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World War III is the primary setting of Tom Clancy's EndWar.

Prelude to War[]

The Prelude to War takes place before WWIII and explains how the conflict began.

On March 23, 2020, European Federation (EF) uplink sites in the "lawless zone," where Croatia used to be, are attacked by an as-yet unidentified group of terrorists, who are using T-80 tanks, from a beached cargo ship. They are repulsed by EF Enforcers Corps (EFEC) forces. During the battle, the EF attempts to gain access to the cargo ship that the terrorists use but the ship is destroyed before they can gain access. Details of the attack are kept secret. On April 4, 2020, when the final module of the Freedom Star is set to launch from Kennedy Space Center amid international outcry, the same group of terrorists attack the module and attempt to destroy it, using the same methods as the Croatian attack. Once again they are repulsed, this time by the United States Joint Strike Force (JSF) as reports of yet another terrorist attack come in, this time of an assault on the Rozenburg petrol plant in the Netherlands. After being defeated by EFEC forces, the terrorists identify themselves as the "Forgotten Army" composed of people from a collection of failed states in the Balkans, Africa and South America.

Following a final terrorist attack, this time on a Russian power plant near Minsk, the US finds "conclusive evidence" that the European Federation's defense minister, François Pulain, funded the Forgotten Army with modern military equipment. They send a black-ops team to abduct him while he inspects the Copenhagen uplink network, but an anonymous call by Russia informs Danish police and together with EFEC forces trap the team in one of the uplinks. On April 7, 2020, the US crashes Copenhagen's uplinks and sends in JSF units to rescue the trapped team. The US successfully repels the EFEC's first attack, but European forces are able to counter-attack and reboot Copenhagen's uplinks in their favor, forcing JSF forces to surrender and allowed US safe passage back. While emergency peace talks are held in London, it is revealed (to the player only) that Russia funded the Forgotten Army's attacks as well as planting the evidence against Pulain, citing the need to keep the EF and the US from uniting in order to take Russia's oil.

To ensure that war is sparked between the two powers, elements of the Spetsnaz Guard Brigade (SGB) embark on a covert operation, disguised as Forgotten Army soldiers, to upload a virus into the European SLAMS network at Rovaniemi air base in Finland. The virus causes an EF orbital laser satellite to shoot down the new Freedom Star module during lift off, thinking it to be an ICBM. The entire crew is killed, and news reports blaming problems from "malfunction" to "terrorist hijacking" to (finally) "EF satellite." This final act starts a war between the two powers. Russia initially joins the U.S under the guise of "aiding it in its crusade against Europe" and invades EF-controlled Poland, but the United States sees this as an attempt to reform the Eastern Bloc and attacks Russia.[1][2] World War III has begun.

Mission List[]

The missions, called Acts, for the Prelude to War are:

  • Act 1 - Warning Signs (EFEC)
  • Act 2 - Freedom's Guardian (JSF)
  • Act 3 - Gas Pains (EFEC)
  • Act 4 - Ruse de Guerre (SGB)
  • Act 5 - Going for Broke (JSF)
  • Act 6 - Rotten in Denmark (EFEC)
  • Act 7 - Finishing Move (SGB)

Novelisation[]

The Prelude to War plays out somewhat differently in the novelisation. In the novel, Sergei Izotov hired the Green Brigade, under their leader the Green Vox, to destroy the Freedom-IV lifter at JFK Space Centre. While this failed, it did have some unexpected benefits - the US tracked the Green Brigades to a training camp in Bulgaria but Izotov was able to plant false evidence linking them to members of the European parliament. The plan was to start a war between Europe and America and once they had exhausted themselves, Russia would be able to conquer Europe with ease.

The JSF failed to capture the Green Vox but did find the false evidence. However, the Green Vox fled to the swamps of Belarus, where he was captured by the EFEC. While the SGB, under Pavel Doletskya, had attempted to capture him first and ordered the Europeans to hand over Green Vox on the grounds they could not be trusted to transfer him to the US, they refused and wiped out Doletskya's men.

In response, Izotov and Kapalkin put a spin on the incident, insisting that European forces had fired on Russian troops to prevent them from capturing the Green Vox, thus Russia stopped the flow of oil to Europe in "retaliation". However, the EF was able to seize control of an Albanian refinery from Russian troops and restore some of the shipments, with Russia and Europe on the brink of war.

At this point Russia feared that if the Green Vox was handed over to the Americans, he would break under interrogation. This would cause Europe and America to ally together in a war against Russia. Thus Doletskya assembled an elite team to infiltrate Fort Campbell and reprogrammed the base's defences to blow the Green Vox's transport aircraft out of the sky when it attempted to land. The US was unable to identify who was responsible for the attack, with Russia accusing Europe and Europe returning the accusation to Russia.

To drive the final wedge between Europe and America that would start a war, Izotov had Doletskya take a disguised team of Spetsnaz troops to seize control of a European air base in Finland. The team killed everyone, erased all the data and uploaded a virus into the European missile shield. When the Freedom-IV lifted off hours later, the missile shield misidentified it and destroyed it, killing dozens of people on board. To further cause confusion, Doletskya arranged for no less than ten terrorist groups to claim responsibility for both the Finnish base attack and the lifter's destruction.

It should be noted that this plot is fairly similar to that of the cut Prelude to War missions found in the game's config files.

World War III[]

World War III is an open ended part of the story where the player chooses their faction and character and tries to take all three Capitals or twenty-eight battlefields.

The campaign plays much like Prelude to War with a few additional options. During World War III between battles the player has the option to choose between several battle locations. The battles that the player could have chosen, but did not, will be fought by AI. The player also has the option to upgrade their chosen battalion with improved attack, defense, mobility, and ability characteristics. Upgrades such as airstrike and force recon can also be researched.

At the conclusion of each campaign battle a summary screen is shown. This screen includes information including number of battalion units promoted, amount of credits (money) received, command rating, medals, mission duration, and a quote by a famous military leader. The player can gain a more in depth understand of the battle summary by viewing the details screens, which provides a breakdown of statistics, ranking and so forth.

During the course of the war several situations arise such as adverse weather conditions like typhoons causing people to become homeless and rescue teams being dispatched, and reports of protest against the war. These parts of the story are told via television reports. Also, they report the sinking of an enemy ship by airstrikes and WMDs.

When the war has ended, the winning faction takes control of the world and a special scene is shown, which shows the winning faction's flag and troops parading with the voice of the faction's General talking about their victory and what will happen in the future; depending on whether it is America, Europe or Russia that is the winning side, the cut scene is different due to different speeches by Generals and different reasons for starting the war.

EndWar Online[]

EndWar Online takes place after WWIII led to the collapse of the modern world. While the exact timeline of the war is never stated, character biographies can give some information on what took place:

  • The European Federation launched an invasion of the American East Coast, known as "Operation: Earthquake". Earthquake was envisioned more as a large-scale raid than a serious attempt to conquer North America, supported by stealth and cruise missile attacks on American military and economic infrastructure. The invasion force was named "Falkenberg's Legion" after its commander, Anders Falkenberg and consisted of three heavily reinforced battlegroups that formed a single combined arms legion. Falkenberg's forces were able to capture New York and Boston, throwing American forces into disarray.
  • Consolidating his hold over the states of New England and Maine, Falkenberg launched destructive raids against the US, reaching as far as west as Pittsburgh and as far south as Baltimore. These successes earned the legion continued reinforcements for over a year, until the Russian offensive in Southern Europe and continued American resistance resulted in them being cut off. Lacking enough ships to consider evacuating their forces, the Europeans decided to keep their forces there and, though the US was able to retake New York, managed to hold onto New England until the end of the war.
  • Falkenberg was almost killed in a drone strike during the fighting over New York.
  • Washington D.C. was destroyed in a nuclear strike at the end of the war. The line-of-succession led to a woman known as "Alvarez" to be sworn in as President.
  • The United States launched two separate invasions of Europe. One of these took place before Operation Earthquake and the other after. The first invasion was focused on Normandy, France, while the second saw attacks into France and Italy, as well as fighting in Belgium, the Netherlands and Greece.
  • The first invasion failed after a European counterattack from Limoges weakened the flank of the main American advance out of Normandy, pushing them back to Calais, resulting in a string of defeats for the Americans and ultimately leading to the collapse of the entire operation. The EF was also able to hack JSF communications during this period, which proved to be a great benefit during the European counter-offensive.
  • During the second invasion, the United States attempted to capture Paris, which saw the death of Major General Smith in the process.
  • One of the invasions, codenamed "Operation: Southpaw" also saw landings by the Americans at Lisbon, Portugal.
  • Russia launched an invasion of North America, focusing on Alaska and Western Canada.
  • In the final months of the war, the US launched an airborne invasion of Rome and also launched an apparently short-lived attack into Siberia.
  • Russia invaded Europe early in the war, codenamed "Operation Anvil" and her armoured columns made it into central Germany, reaching as far as Hamburg and Bonn. A major battle also took place in Berlin between European and Russian forces. The German government had relocated to Bonn during the war and had to be evacuated by air when the Russians surrounded by the city.
  • Russia launched bombing and cruise missile strikes on Brussels.
  • Russia was able to setup airfields on Malta and Gibraltar during the war and used them to launch attacks against Madrid.
  • Near the end of the war, Europe launched a counter-offensive against Russia out of Sweden codenamed Operation Titanic, however the Russians were able to halt it.
  • During the collapse, elements of the European government were beset by anarchist rebels and had to be rescued by the EFEC.

References[]

  1. Scott Mitchell: "Colonel Taylor, we're at war with Europe of course. But with the Russkys taking advantage of the situation to jump all over Eastern Europe, we've got no choice but to put them in the crosshairs too. I've got combat operations in the works against both nations." Prelude to War, Act 8 Opening Moves
  2. Scott Mitchell: "Colonel, we're not about to stand by and watch while the Russkys set themselves up a new Eastern Bloc. We're striking now rather than later." Prelude to War, Act 8 Opening Moves
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