REALLY OUT TO GET ME, TOO! -- JRP vs Bartheart on Twilight Struggle PC (DONE)

Started by JasonPratt, April 17, 2016, 10:52:42 AM

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JasonPratt

TURN FIVE -- ROUND 5

Somewhat to my surprise, I find I'm not very motivated to just let Bart take Africa unopposed and harvest a ton of points out of it. Especially since if I stay the course, I'm already going to be sacrificing another 3 point loss for having run no military ops this Turn.

I could play my Portugese Decolonization card, which gives me 2 influence automatically in Angola and the Southeast African States (a single territory on the map), both for control currently; but I decide to play its 2 points for a coup instead.

Not least because there is literally no way I can roll something that doesn't help me here. Even rolling a 1 will remove his influence at least!




A 3, like that, gives me the least solid control, but it's a solid control: he'll have to burn 4 influence to break it. This pumps the DefClock down to 2, and with 2 Milops I'm safe for the Turn that way.

Still, he's well ahead of me in Africa and will no doubt score well when that time comes. One of my cards will give him even more influence in Africa, since it's his event -- I have to decide whether I'm playing that one or another one for the space race: which one for ops will be the least-bad effect?

Either way, thanks to my intervention in Africa, here's the least-bad result of that:




And yes, that could have been much worse. I gave myself a few points and took away a few of his, and...




...and so now he's ahead only by 2 instead of 6 or something. phew?
ICEBREAKER THESIS CHRONOLOGY! -- Victor Suvorov's Stalin Grand Strategy theory, in lots and lots of chronological order...
Dawn of Armageddon -- narrative AAR for Dawn of War: Soulstorm: Ultimate Apocalypse
Survive Harder! -- Two season narrative AAR, an Amazon Blood Bowl career.
PanzOrc Corpz Generals -- Fantasy Wars narrative AAR, half a combined campaign.
Khazâd du-bekâr! -- narrative dwarf AAR for LotR BfME2 RotWK campaign.
RobO Q Campaign Generator -- archived classic CMBB/CMAK tool!

JasonPratt

TURN FIVE -- ROUND 6

With the game helpfully reminding me that I've lost track of how many Rounds I really have left this Turn...




...my internal debate about which card will be least bad to activate for Bart's event is rendered moot: I can safely play South America scoring (which I do this Round) for no points either way, and safely play the worst of those 2-point cards on the Space Race next Round (probably), and I'll have two cards left in my hand at the end of the Turn.

This plan is so good, that by sheer telepathy Bart decides to follow it, too, except first. So not really following it. I guess.

Anyway, he discards one of my new Middle War 2-point cards (which would activate Castro), and earns another 2 Victory Points thereby when he rolls low enough to win an advancement on the Space track.

Since this also unlocks his ability to sacrifice two cards per Turn to space, I'm going to guess that next Round will be pretty spacey...
ICEBREAKER THESIS CHRONOLOGY! -- Victor Suvorov's Stalin Grand Strategy theory, in lots and lots of chronological order...
Dawn of Armageddon -- narrative AAR for Dawn of War: Soulstorm: Ultimate Apocalypse
Survive Harder! -- Two season narrative AAR, an Amazon Blood Bowl career.
PanzOrc Corpz Generals -- Fantasy Wars narrative AAR, half a combined campaign.
Khazâd du-bekâr! -- narrative dwarf AAR for LotR BfME2 RotWK campaign.
RobO Q Campaign Generator -- archived classic CMBB/CMAK tool!

JasonPratt

TURN FIVE -- ROUND 7 of 7

This will be our final round for Turn 5, and will roughly approximate the halfway point of a full game (if one of us doesn't auto-win or auto-lose meanwhile). Although since this is also the first of the extended round turns, maybe the halfway point is actually somewhere next Turn? Well, I did qualify that as "roughly".

What's especially rough, is that with Bart's sheer luck in the Space Race continuing last Round, he got to the first man in space position, which gives him an instant 2 more Victory Points, raising his score to 4 ahead of me.

Even if I get there eventually myself -- and when I sacrifice Colonial Rearguards to the discard pile for my own Space roll, I also move ahead one notch for my final Round here -- I won't get any VPs myself.

Worse, whoever gets that far in the race can subsequently play two cards on the space track per Turn, and I have a feeling Bart is going to do just that. PLEASE ROLL HIGH PLEASE ROLL HIGH...!




...oh. Well, he couldn't, because he only had 1-star cards left out of whatever he wanted to save for later.

So he puts a point of ops in... Panama? Okay, that got him control of a battleground state in Central America anyway.

So ends this Turn, with Barth ahead by 4!
ICEBREAKER THESIS CHRONOLOGY! -- Victor Suvorov's Stalin Grand Strategy theory, in lots and lots of chronological order...
Dawn of Armageddon -- narrative AAR for Dawn of War: Soulstorm: Ultimate Apocalypse
Survive Harder! -- Two season narrative AAR, an Amazon Blood Bowl career.
PanzOrc Corpz Generals -- Fantasy Wars narrative AAR, half a combined campaign.
Khazâd du-bekâr! -- narrative dwarf AAR for LotR BfME2 RotWK campaign.
RobO Q Campaign Generator -- archived classic CMBB/CMAK tool!

JasonPratt

TURN SIX -- ROUND 0

Bart did a great job that last Turn, taking a 2 point lead from me and making it a 4 point lead in his favor instead!

Partly this is because I have settled on a Europe First strategy, foisting my points and events there whenever feasibly possible, leveraging my huge lead in Asia as a distraction for him to put points and events there (and in Africa as it turns out) rather than Europe.

As the game continues, that will bite me more and more in the butt, because he can get minor leads everywhere else in the world which will feed him points continuously the whole game unless I do something about it. Case in point, his final round last Turn dropped a mere point of influence into Panama, but that's going to give him a few VPs during any Central American score unless and until I nerf it.

Which I'm not going to do, not yet at least. Partly because Europe First, and partly because the cards I'm dealt at the start of this Turn are mostly in his favor and kind of rubbish for me!




That hand is legitimately horrible, and my only solace is that maybe he drew something equally horrid full of red stars! Maybe. But maybe not. Wait, did I have a lot of red last turn? I've slept since then.

Anyway for Round 0 (the Headline Phase), we each have to play a card for its event, and since I mostly have cards of his that would hurt me, and/or which I'd rather play for Ops if I have to use them, that leaves me with exactly three options.

1.) Latin American Death Squads. Only useful as an event if I'm going to be doing coups this turn in Latin America. Which I'm probably not.

2.) Asia Scoring. My lead there is tenuous enough that I'm worried about what he might trigger first to ruin a scoring attempt -- quite correctly as it happens! Better to play this when I'm sure of the result.

By deduction that leaves...




I thought hard about spreading out 3 influence in the region, but eventually decided to just focus on putting 2 in South Africa, since this brings me closer to taking his control away there.




Before that happens, his selected event triggers:




And now Godzilla officially helps protect Japan. More specifically this instantly drops NO LESS THAN EIGHT influence points on Japan, allowing him to take control and permenantly preventing me from making coup or re-alignment attempts there. Ugh.




This also instantly flips Asia as a whole back to his favor, so had I tried to score Asia for my headline (which counts as a 1-power event) I would have given him more points. Ugh.
ICEBREAKER THESIS CHRONOLOGY! -- Victor Suvorov's Stalin Grand Strategy theory, in lots and lots of chronological order...
Dawn of Armageddon -- narrative AAR for Dawn of War: Soulstorm: Ultimate Apocalypse
Survive Harder! -- Two season narrative AAR, an Amazon Blood Bowl career.
PanzOrc Corpz Generals -- Fantasy Wars narrative AAR, half a combined campaign.
Khazâd du-bekâr! -- narrative dwarf AAR for LotR BfME2 RotWK campaign.
RobO Q Campaign Generator -- archived classic CMBB/CMAK tool!

JasonPratt

TURN SIX -- ROUND 1

While I presciently avoided giving Bart any free points during Round 0, I'm left with an increasingly bitter choice. I will definitely have to play Asia scoring sometime this turn, which will give him VPs currently, or else I'll lose. But my cards are crappy, hurtful, or both, so I'll either have to give up fighting for Europe this Turn, or let him score hard here -- and pretty much anywhere else he himself may have scoring cards for!




I decide to split the difference, and stay the course for now with an option to focus on Asia once I've had a bit of time to consider my options for improving that situation before scoring it: since some of my abilities to play influence will mess with my European game, I figure I should take my last really safe move there first and then work out this crappy hand. So the influence I could have used to set up Latin American Death Squads goes to tick up my influence in West Germany by 1 point.




Which Bart instantly more-than-nerfs because of course he has something like ABM Treaty in his hand right now:




This thing, which not being a unique event can and probably will come back around at least once more this game, if we go the distance (and which to be fair I might get a chance to play whenifever it does), essentially lets Bart reduce the Defclock and also play the Op power however he wants.

Which he plays on Italy and WestGerm.




He can't break my control in Italy yet, but he can push West Germany farther out of my reach.

I'm trying to imagine how much more hopeless Europe must look from his viewpoint as a deep sea of red right now, but all I can think about is the massive VP infusion he's going to be otherwise getting in the near future...
ICEBREAKER THESIS CHRONOLOGY! -- Victor Suvorov's Stalin Grand Strategy theory, in lots and lots of chronological order...
Dawn of Armageddon -- narrative AAR for Dawn of War: Soulstorm: Ultimate Apocalypse
Survive Harder! -- Two season narrative AAR, an Amazon Blood Bowl career.
PanzOrc Corpz Generals -- Fantasy Wars narrative AAR, half a combined campaign.
Khazâd du-bekâr! -- narrative dwarf AAR for LotR BfME2 RotWK campaign.
RobO Q Campaign Generator -- archived classic CMBB/CMAK tool!

JasonPratt

TURN SIX -- ROUND 2

Friends, no matter how much of a genius I am at playing out a crappy hand, it's still a crappy hand!

Let's see, what are my options?

0.) Sacrifice something to the Space Race: no doubt coming; but I'll have to balance that with the need to keep powering on Europe as much as possible and/or deal with Bart's sudden Godzilla-powered swing in Asia.

1.) Allow Bart, at his choice, to completely eliminate all my influence in one European country I don't control. He'd be as much of a fool not to wipe out my influence in West Germany, as I was to play 6 or 7 points in Canada so far instead of, for example, WEST GERMANY! {smacking my dang head} For this princley sum, I will be allowed to put 1 influence somewhere. Nor can I sacrifice this to the Space Race eventually, so it's going to be sitting around in my hand unless or until I have to choose between this and something worse.

2.) Give Bart 1 VP automatically, and also three influence scattered in and around Israel, while permanently eliminating the event for the Arab/Israli war. For permission to use 2 Ops somewhere. Jesus would be admittedly in favor of this, but I'm playing the godless Commies, so... Lenin wept? Something like that.

3.) Give Barth two instant Victory Points, in order to play 2 Ops somewhere legal.

4.) Give Bart 5 VPs just straight out. For no gain by me at all (except that I won't instantly lose the game a few rounds from now).

5.) Give Bart a few more VPs just straight out whenever I give him 5 VPs just straight out, in order to play 3 Ops somewhere. Ugh.

6.) Give Barth any number of instant VPs, in order to play 3 Ops somewhere legal.

7.) Play 1 Op somewhere before Bart has a chance to score VPs on me from doing so later.

I suspect you can sense a theme here...

Only an absolute and utter genius would be able to play this hand without complete disaster this Turn, but it's going to be a disaster regardless.

But, with some cleverness, and a little luck, maybe not a complete disaster.




That card could be complete disaster in itself, but Bart only has one (1) such country in those regions right now. Under the circumstances, trading him a VP for 3 Ops seems like a bargain, and this card leaves the game forever before he can make it hurt me a lot worse.

So, can I use those 3 Ops to keep him from beating me senseless when I have to throw down Asia Scoring? And if so, how?

The key I think is here:




In hindsight, I maybe should have tried a coup there, but I forgot that the Defcon ban against currently trying coups in "Asia" doesn't affect "Southeast Asia". A detail I may make use of next Round.

Anyway, Thailand there counts as a battlground state in both Asia and Southeast Asia, where he's also way ahead (and for which he might have a scoring card himself for all I know). And it's a place I can get to thanks to my presence (and control of) Vietnam; and I can break his control there with this card, plus making it a little costly for him to re-establish.




Notice that his blue bars in Asia and SEAsia both dropped back significantly, practically to a draw in Asia.

Now, a lot depends on what cards he plays and where for his next two plays; including if he throws the China card and where, which is extra-effective in Asia. Because my little strategy here isn't done yet, although neither is my pain this Turn by a long shot.




To quote Evie from the Mummy movie trilogy, "You aren't helllllping!" :P

Also not helping: Bart sacrificing another 3 point card to buff up India and Pakistan.




I have a feeling I'm going to look back on this time as when I should have kept pumping points into West Germany...
ICEBREAKER THESIS CHRONOLOGY! -- Victor Suvorov's Stalin Grand Strategy theory, in lots and lots of chronological order...
Dawn of Armageddon -- narrative AAR for Dawn of War: Soulstorm: Ultimate Apocalypse
Survive Harder! -- Two season narrative AAR, an Amazon Blood Bowl career.
PanzOrc Corpz Generals -- Fantasy Wars narrative AAR, half a combined campaign.
Khazâd du-bekâr! -- narrative dwarf AAR for LotR BfME2 RotWK campaign.
RobO Q Campaign Generator -- archived classic CMBB/CMAK tool!

JasonPratt

TURN SIX -- ROUND 3

I had been planning to try a coup in Southeast Asia this Round, presumably in Thailand. But I quickly learn that the Defcon rule restricting coups in Asia applies to SEAsia, too. Argh.

That leaves me with a bitter no-choice.




None of my other cards are strong enough to make any difference; but playing this card anywhere in main Asia might as well be doing nothing, because its event (triggering for Bart) knocks off one of my battleground states for the next Asia Scoring! (Or the next MEast, but that can't score this Turn.)

What I can do with it, is take control of Thailand, which will grant me a slight edge in SEasia specifically.




An edge that will likely be gone anyway whenever that scoring card gets here. In hindsight, I might have been better off putting the points in WestGerm and Italy, sigh.




GRAAAAGGHH! Radio should be outlawed as un... un... UNPEOPLEIC!!

If you're guessing to yourself, "Self, the only place that makes sense other than Europe for Bart to place those negative-points is in Asia," then you yourself are correct.




I could just spit.
ICEBREAKER THESIS CHRONOLOGY! -- Victor Suvorov's Stalin Grand Strategy theory, in lots and lots of chronological order...
Dawn of Armageddon -- narrative AAR for Dawn of War: Soulstorm: Ultimate Apocalypse
Survive Harder! -- Two season narrative AAR, an Amazon Blood Bowl career.
PanzOrc Corpz Generals -- Fantasy Wars narrative AAR, half a combined campaign.
Khazâd du-bekâr! -- narrative dwarf AAR for LotR BfME2 RotWK campaign.
RobO Q Campaign Generator -- archived classic CMBB/CMAK tool!

JasonPratt

TURN SIX -- ROUND 4

Is it time to give Bart more Victory Points yet? Oh, yes it is!?

Well, I can give him 1 point and some key influence in and around Israel, or 2 points. I'll probably end up doing both in order to try to stop the hemorraging here, but with faint whiffs of something like desperate optimism I go with...




This ticks his score up to 5, and he gets a scattering of points in the ME. Nothing for control, but it isn't helpful to me, that's for sure!

For this, I'm able to put a measely two ops in Asia somewhere, and there's only one real choice:




I've got to put them in the Koreas, because I need both battleground states back to avoid the dang Kitchen Debates giving him more points!

This hand is migraine inducing.

Bart instantly finds a way to ramp up the nausea:




Now, when he uses that card for coup points, he triggers it in my favor so I do get to put 3 influence in Central America. For all the fat lot of good that'll do me -- but okay, fine, I'll take control of a couple of states there.




Mexico and Nicaragua specifically.

But when he coups Angola, it doesn't even matter that he's successful at throwing me out. Because the attempt at all brings the Defclock down to 2, which simultaneously prevents me from trying any coups myself this Turn -- and just like that, he has secured another 2 points for himself at the end of the Turn! Because I'll have a deficit in military ops, and no cards to help me with it.
ICEBREAKER THESIS CHRONOLOGY! -- Victor Suvorov's Stalin Grand Strategy theory, in lots and lots of chronological order...
Dawn of Armageddon -- narrative AAR for Dawn of War: Soulstorm: Ultimate Apocalypse
Survive Harder! -- Two season narrative AAR, an Amazon Blood Bowl career.
PanzOrc Corpz Generals -- Fantasy Wars narrative AAR, half a combined campaign.
Khazâd du-bekâr! -- narrative dwarf AAR for LotR BfME2 RotWK campaign.
RobO Q Campaign Generator -- archived classic CMBB/CMAK tool!

JasonPratt

TURN SIX -- ROUND 5

With Bart now 6 points ahead, and about to be considerably more, my main hope is that he can't finish playing his game and has to concede 6 days from now! -- or no more than 12, assuming I take an equal amount of time for my rounds.

Because man my hand burns.

Do I score Asia now or wait to try a 2 point card as influence there? -- which will only help me reduce his increase by a point while giving him 2 VPs? Do I play the Kitchen Debates for an influence point while it's safe to do so without giving him more VPs? Do I put my 2 point card in the space race?

After very much deliberation, I sacrifice:




Since the card triggers in his favor, I'm giving him 2 VPs. But since I can play the influence here...




...then he'll score one less point when I have to play my card (assuming nothing more happens until then).

So... so I gave him 2 points and took away 1, so... so I gave him 1 point he wouldn't have gotten if I had played that on the Space Race instead.

... .......

...uh, that's good??

Well, maybe. By doing so I actually took a lead in Southeast Asia, and that scoring card also has to be coming up soon. On the balance I may have improved my overall point-loss from this terrible, terrible hand. And also, not incidentally, by taking control of Thailand (again) I've made it a little less likely I'll have to feed him more points when I play the Kitchen Debates.

This will all be moot if he throws the China card at me, and now that I think of it I may wish I had scored Asia this Round...

Fortunately, Bart doesn't make my life worse by playing my Comintern 3-point card for the Space Race which, consequently, doesn't trigger the event for me, and incidentally winning another lucky advance on that track.

...no, you read that right: that did not in fact make my life worse. It didn't help, but not worse.
ICEBREAKER THESIS CHRONOLOGY! -- Victor Suvorov's Stalin Grand Strategy theory, in lots and lots of chronological order...
Dawn of Armageddon -- narrative AAR for Dawn of War: Soulstorm: Ultimate Apocalypse
Survive Harder! -- Two season narrative AAR, an Amazon Blood Bowl career.
PanzOrc Corpz Generals -- Fantasy Wars narrative AAR, half a combined campaign.
Khazâd du-bekâr! -- narrative dwarf AAR for LotR BfME2 RotWK campaign.
RobO Q Campaign Generator -- archived classic CMBB/CMAK tool!

JasonPratt

TURN SIX -- ROUND 6

With this hellish Turn slouching inevitably toward its end, I decide that on the balance I'm better off risking that he'll do something to activate my Kitchen Debates next round, than that he'll do something to make my scoring worse next round.

So I score this round.




And 5 more points to Bart. With at least another 2 points on the way, maybe another 4. Not even counting what he might do the last two rounds himself! -- he can play 2 cards per Turn on the Race now (so can I), and his luck has been ridiculous so far. If he jumps into space again, he'd score even more VPs.

If he had the China card ready to play (and as far as I can tell he does), he blew the chance to make his Asia score (even) better. But he could still plop its influence all over somewhere else...?




No, he plopped it all into Southeast Asia. Thank Goooooorky {whew} that I played my scoring card when I did! It could have been worse.

Which begs the question of what he's going to do for his final Round...
ICEBREAKER THESIS CHRONOLOGY! -- Victor Suvorov's Stalin Grand Strategy theory, in lots and lots of chronological order...
Dawn of Armageddon -- narrative AAR for Dawn of War: Soulstorm: Ultimate Apocalypse
Survive Harder! -- Two season narrative AAR, an Amazon Blood Bowl career.
PanzOrc Corpz Generals -- Fantasy Wars narrative AAR, half a combined campaign.
Khazâd du-bekâr! -- narrative dwarf AAR for LotR BfME2 RotWK campaign.
RobO Q Campaign Generator -- archived classic CMBB/CMAK tool!

JasonPratt

TURN SIX -- ROUND 7

With Bart having held off on his China Card until nearly the end of the Turn, and with one Round to go, I'm more than a little worried he already has the Southeast Asia scoring card.

Which would be bad. Not least because it didn't even occur to me he might have it! -- consequently, while I thought about putting my 1 point of influence from... uh...




...from this card somewhere -- and by the way, in choosing to put his points in SEAsia, he couldn't increase his battleground state control, so I don't give up 2 more VPs triggering this event --

--
---

-- sorry, I lost my train of thought.

Um. Anyway, while I thought about putting my 1 point of influence into Thailand to regain control there, which would guarantee Bart only gained 1 VP if he goes for the score this Round, I ended up putting it into Iran for controlling it instead. Again.




My idea here was partly that there wasn't much to spend the point on in Europe (aside from making Italy safer from losing control), and that my point would go farther in the Middle East struggle right now than in Africa or the lower Americas. But mostly it just didn't occur to me that his recent plays added up to him holding the SEAsia score card for the final Round.

So with a cringe I wait to see my fate and... um... wa..?




...he, uh. He doesn't score SEAsia.

Weird.

Also, I see the new update has added a few graphical touches. Personally I'm not a fan of the big EVENT    blotching out the card's photo -- not when the card really is being played for its event. When played for influence or for Space or for coup points, then the photo is of no more relevance than the text rules, but when it's an event then the photo becomes relevant just like the text rules. Nope, don't like it, not at all. >:( >:( >:(

Also not liking:





Being kicked out of Egypt, and having to fight against an extra point of control if I want back in!

(Apologies for the low res shot that time; I got distracted for reasons I'll explain soon, and so never got a legitimate zoom of the map there.)

But it could have been worse. So with a final wince of watching the game hand Bart another 2 points because I didn't get any military ops going this Turn, we segue into Turn 7! -- with me 15 points behind.
ICEBREAKER THESIS CHRONOLOGY! -- Victor Suvorov's Stalin Grand Strategy theory, in lots and lots of chronological order...
Dawn of Armageddon -- narrative AAR for Dawn of War: Soulstorm: Ultimate Apocalypse
Survive Harder! -- Two season narrative AAR, an Amazon Blood Bowl career.
PanzOrc Corpz Generals -- Fantasy Wars narrative AAR, half a combined campaign.
Khazâd du-bekâr! -- narrative dwarf AAR for LotR BfME2 RotWK campaign.
RobO Q Campaign Generator -- archived classic CMBB/CMAK tool!

JasonPratt

TURN SEVEN -- ROUND 0

To repeat: Bart's ahead by 15 points as we go into Turn Seven. Bart gets a special advantage now because of his space-racing, but first we both get distracted for a few minutes by the discovery that for the first time we're both in the game simultaneously! :D







Having fulfilled my quota of fun for the night, I get back to the business of losing this fake political struggle.

The final cards are dealt from the deck, and the Early War cards are reshuffled back in with the discards for continuing the deal.




This hand doesn't suck nearly as much, so I feel pretty good about my chances. I can keep 2 cards at the end, and sacrifice 2 to the Space Race now, and that leaves only events I care about! Yay!

Unfortunately, few of the cards are going to help me directly in Europe or Asia, and not in any useful way in Europe at all. But that's fine, I can throw influence a lot.

First though, we've got Round 0, the Headline Round, so I need to pick an actual event to trigger. After carefully checking even the US cards to see if any of their events would help me in a backhanded way (but they don't, they're all poison), I eventually choose:

 


In Soviet Cuba, cigars roll you!

(... because it's a totalitarian depostism. And they routinely tortured people. Probably with cigars. Because those are common and famous in Cuba. ... ...... okay, moving on.)

Bart reached a mannnn innnn spaaaace first during the Space Race, though, so until when-if-ever I catch up he gets to see my Headline choice (once I've finalized it -- the game gives you plenty of chances not to truly play your cards) before choosing his own.

Because I'm stupid (I'll explain later in Round 1), I figure he'll surely play the SEAsia score card now. But he doesn't. Because he couldn't possibly have the card. Or maybe he does now but he couldn't have had it then. (...I promise this makes sense, but I'll explain later etc.)

Instead, he unleashes

the

ULTRAPOPE!





I can't exactly blame him. Saint JP2 was a dang good Pope. Um, so to speak. I feel lucky the card doesn't read something like "US instantly wins whenever 'REAGAN ELECTED' is also played! Or on reaching Turn 10!"




As it is, having Poland slapped away from me hurts a little. But Bart needs all the help he can get in Europe, so hey! -- an opportunity for prayer! O:-)

Oh, and here's my result:




With this, Turn 7 can officially start, and --

-- ----

-- wait. Wait, am I about to score huge in Central America?!?
ICEBREAKER THESIS CHRONOLOGY! -- Victor Suvorov's Stalin Grand Strategy theory, in lots and lots of chronological order...
Dawn of Armageddon -- narrative AAR for Dawn of War: Soulstorm: Ultimate Apocalypse
Survive Harder! -- Two season narrative AAR, an Amazon Blood Bowl career.
PanzOrc Corpz Generals -- Fantasy Wars narrative AAR, half a combined campaign.
Khazâd du-bekâr! -- narrative dwarf AAR for LotR BfME2 RotWK campaign.
RobO Q Campaign Generator -- archived classic CMBB/CMAK tool!

JasonPratt

TURN SEVEN -- ROUND 1

Wow... I don't know when the various scoring cards are coming out, but suddenly I'm not only way ahead in Central America, I've got two battleground states on the US's border! Yeesh, that's how I wasted points in Canada and probably lost the game already by doing so! How did this happen??!?

...and can I keep it up? And should I?

At this point I still expect Bart to play the SEAsia scoring card any moment, because I'm fool enough not to realize that if he had had that card in his hand, he would have already lost the game for NOT playing it last Turn! -- which the game would have stridently warned him about!

But it doesn't matter, because he could have been dealt it this Turn, and he was clearly setting up for it. So the gamble still remains. But I figure that, with the Turn just starting, there's a better chance that he'll work on improving Southeast Asia even more before going for the score. So I take the gamble:




Ah hahahahahaha! -- just kidding, I'm not completely stupid! Bart's ahead 15 freaking points, and I don't recall clearly how many he has to score to win but he has to be at least in chipping distance from the hole! No way I'm going to let him just have Southeast Asia for the points.

This leads to the question of how best to add my 5 points of influence (because it's the Asia card in Asia): not as a coup or realignment because the Defclock is still too low, but influence would be more effective anyway.

After dithering around with a few tests I finally decide on:




Two in Thailand, two in Laos/Cambodia (one each?), both to gain control (or regain for Thailand), and the last point in Taiwan because I can't feasibly or possibly put it anywhere else in Asia and as the 5th point it has to be put in Asia. (I'd have put it in Burma, but I didn't have influence next door to Burma at the start of the Round.)

SEAsia scores differently than other scoring regions, including Asia overall -- which this improvement also helps me with, not-incidentally, although not likely any time soon (although who knows? Even though I scored Asia only a couple of rounds ago, we've had a reshuffle since then so Bart could have it again already!) Each side gets 1 point for controlling each of any of the SEAsia states, except Thailand which scores its controller 2 points. Burma would have helped me with that, but Taiwan won't. But 1 point couldn't be placed anywhere Bart controls, and couldn't help me anywhere else I could reach. Eh, maybe I should have put it in Afghanistan, which for this game counts a bit insanely as Asia instead of, culturally, the Middle East. (Then again so does Pakistan, so who knows?) That would have given me a slight foothold of protection if Bart tried to score an extra point by controlling one of my border states.

Anyway. In old Siam it goes, for nothing, and more importantly I now have a contolling interest in Southeast Asia! If Bart wants to score here, he'll have to fight for it!

Which he promptly does.




Not surprisingly, he puts that influence into Laos/Cambodia, to break my control, and then the 3rd point into Burma -- he can't control it yet but he has a start (and he couldn't have feasibly put the spare point anywhere better).

 


This rather annoyingly breaks my lead in SEAsia, but eh I'd be okay with a tie here. Is it time for me to be evil somewhere else yet? Yes?
ICEBREAKER THESIS CHRONOLOGY! -- Victor Suvorov's Stalin Grand Strategy theory, in lots and lots of chronological order...
Dawn of Armageddon -- narrative AAR for Dawn of War: Soulstorm: Ultimate Apocalypse
Survive Harder! -- Two season narrative AAR, an Amazon Blood Bowl career.
PanzOrc Corpz Generals -- Fantasy Wars narrative AAR, half a combined campaign.
Khazâd du-bekâr! -- narrative dwarf AAR for LotR BfME2 RotWK campaign.
RobO Q Campaign Generator -- archived classic CMBB/CMAK tool!

JasonPratt

TURN SEVEN -- ROUND 2

In the previous Round, Bart and I with gigantic bowed backs bore up between us (thanks Chesterton!) a neutral tie in Southeast Asia. But more importantly, an investment I made a few whole Turns ago comes back to bite Bart's butt:

FLOWER

POWER!


(I'm too tired tonight to give that the multicolor it deserves, so just pretend you're on LSD and imagine that yourselves, thx.)

As long as that card's active (which may be for the whole rest of the game, I forget), Bart can't play various war cards without handing me a couple of victory points to do so. Even if he plays the cards for Ops! Doesn't matter if he uses the Operation points for influence, coups, or realignment: if he plays the cards in any way except on the Space Race, I get 2 VPs. Each time he does it. And several of those cards can come back for him to replay.

So when Bart played "Brush War" for influence points in Southeast Asia, it didn't matter that he didn't play the event itself: I still got 2 VPs!

Bart didn't realize that either, to be fair.

If anything manages to pull me back from the brink of loss, that'll be the card. Whew. Only down 13 points now! :P

With SEasia neutralized for the nonce, I decide now's the time to make my coming score in Central America even more crushing by eliminating the Panama points I had had to give to Bart last Turn:




Junta's a great card for the Western Hemisphere -- and not a unique event, so I might see it thrown against me eventually. I can instantly plop 2 influence into any Central or South American state, like for example Panama -- even though Bart has 2 points for control there -- and then attempt a coup anywhere from Mexico southward that I want. Such as in Panama where I just added 2 points of influence!

This card is like a little tac nuke.




A tac-nuke filtered through my luck for this game (thus autofailing), but I don't even care. For two reasons.

First, I still broke his control there, and I could still putt in later given an opportunity.

Second and more importantly:




Now Barth is locked into the same squeeze he put me in last Turn! I've got my two MilOps needed to match the new Defclock, but Bart doesn't yet, and aside from some special card abilities he won't be able to get them by couping because most places are locked down from couping until the Defclock calms down a little, and any coup now would trigger an auto-win for the other side launching a pre-emptive strike!

So while there are still a few ways around this, and some time to work on those ways if he has them, nominally I'm getting back those 2 points I had to give him last Turn for the same reason! This -- this is what justice tastes like. Mmmm...

It tastes like racy arms.

Or rather like an Arms Race played by Bart for influence points instead of the event. Where to? Duh:




To Thailand and Burma, of course.

Taking control away (again! :tickedoff: :tickedoff: :tickedoff:) in Thailand, and gaining it (for the first time) in Burma, joggles the potential score there (and in Asia again overall) back in his direction.
ICEBREAKER THESIS CHRONOLOGY! -- Victor Suvorov's Stalin Grand Strategy theory, in lots and lots of chronological order...
Dawn of Armageddon -- narrative AAR for Dawn of War: Soulstorm: Ultimate Apocalypse
Survive Harder! -- Two season narrative AAR, an Amazon Blood Bowl career.
PanzOrc Corpz Generals -- Fantasy Wars narrative AAR, half a combined campaign.
Khazâd du-bekâr! -- narrative dwarf AAR for LotR BfME2 RotWK campaign.
RobO Q Campaign Generator -- archived classic CMBB/CMAK tool!

JasonPratt

TURN SEVEN -- ROUND 3

If he has the scoring card for Southeast Asia and plays it now, he'd add another 3 points. Here's the new scoring potential art style, by the way.




Eh, it's okay, but newbies like me (and Bart) might be distracted by the central total and not notice the text behind it: like other scoring cards, this may not be held -- and that's my defense for not realizing Bart couldn't have had this card last Turn, or he'd have lost the game by not playing it in time! I couldn't 'see' the text there, so I thought the rule didn't apply to this card.

Relatedly, I can't see the other text easily, which does make a legitimate difference to how this card scores: it can only score once and then leaves the game, unlike the other Scorers.

Anyway, all signs point to Bart either having the card now, or still focusing entirely on trying to score here rather than, say, breaking my power in Europe where I could actually win the game outright!

But hey, he has succeeded in distracting me from Europe, since I can't afford to let him earn another big score or two in this area.

So I play my other 4 point card, the Red Purge / Scare, for influence, and take back Thailand and Laos/Cambo again, plus with my remaining 2 points breaking his control in Malaysia.




This puts me 1 point ahead in a potential region score, and that's good enough for me.




Hm, wonder where he'll put the influence this time? Well, I've still got two 3-point Soviet cards remaining, so I can keep scrapping for SEAsia if he wants until he's forced to score the thing, especially if he's down to playing 2 point cards!

...
.....

...oh wait. He played it as an event.

Huh. That's portentous...
ICEBREAKER THESIS CHRONOLOGY! -- Victor Suvorov's Stalin Grand Strategy theory, in lots and lots of chronological order...
Dawn of Armageddon -- narrative AAR for Dawn of War: Soulstorm: Ultimate Apocalypse
Survive Harder! -- Two season narrative AAR, an Amazon Blood Bowl career.
PanzOrc Corpz Generals -- Fantasy Wars narrative AAR, half a combined campaign.
Khazâd du-bekâr! -- narrative dwarf AAR for LotR BfME2 RotWK campaign.
RobO Q Campaign Generator -- archived classic CMBB/CMAK tool!