Great Powers Game Debrief

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?
My country was the Ottoman Empire. At first I was really worried that the game would be to complicated. I also was depressed at the descripsion of my country. I think that countries such as The Great Britain, France, and Germany etc had more advantages that the others since they were already storng and powerful as they had expanded their land. On the otherhand, my country was weak in economy, and while having a lot of enemies, we had only a few allies.
2. In the long run was it more important to buy armies, navies, industries or colonies? Why?
At first it much important to buy more colonies an industries to get more armies. Because by expanding the land and the economy, more people are available to build a strong army. and in the game, the more industry cards and colony cards you had, the more cards you could get in return.
3. What did you do well? What would you have done differently?
I think that we tried our best to keep peace and stay out of wars. It was to risky for us to go to wars since we were not so powerful and had poor armies. If I could do this game again, I would buy as many colonies and industries I can, and then to make my armies strong.
4. How successful were your alliances? Did they help or hurt you? Could they be trusted?
My alliances were mostly very successful but we never got anything in return since we never participated in wars or helped our alliances. I thought that I couldn't trust them entirely, just in case. But none really cared about my little country so I didn't really worry about our trust to them.
5. What are three specific things you learned about conflict from this simulation?
One of the things I learned from this simulation was that you should be ready to risk to get more powerful. Also, that buying armies from the the very beginning wont help later. All the powerful countries that became mighty thoguth really carefully when choosing between armies cards and industry cards. The stronger countries knew that taking more industry cards will give more apportunities to get other cards so they started with industry cards. Also, when they were strong enough, they started a war which was risky but when they won, they could get richer the easy way out. The last thing I learned from the simulation was that life is unfair. Eventhough you were one of the strongest countries, you could lose everything and become one of the poorest coutries.