There are two views, top view and elevation view. All the actors have an x, y and z.

Each of the circle structures is a nation state.

It has a capital at the center (square, blinking). Defcon is the number in the capital.

Cities (circles) send people to work at factories.

Factories (triangles) make munitions and send them to bases

Bases (square) stockpile munitions (counts, clockwise from top right: icbms, abms (anti ballistic missiles), fighters and bombers.

Bombers are big and slow (triangles) that select a target (factory, base, city, capital in that order), fly to it and nuke it, reselecting a target if somebody else destroys it first.

As defence perimeters are penetrated, defcon gets more scary.

Fighters launch at Defcon 4 and attempt to destroy bombers.

At Defcon 3, Bases launch ICBMs a low probability amount of the time.

Satellites launch at Defcon 2, and can shoot ICBMs out of the sky, but have fire/recharge lasers.

When one of a nation's assets (factory, base, city) is nuked, they go to Defcon 1.

If your enemy goes to Defcon 1, so do you.

At Defcon 1, all ICBMs will fire.

When your capital is destroyed, it's Game Over.

The control panel lets you tweak the starting parameters. There are a lot more controls for all the actors (e.g, how close do bombers flock.) than are not exposed here.

Factories are triangles. Cities are circles. Bases are squares. In the center is a more different square with the defcon. Cities are required to supply factories. Factories are required to make new units. Bases are required to launch units.

Fighters target bombers and fighters. Satellites target ICBMs. Bombers and ICBMs target factories, cities, bases, and defcon. Bombers target in that order; ICBMs seem to target randomly.

Game over when defcon is destroyed.

Launching an ICBM requires defcon <= 3. The choice to launch is a bit random at defcon 3 and 2 but they all launch at defcon = 1.

Defcon changes to 4, 3, 2, and 1 if a bombers crosses the circular boundaries (radar?) around the center. You can see this happen when the boundary flashes.

Seems like:

  - circle: city
  - triangle: factory
  - square: military base
  - big plane: bomber
  - little plane: fighter
  - things with rocket trails: ICBMs
  - floaty diamond things: satellites (which shoot down ICBMs)

The square in the middle of each team represents the current defcon. Assuming you start at defcon 5, when an enemy unit crosses the big blinking circle, drop to defcon 4. When a unit crosses the next blinking circle, drop to defcon 3. I haven't figured out yet how the escalation proceeds after that.