Global Dilemma: Guns or Butter, The

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs

GAME DESIGNER:Chris Crawford
GAME DEVELOPER:Mindscape
GAME PUBLISHER:Freeware
Copyright 1990, Chris Crawford

In The Global Dilemma, your task is to manage the “global dilemma” –the conflicting needs of the military and industry– by allocating the production of various commodities (e.g. using the iron ore to produce more weapons will decrease the amount of iron available for industrial goods) and managing the army to defend against/conquer the opposing kingdom. It was the first “wargame” I recall that focuses on the tradeoffs between war and peace that arises from limited resources (and in this sense the game is much more “realistic” than games like Civilization in which resources are unlimited). The computer AI on hard level is also one of the best for its time. Highly recommended.