by Peter Robbins, 4 December 2025
Going into this new content and writing this article I’m getting flashbacks of my adolescence and teen youth of the 1980s, when our family and all other American families intensely had nukes on our mind almost daily. It wasn’t to a level of absolute paranoia but it truly was in the back of our collective mind as the U S of A and I would have to imagine in the minds of everyone in Russia and the world at large.
With the proliferation of sabre-rattling of late, this game hits closer to home (hopefully not literally) now with world powers emerging with newfound short nerves into the new modern era, hopefully soon a POST Russo-Ukraine War world.
More than anything this will be a quick gallery of shots from the first scenario included with the DLC, The Unthinkable (Operation Dropshot, 1949).
Steam Info |
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| What if America seized absolute power after WWII?
In this alternate history scenario, the United States emerges from the war not only as the leader of the free world, but as a nation determined to bend the globe to its will. With unmatched military might and a monopoly on nuclear weapons, America embarks on a campaign of dominance where democracy and liberty serve only as banners masking ruthless expansion. It’s up to you to lead the United States through a brutal campaign of conquest, leveraging overwhelming force and a devastating nuclear arsenal to bring the world under American control. The human cost will be staggering, but so too will be the reach of your empire. |
Campaign Overview
The year is 1949. The world is still reeling from the devastation of WWII, but the dawn of the nuclear age has opened a new and terrifying chapter. Just four years after Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Soviet Union detonates its first atomic bomb. The United States, emboldened and fearful in equal measure, decides that the only path to lasting peace is total dominance. From this moment forward, no rival power can be allowed to rise. Take command of the United States in an alternate single player campaign, where you will crush resistance, impose order, and reshape the world in America’s image. |
| Developer: SoftWarWare
Publisher: Slitherine Ltd. Scope/Scale: Global Strategic (Conventional and Nuclear Warfare) Gaming Elements: Global Domination, Build, Research, Espionage, Diplomacy, Weapons Of Mass Destruction Pricing: $6.99 at release
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Missions list:
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One thing I like about ICBM: Escalation, which is a sequel to its equally-reasonable predecessor ICBM, is that you can actually get away with playing this game without dropping or firing off one nuke, and still have a good experience. That makes this offering and its DLC comparably unique vs its competitors, DEFCON and Nuclear Warfare Simulator (dare I mention that title as a “game”? It’s more of a modeling & simulation piece of software). Out of those “big three” in the nuclear warfare genre of games, as we’ll call them, ICBM: Escalation is the most dynamic and offers the most single player content apart from a global domination overall scenario.
Now, with that said, ICBM: Escalation also does have a domination mode, which has three varied set times and settings for escalation time-frames for the match. You can play those domination modes as Single Player, or Multiplayer, which is of course more enjoyable to play with your friends online than only against the AI. The AI is rather aggressive, and difficult to defeat.
Gallery Of Shots
Below are a series of screens from the first scenario The Unthinkable (Operation Dropshot, 1949).
click images to enlarge
Quick Impressions
These missions are not a walk in the park. Even Scenario 1 of both Endless October and this newer United States Of Annihilation are quite difficult to get good results in. I have to admit I am not very good at this game. It’s me, not you is what I’m saying. What I will say, is that these scenarios will challenge seasoned ICBM: Escalation players. Not for the faint of heart.
I do enjoy the game, but I suck absolutely miserably at it, and oh, this happened…
Happens to the best of us? I mistook the coloring of Hamburg Germany’s city marker and took it out, oh well! These things happen. Hopefully not. Sorry German readers!
Overall for a measly $6.99 you get 11 scenarios and a few new USA units included in this particular DLC. For Endless October DLC you get a similar number of scenarios, mostly from the Warsaw Pact viewpoint and you get nationality specific units, which was a good bump up visually from the core game’s default 3d models. Anyhow, overall, it’s worth owning both DLCs IF you enjoy and are good at playing ICBM: Escalation. My only qualm with the content is for both DLC it comes out of the blocks swinging with rather difficult scenarios from the get go. I’m just not used to DLC being that difficult in their first scenarios for other wargames. Challenging is my overall description of ICBM: Escalation campaign DLCs.
Another gallery of shots coming up soon!
You can chat about this game in the Modern World section of our discussion forums
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“when our family and all other American families intensely had nukes on our mind almost daily”
I come across such claims from time to time, more frequently within this hopelessly militarist so-called “hobby”. The people saying this should really learn to speak for themselves, because neither I, nor my family, nor any other family I’ve ever known had “nukes” on their minds daily, let alone intensely. Not even when I was in the Air force.
Furthermore, I was born and grew up in West Germany during the 1960’s, and occasionally there would be a column of tanks and/or other military vehicles rumbling thorugh our small town, usually in Autumn or Winter when they conducted their exercises, and although this would sometimes cause the adults to babble about military matters for a minute or two, it absolutely did not endgender the supposed fear claimed by statement like the one above.
A few years ago, a newcomer posted the following question on the BoardGameGeek wargames forum, “Are wargamers pro war?” or something close to that. Of course, this quickly resulted in several pages of expectedly indignant and “What me?” virtue signaling responses.
Asking such a direct question is like asking your fiance/fiancee whether they’ve ever had a veneral disease. Not only would the answer in all likelihood be aviolent negative, one would hope, but it might cause the marriage to be called off. (Sorry, that’s the best metaphor I can think of right now, but it gets the point across.)
The person should have been more subtle, and instead should’ve asked, “Are wargamers militarists?” I would bet money that the number of smug answers would have been far less and might have even resulted in a fruitful discussion.
Much more could be said and written about this, and specifically about people who at some point in their sorry lives made a conscious decision to promote a war mentality through games.
Thankfully this is a small hobby that few people pay attention to.
Please get over yourselves. Stop grandstanding, virtue signaling, or whater it is you’re trying to achieve with your endlessly inane babblings.
If this is such a small hobby that few people pay attention to, then why are you here with your comments? Why draw more attention to it with your aggressive stance? Just looking for a fight? Or do you have something of actual substance to say? I’m not going to fight what you are saying as everyone is entitled to an opinion and you certainly have know yours.
So you enjoy the game?