[SPOILER TS#1] Sareln gives the world a great big Bear Hug

[Sareln]

T01 USA AR4:

Bacchus plays special relationship for the ops and takes control of France, giving him domination of Europe, which will score him +5VPs when Europe scoring is played. I have a couple of cards that can get me back into Europe in the deck (Blockade, DeGaulle leads France) later in the game, but for now this reflects the heavy play into the ME that I've been making, along with Marshall Plan.




T01 USSR AR5:

Since I'm effectively out of Europe, I want to play Truman Doctrine to get it out of the deck, since it can be used to remove all of my influence in an uncontrolled country in Europe. Right now the only two countries that qualify are Yugoslavia and Finland. I also want to drop DEFCON. I choose to make a marginal play against Panama, if I roll well, that would be nice, but not strictly necessary. I do also need a way to get out on the board in south america, normally done with De-Stalinization, which hasn't come out yet.






I rolled a 4, which was enough to kick us *both* out of the region until either the US crawls all the way from Mexico/Cuba (Cuba's tough when the Fidel card is still in the deck) or an event gets one or both of us back into the region.

I get one more play, with any of the China Card, Vietnam Revolts, or Korean War. China card isn't the best, since it means that Bacchus will be able to play it on T2 (otherwise, if I play it in T2, he won't be able to use it until T3), but I really do want both Korean War and Vietnam revolts to secure Asia. Mostly likely I will play Korean War for ops, keeping it around in the deck, and bank on being able to race US influence in S. Korea.

[Sareln]

Any questions from the peanut gallery? Generally speaking the USSR has early initiative in the game, but as the game progresses, the deck and cards will begin to favor the US, especially once we hit the late war. Therefore, soviet play really does call for trying to land a knockout blow in the midwar.

[BRickAstley]

Just soaking it all in, it's been great to watch so far!

[Sareln]

T01 USA AR5:

Oh, he had Europe scoring - so the fight is going to be all about Asia, all the time, in T02. He scores +5VP now.




T01 USSR AR6:

With that play, I'm going to go ahead and use Korean war to add 2 influence to South Korea, as mentioned earlier. USSR starts with battleground advantage in Asia, so technically I could dominate by playing vietnam revolts now, but I want to hold it to headline so that I can use the bonus it gives to SEAsia plays to really lock the region down.




T01 USA AR6:

He plays the cambridge five, holding it until after he's played his scoring card so I can't get a free influence (and heads up of what's coming) in Europe. He attempts to coup Iran, but rolls poorly. Even with a roll of a 6 it would only empty the country, so I expect that this was done to Drop DEFCON to 2, so that when it improves at EoT we'll only be at DEFCON 3, and he can play influence into Malaysia/Indonesia while being coup protected.

[Sareln]

T02 Headline:

A number of things happen at the turn roll, military ops are checked against DEFCON, DEFCON is improved by 1, and we get more cards!







I go ahead and headline Vietnam Revolts (+2 influence in Vietnam, +1 to the ops values of your cards when putting influence in only SE Asia with the entire card). He Headlines Red-Scare/Purge, which is a nasty 4-op card that reduces the ops value of all my plays for the rest of the turn by 1 (minimum of 1). As I've still got the China Card and a relatively high-op hand, I'm not in massive trouble, but it will still be a tougher ride.







T02 USSR AR1:

With the play of red-scare/purge, fighting for Asia seems a lot less rewarding, and as I'm already dominating I'll go ahead and score the region for +5VP. The only battleground coup available to me is South Africa at stability 3, so I'm not going to spend the whole turn dropping DEFCON. It'll give him another shot at Iran, but so be it. In my hand, I also have the two cards I need to break Europe back open, DeGaulle and Blockade, so with Asia scored, I can spend my turns defending the ME, attacking Europe, or Securing Asia, instead of playing hard into the Asia region.