WiC, which has been described by some fans as a real-time tactics game as opposed to a real-time strategy game on account of a distinct lack of base-building, resource gathering and tech trees, took the Cold War as its foundation and extrapolated based on a fictional "what if?" scenario. What if the Soviet Union went to war with the US in the late eighties? You get a world in conflict, is what you get. And lots of pretty explosions IN YOUR FACE.