The game started and I ended up as Africa, so I placed my silos and bases first and waited for alliances to form. Well, I was in for a surprise. The first minutes everybody switched allies at least twice I think. By the time it was over, It was Me (Africa) and N. America, Europe by its lonesome self, and USSR/Asia/S. America together.
My original plan (during the team changing) was to be allied with S. America and put my entire navy in the Indian. This would allow me to sweep across Asia and attack Russia from across south central Asia (assuming I could wipe away Asia). Unfortunately I placed my entire navy in the Indian, ready to pounce, and the alliances changed leaving me without a S. American ally. "Oh well" I thought. I knew that my west coast would be extremely vulnerable even with S. America on my side and just decided that it wouldn't be that much different as perhaps N. America/Europe could keep him occupied enough.
On with the game... Pretty much everybody can see everybody else's Silo/Radar/Base placement because of the musical chairs. My naval strategy worked quiet well, and I was able to secure the Indian Ocean. Which I then used to annihilate western Asia with 8 subs and several carrier borne bomber waves. I lost one Silo and a couple of nukes in a not so surprising attack via subs/bombers from S. America. At this point I panicked slightly and decided to use the pause of incoming nukes to launch with my silos. I managed to unload most of them at southern Europe, Russia, and a couple into Asia. I didn't do very much damage and I was dead last/5th for quiet a while and in the negative. My population was reduced significantly during this period.
I still had all twelve carriers (loaded with bombers), 4 subs left, and 4 battleships all still in the Indian. I knew that I was no longer a viable target so I pretty much ignored my continent the rest of the game. I surveyed the population centers, scanned their respective level of protection, and decided that S. America stood the best chance of providing much needed points. São Paul still had something like 41m and most of the southern cities had not been hit. Hoping to beat the victory timer, I ordered everything west. It's a long trip around South Africa, but I didn't want to waste time getting tangled in a naval battle in the pacific (should there be anything there). I knew that the Atlantic would be much safer. I get within range and send the closest 8 bombers towards São Paul. With only 3 silos near it, 5 or so nukes got through and I went from 5th/6th with a negative score to 3rd. A couple of more bomber waves and into second I moved. My four subs got caught by carriers (while heading north), so I sent in spent bombers to save what I could. I only lost one as the carriers must have been void of fighters and got moved back.
The victory time started before I hoped and I wasn't able to unload everything. Although I knew that 1st place was unreachable.
Needless to say, I did finish much better than I thought I would mid-way into the game.
