Civ II’s “Eternal War” continues on reddit more than a year later
The 11-year conflict has spawned a community that's united 12,000 players.

by Casey Johnston - Oct 9 2013

How a redditor conquered a futuristic America with a Celtic army.

Fifteen months ago, the Internet, and more specifically, reddit, gave us The Eternal War. Reddit user Lycerius had been playing the same game of Civ II for ten years, and he had been fighting the same nuclear war for 1,700 in-game years. But even after the puzzle was solved, Lycerius kept fighting.

When Lycerius originally posted about the game, it spawned its own subreddit, r/TheEternalWar, with an audience of thousands of redditors trying to solve Lycerius’ frustrating and seemingly impassable military conflict with their own approaches. One redditor put together a solution only days after the original post, advising the construction of an army of Howitzers that would first take out the Vikings and then the Americans (once their alliance with the player dissolved).

Lycerius acknowledged the solution but also decided to continue playing the game on his own time. As he played on, the subreddit spawned new pursuits: r/theeternalwarstories was an early venture where players wrote fiction in the universe of the war’s constant nuclear holocaust. Later, readers banded together to try to make an Eternal War RPG set in the same universe.

Once a year had passed, Lycerius checked in with his game’s progress. Having seen how other redditors were able to effect peace, he wanted to explore the opportunities of yet more war. Thus, after 11 years of on-and-off play (and 1,900 years in the game), Lycerius’s Celts are still embroiled in war.

“Rather than destroy the Vikings, my largest operation of the 41st century was a massive naval and land offensive to capture the new Viking capital of Piza,” he wrote, hoping to instigate a Viking civil war. He keeps the war going to see if there's a case to be made for an Orwellian communist government; a regime that can survive in a perpetual state of war (True, Orwell's 1984 featured war with a made-up foe, but in the ironically reality-bound Civ II, there’s no option to construct imaginary enemies).

Instead of descending into civil war, though, the Vikings ended up rebelling against him. In fact, Lycerius’ attempt at putting up with more war for its own sake eventually resulted in his own culture staging a number of uprisings and rebellions.

Lycerius promises to check back into the subreddit, which just barely misses the cut for the top thousand subreddits (above r/HalfLife but below r/BeardPorn), by the end of the year. In the meantime, parties still interested in taking up the helm can fight on.

I've been playing the same game of Civilization II for almost 10 years. This is the result. (self.gaming)
submitted 1 year ago* by Lycerius
http://imgur.com/a/rAnZs
I've been playing the same game of Civ II for 10 years. Though long outdated, I grew fascinated with this particular game because by the time Civ III was released, I was already well into the distant future. I then thought that it might be interesting to see just how far into the future I could get and see what the ramifications would be. Naturally I play other games and have a life, but I often return to this game when I'm not doing anything and carry on. The results are as follows.
The world is a hellish nightmare of suffering and devastation.
There are 3 remaining super nations in the year 3991 A.D, each competing for the scant resources left on the planet after dozens of nuclear wars have rendered vast swaths of the world uninhabitable wastelands.
-The ice caps have melted over 20 times (somehow) due primarily to the many nuclear wars. As a result, every inch of land in the world that isn't a mountain is inundated swamp land, useless to farming. Most of which is irradiated anyway.
-As a result, big cities are a thing of the distant past. Roughly 90% of the worlds population (at it's peak 2000 years ago) has died either from nuclear annihilation or famine caused by the global warming that has left absolutely zero arable land to farm. Engineers (late game worker units) are always busy continuously building roads so that new armies can reach the front lines. Roads that are destroyed the very next turn when the enemy goes. So there isn't any time to clear swamps or clean up the nuclear fallout.
-Only 3 super massive nations are left. The Celts (me), The Vikings, And the Americans. Between the three of us, we have conquered all the other nations that have ever existed and assimilated them into our respective empires.
-You've heard of the 100 year war? Try the 1700 year war. The three remaining nations have been locked in an eternal death struggle for almost 2000 years. Peace seems to be impossible. Every time a cease fire is signed, the Vikings will surprise attack me or the Americans the very next turn, often with nuclear weapons. Even when the U.N forces a peace treaty. So I can only assume that peace will come only when they're wiped out. It is this that perpetuates the war ad infinitum. Have any of you old Civ II players out there ever had this problem in the post-late game?
-Because of SDI, ICBMS are usually only used against armies outside of cities. Instead, cities are constantly attacked by spies who plant nuclear devices which then detonate (something I greatly miss from later civ games). Usually the down side to this is that every nation in the world declares war on you. But this is already the case so its no longer a deterrent to anyone. My self included.
-The only governments left are two theocracies and myself, a communist state. I wanted to stay a democracy, but the Senate would always over-rule me when I wanted to declare war before the Vikings did. This would delay my attack and render my turn and often my plans useless. And of course the Vikings would then break the cease fire like clockwork the very next turn. Something I also miss in later civ games is a little internal politics. Anyway, I was forced to do away with democracy roughly a thousand years ago because it was endangering my empire. But of course the people hate me now and every few years since then, there are massive guerrilla (late game barbarians) uprisings in the heart of my empire that I have to deal with which saps resources from the war effort.
-The military stalemate is air tight. The post-late game in civ II is perfectly balanced because all remaining nations already have all the technologies so there is no advantage. And there are so many units at once on the map that you could lose 20 tank units and not have your lines dented because you have a constant stream moving to the front. This also means that cities are not only tiny towns full of starving people, but that you can never improve the city. "So you want a granary so you can eat? Sorry; I have to build another tank instead. Maybe next time."
-My goal for the next few years is to try and end the war and thus use the engineers to clear swamps and fallout so that farming may resume. I want to rebuild the world. But I'm not sure how. If any of you old Civ II players have any advice, I'm listening.
Edit: -Wow guys. Thanks for all your support. I had no idea this post would get this kind of response. -I'll be sure to keep you guys updated on my efforts. Whether here on Reddit, or a blog, or both. -Turns out a whole subreddit has been dedicated to ending this war. It's at /r/theeternalwar