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

Michael Eckenfels, 28 April 2016

PART 4

TURN 2, ROUND 4, USSR

The USSR plays TRUMAN DOCTRINE, and the game prompts me to remove Influence in one country. I’m not really sure this is a bad thing…obviously, he’s playing this for its whole 1 Op, and the Event has to fire…which makes me think he doesn’t have much in the way of cards.

So, I get to choose what country in Europe, that is uncontrolled, to remove all USSR Influence markers from.

I’m thinking either Finland or Hungary, since there’s 2 Influence in each of those countries. I don’t know that Finland makes a lot of sense; it seems doing this to Hungary would be more of an advantage. So, Hungary it is.

So much for Hungary.

And what, pray tell, does the USSR do with their 1 Op? Why, throw a Coup party, of course. In Angola.

Angola’s Stability Number is 1, so doubling that to 2 means he needs a 3 or higher. The 1 Op gives him a +1. He rolls a 3, which means the Commies remove my Influence there and gain 2 of their own. Now, I’m about 90% convinced he has AFRICA SCORING.

Мудак.

Oh, and he has also brought us to DEFCON 3 with that little stunt.

But, he has also managed to secure the other 2 Mil Ops he needs, and I still need two more. I think, though, that I want to spread some more Influence and maybe try for a Coup.

Now it’s my turn. I have CAPTURED NAZI SCIENTIST, NASSER, NUCLEAR TEST BAN, and THE CHINA CARD remaining in my hand.

I should play NUCLEAR TEST BAN for its 4 Ops. My Headline won’t give me 5 Ops, but those 4 would come in handy. I don’t see how the USSR would want the Event to fire. I want to place more Influence, though – in Libya, and in Angola to mess him up there, at the very least.

I don’t want to play NASSER until I get that Influence in Libya, and I would like to play the Scientist card to get that +2 VP for going one along the Space Race track first (provided the Commies don’t try to beat me to it).

I go ahead and play NUCLEAR TEST BAN for its 4 Ops. Instead of going for a Coup, especially in Africa since the +4 to the die roll would be major overkill, I’m going to spread some good ol’ American influence around the globe.

It costs me 2 Ops to place 1 Influence in Angola, but that breaks his hold there and puts the ball in his court if he wants to play the back-and-forth game there.

I also added 1 Influence to Iran, gaining Control of that Battleground country in the Middle East, and the last Ops point went to adding 1 Influence to Libya. Unless my opponent Coups someplace in his next Action Round (AR), which would bring the DEFCON number to 2 and make it impossible for me to do that, I’m going to try a Coup myself on the next AR.

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