Turn 5 plan sounds legit! The reason I wasn’t screwing with Botswana back in turn 3 was to keep him from having a way to get military ops for as long as possible. Obviously I didn’t have any milops either, so the value was questionable I could at least have forced him to countercoup instead of screwing with Cuba, but anyway that was my thinking. I like to stay out of non-battlegrounds in Africa/America for as long as possible when playing the soviets. But yeah the play you suggest would have been fine.
And here we are a day early because of some Friday travel :-)
After witnessing that Salt play leading to the most infectious turn 6 hand (did you really need those bad rolls on top?), I won’t complain about bad luck ever.
O-u-c-h…
After a hiatus I’m back with a game vs. Ziemowit, one of the leading proponents of positional theory-style play!
Brian
Welcome back, Mr. Reynolds, or should we refer to you with your Euroquest Champion title now?
That Red Scare/Purge for ops play of his, exploiting your knowledge of his hand thanks to his play of CIA, what a masterful move!
For the next turn’s, I’d try to save defectors to keep annoying him the following turn(s) (it would be probably wasted anyway, as he is probably headlining Indo-Paskistan war or some similar thing), and headline Middle East, since we know he knows you hold it, and I can’t see any remote way to cancel his domination.
I’d blockade Destal and send Decolonization to space and… probably would play late to the party ops spreading around with one of the 4 ops cards, trying to take the mediterranean countries and spreading into Africa, saving the other for some action 6 mega-troll… Probably not the best nor most inspired plan, eh! But he isn’t ops starved, so I can’t see a benefit to “pay the iron price”, as you used to say.
Glad to have you back!
Yep, went with Middle East scoring for headline (wasn’t going to get any better). Note that I can’t actually save defectors while also safely disposing of Blockade (either with Destalinization or UN intervention) - not enough hand size. But now that he knows I have it for sure, it’s of less tactical value anyway.
On towards the Late War!
What a game!
Like many people I bet (even yourself!), I was cringing when you let go Thailand in the 8th turn opening!
I was also surprised by the OAS points put into Nicaragua.
For the next turn, I’d go Salt things up in the opening, grabbing Brush war for instance: it opens up interesting possibilities for risks over Thailand, and I am not afraid of his realignement of Italy if he were to go that way.
Five Year Plan once, then twice thanks to Star wars, hoping for the best. Latin America takes care of the Quagmire, Nicaragua will be discarded at the end of the turn.
I’d focus my effort on Africa for this turn, excepting for a Brush War in Argentina if he doesn’t have time to protect it.
The Salt opening and dual Five Year Plan combo is this plan makes it all an extremely blurry 9th turn. But I’d want to have that fun!
I never even noticed that the opportunity was there for the FIFTEEN YEAR PLAN – from the event, followed by Star Wars AND Salt! Holy cow! I’m not sure it would necessarily be a practical strategy, though it might well get me Thailand back. But if I’d seen it I’d have had a very hard time doing it “just to say I had”. Plus it would have been one of the best episode titles in a while!
And the Ziemowit match races toward an epic conclusion to a close game! Up a few days early due to various holiday disruptions… :-)
And so a good day gets better.
Welcome back!
That NATO 4 Ops play of his was beautiful.
For the next turn, Asia Headline, I am hesitant about a coup in Central America (unless he didn’t score Middle East as opening, which is unlikely?).
I’d dump Truman randomly first thing in some leisurely place. If he coups, then I’d go all in, messing things up in Europe, because of all those ops you got, and the fact he has to manage Suez and Decol.
A point in France (Iron priced ;) opens up Africa and forces a defensive reply in France at some point. I’d proceed to try and menace to take over France and Italy, because of the very little room I hope your opponent has to manoeuvre with his cards. If Decol isn’t spaced, one of the mediterrannean country is yours and he didn’t have much time to expand in Africa, I’d consider this turn a success!
But I guess the Central America coup is just better in the long run, eh :-/
So I actually went with Truman headline to keep Asia pressure up as you’ll see. My coup plan going in is South Africa since it’s a 50/50 shot at effectively flipping 3 battlegrounds…