This is entirely for fun, not profit, so I thought some of you Twilight Struggle fans might enjoy. And if you’re rated 1800 or so or higher and want to play one for the series, let me know. I’ll try to drop episodes on Friday afternoons.
Brian
I know I still have a lot to learn. I look forward to following the series.
I look forward to following the series. I’m still very new to the game and this will be fascinating to follow to get a better grasp of the hidden depths of gameplay.
Very nice video! I wish I could have my own Twilight Struggle opening with the Russian anthem!
About what is going to happen in the second turn (what an overkill hand, by the way!)… This is something I always wondered: given the volatility of US influence spendings in Middle East and assuming, for one reason or another, you aren’t kicked out of Egypt, will it be worth fighting for your place there for scoring it once?
If that question is stupid, I’ll say I have troubles setting up priorities, and I tend to give up theaters to get better positions elsewhere maybe too leisurely.
It’s not just getting into Egypt itself, it’s the ability to play through it into Libya (he can coup me in Libya, but then he isn’t couping me in Africa or somewhere else). Also, if I make it up to 2 in Egypt before Nasser comes, Nasser won’t remove me entirely just take me to 1 - and 1’s a reasonable place to be in a Soviet-controlled Egypt, because that means Sadat will take me directly to full control, making it an even more horrid card for him to have to play someday.
Having already survived the Europe and Asia scoring cards, the Middle East is the only card that’s definitely going to score again soon, so that makes it worth playing for the empty countries right now. The difference between him dominating (at least 4 points for him) and even a zero-point wash it significant and worth fighting for. Me dominating at this point is somewhat unlikely, but not out of the question, and that would be 4 more points difference.
The chances he ends up with Nasser in his hand next turn are approximately 1 in 3. If he gets it, he will headline it, and my 1 point gamble will have failed. If he doesn’t get it, my 1 point play will be threatening 2 countries, and he may have to consider couping Egypt rather than let me play through into Libya. That will be distasteful to him because it will then render the effect of the Nasser card minimal, in addition to drawing his fire away from vulnerable places like Iran and Panama. If I happen to draw Nasser I can either save it until after I play into Libya, play it for the event after he’s already couped Egypt, or possibly even send it to space with Containment.
Priorities are definitely hard! I look for opportunities (especially groups of empty countries) and try to weigh how imminent the scoring of them is likely to be.
Brian
Episode 2 is up :-)
Learning a lot! Now I understand that popular Costa Rica move, amongst other things. Although the advanced maths of Influence to VPs is a bit too much to compute on my end, let alone keep track of, yet.
For the next turn, it might be a bit newbishly crazy, but what about headlining Allende?
My thought is that this card will be a pain anyway, and since you are holding voice of america and the puppets, if by chance he doesn’t have the opportunity to coup in the headline, he will have to make the choice between letting you have the coup (he doesn’t know you have awful Ops cards, after all) or reinforcing South America. Voice of america would then put him out of america for the time being, while you could get back in with some puppetteering later on.
Or is that a lunatic and too random strategy?
It’s totally legit - the plan, as you say, would be to use VOA to rip him back out if he coups. Or he puts another point in to save it and we have stopped him from couping Africa (and get a coup in I guess Algeria). I definitely toyed with the idea, but came down thinking I could get more for the VOA card (and might need to get more), since I can also withhold Allende for a very long time (perhaps until JFK comes!). Creating a crisis in order to (maybe) defuse it with VOA ultimately didn’t sound like the best use of the card - I’d rather have VOA for a real crisis, since I’ve got other useful headlines. But like I said it’s totally legit.
Brian
Why does your first video have like 10 dislikes out of 29???
If my personal experience playing public TS games is any indication, 1 out of 3 players being a jerk seems quite accurate ;)
I’d have lots of silly ideas to share with your cards on your next turn @Brian_Reynolds, excepting for the fact that stupid space race (over)power just makes any forecasting near impossible to me @_@
No idea! I’m pretty new to the Youtube scene, so I have no idea what is and isn’t normal. Nobody has actually told me a reason they didn’t like it :-)
You didn’t space WWBY as your last AR? Gotta get to that 4th spot on the space track!
Interesting – and carry Allende forward? I guess I had edited WWBY out of my mind once I decided to keep it around for Missile-Envy-Prevention! Mind you, missile envy prevention is pretty useful. I guess I tend to be disinclined to beat my head against the space race track (in the sense of spacing cards I don’t reeeallly want to space) when I need more than one space. So if I draw the Star Wars card and I’m not already at least tied with him, I pretty much just give up on it. Because facing a 50/50 and then a 66/33 to get up the track, it’s probably going to take a lot of tries. But I’d be sympathetic to someone who spaced WWBY because it’s certainly a tricky card to use even though I personally like holding onto it for as long as possible. I did recover 1 point by couping with Allende so there would be that bit of opportunity cost too. Certainly to the extent that “The Bear Has Landed” is an existential threat, spacing a reasonably spaceable card isn’t a bad play at all!
Brian
Haha, I’ll give you a hint: unending ops war in every US-controlled battleground :D Which is certainly a strong indicator toward a Red Scare/Purge headline, as if that weren’t a strong enough headline anyway…
Brian
Turn 4 - I would have headlined Voice of America with the intent of wiping his influence out of Egypt and Libya. Middle east and OPEC are still available to score, and you give him a crisis strong enough to give up has AR1 coup. With his headline, I still would have done that. Now, he either fixes Egypt and lets you coup Angola back, still coups Zaire and lets you take Egypt and by extension Libya, or pulls the Duck and Cover trick (if the card is even available) still giving up the Zaire coup (and 3 VP) to fix Egypt.
Turn 5 - Not sure what I would have headlined. I would have preferred to wait for Defcon to drop to 2 before using OAS to spread, but I don’t see any other great headlines. I would have considered headlining WWBY just to dispose of a defcon suicide card and take away his coup, though I like your Missile Envy Argument. Though you also played the china card this turn, meaning you start the next round with potential defcon suicide and no breathing space.
Turn 6 My quick read of the hand - Headline Purge, Space Che (later, because it is ideal to discard to Quagmire which I don’t think we’ve seen), Play Our Man and Bear Trap (with Purge, could get painful for him) for events, Play WWBY with Intervention on the last AR to set up potential battleground flips. Alliance for Progress could be for points (my preference) or ops (situation dependent). Everything else, play for ops, because Portuguese Empire isn’t that harsh of an event in this situation.
Well okay my iPad won’t let me quote right :)
Voice of America I think of as being ideally about access at this point in the game, not just battleground control. I mean yes he would temporarily lose access to Libya, but I am thinking I’m much more interested in ripping him back out of say South America (or in this case as it turns out Africa). I usually think access trumps score at this phase. There’s no immediate headline play for access.
On WWBY I don’t think of breathing space as being too important because WWBY is always guaranteed spaceable. And as the US he has nothing to change my hand size until late war.
Thanks for all the information, Mr. Reynolds! I didn’t know the Space Race advantage was for a single point (I thought it was for a single country). So you can at least prevent it in some expensive ways…
What an awesome play of the non-aligned movement card by your adversary! I absolutely did not see it coming when he placed that 2nd point in Israel.
You are asking about Shuttle Diplomacy, and it is one card that I used to consider as an easy 3 free ops when I was beginning playing as the USSR, but it has become now one of my most feared and hated events. That little thing can be such a monumental pain, I am almost tempted to play it for the event as the US now. In your case, I think it is great, as it both tilted Middle East in your favor for the moment, and provides a bit of a cushion against an eventual domination of his.
I would probably have forced the reshuffle, in the odds of being able to discard Africa (which I would have done, but I misread Africa being overrun by him, while actually it was still potentially contested!), and in the hope of getting the nice events, the ones he discarded earlier with his non-aligned move, back into the game as early as possible. But I can not track cards yet, and I bet both of you inhuman players are able to, so that makes this comment less than relevant!
For the first late war turn (by the way, why are the score cards still marked as played on the board? The late war cards are in, but there hasn’t been a reshuffle because of the Turn Zero discard oddities?), since I don’t see any way to alter the Middle East outcome immediately, I would headline How I learned to Stop worrying and set defcon to 2. He would then have to choose between scoring ME and getting Brazil (and Angola, supposedly) back. If he chooses to get Brazil, I must say I am torn between trying to then coup it back with Glasnost, or tilting things in the Middle East. With his space track influence, it seems unlikely to achieve domination in that region as the US, and the menace of a later South America scoring is terrifying me, since he is so well implemented in 2 of the battlegrounds…
… but the crazy me could see how using the same headline and setting defcon to 5 would make for a funny turn, for instance trying to forcefully coup back South Korea. It would be fun, maybe, if you weren’t ahead: I am guessing this isn’t a wise move in this configuration!
I do think he probably realizes I have How I Learned to Stop Worrying, so he probably won’t “forget” and not take a coup, so in that sense it would be fine to headline it … BUT Terrorism is a very strongly indicated headline for him (he should absolutely know I have Lone Gunman), and so only keeping both Worrying AND Stanislav Whoseewhatsit in my hand absolutely guarantee safety from this headline (and at the time I had forgotten about Stanislav so Worrying seemed even more critical to keep).
It seems to me that Kal007 headline accomplishes getting defcon to 2 more safely, and gives me 2 points albeit sacrificing two ops?
Brian