After hastily placing missile silos, radar bases, airfields, and naval fleets, the situation has often already escalated to Defcon 4. You have only a few short minutes before conventional hostilities break out, and now is the time to plan. Is it wiser to recruit allies into your coalition, or go it alone as a rogue state? Is it better to stab your friend in the back, or stab him in the front? Armed with a tenuous scheme, your battleships and carriers begin automatically firing on enemy units. Fighters scramble into the skies, soaring through enemy territory to scout for targets. Submarines slowly sidle up along coastlines, deadly payloads in tow. Defcon 3 has arrived.

At its core, Defcon distills global warfare strategy to its simplest form, and cranks up the pace to a rapid chaos. Slowly counting down from Defcon 5 to Defcon 1, you are moved inexorably toward confrontation. It is a game of risk and reward, of choice and consequence. Destruction is assured, though it is not always necessarily mutual. The question is when and where to commit your forces, and the various solutions have their pros and cons. Using fighters as scouts can be advantageous, but enemy missile silos in their default air-defense mode will quickly shoot them down, leaving your territory vulnerable later on. Committing submarines to defend against enemy fleets can prove efficient, but each submarine carries five medium-range nuclear missiles that won't be increasing your enemy's death toll if they aren't in range of a target.