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!

KoffeeKlub Evening 24th February

Featuring this week at KoffeeKlub will be 1989: Dawn Of Freedom and Twilight Struggle, both strong two player games as we breakaway from the lighter games played over the past few weeks.  

KoffeeKlub meet at The Black Knight Gaming Centre every Sunday between 7pm and 11pm.

"Tear down this wall!" - Ronald Reagan (1987)

GamesReports: 3/10/17-Feb-13 Power Grid, Twilight Struggle and Modern Art

Modern Art

With work and weddings (not mine!), I've had little enough time to sleep, never mind post-up on what's been happening at the KoffeeKlub. That being said, our gaming hasn't suffered as we try out some of the spice of life. Variety.

3rd of February Session - Power Grid
Normally we have five players for KoffeeKlub evenings and five is a bit of a sweet spot for Power Grid, one of the finest Eurogames ever created.

Playing on the classic German map, we introduced both ChrisG and DaveB to the game for the first time. I think the jury's out a little for some of the KoffeeKlub players on Euro-style games as a whole, but everyone seemed to have a good time with Power Grid and so I'll keep throwing a few into the mix every now and then.

Power Grid

10th of February Session - Twilight Struggle
I've bleated on and on about just how good Twilight Struggle is to some of the KoffeeKlub players and our 2-player games evening gave us the perfect opportunity to roll it out, even if I was taking on more of a back-seat teaching roll and not actually playing myself.

ChrisG (US) and AndyA (USSR) fought out a bitter cold war, but in the end the Soviets came out on top by a few victory points. It looks like Twilight Struggle could feature again in our next KoffeeKlub meeting, alongside 1989: Dawn Of Freedom. GaryB defeated DaveB in some Dreadball at the other end of the table.

Twilight Struggle

17th of February Session - Modern Art & Pandemic
My copy of Modern Art is the 1996 Mayfair edition (pictured) and it looks entirely unappealing, but behind the naff components is a great little auction game which again plays well with 5-players.

Modern Art

The game itself is simple enough to pick-up, but it takes a little mental maths to get the best deals in buying or selling paintings. Some players were extremely generous (DaveB I'm looking at you.) in selling some of their fixed-price paintings, whilst others (AndyA) blew crazy money on paintings worth around half the price that they paid!?

Still, lots of great speech-play and fun to be had. A classic!

I'm restricting Pandemic to a one-liner, simply because we failed at it again... Bluff remains our favourite filler, with a nod towards Bucket King too.

As always the stars are those who make it to KoffeeKlub each week. Characters one and all!

 

Posted with Blogsy

KoffeeKlub Evening 10th February

It's a weekend for two player boardgames @KoffeeKlub with A Few Acres Of Snow, Twilight Struggle, Dreadball and my newly acquired 1989: Dawn Of Freedom on offer.

Why not join us if you fancy trying any of the games below.

KoffeeKlub meet at The Black Knight Gaming Centre every Sunday between 7pm and 11pm.

Twilight Struggle - USSR Set-Up

We've played a lot of Twilight Struggle on VASSAL recently and are beginning to get a reasonably good feel for the game and how it plays out. For any new player to the game, understanding the cards can be a real barrier early on, so we'll try to make that learning curve a little more accessible and give you a solid foundation on which to build your Twilight Struggle strategies.

Boot Camp

There are three shared decks in Twilight Struggle, an early-war deck (38 cards), a mid-war deck (48 cards) and late-war deck (23 cards) with your opening hand always coming from the early war deck. Mid-war and late war cards are shuffled in for turns three and seven respectively. Great, but how does that help me?

Well, the early war deck always gets played and has only 38 cards in it including three scoring cards (Europe, Middle East and Asia). That's less cards to get to grips with for your early plays and you can focus your strategy on board position for the early scoring cards that are due to appear.

Additionally some games of Twilight Struggle don't even reach mid-war and late war cards due to a sudden victory condition being met (one player reaching 20 VPs or starting a Nuclear War). It's essential to have a solid early war foundation on which to build should your game go the distance.

Standard Game Set-Up (with optional cards)

Set-Up

The China Card

During set-up for a standard game (including the optional cards) the board is pre populated with influence tokens for both the US and USSR players (see map above). At this point both players will be dealt a hand of 8 cards from the shuffled early-war deck, the Soviet player will also receive "The China Card" bringing his starting hand to 9 cards.

Before beginning turn one, the USSR player will add 6 influence into Eastern Europe and then the US player will add 7 influence into Western Europe.

Influencing A Country
For each country on the map the number in the top right-hand corner indicates how much more influence than your opponent you need to have control there. Control is important for both scoring (as scoring is based on countries controlled in the scored region) and in restricting your opponent as they try to influence the country. For example:

Example - Adding Influence

Poland requires 3 influence to control, so as the Soviet player I add three single influence points to give me control overall control there. Note that my influence markers are white with red text until I reach the number require for control.

My control in Poland will help when the Europe Scoring card comes up, but it will also make it more difficult for the US player to add influence there.

Continuing this example during the US player's turn he wants to take away my control in Poland. He can do this by adding his own influence there, providing he has influence in a country adjacent to Poland.

Normally 1 influence point will give you +1 influence in the targeted country, this changes however when the country is controlled by your opponent. First you must break that control by spending 2 influence points to add one of your own.

In the example the US player must spend 2 influence to add 1 US influence into Poland. Note again that both influence markers now have white backgrounds indicating that neither player now has outright control in Poland.

Scoring and Battleground vs. Non-Battleground Countries
Most victory points in Twilight Struggle come from the various scoring cards scattered throughout the decks. There are three area scoring cards in the early-war deck as pictured below.

These cards talk about Presence, Domination and Control of the respective regions.

Countries

Presence - You are considered to have presence in a region if you control at least one country there.

Domination - You achieve domination in a region if you have more countries more battleground countries (purple background e.g. W.Germany) than your opponent there.

Control - You achieve control in a region if you have more countries and all of the battleground countries (purple background e.g. West Germany) there.

Note that Control in the European scoring region wins the game during Europe Scoring.

If you have drawn one (or more) of these scoring cards they should heavily influence your strategy for that game round. Equally if you have drawn none of them your need to watch your opponent closely and try to work out if he has any of them.

Set-Up as the USSR Player
As the USSR player I now have my starting hand of 9 cards (8 dealt plus The China Card) and need to add 6 influence into Eastern Europe.

Option #1 - A solid start as the USSR player is to add 1 influence into East Germany, 4 influence into Poland and 1 influence into Yugoslavia.

A Solid European Set-Up For The USSR

I already have control in East Germany, but by adding a +1 there I can make it even more difficult for the US player to get his own influence in there once he adds influence into the adjacent West Germany. To add one influence in East Germany he would need to spend two points, but even then I would retain control as the difference would still be 3 points. He would need to spend a further 2 influence (a total of 4) to break my control there.

Similarly in Poland I have added 4 influence to control the country plus a little bit of a buffer.

My final point of starting influence is added into Yugoslavia. This is not enough to control the country, but it puts me adjacent to Italy so that I can begin to threaten Western Europe.

A More Aggressive USSR Opening

Option #2 - A slightly more aggressive opening to threaten re-alignment rolls into West Germany and Italy. 

This involves adding 1 influence into Poland, 3 influence into Austria and 2 influence into Yugoslavia with a view to achieving control in these countries early in turn #1 so that you can attempt re-alignment rolls vs. Italy and/or West Germany.

Re-alignment Rolls
Re-alignment rolls can be used to reduce your opponent's influence in a targeted country. For 1 Op point you can attempt a re-alignment and try to out-score your opponent on a D6 roll.

Critically players get bonuses to their roll:

> +1 For each country controlled adjacent to the target country.
> +1 If they have more influence in the target country.
> +1 If their superpower is adjacent to the target country.

This more aggressive strategy can be especially effective when you have either (or both) of Warsaw Pact Formed and Comecon in your opening hand.

Useful Cards For The USSR Re-alignment Strategy

Obviously you have other options available to you during your USSR set-up, but these should give you something to consider.

If you'd like to try Twilight Struggle, please drop us a message on the KoffeeKlub Facebook page or join us at one of the Sunday evening sessions.

VASSAL - Six Weeks On

We've being using VASSAL for just over six weeks now and played some fine games online, but how easy was it to set-up and use?

What is VASSAL?

Vassal is a game engine for building and playing online adaptations of board games and card games. You can use Vassal to play in real time over the Internet or by email. Vassal runs on all platforms, and is free, open-source software. (from the VASSAL site)

Setting Up VASSAL

The VASSAL site is fairly straight-forward to use and offers a good set of FAQs for users just starting up. Your first step is to download the VASSAL engine software for the operating system that you're using. This can combine with literally hundreds of different modules which cover many of the war gaming titles available today. Almost 1200 modules are listed and available for download, so there's a good chance that it has the game you're looking for.

The Games (or Modules)

VASL Map and Units

 









ASL - Modules can vary wildly in terms of quality and usability, but on the whole I've found those that we've tried excellent in their online representation of the games covered. To date I've tried Advanced Squad Leader, using the VASL system (VASSAL began as VASL for ASL players). It's slightly more complicated than most of the VASSAL modules as it has many different maps, units and scenarios to deal with, but the interface is strong and provides a useful online representation of the game.

The module provides counter and map artwork to match the physical game and a shared interface to allow players to track each other's line-of-sight (LOS) checks, dice rolls and counter changes. Set-up and movement are both straight-forward, but the system will not enforce rules, the players need to do that themselves.

FAB Sicily on VASSAL

FAB: Sicily - VASSAL provides a very nice online representation of this popular fast action battles system. I have yet to play the FAB Bulge version, but Sicily is a well put together module with great map and counter quality as well as simple programming to cover the random chit draws and the random untried Italian units. A first class job!

Twilight Struggle on VASSAL

Twilight Struggle - The VASSAL module for Twilight Struggle has a much higher degree of automation than that of either ASL or FAB Sicily. It handles the card shuffling and dealing, the staggering of the early, middle and late war cards, basic turn movement and scoring as well as some card effects. Initially I thought that the partial automation would prove problematic in understand when and where the players had to interact with the game, but this is not the case and it plays through each action and turn logically, taking the pain out of the constant influence movements.

As with FAB Sicily the artwork is excellent and in-line with the proper game art.

File Menu

The Interface (Using Twilight Struggle)

The file menu offers some basic game scenarios to play 

• "CCW - no optional cards" is the Chinese Civil War with no optional cards included.
• "CCW - with optional cards" is the Chinese Civil War with optional cards included.
• "Standard - no optional cards" is the Standard game with no optional cards included.
• "Standard - with optional cards" is the Standard game with optional cards included.

You also have the option to load, save or close your game, begin and end a logfile, edit some basic preferences or quit the VASSAL program. The logfile is especially useful as it record the game moves and can be loaded and walked through after completing the game.

Standard Button Options in Twilight Struggle Module

The standard toolbar options (above) allow you to control everything from the turn progress to your own hand of cards. As you can see from the screenshot below the American player during their turn can elect to play a card for OPs, the Event or on the Space Race by right clicking on a card and selecting the appropriate option from the menu. The module prevents you from completing an illegal or out-of-turn action.

Your hand of cards pop-up in a separate window

 In fact most things that can be automated in the game are automated and one of the few things that you will need to bookkeep outside of playing your cards is updating the influence on the board. This too is straight-forward and influence can be increased or decreased by right-clicking in the target country. (left)

Obviously the interface varies from game to game, but many of the popular games around today are well supported through their VASSAL module.

Overall, the VASSAL system takes a little getting use to, but after a game or two you'll quickly pick it up and future modules will appear very accessible. They do, from time-to-time, have some connectivity issues, although in the eight or nine games we've played recently, they have only proved to be a mild irritation and not disrupted our game-play for more than a few minutes.

VASSAL is run on a voluntary basis, it's documents and development work done most through community support. That being said the set-up is of a very high quality. Please support them if you can.

What's Up Next?

Probably a go at FAB: The Bulge or Shifting Sands.

FAB: The Bulge on VASSAL

The Digest: 17-Sept-12 - How he learned to stop worrying and love the bomb!

"Just the facts, ma'am!"

Our gaming is rich right now and to be honest it has been for the past six months or so. 

What's changed I hear me say? Well I think that our focus has improved and we've moved away from the talking a lot (about games) to the playing a lot (of games). This was really hammered home back in June as our Q-Con write-ups reflect, we're getting many many more games to the table. That can only be a good thing!

General Patton

FAB Sicily

We've settled into a reasonably good pace with VASSAL and have completed our first online FAB: Sicily game, which ended in a dramatic last turn tie. The return game already has a very different feel to it as my Allies move away from the historical landing plans to attack Sicily on two fronts. Now all I need is Patton's hell-for-leather drive on Messina along Sicily's northern coast. Who cares about the odd slap or two?

Twilight Struggle

Elsewhere, hamming up the Cold War theme, we've played two full games of Twilight Struggle. Both games have ended suddenly, almost without warning and been victories for the U.S. player (1 victory each). GaryB and I are still learning the game and more importantly the card mix in each of the three decks (early, mid and late war).

Twilight Struggle does have a lot of luck elements in play, from the card draws to the dice rolls you can sometimes feel that the game isn't giving you a fair crack of the whip. Generally your opponent feels that way too and it becomes a contest about who can manage their luck (or lack of it) most efficiently. 

During last night's game, Mr Bingers had built-up a sizeable 9VP lead heading into the mid-war. I had NORAD in play and was forever trying to keep the DEFCON levels low to gain the advantages it offered. In the end the lure of the Big Red Button proved too strong and Mr B sent the world spiralling into nuclear war, losing the game in the process. I guess I managed my luck a little better? That didn't stop me bitchin' about it during the game though! :) 

Full write-ups to follow.

Shifting Sands

Turning back the WWII clock a little, we'll be picking up MMP's Shifting Sands, probably from next Sunday evening. Shifting Sands covers the war in North Africa between 1940 and 1943 and uses a card-driven design to bring thematic events from that period to life. It also has a VASSAL module available, but we'll give it a go face-to-face first.

New Games?

Looking further ahead I'm considering a few potential purchases covering different periods in world history.

Maria - is based on the War of the Austrian Succession, where Austria was attacked by Prussia, France, Bavaria and Saxony, while only Great Britain, Hanover and the Netherlands (by forming the so-called Pragmatic Army) helped her.

A big part of the draw with Maria is that it is a strong three-player wargame. Not many of those about.

Ardennes '44 - a reprinting of GMT's 2003 game covering the action around the Battle of the Bulge. I love the look of the map in this game and it would be a bigger investment of time to play coming in at around 6 hours. Who knows, we may end up with FAB: The Bulge to cover this period instead.

Pursuit of Glory - GaryB mentioned this one recently, a sequel to the popular Paths of Glory, also a World War I game. Paths focused mostly of the European action of World War I, but Pursuit turns it's attention to the Great War in the Middle East. 

Pursuit uses the same card-driven mechanics and point-to-point of the first game, but with some rules changes and modifications to better simulate the conditions of the war in the Middle East.

Good times ahead!

KoffeeKlub Evening 16th of September

Better Dead Than RED!

After my debacle in last week's Twilight Struggle, I'm switching sides to be (re-)Born in the USA. GaryB (or Ivan from now on) will take control of the mighty Soviet machine and try to hold on to his luck :) for a another week in Whitehead Primary School.

We'll be serving up Cold War with Hot Coffee from 7pm to 11pm. Pass the cream Ivan.

“If you don’t like us, don’t accept our invitations and don’t invite us to come to see you. Whether you like it or not, history is on our side. We will bury you.” - Nikita Khrushchev, November 18, 1956

What's next for our wargaming table?

On The Lookout

In recent weeks and months we've learned a few new systems and reached the point where they could be quite quickly picked-up and played with minimal effort required. (FAB: Sicily and Twilight Struggle)

I now want to look ahead at the next few months and get a feel for games that might be on our gaming table soon...

First up is Combat Commander: Pacific from GMT Games. It is a card-driven wargame covering tactical infantry combat in the Pacific Theatre of World War II. It's been a while since I played a squad level wargame and the Pacific really appeals to me.

You can find our first look at Combat Commander: Pacific in a July blog post.

Sticking with WW2 a second option would be Shifting Sands this time from MMP Games, the company who currently release ASL material. It uses point-to-point movement and is based on the World War II African campaigns of 1940-1943. Shifting Sands is MMP's first card driven game. 

Lastly I want to consider Wilderness War, again from GMT Games. Having recently played a lot of A Few Acres of Snow online again we would be covering the French & Indian War, 1755-1760, as France and Britain battled for control of North America. 

Any thoughts on the games above? Perhaps you have a suggestion for us?

KoffeeKlub Evening 9th of September

Mr Bingers considers his options...

This week at KoffeeKlub Mr Bingers and I conclude our epic Twilight Struggle. The duel will be at Whitehead Primary School this Sunday from 7-11pm.

My Soviets hold an 8VP lead heading into turn six, but let's keep this one clean Mr B!

“When the president does it, that means that it is not illegal.” -
Richard Nixon, May 19, 1977

AAR - Twilight Struggle 02-Sept-12 and 09-Sept-12

On Sunday night we played turns one to five in our first game of Twilight Struggle, by GMT games. With the sides randomly drawn, I played the Soviets against GaryB's United States of America.

Here's how it's played out so far...

Set-Up

I had the Europe Scoring card in my opening hand and wanted to put pressure on Italy (a battleground country) from the beginning. Using the additional Soviet influence to control Greece and to

Turn #1

My focus for at least the early part of turn #1 was to prepare myself for The Europe Scoring card in my hand to maximise my VPs.  

Headlines - During headline I played Socialist Governments to "Remove a total of 3 US Influence from any countries in Western Europe." unfortunately GaryB played Defectors, which cancelled the event on my card.

The China Card

1.1 USSR - The China Card for a coup in Iran. I only rolled a "1", but that was enough to remove US influence there. This also gave me +4 military OPs. USA - The Cambridge Five for 2OPs in Austria.

1.2 USSR - Korean War for 2OPs in Turkey and E.Germany solidifying Europe. USA - Arab-Israeli War for 2OPs into the Lebanon and Jordan.

1.3 USSR - Vietnam Revolts for 2OPs in Italy removing US control there. USA - played Fidel to make a space race roll (failed).

1.4 USSR - Europe Scoring 9VPs (USSR) vs. 4VPs (US) a NET gain of 5VPs for me :) USA - attempted a coup in Syria with Decolonisation weakening the Soviets there.

1.5 USSR - Special Relationship (US event) for 2OPs into Iraq. Event allowed US player to "Add 1 US Influence to a single country adjacent to the U.K." with France being chosen. USA - another coup in Syria to give the US control using the Independent Reds card.

1.6 USSR - CIA created for 1OP used in Italy. The US event allowed GaryB to look at my hand of cards and play an OP which was also played in Italy. USA - Nasser for 1OP in Italy giving the US control.

END of Turn #1 - I was really happy with my progress in Turn #1 given that European Scoring had fallen into my lap. To be honest I focused on that for most of the turn and became a little blinkered to the rest of the board, Space Race etc.

5VP lead to USSR

Turn #2

I had drawn Middle East Scoring and was already in a pretty reasonable position there.

Suez Crisis

Headlines - Suez Crisis allowing USSR to remove US influence from Israel, France and UK (2). Truman Doctrine removed all USSR influence from a single European country, in the case Italy.

2.1 USSR - East European Unrest played for 3OPs used to begin to swing Syria. The US event then played out for this card and USSR influence was removed from Poland, East Germany and Finland. USA - US/Japan Mutual Defence Pact "The US adds sufficient Influence to Japan for Control. The USSR cannot make Coup Attempts or Realignment rolls against Japan." swinging Japan heavily to the US side.

2.2 USSR - Comecon, played for 3OPs, 2 into Syria and 1 into N.Korea. USA - De Gaulle Leads France for 3OPs, 2 into Canada (preparing for the NORAD card) and 1 to the UK.

2.3 USSR - Olympic Games to coup in the Lebanon and keep pressure up to take majority of VPs in Middle East. USA - used NATO for 4OPs to coup Egypt (and finally strike back in the Middle East) removing USSR control.

2.4 USSR - It was too little too late in the Middle East as I completed Middle East Scoring for a 6VP swing to the USSR. USA - responded by playing The China Card for 5OPs (all in Asia) Philippines, N.Korea and S.Korea (2).

2.5 USSR - I played the Five Year Plan for 3OPs as I had only two other cards left, neither of which would have given the US an event to play. Afghanistan (2) and N.Korea. USA - Played Blockade for 1OP in Indonesia and triggering the USSR event on the card "Unless the US immediately discards a card with an Operations value of 3 or more, remove all US Influence from West Germany." The US discarded Warsaw Pact Formed.

NORAD Satellite

2.6 USSR - Romanian Abdication for 1OP in N.Korea. USA - played the NORAD event. "Add 1 US Influence to a single country containing US Influence, at the end of each Action Round, if Canada is US-controlled and the DEFCON level moved to 2 during that Action Round. This Event is cancelled by the “#42 – Quagmire” Event." A scary card!

END of Turn #2 At this point, even with the NORAD card in play, I felt that the USSR were too far ahead and that the game wouldn't reach the half-way point.

11VP lead to USSR

Turn #3

The discard was shuffled into the deck and I lucked out drawing the Middle East Scoring card again. Not wanting to waste any time I played it as my Headline event...

Headlines - A USSR attempt at Middle East Scoring was cancelled by Defectors! Grrrr!

3.1 USSR - Decolonization played for the event to "Add 1 USSR Influence to each of any 4 countries in Africa and/or Southeast Asia." Australia, Indonesia, Philippines and Vietnam selected. USA - Red Scare/Purge "All Operations cards played by the opponent, for the remainder of this turn, receive -1 to their Operations value" a nasty one for the beginning of a turn for me :(

India/Pakistan War

3.2 USSR - Nuclear Test Ban played for 4OPs (NET 3OPs with Red Scare/Purge from last turn) all OPs played in Asia to wrestle control back for the Soviets. USA - Indo-Pakistani War another killer card from the US as they roll a "6" to take control of Pakistan, gain 2VPs and 2 on the military track!

3.3 USSR - I had to come back in Asia and played The China Card to coup in Pakistan taking it back from US control. USA - Independent Reds for 2OPs in Malaysia.

3.4 USSR - I was quickly running out of options and had to play the Marshall Plan (US event) for 4OPs (NET 3OPs) all going into India. The Marshall Plan event allowed the US to add 1 influence in UK, France, Finland, Austria, Sweden, Spain and Denmark. Ouch! USA - Formosan Resolution "If this card’s Event is in effect, Taiwan will be treated as a Battleground country, for scoring purposes only, if Taiwan is US controlled when the Asia Scoring Card is played. This Event is cancelled after the US has played the “#6 – The China Card” card."

3.5 USSR - Asia Scoring for a 5VP swing to the USSR. The US were just too late in there response to the Soviet build-up in Asia. USA - Warsaw Pact for a coup in Pakistan, no change though.

Duck & Cover gives US 3VPs

3.6 USSR - Containment (US event) for 3OPs (NET 2OPs) in Iran. US resolved the Containment  event, but the +1 OPs for remained of this turn would be of little use.  USA - Duck & Cover "Degrade the DEFCON level by 1. The US receives VP equal to 5 minus the current DEFCON level." giving the US player 3VPs.  

END of Turn #3 Both of us scored 5VPs each in turn #3, but it was the low DEFCON level that was worrying me as the NORAD card was in play and the US looked likely to benefit from it in Turn #4. 

11VP lead to USSR

Turn #4

I'd drawn Europe Scoring, but it would be Africa taking centre stage in Turn #4.

Lee Harvey Oswald

Headlines - The US reveal NATO as their headline "The USSR cannot make Coup Attempts or Realignment rolls against any US controlled countries in Europe." which pretty much put me on the back foot for any European scoring that round. I played Lone Gunman to reveal the US player's hand. He had the Africa Scoring card so I used my 1OP in Algeria.

4.1 USSR - I played How I Learned to Stop Worrying to move the DEFCON level to "5" and protect myself from the NORAD card in play. This also gave me 5 military OPs. USA - Colonial Rear Guards to add influence in South Africa, Angola, Zaire and Nigeria. A big play ahead of African Scoring.

4.2 USSR - Needing to get some OPs in Africa I offloaded Alliance for Progress for 3OPs (Algeria and Saharan States), but giving the US player 1VP from the event. USA - Used Shuttle Diplomacy to coup in Algeria resulting in a -1 to USSR influence there.

4.3 USSR - Europe wasn't going to get any better for me so I played Europe Scoring which was tied at 5VPs each. USA - Coup in Algeria again (DEFCON back to 3!), but no change in Algeria due to US rolling a "1".

4.4 USSR - 4OPs from Flower Power to place influence in Algeria and Nigeria. USA - Coup in Nigeria pushing DEFCON to "2" and triggering the NORAD effect to boost US influence across the board. I needed to do something about this soon!

4.5 USSR - Used UN Intervention to cancel US event The Voice of America for 2OPs (Cameron and Dominican Republic) USA - Made a mistake in playing Africa Scoring early (not enough "non-battleground countries" to take domination), but US still came out ahead by 5VPs to 2VPs.

Nixon In China

4.6 USSR - 1OP in Guatamala USA - Nixon Plays the China Card "...If the US already has the “The China Card” card, the US receives 2 VP." They did and were boosted by a further 2VPs.

4.7 USSR - 1OP in Cuba USA - 1OP in Panama.

END of Turn #4 Momentum switched to the US this turn by a 13VPs to 7VPs margin. This could have be worse for me if African scoring had of gone to plan for MrB. NORAD card will kill me if I don't get rid of it, so not looking as rosy in the Soviet garden!

5VP lead to USSR

Turn #5

Quagmire! I'd managed to draw the card to remove NORAD, but couldn't afford for it to be cancelled. I also had two scoring cards, SE Asia and South American Scoring.

Headline - I played ABM Treaty to improve DEFCON level by 1 (to 4) and get 4OPs, which I spent in N.Korea and Thailand. GaryB played Our Man in Tehran to look at the top five cards of the draw pile. He discarded 3 cards from those selected.

5.1 USSR - Quagmire, cancelling NORAD effect and forcing the US to discard a 2+ OPs card from the next Action Round and make a D6 roll to remove the Quagmire effect. USA - Coup in Mexico, no effect.

5.2 USSR - Coup in Panama, reducing US influence there to 1. USA - Played The China Card to bump Cuban influence up to "4".

The Cuban Missile Crisis

5.3 USSR - In FIDEL I had the perfect response to the US build-up in Cuba. All US influence there was removed and USSR gained enough "2" to control it. USA - Tensions in Cuba would explode with the play of the Cuban Missile Crisis "Set the DEFCON level to 2. Any Coup Attempts by your opponent, for the remainder of this turn, will result in Global Thermonuclear War. Your opponent will lose the game. This card’s Event may be cancelled, at any time, if the USSR removes 2 Influence from Cuba or the US removes 2 Influence from West Germany or Turkey."

5.4 USSR - 1OP in Indonesia. USA - The Korean War for 2OPs triggering the USSR event. "North Korea invades South Korea. Roll a die and subtract (-1) from the die roll for every US controlled country adjacent to South Korea. On a modified die roll of 4-6, the USSR receives 2 VP and replaces all US Influence in South Korea with USSR Influence. The USSR adds 2 to its Military Operations Track." It all goes well for the Soviets and they move up 2VPs!

5.5 USSR - 2OPs in Central America USA - Successfully launch a satellite for 2VPs.

 

5.6 USSR - SE Asia scoring. I made a mistake here reading the card as "Asia Scoring", but still swing the points by 5VPs to 2VPs. USA - Build upon their space race success and send a chimp  into space. They can now play two space race cards per turn and the Soviets are getting left behind.

5.7 USSR - South America Scoring - no impact as no influence held their by either superpower. USA - 1OP for influence.

8VP lead to USSR

 
 












State of the War
Following a runaway start the USSR had been pegged back considerably, but still forged out a significant 8VP lead at the half-way stage. I think the US player will struggle to close this gap enough to win, but who knows what lies in the card draws ahead. From the very first turn this game gripped me and I was immersed in the Cold War theme. Loving it!

Turn #6

Headline - GaryB played Ussuri River Skirmish to claim the China card from me, face-up and ready to play. In return I played The Cambridge Five, but he had no scoring cards to be revealed.

6.1 USSR - We Will Bury You, "Degrading the DEFCON level by 1. Unless the #32 UN Intervention card is played as an Event on the US’s next action round, the USSR receives 3 VP". USA - SALT Negotiations "Improve the DEFCON level by 2. For the remainder of the turn, both players receive -1 to all Coup Attempt rolls". He also claimed the Red Scare/Purge card.

6.2 USSR - Ask Not What Your Country… played for 3Ops to gain 2 influence in Panama. The associated US event was triggered allowing GaryB to discard three cards and draw three replacements. USA - China Card for Ops to bring US to 3 influence (=USSR) in Cuba.

Finale
Everything remained tight into turn 7, but the USSR had enough VPs to win the game with the late war card Wargames! Twilight Struggle is a top game.

 

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