A Twilight Struggle SneakPeek

Example of Play Twilight Struggle by Jason Matthews What follows is a sample game covering the first three turns, or "Early War" period of Twilight Struggle. During the Early War, only scoring cards for Europe, Asia and the Middle East are in the deck. Not to disparage a man who has been a model ex-president, what follows is an example of game play that may answer the question: "What would have happened if Jimmy Carter were President in 1949, and not Harry Truman?" USSR Initial Setup Choices – 1 E. Germany, 3 Poland, 1 Austria, 1 Yugoslavia USA Initial Setup Choices – 4 W. Germany, 2 Italy Russian setup is sub-optimal. It is both cautious and unnecessarily risky. It is cautious in that the extra Influence marker in East Germany keeps that space more firmly under USSR control. It is risky because until the Independent Reds event is played, you may be handing a golden opportunity to break into Eastern Europe to the US. Though there are access advantages, I think Austria is a useless play. Since it takes a minimum of 4 Influence to control, the USSR would better spend its time in trying to grab Czechoslovakia, or Bulgaria. US setup is standard. TURN ONE: USSR Hand: Korean War, NATO, Asia Scoring, Romanian Abdication, UN Intervention, De Gaulle Leads France, Captured Nazi Scientists, Mideast Scoring Nice hand if he can take a lead in Asia and the Middle East, only 1 US event, NATO – even that could be canceled with UN Intervention. USA Hand: Fidel, Truman Doctrine, Nasser, Independent Reds, US Japan Mutual Defense Pact, Duck and Cover, Europe Scoring, Olympic Games Not a disastrous hand for the US, but not a good one either. The Fidel and Nasser cards are never good, and Nasser could be particularly troubling given the Mideast Scoring card in the USSR player's hand. Additionally, he does not have many cards with a decent operations points (Ops) value. Headline Phase: US -- US/Japan Mutual Defense Pact; USSR – Korean War (needs 5 or 6, but rolls 4) failed because of Japan Card. (2 mil ops for USSR) The headline phase ensures that a certain number of events are played during the game. In this case, the US makes an inspired choice. By playing US/Japan Mutual Defense Pact, he takes control of Japan. Since it is a higher ops card than the Korean War, it occurs first. The USSR roll on the Korean War then has a -1 modifier on its normally 50% odds of success. The modifier is for every US controlled country adjacent to S. Korea. The USSR's Korean War card is then played. He rolls a 4 (he needed a 5 or a 6), and there are no negative consequences for the US player. Pretty darn historical actually. Nevertheless, the war card gives the USSR 2 of his required military ops points. USSR (21) 1st Play – NATO (prerequisite not occurred) 4 Ops – 2 in Yugoslavia for control, 2 in South Korea. The NATO card is a free play for the Russians – the US card cannot take effect – since the prerequisite event, The Marshall Plan, has not yet been played. So, the Russians play some ops to take control of Yugoslavia, and put some Influence in South Korea. NATO returns to the discard pile to be reshuffled into the deck. USA (22) Independent Reds as event; 3 US influence in Yugoslavia With the USSR playing a little into the US hand, the US now plays Independent Reds, which allows him to meet the Soviet level of Influence in a variety of bordering Eastern European countries. The US gains 3 Influence in Yugoslavia, negating Soviet control. USSR (6)CHINA CARD – 4 ops (playing all ops in Asia makes it 5) (2 more in South Korea for control and 3 in Taiwan for control). – will probably hold 2 cards. The USSR commits the China Card. Since he is using this 4 Ops card all in Asia, he actually has 5 Ops points. He uses them to take control of S. Korea and Taiwan through influence. Alarm bells should be sounding in the US player's head. There will be hearings in Congress about this. USA (19) Truman Doctrine for Event – Removes USSR influence in Yugoslavia for control. He flubs it. Instead of reading an obvious Soviet grab for power in Asia, he builds on his work in Yugoslavia. This has now been 2 cards used to gain one, stability level 3 country. Yes, the US player is holding European scoring, but Yugoslavia really isn't going to get him too far down that road. He should be grabbing the little countries in SE Asia to prevent USSR Dominance when the scoring card comes. USSR (1) Scoring in Asia – USSR Dominance +2 stars (9), USA Presence +1 (4) net –5 to scoring track. Surprise! (To no one but the US player). The USSR grabs a little-contested 5 points. If you are not sensitive to your opponent's plans, you are DOOMED in this game. USA (4) Duck and Cover for OPS – 3 US influence in France for control. "Well, all is not lost," thinks the US player. "I'll prove my mettle to the American people by great success in Europe." He forgoes victory points with the Duck and Cover event for control of France. USSR (17) De Gaulle Leads France for event – Removes 2 US influence, adds one USSR in France – loses control of France. Now it's the American's turn to play into Russian hands. The Soviets reply with De Gaulle Leads France, removing 2 US influence in France and adding 1 USSR. It's like a cancer in the heart of Europe. USA (20) Olympic Games for a Coup – Rolled 3 modified –1 no effect. (+2 to mil ops) Forgoing more possible victory points, the US opts to coup in Iraq. In a vision of the future, it fails. However, at least DEFCON has dropped to 4 (preventing coup attempts in Europe), and the US has 2 military ops to show for the trouble. USSR (5) 5 Year Plan for a Coup in Iran. 3 Ops +1 (7)- add 4 USSR in Iran (+3 to mil ops now 5) DEFCON now 3. The USSR, now they know how to stage a coup! Their coup attempt in Iran results in USSR control of the country. DEFCON is now 3 (preventing coup attempts in Asia). USSR has maximized (5) his required military ops chart. USA (2) Europe Scoring – Both 2 starred countries = wash. With a sense of despair, the US abandons its once proud dreams of European domination. With both players controlling 2 starred countries, both players only enjoy presence in Europe. So, the play of the event card amounts to a victory point wash. USSR (18) Captured Nazi Scientists as event; +2 VPs (Victory Point Chart now –7). This advances Sputnik into orbit on the Space Race Track without the normal dice roll. The Russians grab another pair of victory points. USA Fidel to Space Race; Rolls a 2; +1 VP for US (VP Chart now –6) The US counters using the Fidel event for the roll. Cards that include your opponent's events that are used to roll on the Space Race Track, do not trigger your opponent's event. In this case, the US succeeds. For being the second player to launch a satellite, he receives 1 victory point. End of Turn Actions: USA loses 1 VP for failure to do 3 mil ops (Victory Point Chart now –7) With DEFCON at 3, the players are required to have played at least 3 military ops during the turn to avoid a victory point penalty. The USSR played 5, the US played 2. He loses another victory point, and the score returns to -7. USA may now play the China Card next turn; reset Mil Ops to zero. The US player now possesses the China Card. He may use it on turn 2 – thereby giving it to the USSR player for turn 3, or keep it. DEFCON Status increases to 4 (no coups in Europe). DEFCON improves 1 level at the end of every turn. IMPORTANT NOTE: There was an error made in game play that I did not discover until typing out the blow by blow. The USSR played the China Card on turn 1. In this case, that meant he held two cards at the end of his turn. However, one of the cards he held was Mideast Scoring. This is illegal. You must always play all scoring cards during the turn. For tournament play, held cards are revealed to demonstrate that one is not a scoring card. We did not do so during this demo. However, the US player was also behind in the Middle East at the time. The USSR player would have had presence and 1 star to nothing. That would have netted him 4 points. Things were a little worse in the second round for the US player, so the USSR's final score after three rounds needs to be taken with a grain of salt. TURN TWO: USSR Hand: Mideast Scoring, Romanian Abdication, Socialist Governments, Arab-Israeli War, Suez Crisis, Blockade, Vietnam Revolts, Warsaw Pact Formed Another amazing hand for the USSR. Not a single US event. Hard to do when the deck is nearly 50/50. USA Hand: CIA Created, Indo-Pakistani War, Formosan Resolution, Red Scare/Purge, Five-Year Plan, Nasser, COMECON, East European Unrest A decent hand. He's got a lot of solid events, and the good ops values that accompany them. The Nasser problem is left over from last round, and he will have to ditch COMECON somehow. Headline Phase: USSR (13) Arab Israeli War – Rolls a one and fails; 2 mil ops; USA (26) CIA Created (USSR Reveals hand, USA gets 1 OP) In the long tradition of the USSR's play of war cards, he rolls miserably and nothing happens. In this case, there were not even any negative modifiers to the roll. The US headline phase play is again inspired. The CIA Created card gives him forewarning that Mideast scoring is out there. He uses the 1 op to place an Influence in Lebanon and take control of it. That blocks an immediate Soviet play of Mideast scoring. However, the Red Scare/Purge card is also a great headline option as it would decrease the ops values of all Soviet cards for the remainder of the turn by one. USSR (7) Socialist Govt's (3 OPS) for Coup in Lebanon. Rolls 4 adds 4 USSR influence for control in Lebanon. USSR controls Lebanon. With the jig up on MIDEAST Scoring, the Soviet player dives in hard. He rolls a coup in Lebanon removing US influence, and adding 4 Soviet markers. Since Lebanon is not a starred country, the DEFCON is not affected. However, the USSR also moves his Required Military Operations track up to 3. USA (23) Marshall Plan for Event ( 1 in France, 1 in Denmark, 1 in Italy, 1 Turkey, 1 Greece, 1 Spain, 1 Austria). Members of the Senate are now openly asking whose side is the President on? Knowing of the existence of the Mideast Scoring card, knowing that neither player possessed European Scoring, he simply ignores USSR domination of the Middle East to play an event that could easily have waited. In any case, he spreads 1 US influence in 7 non-Soviet controlled, European countries as listed above. USSR (3) Domination; 6 points - no US Presence (6 USSR VP) Victory Point Track at –13 Yes, this is worse for the US player than if the USSR had properly played the card in the Early War (where he would have only scored 4 points) but heck, I'd give the Sov's two points as penalty for blind US play. USA (29) East European Unrest – Removes 1 Soviet Influence from Poland, Austria, and E. Germany More European event play! He must feel pretty strongly about the chances of a European scoring card in the reshuffle between the 2nd and 3rd turns. USSR (16) Warsaw Pact as OPS (3) – Poland, East Germany, Austria – hopes opponent will have to play them. The USSR is not sweating a European scoring round. He throws Warsaw Pact back into the deck in hopes the US will have to play it. In the meantime, he repairs the damage done by East European Unrest with ops. USA (31) Red Scare/Purge as Coup – probably should have been headline – rolls 1 for no effect, (2 mil ops) . Needing a few military ops, the US tries another coup in Iraq. He gets no satisfaction, but he does degrade the DEFCON to 3, and covers the needed 3 military ops. USSR (28) Suez Crisis as Ops (3) – (3 into Hungary for Control) Hedging a little, the Sovs finally react to US play in Europe and grab Hungary with the Suez card played for ops. USA (14) COMECON on Space Race – rolls a 1 Advances – now may play two Space Race Cards. The US player takes the Space Race lead. He can now (effective this turn) play 2 cards on the Space Race track instead of the usual limit of one. Sadly, the Nasser card does not have sufficient ops associated with it to make the roll. USSR (9) Vietnam Revolts (2 Ops) for OPS – 2 into France (up 3 to 2, but no control) Suddenly considering the possibility of European scoring next turn, the Sovs start taking Europe seriously. He uses ops to increase influence in France. USA (24) Indo-Pakistani War – Pakistan Invades India – Rolls 3 -- no effect (Gets 2 mil ops). The US player's 3rd failed war attempt in 2 turns. Pakistan invades India. There were no modifiers. The US flubs the roll. No effect, but the US maxes out its required military ops chart. USSR (10) Blockade; Plays as Event – US player discards Formosa (101), so no removal of USA influence in Germany. The Blockade event requires the US player to discard a 3 ops event or lose all influence in West Germany. The US player wisely avoids this by discarding the Formosan card. USA (15) Nasser for Realignment 1 op +3 for control of UK, Germany and Italy US rolls 3, USSR rolls 6 no effect. The US plays Nasser to try a realignment on France. With control of W. Germany, Italy and the UK, he is +3 on a die roll versus the USSR. He rolls 3, the Sovs roll 6. Gaulist France stands unmoved. Following the coup attempt, the Nasser event occurs giving the Sovs two Influence (and thereby control) of Egypt. End of Turn Actions: Both sides meet their Mil Ops Requirement; DEFCON returns to 4 Well, at least everyone met their Required Military Operations. Obviously, -13 is not where the US wants to be on turn 2, but it is hard to have much sympathy for him given the sub-optimal handling of the Middle East. TURN 3: Reshuffled Early War Deck USSR Hand: De-Stalinzation, Olympic Games, Socialist Governments, Formosan Resolution, Asia Scoring, Indo-Pakistani War, Containment Two US events this time. Not the kind of US-event-laden hand that the US player would like him to have at this point. But at least there are some hand management considerations for the Soviet player. USA Hand: UN Intervention, Vietnam Revolts, Mideast Scoring, Five-Year Plan, NATO, Arab-Israeli War, Decolonization, Nuclear Test Ban Ugh, this is going to be another tough round for the US. Both Mideast and Asia scoring are back. The US has not really fixed his position in either of these regions. This will be aggravated by the presence of Arab-Israeli War in his hand, making the Mideast situation that much worse. Headline Phase: USA (34) Nuclear Test Ban – US +2 VPs; Defcon Increases to 5; USSR (7) Socialist Governments – USSR 2 influence from France, 1 from West Germany. Having wisely chosen his headline phase cards up until now, the US player misses the boat with Nuclear Test Ban. This could have been played later, and improving DEFCON to 5 might cause him more trouble with mil ops than his 2 victory point gain. The Sovs are really aggressively going after a once dominant US position in Europe. Having been rapped on the nose with this paper before, the US is more likely to respond. The sad thing for the US player is that the Sovs don't even have the scoring card!!! USSR (1) Asia Scoring – USSR Domination 7 +2 vs. 3 +1 (USSR +5 VP) –16 on scoring track. He takes the freebie, no changes to the US position since the last scoring. Grab those VP's while they are hot. USA (5) Five Year Plan – for event, grabs Containment (25); +1 to US Ops for remainder of turn, maximum of 4. With a lucky dive into the USSR's hand via the Five Year Plan event, the US grabs Containment and implements the event immediately, giving all future US Ops plays +1 (for a maximum of 4 ops). USSR (33) De-Stalinization – 3 OPS Coup in Italy, rolls a 4, removes 3 influence from Italy, no US Control (USSR 3 milops) Defcon to 4. Taking advantage of the newfound freedom to Coup in Europe due to the increase in DEFCON, the Sovs take a stab at Italy. While not taking control of it themselves, they do remove all US influence, leaving it neutral. Now the US realizes he would be on the losing side of a European Scoring card, really causing him to freak out. USA (9) Vietnam Revolts as Ops – USSR event card occurs (ads 2 in Vietnam, +1 for future ops in SE Asia). US ads 2 influence in Egypt – Egypt now uncontrolled. Choosing to address another pressing problem, he tries to improve his position in the Middle East. In exchange for more USSR influence in Vietnam (the USSR event), and with the Nasser event safely behind him, the US player adds influence in Egypt to make it uncontrolled. USSR (24) Indo Pakistani War for Realignment – all USSR influence removed in West germany 6 +2 vs. 2), Realign Israel, removes Israel marker. With another huge roll, the Soviets (now controlling France, and East Germany) realign West Germany. They roll a 6 +2 vs. the US roll of 2 (unmodified, as he does not have control of Italy). The West Germans usher in the era of Soviet appeasement. Oh Winston Churchill, where are you when we need you? USA (21) NATO for Ops – 2 in Libya, 2 in Italy With the potential membership of NATO in a shambles, he uses the card for Ops, re-establishing US control of Italy, and taking Libya to boot (so to speak). USSR (20) Olympics – as event -- 5 to 1 +2 and US WINS VP –14 The USSR would like to put the Americans away with an auto victory. The Olympics would get him within 2 points. The US chooses not to boycott. He rolls a five – the Soviets a 1 (modified to 3 for being the Olympic Host). The US WINS, THE US WINS! It's the "miracle on ice" all over again. The Victory Point chart drops to -14. USA (6) China Card for OPS – 4 in West Germany. Seizing on new found confidence, the US plays the China Card, (giving it face-down to the USSR) to grab 4 influence and re-take Germany. Freedom is on the march again in Europe. USSR (101) Formosan Resolution – Event Occurs (no US control right now). USSR 3 Ops in Czechoslovakia for control. Now the Russians are beginning to wonder, maybe the US has the European scoring card. Time to shore up the iron curtain! Let's grab Czechoslovakia. USA (13) Arab Israeli War for Coup in Egypt, Plays UN Intervention (32) to cancel event for USSR. US rolls 4, removes 2 USSR influence, US controls Egypt. Defcon to 3. Wow, even the Middle East is surrendering to the siren song of capitalism. The US grabs narrow control of Egypt through a coup. Sadly, he has no influence to spare. He also uses UN Intervention to cancel the Soviet Arab Israeli War event. USSR (12) Romanian Abdication for coup in Egypt –1 modifier rolls 4, removes 1 US influence With a negative modifier, the Soviets strike back in Egypt. He manages to remove 1 of the 2 US influence markers, thus denying the US control of Egypt. DEFCON stands at 2. USA (3) Mideast Scoring; each side controls one star - turns out a wash. The USSR snatches victory out of the jaws of defeat. Had he retained Egypt, the US would have dominated the Middle East. As it stands, the scoring was a victory point wash. Situation Analysis At the end of round 3, the score stands at -14. Although I have been harsh on US play, it really did improve in the 3rd round. With a little more luck the victory point total might have been -11 at the end of round 3. Not the fast track for US auto-victory, but certainly a surmountable lead. This is particularly true since Fidel is buried, and the US might grab a large early lead in Central America while the Soviets wait to find an entry point. Additionally, US position in Europe and the Middle East has been strengthened, and the Asia scoring card is out of the deck until a reshuffle of the Midwar deck. So, I would expect the US situation to look a little rosier in a turn or two. However, one really good round for the USSR, and we could all be speaking Russian.