The time of simulation events are actually recorded using seconds of how long the simulation has run, which then gets converted to whatever timescale date you are using which is why it's possible to change timescale whenever
Viewing post in Ages of Conflict: World War Simulator comments
That’s exactly what I thought. I assumed it was a formatting issue, given that it is a timescale that has been added, effectively a representation of the time that has progressed (and not an actual new speed at which the game advances).
From my understanding, this is then simply a potential aesthetic choice. Nice.