College (and subsequent tie-breaker by the United States House of Representatives), becoming the most unpopular president in U.S. history. A dramatic amount of civil unrest and rioting springs up all throughout the United States, resulting in domestic terrorism. In response, President Adams uses the Homeland Security Act and declares martial law on many areas of the country.
During the election of 2012, the Supreme Court disqualifies all the presidential candidates from holding office, effectively awarding Adams with a second term. The public reacts violently when incumbent Adams accepts his next term.
During the Inauguration Day in Washington, D.C. on January 20, 2013, a low-yield nuclear weapon is detonated, destroying the city, killing Adams, his cabinet, and most of the US Congress. The United States plunges into chaos.
The European Union parliament meets in an emergency session and votes to send peacekeepers to the greater DC area to secure international interests. Separatist sentiment begins to rise in America. On national television, the governor of California declares home rule and secedes from the Union. Texas follows a few days later, taking neighboring states with them and re-forming the Republic of Texas. By 2014, all hopes for a peaceful resolution are gone, and the Second American Civil War begins.
Early in the war, the Russian militarily annexes Alaska, using the expanded operations of the European Union as an excuse. The invasion is personally led by President Nicholai Vladekov, an ex-general and former Soviet hardliner, claiming that Alaska was never really part of the United States and that Russia was merely reclaiming its former territory. Later, INTERPOL reveals the results of its investigation regarding the Inauguration Day bombing. President Vladekov had been dealing weapons on the black market for several years and masterminded the DC bombing so Russia could regain its military dominance and more easily control Europe. Protests throughout Russia force Vladekov to declare martial law in Moscow.
After the continent is unified under one faction, the independent Commonwealth of Hawaii agrees to join the new government. Vladekov refuses to cede control of Alaska, so the faction's forces marshal to invade the state and drive the Russians out of the New World. The result of the war depends on whether or not the invasion of Alaska was successful and what the faction's reputation is at.
Gameplay
The game is based off a hex grid system. The various factions left over when the country broke apart (see below) wage warfare in numerous territories. The amount of income the player gets each round of attacks is based on how many territories he controls. When attacking a territory, the player selects which of his units to deploy to that area on the Deployment screen. If a unit is deployed to one area, it cannot be redeployed to another until that round of attacks is over. Each side can choose to either manually place their units on the battlefield where they want them to be, or have the computer do it for them automatically, with the Manual and Auto buttons on the deployment screen.
In each area there are various forms of terrain, each with its own effect on how a unit moves. Roads enable much faster movement, but decrease the unit's defense score. Forests, mountains, swamps, and other such terrain greatly decrease unit movement, but increase defense. Cities do not have much of an effect on a unit's movement (unless a road runs through it, in which case it is increased), but increase the unit's defense. If not crossed by a bridge, rivers heavily hinder unit movement, slowing down infantry, requiring a whole day (turn) to cross for some vehicle units, and completely blocking other units, which must search for an intact bridge. Two units, enemy or allied, can never occupy the same hex at once.
Combat itself takes the form of one unit directly engaging another, without outside interference from any other units which might be in the area. The attacking unit always fires first. If the defending unit is still alive following the first strike, it will retaliate against the attacking unit. Each unit can only attack once per turn and retalite once per turn, unless a sidebar power enables another attack. Air attacks are always retaliated against, provided that the unit has an anti-air score and will not get killed by the air unit's attack first. Each unit type has three statistics for attacking: effectiveness against infantry (EI), effectiveness against vehicles (EV), and effectiveness against air units (EA). If the attacker's effectiveness stat against the unit type of the defender is higher than the defender's armor rating, damage will be done according to Attacker Effectiveness # - Defender Armor #. If not, no damage or extremely low damage will be done. Some units are specialized to only be able to attack a single type of unit.
If enough damage is done to a unit, it will be destroyed, and the owner of the lost unit will lose money.
The objective of the battle is either to destroy all the enemy's units or capture enough objective towns to control the battlefield. Objective towns can be identified for both their Objective Point worth and position on the Map screen, and can be made visible on the main battle screen using the Objective button (flag).
On the left side of the screen are the Sidebar Powers. These powers recharge over time, and the amount of time until they are usable again is shown over their picture/button. In the campaign, depending on the his political rating (judged by how much Collateral Damage (see below) he inflicts), the player will get more powers of varying type.
Unit Data
In battle, if you click on a unit of your own, a bar will appear in the lower right corner. This bar shows all the immediate stats for the unit, including EI, EV, and EA stats, their armor rating (how much attack power a unit can shrug off before it takes damage), their health rating (how much more damage the unit can take until it dies) and their gas level. Gas is required for vehicle and helicopter units to move- moving one hex drains one point of gas. If a unit runs out of gas, it can still attack within its range, but it cannot move for a turn or so until it is resupplied. Infantry, obviously, do not require gas.
There will also be a question-mark button next to the basic stats. Click this to get a more detailed setup of stats, including its Movement rating (the tire; how many hexes a unit can move per turn), its Attack Range (the target; how many hexes away from itself the unit can attack), its Line of Sight (binoculars; how far away from itself the unit can see), and its Collateral Damage rating (explosion; how much damage the unit will do tho the surrounding environment when it attacks).
Specific Units
There are three general types and nine general classes of units. The types are Infantry, Vehicles, and Aircraft. The classes are One-Time Use units (classified as infantry), Infantry, Light Armor, Medium Armor, Heavy Armor, Artillery, Anti-Aircraft, Helicopters, and Aircraft. Each class has a variety of specific units, varying in effectiveness with cost.
One-Time Use Units
These are units which, when used in a battle, are not usable again in another battle. These include defensive towers and bunkers, fixed artillery, and some form of militia.
Infantry
The basic footsloggers. There's three varieties of infantry unit, each with its own specialized purpose. Commando-style units are effective against infantry and vehicles, but have no air capacity. Heavy units are less effective against either type of unit, but have an anti-air capacity. Engineers are the weakest of all, but have the ability to construct and place barbed wire, dragon's teeth (an anti-vehicle barricade), and hidden mines that damage enemies which move over them.
Light, Medium, and Heavy Armor
All three of these are varieties of armor, with simlilar abilities and differing mainly in cost to attack points. Armor is a primarily anti-vehicle class, but some varieties are more effective against infantry.
Artillery
Though they cannot attack within one hex of themselves and have horrid defense ratings, artillery have the longest range ratings of all types of units. Including both conventional artillery and mobile rocket systems, artillery are the heavy pounders of an assault force but require lots of protection, as they either lack anti-air defense entirely or have horridly weak ratings in it.
Anti-Air
You guessed it- these are chopper killers. Anti-air units have low or nonexistent ratings against armor and moderate to nonexistent ratings against infantry, but against air units they excel. In addition, each anti-air unit has a "radius of protection" around it; any Airplane unit attacking another unit within that radius gets attacked by the AA unit as well as the defending unit.
Helicopters
With the highest line of sight, the highest movement status, and the inability to be hampered by terrain, helicopters are both scouts and firefighters. They can move from one front of attack to another with high speed, and are effective against most types of units. There's only one problem with them - they can't capture objectives. Only ground units can do that, which delegates choppers to the role of support. It's good to have some AA supporting them, too- though most helicopters have an EA rating, it's never high enough to be a big threat to aircraft, and if an enemy spots a chopper the player can be assured they'll send planes after it until either they or it are dead.
Aircraft
These are the backbone support craft, the ace in the hole. Aircraft do not move along the field like other units- they are based at an Airfield and are called in via the Air Strike command menu. There are two types of aircraft: fighter and bomber. Fighter craft have no ground attack stats- they are only good against other aircraft. But they are good at what they do. Fighters can also "patrol" an area from around a hex visible to the player, lending their line of sight to it and their protection to the units below- if an enemy aircraft tries to attack a unit within the radius of the fighter's patrol sweep, it gets automatically attacked. Patrols reset after one turn of both the player and the enemy. It should be noted that fighters always cause damage to other fighters in battles, even if the other fighter shoots them down; however, a patrolling fighter attacking another craft coming into its patrol radius (if not directly attacked itself) does not suffer retaliatory attack. Bombers have no air attack stats- that's why they're bombers. One strike from a bomber will kill most units, and others will be heavily damaged. But bombers have to worry about anti-air, fighters, and the defending unit, so the player should make sure that he has cleared out the area of serious threats before sending them in- two AA units can bring down a bomber and the things are too expensive to lose.
Factions
There are seven playable factions in Shattered Union, each with at least one unit unique to that faction and its own set of sidebar powers.
California Commonwealth
The California Commonwealth is primarily made of the former states of California, Nevada, Arizona, and Utah. Though wealthy in natural resources, the population is mostly clustered on the Pacific coast. Californians are viewed by the rest of the country as shallow, but with an eye for color; however, they are also creative and resourceful, dangerous as enemies and not hesitant to employ rather controversial tactics, such as the Jackson flamethrower tank.
The Confederacy
The Confederacy is made up of the former states of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Tennessee, and Kentucky. To the Confederacy, the war is an attack on tradition, and the other factions' acts are treasonous. Though viewed by the rest of the factions as backwards and stubborn, the Confederacy is actually quite progressive, employing highly advanced armaments like the Lee focused-energy tank, and has little in common with the first Confederacy apart from geography.
Great Plains Federation
Made up of all or parts of the former states of Minnesota, Ohio, Michigan, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, Wisconsin, Kansas, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota, the farmers and herders of the Great Plains banded together in an attempt to preserve the integrity of the U.S. heartlands. Though generally viewed as ultra-conservative dirt farmers with a stubborn streak a mile wide, the members of the Federation are generally more tolerated and tolerant than any other faction, as they were often familiar with or members of them.
New England Alliance
The NEA is made up of parts or all of the former states of New York, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Maine, Vermont, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Connecticut. Members of the Alliance are driven and feel a strong sense of purpose in the war. Though only comprised of three territories, the NEA has one of the highest population densities in America, and possesses a lot of industry, producing such powerful units as the Bragg rocket tank. Prior to the succession, New Englanders felt that they weren't given a strong enough vote.
Pacifica
Made up of parts or all of Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, and Colorado, Pacifica came into being when refugees from San Francisco were forced from their homes by Californian militia. With nowhere else to turn, the region formed a defensive pact. Pacificans are often viewed as tree-hugging technophiles with no grasp on reality. However, the Pacificans see the war as a struggle against aggression and have put their technology to use in units like the Stuart gatling tank, preparing themselves to fight to the end.
The Republic of Texas
Some people argue that the Republic was just an excuse away from forming since Texas joined the union. Made up of parts or all of Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Missouri, the Republic is ferociously independent and a step away from anarchy. Though regarded as beer-swilling cowboys and gun toting rabble, Texans are also known to live by no-nonsense rules and take a dim view of traitors and bureaucrats. Texans are surprisingly advanced as far as technology goes, employing such weapons as the monstrous Hood plasma-cannon tank and experimental cybernetic infantry.
The European Union Occupation
The breakup of the U.S. compunded the growing instability in the world due to the loss of such a large and prolific goods market. In a rush vote, the E.U. sent in a "peacekeeping" force to reestablish the union of states before the chaos spreading across America spread into the rest of the world. The E.U. peacekeeping force now resides in a single territory made up of parts or all of Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey, but American resentment has grown since the E.U. decided to expand its role in the war. None of the units employed by the E.U. are the same as the American units, though their purposes are little different.
Russia
Though they possess no medium armor, only one class each of Anti-Air, Artillery, Helicopters, Fighters, and Bombers, and only two classes of Heavy and Light Armor, the Russians are still by far the most powerful faction that the player will face. Their units are deadly, heavily armored, and have long ranges and movement stats, and since the player crosses them only once, in Alaska, they have no compunctions against throwing everything into the fray. The occupation of Alaska, led by General Vladekov, was not supported by the Russian Federation, but victory or defeat in Alaska could lead to a political swing in Russia.