Our AAR of the new digital Twilight Struggle enters Turn 2 ~

Michael Eckenfels, 27 April 2016

PART 3

TURN 2, ROUND 3, USSR

In a dick move, the USSR player puts UN INTERVENTION out there, which means he can play another card and ignore the Event that would normally fire, if he played it solely for Ops. So that means a nice juicy US card is about to enter play.

Yep. DEFECTORS. This card can cancel a USSR Headline card (if played as a Headline itself). If played during normal AR (as this was), it would normally give me +1 VP, but since he played UN INTERVENTION, that was nullified.

He spends the resulting 2 Ops to place 2 Influence in Greece. Ouch.

TURN 2, ROUND 3, US

I’m realizing that my choices aren’t all that great. I need to get rid of that damned BLOCKADE* card, but I need a 3 Ops or higher card to do that with. It’s only 1 Op, but my CONTAINMENT* play earlier means it’ll be worth 2 instead. To get rid of the SUEZ CRISIS* card, which is worth 3 Ops, means sort of a win-win. I hope.

Resolving the Event, the game asks me which card I want to discard (if any). I of course choose the aforementioned SUEZ CRISIS*. I dodge a bullet for the moment, but this card could easily reappear later in the game.

The 2 Ops will give me +2 to a die roll for a Coup attempt…as well as give me some needed Mil Ops this Turn. The USSR already has 2 Mil Ops.

The game helpfully reminds me of the odds, as well as the total Ops I will have (2, because of the Headline Card’s +1). It looks like there’s a little better than a 50/50 chance of improving the situation in Iran, though disaster could always strike.

But…where to Coup? I need an easy win. I’m looking at you, Iran. With your Stability of 2, this means I’d need a result of 5 or 6 on a roll, but I’d get +2 to that roll…so I’d lose on a roll of 1 or 2 and win on a 3-6. What the hell. My luck can’t be that bad, right?

I roll a 5…surprise, it’s actually a good roll! Not the best outcome, but one of the better ones, to be sure. Iran loses all of its Commie influence and good old Western ideals have gotten a toe-hold there. This result has also given me +2 to my Mil Ops. Finally, something has gone the way of the West.

The DEFCON level goes to 4, but I’m not all that worried about it. From what I’ve studied, it seems that a lot of players like to keep the DEFCON level near 2, which eliminates the chance of their opponent playing a ‘suicide DEFCON’ card, which is basically a card that degrades the DEFCON level automatically. If a player did that on his AR, it would mean nuclear war breaks out, but it would be HIS fault. Small comfort.

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