Twilight Victory - Born In The USA

It's not often that we get an opportunity to play Twilight Struggle face-to-face, our games are normally VASSAL / Skype affairs that often run into the wee small hours. 

Manual Labour

In all honesty, that's made us a little lazy. Setting up, moving the influence counters and even dealing cards seems like a waste of valuable energy. Energy better spent in contemplating your opponent's downfall or even complaining about the shitty hand you've been dealt. :)

The VASSAL module for Twilight Struggle is excellent, but it's good to play in real life every now and then. 

The Game
It was Bingers' turn to play as the Soviets for last night's game at The Black Knight. a chance for him to avenge his recent online defeat? That seemed likely as the USSR player has won the lion's share of recent games, especially since our attention shifted to the hidden power of the realignment roll as an valuable option when using ops points.

NATO - US Relief

Indeed in the early game the Russians made good progress in Europe by effectively surrounding West Germany and putting France, Britain and Italy in danger. I was forced to play my Europe scoring card early to avoid potentially heavy VP losses in the first turn of the game.

Salvation came shortly afterwards through the NATO card, which effectively protected US influence in Europe from Soviet coup and realignment checks. Phew!

From turn three onwards the global balance of power shifted gradually towards the US as two key scoring cards (Asia and the Middle East) both landed in the Soviet hand at a critical time. We both knew who had them and I, as the US player, took good advantage from this swing in fate.

De Gaulle Leads France and later Willy Brandt gave the Russians hope in Europe as both France and West Germany were now no long protected by NATO.

De Gaulle / Brandt - Saving Russia?

An epic struggle for control of West Germany ensued, the Russians coming out of top. It all came too late for Bingers though as he had lost ground elsewhere in the world and was left to bemoan a late poor hand. :) In the end a full VP score in South-east Asia took me to 17VPs and shortly after a US victory.

White Stars Rising? Not great in a Soviet hand...

Final Thoughts
Twilight Struggle is an amazing game, made even better by having an excellent opponent. The gauntlet has been thrown down MrB!