Game victory conditions drive the establishment of the national strategy for player national governments. Using this framework, the victory conditions represent a comprehensive integration of all the facets of the game. In the context of CWOL, the three national strategic areas, foreign recognition, economic policy, and military objectives, serve as the basis for national strategy. Once the national strategy for a side is accepted, the GACC applies the strategy objective difficulty multiplier to all objectives, calculates their final weights as part of the national strategy, and records the total for use in victory determination during the game. At the end of each game year or upon notification by the player national governments, the GACC determines what national strategic objectives have been obtained.
Any side attaining a rating of decisive victory is declared the victor.
If this does not occur, then play continues until a decisive victory is achieved or the turn schedule is completed. Then the final victory ratio will be calculated and announced. The national governments choose 10 objectives as the base for their planning and strategy to win the game. The selected objective defines a measurable outcome of the government's trade and acquisition program during CWOL besides direct support of the war effort. Within each national strategic area there are five measurable objectives.