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Are you, in fact, a pregnant lady who lives in the apartment next door to Superdeath's parents? - Commodore |
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[SPOILER TS#1] Sareln gives the world a great big Bear Hug
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Game & rules explanation
For card reference: https://twilightstrategy.com/ Basics Twilight struggle has a board and cards. Cards are used to effect the board. Both players draw out of a common deck, and new cards are added to the deck as play progresses. Some cards are also sometimes removed from the game after they are played. If they're not RFG'd, cards go into a discard, which is reshuffled into the deck when the draw deck is exhausted. There are 4 ways to win the game:
Cards Each card has an alignment (USSR, USA, Neutral), an operations value (a number between 1 and 4), and an event. On each turn, players take turns (action rounds) playing cards. A card can be played for its event, played for operations, or played on the space race. If played for operations value, and the card contains an opponents event, then the event will also trigger - the player who plays the card chooses whether to trigger the event first, or use it for ops first. Before any action rounds are played, a headline phase takes place, where players choose a card to play for its event. Headlines are resolved in order of ops value, with ties going to the US player (US events resolve first on ties). The USSR has the first AR of every turn. If a card has an asterix (star) * next to its name, then it is removed from the game after its event resolves. Influence When a card is played for influence, the playing player can place influence equal to the ops value of the card. Influence can be placed in countries adjacent to countries in which you had influence at the beginning of the AR. If your opponent controls the country, then placing influence costs double (eg. if I play a 2 ops card for influence, then I can place 2 influence in up to 2 different uncontrolled countries, or I can place 1 influence in a country my opponent controls). When regions are scored, the amount of points scored are based on the countries you and your opponent control in the region. Coups When a card is played as a coup, the player rolls a 6 sided die, adds the value of the roll to the ops value of the card, and then compares that to the target country's stability. If the sum is more than double the country's stability, then you remove your opponent's influence, or add your own if your opponent no longer has influence in the country, equal to the difference. For example, Iran is a battleground, 2 stability country which starts the game with 1 US influence. If the USSR attempts to coup Iran with a 3 op card, and rolls a 2, the total is 5 versus 4 (stability x 2), and so the USSR removes 1 US influence from Iran. If the USSR had rolled a 3, then it would have been 6 versus 4, and the USSR would remove the 1 US influence, and then add 1 of its own influence. Since Iran is a battleground country, the coup would also degrade DEFCON by 1. You can't coup a country unless your opponent has influence there. Which regions coups are allowed in, is also controlled by the DEFCON value. Realignments The Space Race Scoring Cards DEFCON
Game Setup
In the standard game with no handicap, pre-game setup each player can see their starting hand and then the Soviet player places 6 influence in Europe and the USA player places 7 influence in Europe, in that order. The world map before starting influence is placed, it's cut off, but Chile[3], Argentina[2], and Uruguay[2] in South America are empty, Botswana[2] is empty and South Africa[3] has 1 USA influence, and Australia[4] has 4 USA influence:  I have the option for a COMECON trap here, which is more secure than usual since I drew defectors, but I don't like the COMECON play with the rest of my hand, and expect Bacchus has more experience countering it, so I open with the standard 1 in East Germany[3], 4 in Poland[3], and 1 in Yugoslavia[3].  Standard USA opening is 4 influence in West Germany[4], 3 Influence in Italy[2], to overprotect against AR1 coups, headlined Socialist governments, etc. Bacchus chooses to open 4 to West Germany[4], 2 to Italy[2], and 1 to Greece[2]. 
T01: Headline
Because I hold ME scoring, I want to kick the USA out of the region and score a quick and dirty domination in the front half of the turn, which will then give me time to make plays into Asia and shore up my position in Europe if it looks like he's playing hard for it. My general plan with this hand then, is to headline Arab-Israeli War + Coup Iran, aiming to kick him out of Israel and the region. With his play in Greece, he's closer to getting back into the ME if he gets kicked out, but it will still take him 2 turns of play (influence into turkey, then influence into his choice of ME countries) to return, which is enough time for me to lock down a battleground + non-battleground, and score the region. I'll have to adjust if the Arab-Israeli war fails, or if his headline has a large impact. For headlines, he ends up playing Capture Nazi Scientist, which advances him on the space-race track for 2 VPs, but it doesn't effect the board now. Arab-Israeli war succeeds, and he's out of Israel and I am in, it also gives me 2 VPs, though that's less of an issue than the access I've denied him to Egypt, Jordan, and Lebanon. 
T01 USSR AR1:
With the success of the Arab-Israeli war, if I can coup him out of Iran, I can cut him off from Western Asia, and possible secure a battleground country for myself, this will then let me use an op to take lebanon/syria on another turn and then score the ME. I choose to use COMECON to do the coup, since it give me good results on 5/6 of the die roll results, and I want to save the China card for use in Asia, and the Marshall plan is better used for influence for me - as I can then use some of its op points to counteract the 7! influence it gives the americans in Europe. Using it to coup Iran now would also let Bacchus put influence into Turkey, to get back into the ME faster before I could score it.   I got a strong die roll, so it's unlikely that Bacchus will try to coup me back here. DEFCON is at 4 though, so he's unlikely to play into Asia just yet (as I can coup moves into low-stability non-battlegrounds), so we'll see what he does.
T01 USA AR1:
Bacchus' response was to coup Syria using the Suez Crisis. He also rolled a 6, getting him back into the ME in style. I removed 2 influence from the UK, as France and Israel both have no US influence.  
T01 USSR AR2:
I do still hold ME scoring, so I'd like to keep Bacchus out of the ME battlegrounds. Using the marshall plan is a hard call, but it lets me threaten domination if he doesn't use a 3+ op card to flip lebanon, or a coup. If he uses a 3 op card, I can then use the truman 1-op card for a reasonably good chance of a coup in Lebanon, and still be in good shape. The cost of course, is giving him 7 influence in Europe, which means at best we'll stalemate there, and at worst he'll dominate (typically +5 points when Europe is scored). In trade, I retain good access to Asia and keep him out, and make the points up in the ME. There's also a later card for the Soviets in the Midwar called OPEC which also rewards ME control of countries like Iran/Iraq etc. 
T01 USA AR2:
I forgot to capture a screenshot, but Bacchus played CIA Created and rolled a 6 to coup lebanon into 4 US influence, which is a tough break for me. CIA created also goes back into the deck eventually via discard, which is also bad for me because it's a hard card for the USSR to draw, as it's only worth 1 op, but gives the US a 1 op action and reveals the USSR hand when played. That 1 op ends up being dangerous as well, since if the USSR plays CIA Created when DEFCON is at 2, the USA can use the 1 op to coup a battleground country in the Americas or Africa to drop DEFCON to 1 and win the game (since the USSR played the card which forced defcon to 1). Cards like this are referred to as DEFCON suicide cards, in that they are impossible to play and therefore must either be held or spaced. 
T01 USSR AR3:
In order to achieve domination, I need a non-battleground region. I use defectors for 2 ops to take control of Jordan, which will let me score the ME for +4VP if Bacchus doesn't break control with either a coup or influence placement. With stability 2, he'd need higher ops cards to coup, and if he wanted to compete on influence, the control penalty would mean he would spend influence less efficiently to break my control of Jordan that way.  T01 USA AR3: He plays decolonization on the space race, which is a very strong card for the USSR as it lets them get into Africa and SE Asia. I'll miss that. I don't really have cards this turn that I want to space, but if he gets to Man in Earth Orbit it's going to be a rough time for me. 
T01 USSR AR4:
Playing on the space race does, however, give me an opportunity to score the ME while I have domination for +4 VPs. Attaining control (for 7 points) requires having all the Battlegrounds and I just don't have the ops right now to invest in that. There is an event in the early war that will give me control of Egypt, and one in the mid-war (T4 onwards) which will let the US break in that way, so those are things to be aware of. The remaining scoring cards left in the early war deck are Europe and Asia, so I expect having scored the ME, that the focus of the game will move to the other two regions, as Bacchus and I prepare for those scoring cards to come out. My situation in Europe is not good to prevent US Domination, so my focus will probably rest on Asia, especially with Vietnam Revolts and the China card still in my hands.  |
