GrogHeads Forum

Note: Bartheart has started his side of the AAR here. (http://grogheads.com/forums/index.php?topic=16777.0)

Considering that science says the triumph of socialism is inevitable, I have decided to simply assume the Soviet Union will surely {cough} win my DC3: Barbarossa game against Bartheart, and graciously skip ahead to the the Rodina's next challenge: spreading the light of our worker's paradise to all corners of the globe, illuminating the setting sun of capitalistic futility. A Twilight Struggle, so to speak.

(Although just as graciously I shall continue letting the Hitlerites deludedly wander the Russian steppes in the other game for as long as it takes for them to turn around and go home. {cough!})

So, what is this game?


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That's the main screen, including most of the board. (South America extends a bit farther south.) I've started a solo game as the USSR vs the USA (the only two possible players), so I won't necessarily have the same cards dealt out to me at the beginning of my game with Bart.

Twilight Struggle (hereafter TS) is effectively a card game with a map component for placing little scoring tokens, which in this game are called "Influence". You won't actually see 'tokens' in the computer version, only the sum total of what tokens would be there from each player. So to give an easy example, the US player starts each game with 4 tokens of influence in Australia, which you can see at the bottom right of the map. If I had any influence in Australia, the sum total of my influence there would be a number in the right half of Australia's scoring box, next to America's 4.

So for another easy example, if you can find North Korea (it's the last country-box on the upper right), you'll see a 3 in the Soviet half of its box; because the USSR starts out with 3 there.

That 3 is a special color in North Korea (yellow on a red background) because I start out with enough influence to match the stability score for the Norks, which is also 3. That means I control North Korea. (The US is the same in Australia: white 4 on a blue background.) If the US puts any influence in NK right now, I'd lose control although my influence would still be dominant. The proper formula for control is to put in enough influence to match or exceed the stability score plus the opponent's influence. If the US player somehow put 10 influence into NK, I'd have to put in at least 13 to control it.

Having superior influence in a nation makes it harder for an opponent to spend influence there directly, though. I would have to spend 2 points to put 1 point into Australia for example.

This is relevant because the pre-game starts with each player putting 6 influence points onto the board somewhere [edited to add: the US puts 7], beyond the points we each already get. Which leads into the question of where we can put influence: can it be just anywhere on the map?

Well, no. We can only put influence in two kinds of places: where we already have some influence; and into countries next to where we already have some influence. That also means we can always put influence into countries that border or connect directly with our home countries (Russia for me). In practice, Russia only borders five countries on the game map -- North Korea, Afghanistan, Romania, Poland, and Finland -- some of which start out with no influence. Whereas on the other hand, the USSR starts with enough influence to control East Germany automatically even though it has no map connection to Russia or to any place I influence before game-start. So where I plop my first 6 Ipoints, in support of the influence I automatically start with on the board, is crucially important.

The pre-game is a slight exception to the influence-placement rules, since I'm limited to putting influence only into the specially glowy nations shown here, where I've zoomed into Eastern Europe. But some of those places, like Hungary and Yugoslavia, aren't connected (yet) either to Russia or to countries I automatically start off influencing -- yet for this phase of the game, I can drop influence there.


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Here in the pregame, those are pulsing; but normally they're a lighter color purple because they also count as a sub-region of Europe, namely "Eastern Europe". Any cards affecting Europe can be played here (unless otherwise indicated), but any cards affecting "Eastern Europe" can only be played here. Any cards affecting "Western Europe" can only be played in the darker purple boxes.

Austria and Finland have a diagonal through their influence boxes, divided into regular and light purple colors, because they count both ways.

In short, during the pregame I can put influence only into "Eastern Europe" and/or into Finland and Austria, because they count as both eastern and western.

I already have 3 influence in East Germany, which I can beef up now if I want. EG also has a red bar at the top of its influence box, which identifies it as a Battleground -- not literally but politically, but in the sense that controlling such a state will score better, and also because trying to instigate a coup there (successful or not) will degrade / lower the DECFON level by 1.

As the DEFCON level lowers, various world regions are shut out of coup attempts, according to the following schedule (which can be found by left-clicking the DEFCON chart at the top of the gameboard).


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This screen also shows the somewhat-related topic of how many military operations are required per round in order to avoid some minor victory point losses at the end of the round. As the DEFCON level lowers, fewer influence points have to be spent on military operations (which are usually if not always coup attempts) to avoid the minor VP loss; but players may just decide to take the loss rather than tick the clock closer to nuclear war, especially if both players will take the same loss resulting in no net difference: the game keeps track of a net point different, not an absolute total.

Nuclear war, and the victory point difference, both bring up the question of how to win the game. Broadly speaking there are two ways:

1.) Having the most VPs at the end of the final (10th) turn.

2.) Fulfilling an instant win condition.

Of which I can recall five offhand, all of which apply equally to both players, although I'll describe them from my perspective.

2.1.) If I'm the first player to get ahead by 20 VPs.

2.2.) If I play the "Wargames" event if DEFCON is at 2 and if I'm at least 7 VPs ahead. (Because playing this card gives 6 free VPs to my opponent.) Essentially this means I launched a pre-emptive strike. This ends the game immediately with no further scoring, so if I'm still ahead after the US gets 6 VP then I'll win.

2.3.) If I control enough of Europe to count as "controlling Europe" when either of us play the "Score Europe" card.

2.4.) If my opponent is still holding a "Score" hard in his hand at the end of any turn, then I automatically win. It's rare but possible for this to happen by a legitimate gameplay accident, but it's also sort of the "time to quit because you're too tired or drunk to play anymore" rule. ;) More accurately, it's a rule to force a player to activate scoring at a semi-random time each turn, even if it's to our disadvantage.

2.5.) If my opponent somehow stumbles (perhaps because I stumbled him by playing an event card) into degrading the DEFCON to 1. Essentially, the player who doesn't do this launches a pre-emptive strike at the instigator, and presumably whoever launches the strike will be ahead and less damaged in whatever world remains after the bombs fall.

Anyway, aside from special insta-win conditions, this is really a card game about plopping influence tokens on a map board: an area control game. Aside from the somewhat complex rules for when and how that can be done, affected by cards being played, that's simply what the game is about. Players generate influence each Round of each Turn (multiple rounds per turn) by playing cards in various ways, and the cards played dictate how the influence can or will be placed on the map.

Cards can also affect Victory Points directly; and/or the DEFCON directly; and/or the Space Race directly (which I haven't talked about yet, but which mainly serves as a dumping ground for cards that might be dangerous to me if I play them).

I can't go into more detail about cardplay until I actually start a game, so this will have to suffice as an introduction until Barth (or whoever if he can't or decides not to) and I get going.

Sure lets have a go. I didn't get To DC3 today because of nice weather and massive Honey Doo list. I can try to start this this week maybe even tomorrow night ... unless I'm doing DC3.

How do we play MP TS? So far I'm 0-2 a saints the AI, one each of US and USSR.....  :buck2:

First, you'll have to create a Playdek account, which the game will walk you through after you click "Play Online" on the main screen. An account is free; it just needs an email address (to send turn alerts where applicable) and an account password (not for your email of course).

After that, it would be a good idea to add me to your friends list. Click on "profile" once you log in to the Playdek server, and then the + button to the bottom right of the (probably blank) friends list. I think TS uses Steam names, so try adding Sabreman (that's what it calls me, apparently from Steam).

Assuming that works, you can go back one menu to the list for finding or creating online games. Click "create game".

The game should default you to the US (eagle) side; standard game (which you want anyway); no optional cards checked (ditto); influence handicap in the middle. Below handicap should be a timer toggle. Click that (I recommend clicking on the left side so the rollover tooltip doesn't block the text!) until it reads "21 days".

We aren't doing random sides, or bidding for sides, so leave US vs USSR alone.

Last, click "invite friend". I should show up on the resulting menu (assuming it found me earlier). Drag that per the instructions to the bear. The game should send me an invite.

After that I don't know, as I haven't gone farther myself. :)

Please delete- wrong thread.

Game creation complete.

I guess at this time I'll start my own thread so we can show cards and such with everyone else. Have fun..... Commie!  :knuppel2:

Incidentally, since we're Steam friends through the Grogheads group, you can left click on the steam icon in your tasktray (once Steam is running anyway), left-click on "Friends", scroll through the list until you find me (Sabreman), left click again on the little down-pointing triangle next to my name, and then lastly left-click the "send message" option at the top of the list. This will open up a chat window where you can leave me messages that should show up later whenever I log on (or perhaps immediately if I'm online doing something -- I've got Steam set to alert me to such things even if I'm in another game, unless for some reason I'm using Shadowplay to record something that I don't want Steam messages in. Which is rare.)

By doing so, we might be able to synch time to play several rounds or even a few turns at once.

As it is, for those who want to know, the game does play asynchronously. When I signed in, there was a game invite waiting for me in the game list, showing Bartheart's game. Accepting the invite replaced it with a nearly identical listing showing it was my turn to setup. So I did.  8)

But I probably won't put an entry until we've done at least one round past the setup and headline phases, which I'm sure we'll both explain as we go (once Bart starts his entry).

Please note that if you're curious how the AI plays, Banzai_Cat is running a front page series AAR for the game starting this week. Unfortunately they don't have a tag for it yet, so there's no group for the entries yet; so you'll have to scroll down through the AAR group here: http://grogheads.com/?cat=6

When/if they assign the series a group, I'll post a link to that, too.  O:-)

So then. Now is the time for Bart to leave the room, that I may plot his geopolitical demise.

TURN ZERO

Actually the gameplay begins before Turn One, as previously noted.

Specifically, it begins with what I think is a standard automatic initial disposition of influence points on the board, and then with Barth and I adding a limited initial number of points to Western and Eastern Europe respectively. Combined, this will represent our starting positions.

So Bart will automatically start with 2 influence in Canada, 1 in Panama, 1 in South Africa, 1 in Israel, 1 in Iran, 1 in the Philippines, 1 in Japan, 1 in South Korea, 5 in the UK (for control), and 4 in Australia (for control).

I'm starting with 1 in Finland, 1 in Syria, 1 in Iraq, 3 in North Korea (for control), and 3 in East Germany for control.

I also start with the China card which... well, the China card is weird. We're playing vanilla where Russia starts the game with the China card, although there's a variant where the card isn't activated until Russia spends 3 influence in China (thus helping finish the China Communist Revolution). Whoever holds the China card at the end of the game gets to score an extra victory point, which sort of counts as control, but players can't take that control away from each other. More on this later.

Okay, on top of these points, Bart and I can drop some more in Europe before game start. I went first, so Bart saw where I put things before he made his choices.

In my case, I put 3 points into Poland (which controls the only battleground state that I can reach now which I don't already control) and 3 points into Austria (which counts for both Eastern and Western Europe), which doesn't control it yet but gives me a nice head start for accessing other areas.

Bart (who as the US starts with 7 influence) responds by putting 4 points in West Germany (for control there), 2 in Italy (which also controls it -- and both of those are battleground states), and 1 point against my 3 in Austria.


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With that, Turn One officially starts.

But not Round One. Yet.

TURN ONE -- BEGINS

There are ten turns in the game (if it lasts that long), and each turn has so many rounds, with a slowly increasing number of rounds each turn. Players normally play one card per round.

There's a sort-of "zero" round each turn, called the "headline". Each player chooses a card to play, and the strength of the card determines which one will go first. I don't recall for sure what happens if it's a tie; maybe the Soviets go first since we tend to go first on any phase of the game, including on every subsequent round this turn.

So Bart can, and does, choose his headline card first, but it's held facedown until I load in and choose a card. Then if mine is stronger, mine will resolve first. Otherwise I'll have to wait for him to come back and play.

Okay, broadly speaking each card has an event and most cards also have a point (or operation) strength. Each card is also inherently pro-US, pro-USSR, or neutral. And they get dealt out randomly -- ours got dealt out in the pre-game before we placed our influence, because what kind of cards we get might influence our influencing of influence! (...annnnd, now you are insane. Sorry. :) )

That means there's an excellent chance we'll each get some of each other's cards. I'll get into the question of choices about whether to play a card for points or for event soon, but the important thing right now is that during the "headline" phase at the start of each turn, each card we choose must be played as event. (A few cards cannot be played as headlines at all.)

Note that there are seven "optional cards" which can be shuffled into the decks which will balance things a little more evenly at the start of the game, but we elected not to play with those. So no Che Guevara for me.

What do I have this turn? (I probably won't get any other cards, and I'll probably be playing one card per round so that I'll have one card left over at the end of the round going into Turn Two. Or two cards, since I'm holding the China card.)


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Okay, the little star colors tell us which way the card swings. I have 3 white star cards, and those will help the US (like NATO); the others will help me by being my cards or neutral. Not all the cards in the first deck (for the Early War) get dealt out (...um, I think?), so I don't know for sure that Bart has all the others, but I can be sure he has most of the others.

If a card has an asterik after its title, once the event fires it'll be removed from the game -- it won't be shuffled back into the draw deck later. If a card's title is (also) underlined, then it has a permanent effect and stays on the board (unless maybe another card removes it, then it's gone from play permanently).

That means if I'm stupid, or suicidal, I could play the Formosan Resolution now, and Bart would get that benefit early which would stay in play for (nominally) the rest of the game.

Would NATO be more suicidal? In this case not really, because its event requires one of two other cards to have been played first -- that's why it has two (flashing) X's on it. I'm not sure if I can even play it as a headline yet, but if I can all that would happen is nothing.

Generally I'm better off playing a handy neutral or Soviet event as my headline.

Unless one or more of them got left in the dregs of the deck (unlikely -- and being an absolute newbie, I might be wrong about having cards left over in the deck after the deal) -- at some point this turn, we'll be doing a quick victory point score for Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. You can see I have the Asia scoring card, which means I get to choose when Asia scoring will happen this turn, and so I can plan my actions to take advantage of that. I could play it as my headline (I think?), except Bart starts out ahead in Asia so that would help him more than me.

Playing the China card sooner or later will definitely help prepare me to score well in Asia. But I have another card that would ideally be better played sooner than later which will also, with some luck, help my Asia scoring.


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If I wait for him to strengthen Japan and/or Taiwan (although I've got his card for that), which could happen pretty quickly, I'm much more likely to lose the Korean War. So even though it's only a 2 strength card, I decide to lead with it as my headline.

Once I've chosen this, I get to see what Bart already picked...

...wat...?



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Wow. Okay. Well, had he not socked a bunch of influence into WG pre-game, that would be a funny clever card to play early since he could get it out of the way and then work on WG.

As it is, he's still playing it early so that he can save his West German influence by getting rid of a high powered card while he still has the most flexibility about what he wants to give away. And my bet is that he has his eye on a high value red-star card which if he played later I might be able to use against him. He won't be able to use its operational points, but I won't be able to use its event.

And indeed, as I learn a minute later (after my card activates first, being a 2 power instead of 1), he throws away Warsaw Pact. Nice! -- for him I mean. I won't be establishing the Pact this turn.


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I will however be winning the Korean War this turn. :D

This also gives me 2 military operational points -- we have to spend so many Op points on military operations each turn (through coups or through events like this), or lose a VP at the end of the turn. Not usually a big deal, but every point counts. I still need another 3 milops to avoid the penalty, but Bart still needs 5.

Since I won the war, I also fulfilled this card's special results, which puts me 2 Victory Points ahead before Round 1. With a long game to go.

If both players play the same value card for the headline phase, the US player's event triggers first.  You can play a scoring card during the headline phase but it counts as a zero point card when determining who's event goes first.

The early war deck has 39 cards, including the China card. ( I think it was 35 originally but they added some new ones like NORAD and Defectors in later editions).  Players have to exhaust the entire deck before reshuffling discarded/used cards back into play.

Oh good, thanks! -- re which player goes first on a headline if there's a power tie.

Re NORAD etc., those seven cards (3 early, 2 mid, 2 late) are optional cards in the computer game, and we're playing without them.

Re deck dregs -- right, I had forgotten just how many cards start in the Early War deck. We can't possibly have been dealt them all yet, not even a third of them really.

What this means is that having burned Warsaw Pact out of his hand, it'll be at least 3 turns (not rounds, whole turns, counting this one) before I have any possibility of it triggering, maybe longer (since eventually the mid war cards start getting shuffled into the deck), and then he might get it again and play it on the Space Race or otherwise whiffle it away again untriggered.

That makes his clever disposal of it even worse for me. And for newbie players like myself, keep in mind that Bart did actually trigger the Blockade event. I 'played' it automatically (because it's a Red card) and so it instantly ponged back to Bart to resolve by either removing West German influence or discarding a card with 3 or better Op power. That card is now permanently gone from the game -- unlike the Warsaw Pact it won't be back for a reshuffle later, meaning I will never have a chance in this game to properly play Blockade against Bart!

We shall see soon if I reciprocate.  >:D (We've played Round 1, and Bart may even have it up already; I was waiting until he played his card for the round, and haven't had time to finish writing that round for my side of the AAR yet.)

If you're playing without the optional cards then your deck should be 35 cards including China.  You'll have just a few cards left over after round two so they'll get dealt out and then the deck will be reshuffled so you could see the reappearance of cards on turn 3.

.. ...... {calculating}

Math: not my strong suite.


Suiet.

Sweet.





Not my stongest skill.  :crazy2:

TURN ONE -- ROUND 1


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After Barth's perfectly reasonable response to losing South Korea, I'm on with my plan.

I have several good options in my hand, including this card -- for the moment.


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This will give me an excuse to talk about playing cards for events or for points.

If this was a Soviet or a neutral card, I would have the option to play it as an event, or to play it for points and apply it a certain way.

But this is an American card. I can still play this for points, but I don't have an option about the event: it will definitely trigger, and Bart will get to apply the event however he wishes.

However -- and this is crucially important -- sometimes the fact that an opposing card will definitely trigger for the other player, can be an advantage, if that forces him to do something now that he might prefer to save for later. We just saw that during the headline phase when Bart forced one of my cards to trigger for his advantage!

In this case, it's even loopier than that: NATO can only trigger as an event if the Marshall Plan and/or the Warsaw Pact has already triggered. Bart threw the Pact out of his hand as part of his headline earlier, but odds are reasonably good that he still has the Marshall Plan. I sure don't!

So, unless this is the card that stays in my hand until next round, I am going to play it this Turn -- although one strategy would be to keep NATO in my hand as the last card forever and never play it!

But assuming I don't choose to keep this one card forever, I would be better off to play it now before he gets the Marshall Plan out. That way the event won't trigger until sometime in Turn 3 at the earliest (after the early deck reshuffles), but I still get to use those 4 points however I want.

So if I play a card for points instead, what can I do with them?


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I can choose to spend them one of these four ways.

Space Race can only be played once a turn (until later in the game), but it would be a bit of a waste to play this card here. That's because I only need a 2-star card (at first) to try rolling the dice to advance my side of the race; and because using a card this way prevents its event from triggering. But the whole reason I'm playing this card earlier is to avoid the event trigger this turn! -- and I have another US card (worth 2 points) to spend this way later.

I could try a realignment roll, which allows me multiple attempts at reducing Bart's influence somewhere; or I could try a coup, which gives me a shot at both increasing my influence and decreasing Bart's in some country. I'll talk more about those later.

Instead I'll place influence: I get 4 chips (for 4 points) and I can add them anywhere I want on the board in any mixture, although if I add them to a country Bart already controls it costs me 2 for 1 addition.

Wellllll... not exactly anywhere: I can only add them where, or next to where, I already have at least 1 influence (including the 5 nations immediately adjacent to Russia for purposes of this game.)

So I can't put anything in Central America, Africa, or South America yet. But the game helpfully flashes where my current options are.


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Looking ahead to scoring in Asia -- which in hindsight is kind of stupid, because getting or losing control of Europe will outright win or lose me the game (unlike any other region) -- I add 2 points to South Korea to achieve control there, and another 2 points to Japan (because the US doesn't have control yet) pulling ahead a little on that key island.


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Pleased with my possibly fatal short-sightedness (since Bart is already somewhat ahead in Europe), I confirm my turn and sign off to try to reacquire my Orky skilz in Warhammer 40K: Soulstorm. But that's another story.

Meanwhile in this game...


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...out comes the Marshall Plan, as I anticipated.

What I didn't anticipate, is that he doesn't play it for the event (perhaps because I've already trashed NATO until several years from now):


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he stages a coup in East Germany instead. And wins! Barely, not enough to shift influence his direction, but enough to eliminate my control of the nation (leaving me only 1 influence).

This also (whether or not he had succeeded) degrades the DEFCON status for the first time, down to 4 now, which until the Turn ends or a card somehow helps, means no one can try any more coups in Europe.

Since his 4 Ops were spent on a coup attempt then (whether or not he had etc.) they count as military ops; and with the DEFCON currently at 4 he doesn't need any more this Turn to avoid the minor VP penalty. I still need 2 MilOps.

With some ballsy plays between both of us so far, we go into the next round.

TURN ONE -- ROUND 2

[Note: I forgot to include Barth's Round 1 move originally in the previous post, so if you didn't catch that on your first read, go back before continuing here.]


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Halfway to being whole counts as "almost" I guess. :P

One of the many, many nice things about this electronic adaptation, is that I can test-play one of the "scoring" cards, Asia Scoring in this case, to see what my results would be without committing to it. Double-checking, I don't have enough for dominance yet. Which leaves me roughly with four options:

1.) Is it time to start building up scoring opportunities in the Middle East? Duh, no.

2.) Should I continue building up for a score in Asia? Certainly, and I've got a few more cards which could help with that. But Europe is looking a little wobbly (from the perspective of imperial world socialism).

3.) Should I be repairing or improving my standing in Europe? Definitely, and I have a few cards which would help with that, too. Since I'm controlling when Asia scores, I might should work on improving my European position before Asia. But I shouldn't forget that I can play basically only 5 more cards this turn (not counting any Red events played by Bart in my favor), one of which must be Asia scoring. And I'd like to try to tick ahead in the Space Race if possible So only three more cards, practically speaking, or four in an emergency, sacrificing the Space Race.

4.) Should I be doing something to mess with Barth's game throughout this turn? Well yes, duh, and the sooner the better.

As it happens, assuming I save the China card to set up a Dominant score (two or in an emergency three more cards to play this turn), I do have one more 4 point card with which I could reverse problems in East Germany by direct influence. Or control France (a so-far untouched battleground state) and do a bit of repair in EGerm.


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Note that this is a neutral card which also doesn't go out of play when triggered. There's a reasonably good chance Bart will be playing it against me later! I don't have to play the event, I can just put the 4 points directly into influence.

But this card's event stays on the board until the end of the Turn, which handicaps the opponent until the end of the Turn, so it's better usually to throw the event early -- if it's played for the event -- to get the most use out of it.

And we're still kind of early in this Turn. So if I'm going to mess Bart with it, I should play it now.

It's a legitimate question whether I'm better off hampering him continuously a little for the rest of the turn, or trying to improve my European position directly. If I play the event, I'll have to decide later whether to use my China card for its strongest purpose (putting influence in Asia before Asia Scoring), or whether to put its 4 points into improving Europe and cede that Asia Scoring might be a wash.

On the theory that investing in cripplage will pay dividends later, I play the event.

Whereupon Bart decides not to completely ruin my chances of scoring ahead in Asia soon.


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Although, when I saw this card pop up I was plenty worried. He could have added massive influence to Japan, putting me back at square one there, and making it impossible throughout the whole game for me to adjust the issue by coup or realignment (only by direct influence or a subsequent event).

No doubt that day is coming. But it won't be this turn, nor even the next: because he played it for points. And not even for 4 points (thanks to my Red Scare at the start of this turn), but for 3!

Which he promptly plopped in the Middle East.


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Specifically, 1 in Lebanon and 2 in Egypt, granting him control of both places -- one of them a battleground state.

(This game system would be interesting if ported to a presidential election!)

This suggests he has the Middle East scoring card in his hand. If so, there isn't much I can do about it this turn.

Much. ;)

TURN ONE -- ROUND 3

Assuming for purposes of argument my last two rounds will be China Card and Asia Scoring -- keeping in mind that if I don't play the scoring card before the end of the Turn I WILL STRAIGHT UP LOSE THE GAME, that leaves me with two rounds to play with. And four cards (after those other two are deducted for later) to do it in.

Formosan Resolution, a US card, isn't something I can safely play before Asia scoring, except for the Space Race. Independent Reds, another US card, I can currently play safely for points if necessary, because I made sure not to put any points so in the nations its event will hamper. So even though Bart would technically get to play it, practically it will be worthless to him. I can also save it to play in the Space Race.

Suez Crisis is a powerful Russian Card, worth 3 Ops, which I am saving in case Bart tries to salt up his Middle East run by adding points to Israel -- I can also mess with his European score with it at the same time. I would rather play one of the previous two cards for an early start on the Space Race this turn, but I'm willing to sacrifice that opportunity to fiddle any fiddlers he puts on that roof.

That leaves, by deduction, COMECON, the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance. (The game's card library has brief historical notes on what the cards all mean by the way.) This is another strong Soviet Card which will allow me to make myself vulnerable to the US Independent Reds card, soooo... yeah, I won't be playing that for an event yet. What I will be doing is playing it for its 3 influence -- which is a decision that, by the way, effectively means I've chosen not to meet my coup demands this turn.

Hm, now that I think of it, since the choice is between definitely losing 2 VP (the difference between my coup requirements and the current DEFCON), or a 50/50 chance of not losing 2 VP (which on the net balance is my chance of gaining 2 VP from the Space Race so as to offset the 2 I'll lose for not being cold-warry enough)... yeah, that's a plot for next round. No spoilers yet.

For this round, though, I spend 2 points recovering my control of East Germany, and then I put one point...


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...there. In Iran. (I seriously thought about spending 2 to put 1 in Egypt, to break his control there and to open up Africa to my influence, but I wanted control of EGerm back more.)

This will make it a little harder for him to gain an easy "control" in that battleground state for a coming MEast Score. At least. Maybe more, depending on what he does next.

What he does next is what I expected but a little sooner than I was hoping:


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That might be the weakest possible "domination" he could have, but it still counts because weak beats nothing -- and all I have is influence, not control of any MidEast country so I don't even have "presence". Yet.

That rolls the relative score back around to 4 points in his direction: I was 2 ahead subtracting 5 for his ME domination score, subtracting another point because one of his two controlled countries is a battleground. 2 - 6 = the US somehow taking a commanding lead during Turn 1.

Bleh! (Also, well played.)

TURN ONE -- ROUND 4

With Bart having just played the Middle East Scoring card, my plans for foiling his attempt at doing so arrive one round too late. Which makes my next decision a little simpler but not much -- because it was already pretty simple.

As I previously analyzed: if I try the Space Race this turn, I won't be able to try a coup this turn (due to how things have played out so far); which means I have a choice between definitely avoiding the VP drop by trying a coup, or taking a 50/50 chance of avoiding the VP drop by trying to get +2 VPs with a successful Space Roll.

And that's no choice: I go for the coup.

But I can't go for the coup in Europe, where it might be most useful for me in the long or medium run, because Bart's earlier coup locked us out from trying again there until the DEFCON calms down.

I was setting up to try a coup attempt in the Middle East this round, which if successful would have also nerfed his ME scoring somewhat. But he just did the scoring so that would be a waste for now.

There aren't many more targets for coup attempts on the board yet, and out of those the best one is in Asia.


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Namely, Barth's single point of influence in the 2-stability Philippines: that little number next to the name gives an idea of how much effort is needed to get control or to destabilize the region. Barth doesn't have control there yet, so even a weakly powered coup attempt might throw enough influence my way to score control.

For this purpose, I don't want to use Formosan Resolution, because to play those Op points I'd have to trigger an event which will play in Bart's favor (and mess with my scoring setup here). And I'm saving the 3-power Suez Canal for a later Turn. And I'm saving the China card for next Round!

Which leaves...


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Now, this is also a US card, so when I play it for points the event will definitely trigger. And the game confirms the event won't just bounce as unplayable, giving me the points while dropping the card directly into the eventual reshuffle: Bart is entirely welcome to choose which of those countries he wants to put 0 influence points in to match my own! Bwa ha ha ha haaaa! Oh, is that functionally worthless as an action, and so the computer won't even bother to give you a chance to do nothing? Too bad, the card still triggered, so this event goes out of the game permanently! -- I'll never have to worry about it again!

The game's UI helpfully breaks down the math of my chances:


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So I have a 1/3 chance (2/6) for no result, but even then I'll have assigned 2 more points as Military Ops this turn, for a total of 4 points (equal to the current DEFCON) and so I'll avoid the VP penalty. Plus since this isn't a battleground state, I won't degrade the DEFCON further. I might even gain control, although since this isn't a battleground state I won't score extra points while scoring for it.


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Eh, a 3. The whiffliest possible success. But I'll take it.

Bart responds by...

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...OMG he's playing Socialist Governments for points! I almost don't care where he's spending them, he's giving me a chance to erode his lead in Euro--


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--ohhhh crap, he played it for the Space Race. Which means the event won't trigger (although it'll go back into the redraw pile untriggered).


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And he rolled it. Two more VPs for him.

That puts him up 6 points going into the next-to-last-round for this Turn. Oy.

TURN ONE -- ROUND 5

You know what time it is:


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CHINATIME! {cue MC Hammer}

Of course I've just given him one more VP, if the game goes to the end of Turn 10, but that in itself is unlikely and it's almost as unlikely that he'll avoid playing it the whole rest of the game.

Now, at the moment I have Asian presence by having any controlled territories at all; and he only has one controlled territory remaining in Asia, namely Australia which I frequently forget exists. So to get Dominance I need to control more territories (check) at least one battleground state (check), and at least one non-battleground. Which I lack. But which I can get.

Playing China for Ops in Asia, gives me 5 points not 4 (if I spend them all in Asia, which I'm going to). So I drop 2 in Pakistan, 2 in Indonesia -- both for control -- and add the spare one to Japan.


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Which in hindsight is kind of stupid, because as soon as Bart plays a the Japanese Mutual Asskicking Pact (or whatever it's called), all my influence will go potty, and the 1 more point doesn't quite give me control so it doesn't add to my eventual Asia Scoring. I should have put it somewhere else to start building, maybe India.

With that, I'm ready to see what Bart will play before I score Asia. I guess I'm telegraphing my intentions there, so unless he's going to try to score Europe (which I should nerf slightly), I suppose he'll probably devote a card for points, or maybe an Asia event, to undermine my scoring here. Man, thank God he doesn't have the--

--oh crap, wait... can the China Card be played back and forth as many times as players want each Turn??? He could really mess me up! 2 points each into any of my two controlled battleground states (for 1 point each since I have control) would destroy that control; or he could drop the 2 points into the Philippines and prevent me from having Dominance at all; or...


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...or Bart goads India into fighting Pakistan. Whew, I think there's a rule about how the China card can't be played until it's flipped over at the start of a turn, or something.

Not that this won't mess up my Asia scoring, too, but:


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Phew.

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It also failed.

With that we go into our final Round this Turn.

TURN ONE -- ROUND 6 (of 6)

Much to the surprise of no one following along...

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...I score Asia. I control at least one battleground and 1 non-battleground, and my total control is more than Bart's so I get Domination, which is 7 VP, plus 1 point for each of us where we control a bg state -- thus 3 more for me -- and none of us control territories adjacent to an enemy state so a wash there. Bart does technically get 3 points for having some kind of presence (namely Australia), but on the net I'm up 7 points on the score and that's enough to take back the lead, barely, at one total Victory Point ahead.


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Thanks man, I'll sure take it -- hard work and a little luck!

Can Bart turn that lone point around?


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Well, not with De Gaulle.

He plays it for OP points, and tries a coup in Pakistan, but fumbles the roll (1 on the die), so fails completely on the coup and also degrades the DEFCON to 3.

Since he played a Soviet card, the event triggers automatically, and the effect is automatic. It could have been a bit worse for him -- it could have knocked off 2 of his influence in France -- but it gives me a foothold of 1 influence and the card will stay on the board until the end of the game preventing NATO (whenever it triggers) from affecting France.

So ends Turn 1. Considering I started Asia well behind, and with several US cards primed to make it tough for me there, I'm pretty dang pleased with that result. Not so much with the barely-win tie, considering I'm the Soviet player and I should nominally be a bit farther ahead, but that's how the dice rolled and the Bart played with the opportunities he got!

TURN TWO -- ROUND 0

Comes the start of the new Turn! -- and here's the state of the map (aside from Scandanavia which doesn't quite fit on the zoomout. The UI could stand to have a button that withdraws the top and bottom bars; or if it has one, I haven't found it yet.)


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(ummm... ignore the Skype window there; I was in a 40K: Soulstorm game with an ally and once I got wiped I tabbed out to play this Round.)

Despite a few cards causing effects there if the events trigger, neither of us are doing anything in Africa or the Americas yet (and none of those events have triggered yet -- I only got dealt my Fidel card this Turn, for example), because the scoring cards for those continents haven't entered the deck yet. And won't for a little while longer. And I think what few cards affect those areas, will help me more than Bart.

Consequently, I'm only focusing on Europe, Asia, and the Middle East again this turn. And I'd like to focus more completely on Europe, because that scoring card has to be on the way. But I don't have it; Bart almost surely got dealt the card instead (unless it's one of the few if any cards still remaining in the initial deck).

Here's Europe more completely for consideration.


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Notice that Canada counts as Europe for purposes of this game. Canada and Japan are the only nations in the current scoring regions which touch the US, so if I could gain and keep some control there that would help tick up my scoring points! And with some influence in France, I have a door to Canada through the United Kingdom, once I reduce Bart's influence there -- which my Suez Canal card should do.

More importantly, there are five battleground states in Europe, and we each control 2 while I have a foothold in the fifth, France. If I can focus on pushing in there... well, I doubt I can do enough to control all five areas before Europe scoring, but I might be in position to solidify a hold there for the next time the score card comes by.

And whoever holds control of all battleground nations in Europe when that happens, automatically wins.

So I'm inclined to push there, although for scoring purposes meanwhile I need at least one non-bg nation which I don't really have yet. Austria would be handy!

That being my theory for this Turn, let us abductively test that theory against the data of the cards I've been dealt and see if... uh...


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...wow. Those cards are full of rubbish and peril.

The Formosan Resolution will only hurt me in Asia, and is weak for Europe. The Suez Canal (which I held over with Formosa from last turn) will be good to weaken Britain, and maybe influence he gets into France first. After that -- East European unrest is going to hurt me to play for Ops, ditto Containment, De-stalinzation doesn't really help me with my goal at the moment (and needs some material to work with which I never got around to supplying). Fidel and the Olympic Games I can safely play for Op points, but they aren't strong. The Captured Nazi Scientist card is so weak I might as well not even waste a Round applying its points!

Wait, we're in the Headline Round of this Turn, where I can't play anything for Ops anyway; and I don't have any events that will really help me except Suez which I'd rather save for a little later.

So... sure!


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Let's go with that as my Headline! Pick up a free VP to make up for my lack of Spaceracing last Turn (as the second to put up a satellite, I still get 1 point), the card goes out of the game so Bart can't use it to abuse his tech superiority later, and...


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...oh for razzenfrazzen. Bart nixes my headline with Defectors. Both go back to the discard pile; meaning there's a 50/50 chance Bart will get to play the defected Nazi Scientist instead. :P

Fine! -- start the Turn.

TURN TWO -- ROUND 1

Stupid Space Race.

So, I have two especially problematic cards in my hand, which I'd like to play for ops but if I do then they'll trigger for Bart, and he can play them as he likes to ruin me!


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This one would be disastrous if I play it early; but if I play it toward the end of the Turn it could be useful. This would require I keep the pressure on Bart so that he holds his scoring card (assuming conservatively he has it) as long as he can to keep from giving me extra points.

This on the other hand...


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...while I would like to play the strong Ops, there's no way this won't lose me control of East Germany and by the way Finland, too.

In hindsight, I maybe should have gone with playing the Olympics for its 2 Ops, and put one of them in East Germany to immunize it against this card later.

Instead, still stinging from Bart's lucky parry of my instant catchup (and VP increase) in the Space Race, I played the card safely there -- no trigger for the event at all --

-- and lost. It's a 50/50 roll after all, and can't be modded (at least at first).

So that was kind of a wasted Round, other than getting a dangerous card out of my hand.

Not as wasted as poor Bart's round, though...


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Ouch, that hurt. Not only out of sympathy because (per his in-game message) he meant to only double-check the current score and forgot which button would cancel the move and which would "confirm" it (which after all in a hurry and perhaps in small font looks like "cancel"); but also because he effectively nerfed my plan to get ahead in Europe, forcing him to hold that card until the end of the round while he fought my efforts.

His accident, in other words, probably has helped him in the long run.

And leaves me wondering what I should be doing with my cards now for the next turn or two until the cards reshuffle...

TURN TWO -- ROUND 2

I still think building up a lead in Europe is a good idea, so I decide to keep to my original plan, even though now (after Bart's accidental but fortuitous clicking of the wrong button) it won't score me any extra points this turn.


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This is the strongest card I have that wouldn't (currently) help me if I played its event; and which wouldn't harm me if I triggered it for Bart; and which I don't want to save for a better play later.

So I play it for points (after considering potential coup opportunities -- but neither of us can play coups in Europe right now); and finish picking up control of France plus adding another point to Austria, now only one point short of control.

Then Bart decides to mess up any plan I had for saving a card (such as Suez Canal) until next turn:


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He plays that as an event -- which, by the way, notice that it isn't a unique event so it goes back into the reshuffle deck! -- and so forces me to randomly select a card to either send to the reshuffle or, if a US card, to play as an event in his favor.

Wait a minute... why is this a US card? Shouldn't a 5 Year Plan benefit me??


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Ohhhhhhh, I see. Hm, organizational chaos; that makes sense. It doesn't make sense that the US would be the one to trigger this as an event, but then it wouldn't make sense for me to trigger it as an event either. Oh well.

So what card gets selected?


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Eh, could have been worse; could have been Containment.

Still, Bart came out ahead in that play: he got me to play Formosa as an event (which I would have had to do anyway, unless Bart opened up an opportunity for Suez) without benefiting me in at least using its Ops points; and he gets to score Taiwan as a battleground state for any influence he cares to invest in there, until when-if-ever he plays the China card (which after all he already has some motivation to never play). Moreover, this means I'll definitely have to play all my cards by the end of the turn, including Suez Canal, instead of holding it for the most opportune time.

Could have been a lot worse, though. So I'll take the hit.

Which, remember, will almost surely be coming around again to bite me, once or twice more before the end of the game...

TURN TWO -- ROUND 3

It occurs to me, now that I know I'll have to play all my cards this turn, that I really need to attempt some coups, because Bart has already filled his quota for this turn, and I could lose a significant number of points if I'm not on the ball!

Well, I'm weaker in the Middle East right now than anywhere else (and neither of us can coup in Europe); so... yeah I'll just spend my two remaining 2-op cards on coups.

Starting with Fidel, played for Ops so the event doesn't trigger. Now, where in the ME should I coup? A 2-star card is pretty weak, so I decide my most favorable option is to finish trying to pick up Iran, which win or lose will also lock both of us (especially Bart) out of trying any coups in Asia for a while.

Here are my odds:


(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimagizer.imageshack.us%2Fv2%2F1024x768q90%2F921%2Fkhir5W.png&hash=e031e845706acc3e58899723725a07dbd374b3f4)

I like those odds.

The die doesn't fail me: 6 for a crushing success, and a massive overpower of control in Iran now. Bart will have trouble ever digging me out of there, and with the Def-clock ticked down to 3, I might decide to just sacrifice the point for spreading more influence around the rest of the turn!

Barth needs to catch up with me on the coups; and while he doesn't actually succeed with that (for reasons I'll explain in a minute), he does succeed nicely with the other 2/3 of his plan this Round.

Specifically he plays this for Operation Points...


(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimagizer.imageshack.us%2Fv2%2F1024x768q90%2F921%2FMrTOm0.png&hash=6ffb797cd1eb6023d64c8086bfaa7a149ba69f38)

...which, since this is a Soviet card, necessarily triggers its event, and so it instantly adds another 2 points to my military ops this Turn. Which means, even though he's also going to play his 2 Ops for coup points, he isn't going to catch up this Round, even if he succeeds in his coup.


(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimagizer.imageshack.us%2Fv2%2F1024x768q90%2F923%2FKGjWjF.png&hash=b4b42b2116cbcb2ce9e44b7dd4bca1cd5c6106c0)

Which, by the way, he does, scoring a major success in rooting my influence out of Syria and gaining control there himself!

Almost as important, while the Arab-Israeli war triggers technically in my favor, he triggered it when I had almost no chance of winning it -- including thanks to Barth's new control in Syria -- and I didn't. Even the 5 I rolled was a failure!

The only good news is that Arab-Israeli wars are pretty common during the Cold War, so there's a good chance I'll see this come round once or twice again before the end of the game: it gets reshuffled into the deck.

But kicking my influence out of Syria has another side effect, which will factor in my choices next Round...

TURN TWO -- ROUND 4


(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimagizer.imageshack.us%2Fv2%2F1024x768q90%2F921%2Ff0UDM1.png&hash=86235b7317eba7113f3f5425519bd60121bfddbb)

Man, he isn't kidding about the tensity! I went into this Round still following my strategy out for this Turn, playing Olympic Games for 2 influence (not for the Olympic event itself, because I'm not a big fan of gambling a swing on points, even if I have an advantage, unless I'm desperate) --

--

--

-- and I cancelled and replayed that card no less than 6 times, maybe 7, trying to figure out where I reaaaaaaaallllllly wanted to commit those two measly influence points!

To make a long deliberation short(er), I eventually reminded myself forcibly that I was going to play Containment last for 3 points, and Suez Canal next for messing with Israel and the UK, so I could afford to spend a point outside Europe this Round.

That being so, I put 1 point into Austria to finally take back control there (5 to Bart's 1); and...

...well, I would have put the other point into Israel, but Bart took that possibility away from me last Round by flipping Syria against me: now I have no adjacent influence to work from, and my route into Egypt will be longer, too!

So that, in the end, narrowed my choice down logically, I think: I needed to put 1 point into a nation adjacent to Israel, and there was only one place I could do that without having to break through Barth's control (spending 2 points for 1): Jordan.


(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimagizer.imageshack.us%2Fv2%2F1024x768q90%2F922%2FTHLCtA.png&hash=7ccaa611d49feebd7cbdbed730ac44c4c7c4a72a)

This also opens another route into Saudi Arabia eventually.

And here's Europe at my end of the Round:


(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimagizer.imageshack.us%2Fv2%2F1024x768q90%2F921%2F2LCzim.png&hash=8a89514e9e06e142435240d2f13760a60b763b5a)

Picking up Austria, as a non-battleground state, gives me Dominance (because I need control in a non-battlestate for that, regardless of how many battlegrounds I control), if only slightly. I fully intend to improve that over the next two Rounds.

Bartheart, on the other hand, fully intends to mock my puny "strategies" and goes for the sure points.


(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimagizer.imageshack.us%2Fv2%2F1024x768q90%2F924%2FSpZJDv.png&hash=edac4f7ce318d97e4c02c82ddb471797025574d3)

This is admittedly about the best time to play that card (which, notice, shuffles back into the deck and so could be played again once or twice more). Bart will close down all coups (not that I was planning any) for the rest of the Turn, and pick up the maximum possible score from this event, 3 VPs, which will roll the score over in his favor again.


(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimagizer.imageshack.us%2Fv2%2F1024x768q90%2F921%2F8A5gv7.png&hash=795aadf907c8c2dacea3df9718a617f7201b010a)

Yes, yes, black and blue will be your colors, Bart. Soon. Soon.

But seriously, his play has been brilliant so far, aside from a user interface accident (which doesn't count against this kind of competency).

TURN TWO -- ROUND 5

Two Rounds left, and I swing into the final phase of my plan; no need for any more alterations:


(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimagizer.imageshack.us%2Fv2%2F1024x768q90%2F924%2FvKf4hT.png&hash=74dc559edd23eb42a7785e410d8b7c9afe88ae69)

What does this event represent, by the way? I had no idea, so I looked up the designer notes in the card gallery.


(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimagizer.imageshack.us%2Fv2%2F1024x768q90%2F923%2FlfE79F.png&hash=3caeeb11b27c588c2d4ab5078e222917eba9a541)

Not really something the Soviets would "initiate" as an event, but I'll take it -- removing Bart's point of influence in Israel, and two of his influence in Britain, thus also his control there.

Bart kept UN Intervention until the near-final turn, the event of which doesn't do him any good this late in the turn, and the Ops of which are only worth putting one point of influence. Which he puts into Malaysia, trying to build any foothold back into Asia: at the moment he doesn't have influence in any adjacent MidEast nations, so his only route is through Australia.

The final Round of this Turn approaches, with Barth barely ahead by 2 VPs! -- and to be honest, it's going to stay that way.

TURN TWO -- ROUND 6


(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimagizer.imageshack.us%2Fv2%2F1024x768q90%2F923%2Fi3qYMG.png&hash=a2a028bb065d06942c45a2c54674e397f5091823)

Contain your enthusiasms.


(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimagizer.imageshack.us%2Fv2%2F1024x768q90%2F921%2Fjc7kSL.png&hash=3b3f4b600310f65bd1168a91fdc869bd51732b52)

Contain them. Because Bart will only get the benefit of this card for one Round, in accordance with the prophecy. Mua ha haaaa.

In trade for allowing him this brief boost, I have chosen to play those three Op points in Europe (again accordng to plan):


(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimagizer.imageshack.us%2Fv2%2F1024x768q90%2F924%2FE78cpZ.png&hash=d5d279d30a14f1f7cc1589838cdc107abea2ee7e)

Two points go into Italy to break his control there, giving me 1 influence (for now); and I put the remaining point in the UK. Why there, instead of strengthening, say, East Germany?

I can't recall if I explained my reasoning up-page, but I'll wait until next Turn to remind you if so. Mua ha haaa.

That particular teased plan wasn't immediately nerfed by Bart. But he dang well didn't let my final throw across Europe this Round go unopposed.


(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimagizer.imageshack.us%2Fv2%2F1024x768q90%2F923%2FT0lJP8.png&hash=804d0c17ff512c2cb3fb53adfb66136544361601)

Essentially, he just bet an extra VP at the end of the game won't help me (and/or that we won't get there), and threw away the Formosa Effect (which he wasn't using yet anyway), to take away my control of France, restore his control of Italy, and push back toward his control of Britain.


(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimagizer.imageshack.us%2Fv2%2F1024x768q90%2F924%2FKliycU.png&hash=e8ec5c74b4686a8369f19fc97d958c75bcd09c29)

So ends the Round.

TURN THREE -- ROUND 0

...wait, are we still playing this? Didn't I win?!


(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimagizer.imageshack.us%2Fv2%2F1024x768q90%2F924%2FTRczJ1.png&hash=341a0ddf076d47d295290eed64797b8f84210c13)

Ah. No, he ended our second Turn two points ahead. I must be thinking about the other game with Barth I'm playing as Russia. We'll see how much I'm winning there when we get back to it someday, or when 30 days are up and I can claim victory by default. Whichever comes first. Ahem.

In this game, we're ready to start the Headline Round, what I like to call Round Zero, of Turn 3. The DefClock has ticked back to 3 (after someone foolishly punched it down to 2); the final cards from the first shuffle have been dealt out; and the remaining discards from the first deck have been reshuffled and dealt out again. We're still in the Early War -- this is our last Turn in it -- so the Middle War cards haven't activated yet. That means still no scoring anywhere except Europe, Asia, and the Middle East.


(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimagizer.imageshack.us%2Fv2%2F1024x768q90%2F923%2FCVXa3j.png&hash=05b9c3314e1ad106823f1f4033f86cb2f9cb1ad3)

And I've got the ME Scorer. Which means it's nearly (entirely??) certain Barth has the driver's seat for the other two scoring cards. Which is great, in a way, but kind of hampers him, too, since that means he (probably) has two less cards to actually improve his scoring position with. Remember, he MUST play those cards, if he has them, before the end of the Turn, or outright lose the game.

Since we're playing the super-nifty computer game version, Bart already got to choose which card he's going to headline with. The computer will compare our cards once I commit to one, and then if his is stronger he'll resolve first.

My two strongest cards, unfortunately, are crappy for me and great for Barth. At best I'll have to play the Marshall Plan on the Space Race (which is fine) and then NATO for points. But I can't Space up for my headline, I must play a card for its event. Ideally I'd prefer to play one that doesn't bite me in the butt.


(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimagizer.imageshack.us%2Fv2%2F1024x768q90%2F923%2FXKPu1a.png&hash=51ed7a96b9973d3b4cd8b59114b142a2d606355a)

For example, I'd like to double check the possible results of playing this card, to see if it's worth trying as my Headliner. Otherwise I'd be much better off playing Nasser (probably, under the circumstances) and improving my position around Israel before playing it. As always, I click on the button to test it out...

...whereupon I learn the game hasn't been programmed, yet, to allow players to test out cards like this beforehand during the Headline Round.

Yep, it instantly gets committed to action, whether I really wanted it to or not.

The good news, is that Bart's chosen card, establishing the CIA, has a lower power (only 1 OP) so will trigger when he plays his round. At which he'll get to play 1 OP somewhere (I suppose) even though it's only the Round Zero this turn, after getting a snapshot of my cards (which the game dutifully takes to give him later).

The bad news, is that rolling a 4 isn't enough to win the most recent Arab/Israeli war. With no less than 3 countries of influence around Israel, I'm not sure I had any possibility of winning it. Sigh.

But at least I get 2 military points on my track for this turn, without degrading the DefClock. That's something anyway.

Barth spends his free point on France, bringing it up to only 2:3 my favor. With that, the first Round officially begins.

TURN THREE -- ROUND 1


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Talk to the hand, Barth. Talk to the hannnnnnddd... :P

Now, I have an opportunity to dump a good 8 points into Europe over the next two turns, assuming I play NATO first -- because if I play the Marshall Plan first, then NATO will trigger. But if I play the Plan second, then NATO will definitely trigger the next time it comes up. I'll have to wait and see if I really want to do that.

For this turn, though, I'm going to play NATO for points, since it still can't trigger for Barth yet, and then plop them in Europe. I doubt I can win the game outright this way this Turn -- that's why I want to be careful about how I play the Marshall Plan later -- but I can make scoring it nightmarish for Bart. (...and he can make me scoring the ME nightmarish for me, but we don't have to go into that yet...)

My plan to open a track in Britain could bear fruit here, if I started building up some influence in Canada -- I'll get extra sneaky scoring points if I control Canada when Bart finally plays the Europe Card this turn. But with my control of France having been wiped, I decide to spend my points regaining control there, and then edging farther into Italian politics.


(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimagizer.imageshack.us%2Fv2%2F1024x768q90%2F922%2FCkVGEQ.png&hash=40d64793c3a1fe9f8e7d2762d4d633f39f0b6506)

I'm still where I have to spend 2 for 1 in Italy, but I'm getting there. Once/if Italy is mine, I'll only be lacking West Germany for the win! -- but I'll have to keep my Commie-gotten gains until then, too.


(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimagizer.imageshack.us%2Fv2%2F1024x768q90%2F921%2F0YhQ3Z.png&hash=76c8d3739d7d3c0d68ab274f9773a503bb21a551)

At first I thought he had played this for the Victory Point and a degradation of the DefCon level; although on reflection that would have been silly, as he isn't likely to even get three military op points this turn, much less five, and he'd only be handing the VP back at the end.


(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimagizer.imageshack.us%2Fv2%2F1024x768q90%2F924%2Fk5wPYz.png&hash=e094de777bdcbb1223c353d91f0e635858f4e0c7)

Then I saw he was playing it for influence, and dropping half the points into solidifying his control of Italy again, and the other half into France.


(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimagizer.imageshack.us%2Fv2%2F1024x768q90%2F923%2FJJI0JG.png&hash=e06c50fc03978345c7c44dcc852c49c4fcdafd6e)

...ugh, I'm getting a hangover...

TURN THREE -- ROUND 2

Barth has inadvertently -- or since he saw my hand with his CIA card, vertently -- left me a cruel dilemma. If I leave Europe alone, he could yank my domination of it out from under me pretty quickly, and then score before I can recover. But I don't have many strong influence cards to play, or ones with good effects for either here or trying to get something done in the Middle-East, where I also have to score before the end of the Turn. And Bart has to score Asia, but I'm not overly worried about that... except that one of my two remaining high-influence cards is the China card, and if I play that then he might try to use it in Asia!

The fact of the matter, though, is that Europe can auto-win the game, and none of the other places can. I can't afford to simply slack off elsewhere, since I can lose the game in the long run by doing so, but I can instantly lose in Europe as well as win. So my focus, I think, has always got to be there, now that I've gotten close enough to threaten a win by pushing there.

In other words, by pushing there I at least force Bart to spend resources responding, and since I'm currently in position to benefit from scoring in two regions that not only keeps me in range to auto-win in Europe but also to win long range.

This helps solve my dilemma about how far to push my influence. I can't auto-win in the short run, and in the long run playing the Marshall Plan to trigger its event will only be bad for my European position. I've been lucky to hold it these three turns; I should keep it out of play as long as I can by putting it safely into the Space Race.

And meanwhile, if I play the China card for points, and give it back to Bart, so what? He pretty much has to spend it on Europe, not on Asia, unless he wants me to creep even farther ahead toward an autowin there. We could even bounce it back and forth! -- I'd still, probably, win in the long run doing that!

So, play the China card for points in Europe. Rolling to remove some of his points? No, that's luck based. Couping? No, that's also luck based and the DefClock is too low currently. Direct influence then.

Technically I should be going for the battleground states. There's no way I can sufficiently recover to control Italy with only 4 points, whereas if I spend all 4 in France I'll be pulling ahead there (plus Bart can't affect it with NATO, so investing there is less risky in the longer run.)

Yet I do want to get a little work done in my sneaky Canadian scoring plan. So I put only 3 points into France, pulling ahead in control there by 2 (meaning he'll have to spend 4 points to break that control), and drop my last point into Canada.


(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimagizer.imageshack.us%2Fv2%2F1024x768q90%2F922%2Fjk6XfQ.png&hash=cc42e3278a2c093d74c6886263f3c3828d40b53f)

He can still use the China card (at least) to undo some of that, but that's the last big influence play I can throw this Turn. Everything else will be Space Race, or minor influence, or events. At least one of which is going to be in Bart's favor no matter how I slice it, but like any card game I just have to play the hand I'm dealt as well as I can.

And just how desperate is Bart to avoid the push in Europe as scoring creeps upon him?

Desperate enough to throw away a few victory points by playing Duck and Cover for 3 Influence instead.

So where does he put them?


(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimagizer.imageshack.us%2Fv2%2F1024x768q90%2F922%2FmKi8bI.png&hash=0c3095c12403135c4cfb210a35a6826d57c2e0a1)

...great.


(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimagizer.imageshack.us%2Fv2%2F1024x768q90%2F921%2FmI0IRS.png&hash=83f33b1d78eed5a0586af66759fe4ecb9e50f533)

Two points into East Germany to break my control there, and then... um... hm. II think he made a tactical error. He put the 3rd point into the UK. Now, for scoring he needs control in a non-battleground country (like I have in Austria), which I suppose was his theory rather than pushing even harder into East Germ. But he should have gone for Canada: he needed 3 point in either state to gain control, but if I get control in Canada I'll get a better Europe score!

On the other hand, it isn't like I'm going to get control in Canada any time this turn...

TURN THREE -- ROUND 3

So now I have a bitter choice. Again.

I can play the Marshal Plan for 4points, but if I do it'll trigger in Barth's favor, throwing a ton of his influence into Europe (7 points worth spread around), and opening the door to NATO sooner than (even) later.

Or I can play the MarPlan on the Space Race, defusing it and NATO safely until at least Turn 4 (maybe longer), and let Bart unify Germany, most likely next Round, before he scores.

As toothgrinding as it sounds, a Bartified Germany will be less of a problem, I think, compared to triggering those things sooner than later. I'm already going to have to swallow at least one maybe two other events in Barth's favor (depending on whether I can hold one back this round).

Besides, I'm the Soviet Union! -- how bad can a unified German under Bartheart be? (http://grogheads.com/forums/index.php?topic=15498.0)

So I throw the Marshall Plan at the Space Race.

Now, for most purposes, a card's Op strength helps its chances in pulling off random rolls. But not with the Space Race. All it does is open the opportunity, and a 4-power card is waaaay overpowered for this Race early in the game. A 2-power card would have given me the same 50/50 chance. My luck hasn't been good with it in the first two Turns either.


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But I roll a 1, and finally get on the board. Along with a VP, nudging the score back in my direction though still not quite on my side.

Only 1 point ahead now, and with Rounds rapidly burning out before he necessarily has to score twice (or forfeit the game), let's see what Barth goes with.


(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimagizer.imageshack.us%2Fv2%2F1024x768q90%2F921%2Ffy9yH5.png&hash=2a28f4b68da753f6a12101fb0d0b01875badf289)

Oh, argh. I should have realized he must have gotten the Captured Nazi Scientist (originally played for points or a forced random discard or something) if I didn't get it.


(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimagizer.imageshack.us%2Fv2%2F1024x768q90%2F923%2FVbvYCb.png&hash=7cd6b9fa955eca0a9cda4daab0acf4b862895f4b)

And there we go.

Now that Barth has gotten there first...


(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimagizer.imageshack.us%2Fv2%2F1024x768q90%2F922%2F3SixTI.png&hash=35515daef9b0ab3cfa66bcd85022c202ad22506d)

...those two yellow markers indicate he can play two cards for the Space Race per turn. That's on top of the card he just played, which was a Space Race event but not sacrificed as influence for the Space Race (so to speak). Theoretically he could jump ahead to slot 4 this turn!

Which would be retarded. I think I'll point out the option and act jealous of the opportunity... It would be hilarious if he shot for Space and forgot to score...

TURN THREE -- ROUND 4

So, there are 3 Rounds remaining this turn, and I have 5 cards, and one of those rounds must be Middle East Scoring. Whereas two of those rounds must be Bart scoring Asia and Europe.

That leaves me two cards to play other than scoring, and two cards to keep for Turn Four.

Ideally I'd keep the two US cards and try to dump them later, or at least activate them later. But I'd like to actually play the events on my Soviet cards, sooner or later, and I really need to add a bit more punch back to my Europe stance before Bart scores it.

Fortunately, I have this.


(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimagizer.imageshack.us%2Fv2%2F1024x768q90%2F922%2FGOMsgS.png&hash=22b567047faa4a1474ca8278a59a49883df52e68)

I hate this card because it will continue to show up all game and it cannot be safely used by me at any time (except on the Space Race) without giving Barth a free Victory Point.

But with two big scores coming up (one nullified by scores against me in the ME, probably), I don't much mind handing him a free VP. I can take back my control of East Germany -- in the worst case scenario I'll sacrifice Decolonization for influence next turn to at least partially fix any retakes Bart pulls afterward before he scores Europe -- and still have a point left to put into Canada.

(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimagizer.imageshack.us%2Fv2%2F1024x768q90%2F924%2FLgOTm5.png&hash=9585bb5aafa3c8d834d47da6fcad0b8f444f26e5)

Which I promptly do.


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I'm not sure whether that's in reply to my tease about trying to jump ahead on the Space Race -- which would certainly win me the game if he's holding the other two scoring cards -- or to my slow takeover of Canada!

In any case, Bart plays the Olympic Games for influence points, not for the event, and puts one influence in Canada (now 3:2 his favor instead of tied 2:2) and one in the UK, retaking control 6:1 which is fine with me. I only wanted a little influence there to get to Canada.

And that, friends, will put me way in the lead.

TURN THREE -- ROUNDS 5 & 6


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Yeah, yeah -- but it's much worse for Bart, because he almost certainly has both the other scoring cards, and even more almost certainly has at least one of them.

That means he's almost certainly going to have to spend the next two rounds (or even more almost certainly spend one of the next two rounds) only scoring, not trying to improve his situation in either Europe or Asia, or even in the Middle East.

What does that translate to?

Well, we'll see when it happens. If he only has one scoring card, he may be able to blunt his problem. This is a case of where, being still not quite familiar enough with the game, and not being able to physically see a card stack, I don't quite know for sure how many cards are still undealt.

But I can see what's in my hand, and considering the trash I had in my hand at the start I think I've done dang well this Turn.


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This is what I've got left. And it is glorious.

Why?


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Because, holding the ME scoring card for last, allows me to play this cheerful gent.

The Middle East looked like this (with ME states in light blue).


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That's each of us controlling one battleground state, and him controlling two non-bgs. All surrounding Israel, which is why my Arab/Israli wars have so far been rubbish.

Now...


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...if he does only have one scoring card and he thought he could edge the ME into dominance to offset one of my coming scores, he has much less (or no) hope of doing so. (We were tied already here, but he could have ticked up into Lybia or something and achieved dominance.) And I'm only a point away from controlling Egypt. Which won't happen this Turn, but it doesn't have to.

As little as it looks, this is potentially huge. We'll see in a moment how huge it turns out, based on what he plays next...


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...wat.

(Pun not intended. In case "wat" is Vietnamese. I just woke up and can't recall clearly.)


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Yes yes yes, but WAT?!


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...oh, ARGH! I see what he did now.

He played Vietnam Revolts for influence points, and spent both those points putting a point in Poland. He had to spend 2 point, because I had control there; but by doing that he broke my control of Poland, meaning we're now even in European presence.

This also means that, unless he's insane, he didn't have Asia Scoring after all. Or maybe he does, but it doesn't matter: I already had dominance in Asia, and so giving me control of Vietnam doesn't make matters worse for him -- Vietnam isn't even a battleground state in Asia (because until the very end Russia wasn't even that interested in Vietnam). So if I was the one who had Asia Scoring (which I don't, but if Barth doesn't then odds would have been very good I did), I still get the same Asia points as before. Sure, I get to consequently have a semi-permanent China Card Effect for the rest of the Turn, where if I spend all my influence in Asia I can spend an extra point, and I can do that each and any Round. But I only have one Round left, so at worst (from his perspective) if I don't have any Scoring cards at all then I could use that effect only one Round. Then it goes away forever!

In exchange he has gambled that, even if he has European Scoring for his last play this Turn, I won't be able to take dominance back before he plays it.

And I can't. I have to play Middle East scoring.

Fortunately, I made sure last turn that he wouldn't (probably) get dominance there before I scored it, so the score will be a wash (we both get three points, moving the relative score nowhere). But now Europe will be a wash if he has to score it in his final Round.

Which is what he does.


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I'm still trying to learn the game, so I make a note to remind myself that relative presence or dominance doesn't by itself mean a draw. Those conditions literally only add points to a score on either side. If I only controlled Canada, and nothing else at all in Europe, I'd still get 1 point for controlling a Country (or state or territory or whatever) adjacent to the US. But Bart would be ahead four points on the net account if I only controlled Canada and he controlled enough to have a Presence: he'd get 3 for Presence, plus another 2 points for the Battleground states he needs to have Presence. 5-1 would be 4 for him.

In this case, we both have Presence, so we both get 3 VPs for having Presence, and we both get an extra 1 VP for each of the two battleground states we have to control to even get Presence. So we both get 5 VP. Which is a wash; the relative score goes nowhere.

Fortunately, I've forgotten that I don't understand the DefClock and military ops correctly yet.


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But I'm learning! In this case, even though I tanked (pun not originally intended) on Round Zero by accidentally playing the Arab/Israeli war when I only wanted to verify by a pre-score estimate that I had no chance of doing anything with it {inhale}...

...I did get 2 military op points on the board this Turn by doing so. And while I didn't choose to convert more points to mil-ops (or even have a feasible opportunity to), so I didn't get the 3 I needed to avoid the penalty, meaning I lost one VP...

...I kept enough pressure on Barth, and he happened not to have event cards he could play instead, that he couldn't convert points to military ops at all. So he gets docked the full 3 points (because the Defcon level ended the Turn at 3 meaning we needed to do 3 military ops to avoid losing points).

And that's a net 2 point in my favor.


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Meaning that, as we go into Turn 4, and the start of the Mid War, I'm 1 VP ahead after all!

...which is bad news.

TURN FOUR -- ROUND 0


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Sure! -- but not for me. That's because in the vanilla game (which we're playing) the USSR has a small advantage during the Early War, so if Barth can just keep me from winning, much moreso basically tie me (or end slightly ahead, which is what I thought he was going to do!), then he's done super well going into the Mid War. Henceforward the game will get progressively easier for him.

I might have just lost the game by only being a single point ahead going into the Mid War.

Not that I'm going to quit. Because I have this one almighty advantage, unique to the computer game: Bart has too many other things on his plate to eat. In real life I mean. Except analogically. In real life. ... ......

Look, I mean this:


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Barth and I started with 45 days of gametime each. Whenever it's my turn, my clock starts ticking down. Whenever it's Barth's turn, his clock starts ticking down.


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That's how much time I have left to win.

See a difference?

Unless I fumble an outright loss, or Bart's schedule radically clears up (in a way that still leaves him time to check and play his turns), Bart will definitely auto-lose. We have a lot more than half the game to go, and he's used more than half his time already.

I couldn't find an option to not have a gameclock, btw. But hopefully there will be an option to continue past the auto-win. Assuming I can hold out that long.

Anyway, Round Zero (aka the Headline Round) returns for the fourth time! Mid War cards are shuffled into the deck with the remaining Early War cards (not currently removed from the game or awaiting reshuffle), and dealt out on top of whatever we've held from last Turn.


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I see a bunch of red and mixed cards, yay!

...which means Bart will have a bunch of blue and mixed cards, either now or later, but I AM GOING TO BE OPTIMISTIC ABOUT THIS DANGIT!

Off to go study what these even mean.

{studying}

{studying}

Wow, these cards are horribly overpowered. Aren't both sides supposed to be equal in the Mid War?? My mind boggles in fear at what the new US cards must look like! Yeesh.

Okay. Pondering.

Several of these cards -- heck all of them? -- would be worth playing on the Headline this turn. But since I don't have a scoring card, I'm going to save "How I Learned" until the final Round just to make sure I come out ahead on military ops this Turn.

I'd rather not play my sole US card at all, so hold onto it if possible.

That still leaves 7 cards to choose from, but since Flower Power, Missile Envy, and Quagmire all work best at the start of a Turn, I should play one of those now and try to hold onto one for the headline phase next Turn.

Except this is Turn 4, which means I now have to burn at least 8 cards out of my 9. I can only keep 1 card (nominally) until next turn. That means I'll have to play the Truman Doctrine, sacrificing my influence in some non-controlled European country (at Bart's choice), to keep one for the new start. And there's no safe choice there. Nor is that card strong enough to burn its influence for the Space Race. (How can that card be so powerful and worth only 1 point?? Yeesh.)

So. Okay, out of those three, Flower Power hurts Bart the longest the earlier it's played. It can't be taken off the table until the Late War (and then only until "Evil Empire" is triggered as an event). But it also can and will run for a while, so its muff if I play it second or third this turn is minor.

If I play Quagmire now, it has no effect until Barth's next action round; but that's true if I play it on Round 1 instead of Round 0, too. So I can save it for Round 1 and lose no effect.

(I'll explain their effects later. For current purposes, the analysis question is relative effects vs delay in playing them.)

That deductively leaves Missile Envy.

Oh crap he played "Bear Trap"! -- his version of "Quagmire"! Lol! Well, I can't say that wasn't smart. I explain that when Round 1 starts.


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Fortunately for Bart, either he only had one 3-Ops card and no 4-Ops -- which, come to think of it, would be very unfortunate for Bart -- or he had a choice of 3-Ops cards (much more likely), and one of those was...


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I'm very unclear what the concept of De-Stalinization, which refers to Kruschev's 1956 open critique of Stalin's policies, which in turn led to a series of brutal repressions when satellite states thought this indicated a more liberal day for the Soviet Union {inhale!}... has to do with the actions of this card. I guess on reflection it triggers a number of nations reducing Soviet influence but for some nations the attempt backfires into increasing Soviet influence instead, but the Soviet player gets to pick both the reduction and the increase. It really seems like Bart should have been the one to pick the decreases!

Anyway, I'm not the biggest fan of this card, which generates no new influence or any other direct effect on the board (which is why I didn't mind sacrificing it for whatever the previous times I've seen it), but in practice it means that I can gather up spare influence that isn't doing me any good, from any corner of the globe, and plop them somewhere else (but no more than 2 at a time for a total of 4 either way).

So I vaccum up some spare influence in Asia and Finland, and take back control of Japan and East Germany, with a final point continuing to jockey for Canada. Huh, maybe I do like this card after all!


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This did involve not only sacrificing control of the Philipines but even all influence there, and putting my control of Vietnam in peril, but I need to keep the pressure on Europe which was a winning strategy for me last Turn.

On the other hand, there's a good (but still not entirely certain) chance Bart now holds the Asia Scoring card -- which he didn't after all last Turn -- and, if so, he'd be wise to wait until the last minute to play it so that he can screw with my plans to megascore Asia by him also playing the China card immediately prior. He only needs to spend two influence ticking out Vietnam to destroy my Dominance of the region, since I need control of a non-bg country for those extra 4 points (beyond mere Presence). It's entirely possible my big coming score in Asia will be largely nerfed by Bart by the time we get there.

But that's okay. The more he focuses on muffing my point-feast in Asia, the more I can angle for a winning European score -- which can't happen this Turn (since the Europe Score card hasn't been reshuffeld yet), but it'll come back eventually, possibly to my hand to be played at its best timing. Or if he fights to keep me from winning in Europe, I can keep scoring more Asia points every few turns: even if I don't have dominance, I should still pick up extras for battleground control and also for controlling Japan, one of the few territories bordering on the US early in the game!

That being said, if I get a chance to tamper-proof Asia again, I'll probably take it. Maybe not this Turn.

Thus ends the headline phase, and begins what could be a horrifying Turn of having my potency caught in a Bear Trap! (Metaphorically.)

TURN FOUR -- ROUND 1

It's time for the Bear Trap, which Bart threw on me out of the gate this Turn during the Headline Phase (aka Round 0), and I hate this card with the fury of a thousand burning furs.

Allow me to illustrate.


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First, that card references events of the Late War, not the Mid War. Which I realize is me being a whiny Soviet player, because I understand that the parallel card for the USA in Vietnam needed to be play-balanced or the USSR would very possibly have a massive Mid-War advantage in most games. Still.

Second, what this card doesn't say from the text explanation, unless the computer game is broken, is that the player trapped this way CANNOT TAKE ANY OTHER ACTION except to burn cards the whole Turn trying to sacrifice out of the trap. If I roll badly and/or have an unusual number of 1-OP cards and scoring cards, I'm stuck doing nothing (but scoring) until the end of the Turn.

I thought I'd first have to sacrifice a card to try to get out, and then win or lose get to play a card as usual. Nope! Even if I roll out of the trap, my Round is still over.

Fortunately, I had a relatively minor card I could start the sacrificial ritual with.


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I say "relatively" because that card could have helped me shore up Asia back a little better, or play the Space Race this turn.

More fortunately, I rolled my 4 or less early (there's a +66% chance of getting free any Round), so I only had to sacrifice one card. Annoying, but the best possible result aside from having sacrificed a less useless card.

And you can bet pretty hard on what I'm going to do next Round! -- namely what I already said, last post, I was going to do this Round (except that I misunderstood the restriction of the Bear Trap effect or the game has a mis-design bug.)

But we'll get to that next Round.

While waiting for Bart to play, allow me to point out that Decolonization, although burned this Round (and previously without triggering in other Turns, if I recall correctly), does not go away once I finally get to activate its event. Theoretically it can generate several influence points for me in Asia and/or Africa almost every Turn! De-stalinization, unfortunately, does go away, being a 1956 card unique to the early days of Kruschev.

My Missile Envy play during the previous Round, also revealed two facts to me: the China Card, which is a natural 4-Op card, is exempt from its effect (something I don't think the Envy card itself says, or else it's a mis-design bug in the computer adaptation); and Bart must have no other 4-Op cards in his hand! Otherwise the Envy card would have forced him to play or choose one of them instead of the 3-power De-stalin.

The USA doesn't have any 4-power Mid War cards anyway. But he also (unless this is also a mis-design bug) can't have the neutral ABM Treaty Card, or my "Bury You" or "Muslim Revolution" cards. (Or any of the Early 4-power cards if any remained in the shuffle deck at the end of last Turn.)

What does he do have...? (... ...... note, edit grammar there)

Actually, it doesn't matter what he do(es) have. Because...


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...the Envy card forces him to play it on his next Round for Ops. Otherwise we could just flip it back and forth at each other all Turn! But it isn't a one-shot card; it'll be back.

Unfortunately for me, Bart can use the 2 Ops points to start fighting me in Asia by messing with my forthcoming score: as previously noted, if he spends them both in Vietnam, he can crack my control there, leaving me with no Asian non-bg state under control, and therefore no Dominance.

Fortunately for me, Bart decides to just take over Tailand instead.


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I think I understand his rationale. While he's far behind in Asia overall, he's actually in position to edge into dominance in South-East Asia. And everything there also counts for Asia, so any improvements in the SE can help muff my relative scoring in Asia overall.

Whether he can pull that off with the guns in my hand this Turn, remains to be seen...

TURN FOUR -- ROUND 2


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He means the Bear Trap should have. I totally lucked out.

But I can sympathize. Maybe the next time that type of card comes out, it'll last longerrrrRRRRROHAI QUAGMIRE! :D :D :D


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It's still a horrible, evil card, and I don't love it like a thousand burning... um... furies?

Because that would be wrong.

And I promise not to be upset if Bart also rolls out early. If it burns even one of his power cards at all, it's worth playing and keeps me in the initiative.

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(I meant this kind of fury, obviously. Duh.)

Fortunately...


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...I made that resolve before watching Bart skip out of his Quagmire by sacrificing my ability to get the Warsaw Pact anytime soon.

As promised, though, no furies.

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No, no, not even them. yeesh.

Having pandered sufficiently to get an audience for this thread, I shall pass along to the next Round.

TURN FOUR -- ROUND 3


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And neither one will be coming back this game! But I'm not upset; I'd actually feel bad if he got hammered more than I did. A little bad. For him.

Not bad enough to avoid flowering him, of course.


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I know at least some of those cards are repeats that show up throughout the game after triggering, and notice that it doesn't matter whether he plays them as events or for Op points! I'll still get 2 VP either way. It can't even be possibly countered until some time several turns from now either. At which time I'll make a terrible joke.

Meanwhile, since I'm pretty sure NATO would hurt me more than the Warsaw Pact would help me (under the current circumstances), and since Warsaw is one of the events that would allow him to trigger NATO, I'm just as glad to see it delayed a little longer. He really did me a service by tossing it as a bridge over the Quagmire!

Then he decides to service me some more by giving me free victory points! yay!


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Wellllll, one free victory point. I only control Iran. For now. Though I'm working on a few others. He must have either forgotten I control Iran, or reaaaaalllly needed those 3 Operation points for --


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-- ---- ....

Oh. He, uh, didn't forget I already very solidly controlled Iran. ARGH!

TURN FOUR -- ROUND 4

At the end of the previous Round, Bart very cleverly used a card that would give me a point for controlling Iran, to stage a successful coup in Iran -- taking away my otherwise dangerously solid control. Meaning, since Bart can choose when the event triggers, that the event triggered on nothing: I didn't control Iran anymore.

But OPEC will be back; it's an event that can and will return several times in a game, and only benefits me. Assuming I've been keeping up affairs in the Middle East.

And you know what? Fine. If Bart is spending high Op cards in anywhere-not-Europe, then he isn't spending them in Europe. Logic: me.

So with 5 cards left in my hand, and 4 Rounds to play in this turn, and already knowing what I want to play last, and preferring to keep him from obliterating all influence in one of my non-controlled European countries (especially Canada) by playing the Truman Doctrine for a measely point of Ops... what am I left with?

2 cards that will give me a few cheap automatic VPs (always nice), and a card that allows me to play both the event and its Operation point with no benefit to Bart while letting me see his hand. Which is of more use earlier than later in a Turn, of course, when he has more cards in his hand, but I had other things I wanted out first.


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That was his response to the Flower Power.

Hey, that's a great idea! I'll send in his CIA! -- oh nooooeeessss, what have they done?


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Tsk, tsk, tsk. {shaking head}


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(Obviously the effect of the card takes the theory that the CIA had been compromised to work with the Soviets briefly, thus my joke. I do think it was a Russian mob hit, but not necessarily that the CIA had any involvement other than embarrassment about Oswald being a double-triple-extra-special agent.)

So I'll use my sources in Bart's newly established "C I A" to peek at his hand.

Which I'm not going to take the time to snapshot and discuss here, because you-all should be reading Bart's side, right? ...although, I notice he doesn't seem to be keeping it up, as far as the last update number goes? ??? But I don't know when that stopped, so I'm just assuming he showed y'all his hand for this Turn already. If not, don't worry; I'll discuss all cards when he plays them, and then opine about what's left over at the end of the Turn. (I'm actually trying to avoid spoiling his hand in advance for anyone who hasn't been keeping up with his thread.)

What I will reveal, is that he has no scoring cards, so I don't have to worry about that before the end of this Turn. But neither can I use that pressure against him.

Meanwhile, I decide to play my 1 Op for influence (as usual, as I don't like to gamble on a roll for result, especially with only 1 power to work with), and... well, I debated for a couple of minutes whether to put it in Egypt and take control there, but I decided at last to put it in Austria (Europe first! USE! USE!) and solidify my control there farther. I need a non-battleground state to win (or to dominate on the scoring), and right now that's the only one I control in Europe. Better tighten my grip on it!

Speaking of tightening a grip, Bart ignores Europe again (where the game could be won or lost) and...


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...plays this nice card, with this military genius and clearly awesome kickasser, to add some grip to Asia.


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Specifically a point to Laos (which is combined with Cambodia in this game, and which sounds like an internet acronym now that I think of it); a point to Indonesia -- and both those points give him easy control of more countries in Southeast Asia -- and a point to India, which is a battleground state in Asia overall.


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What you did there, I saw it.

TURN FOUR -- ROUND 5

Going into Round 5, it's a question of which of two cards I want to play first. The events on either of them give me a cheap VP, but I think one might be put to better use for its 3 Ops.

So I'll save the U2 Incident event for later, and just put its Op influence out. Where? Duh, you know where: Europe! My plan so far of forcing Bart a painful choice between letting me score huge in Asia and trying to keep me from scoring huge and eventually outright winning in Europe, is continuing to pay off, and should continue to do so for as long as I can keep the pressure up -- and if I can get a win before a bunch of his European events trigger, which I've been fortunate and clever to avoid so far (even into the Mid War), so much the better. I'm still 8 points ahead on Asia overall, so I'm not going to contest him throwing points to non-battleground states there. So what if he controls Cambodia? Laughing Ass Off Slightly!

The question then is whether to concentrate on keeping what I've got, or on working to take away what he has. In hindsight, I'm starting to wonder if my plan to score a measely extra point in Canada is worth the effort; I could have concentrated those points better toward winning outright in Europe.

I say this in hindsight, because I dang well put another point in Canada. I think I may be addicted to trying to do something there now. I DON'T WANT THOSE POINTS TO BE WORTH NOTHING!!

Much more importantly, I put the other two points into holding onto East Germany and Poland better.


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As with France and Austria recently, this will give me a bit of insurance against Bart easily ticking me out of one or more of those places.

That said, the first step in defeating addiction is to recognize that I have a problem. Taking Canada made sense if I could do it easily before a coming score, and/or if I could do it easily as insurance against losing control of Austria (since I need control of at least one non-bg state for the biggest scores).

But those same 4 points could have been put into nerfing Italy, which I'll need to do (and then gain control there) in order to win outright in Europe. Or with the event card I'll be playing next Round, I'd be close to neutralizing West Germany by now.

Whereas, to score 1 Victory Point for holding Canada, I'll have to put in a minimum of another three influence. Imagine what I could have done with a net 7 more influence in Europe?! But if I cut myself off now, then at least I'll have a net 3 more influence than if I keep chasing Canada.

Resolved: to hell with Canada.

The sheer genius of my move in reinforcing my European holdings, so impressed Bart that he decides to do the exact same thing: since he has a space card that he can't play as an event (not being behind in the space race at all, which this event requires), he plays it for 2 Ops and puts the influence in West Germany and Italy, 1 point each.


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This, children, is what happens when you waste your time trying to take over Canada. Don't make my mistake. Leave Canada alone.

TURN FOUR -- ROUND 6 (of 7)

This is the first Turn (I think?) where we have more than 6 Rounds, and... um...


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... .... and I guess that comment meant that he thought I was trying to sneak ahead in Canada by distracting him with sneaking farther ahead in WestGerm and Italy? ???

I can't do much about Italy yet / anymore (since I wasted those points in trying to do something with Canada), but I can nerf his move in West Germany:


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By summoning Willy Brandt!

-- who is Willy Brandt? I have no idea. He gives me a point of influence in WestGerm, and gives me a free VP, and that's good enough for me.

(According to the game's card notes, he was someone you'll have to buy the game and read the card yourself about, or do an internet search. Swamped with exhaustion at the moment.)


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I honestly don't know how I can power through Italy and West Germ. Maybe I can coup one of them early next Turn -- I'm going to end this Turn next round with a clever bit of cleverness, although Bart might ninja me on it at the last moment.

Especially since Bart seems to have inferred my cunning plan:


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"That" would be him playing the China Card for 4 Ops points, and plopping them all in France, bringing his score there up to 6:8 and thus breaking my control (since I need a 3 point difference).



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This not only snaps my control of France, but puts us on par for battleground states controlled, and so we both only have "presence" there. Any scoring for Europe will currently be a wash, 5 points to 5 points. (Presence = 3 points for each of us; plus each of us get a VP for each of the 2 battleground states we need to get Presence in the first place.)

With a new Turn coming up, that could quickly become relevant...

TURN FOUR -- ROUND 7 (of 7)

In my last Round for this Turn, I play a card designed to help the US player screw me over in the final Round for a Turn! ...wait.


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As a joke card, you can also use it to suicide yourself out of the game by setting the Defcon to 1 and instantly losing. But its real purpose is to either shut down coup possibilities or to gamble that the opponent won't be able to coup (or do any military op events) before the end of the Turn.

Thus, if Bart (the US) had played this next Round himself, playing it on the final Round of a Turn, he could have set Defcon to 5 and put his own Milops to 5 and then left me hanging without any way to add more Milops myself before scoring Milop efficiency at the end of the Turn!

In my case, I'm just taking the opportunity to burn out a card that Bart might mess with me later; but I'm also going to take a similar gamble -- and for the USSR it's a gamble, because the US always plays last on a Round -- that Bart can't or won't use the newly peaceful Defcon 5 to try a 2-star (or better) coup somewhere. If he doesn't, I'll pick up an extra 2 VPs after whatever he does play since we're at the end of the Turn!

Fortunately, thanks to my Lone Gunman card earlier, I can spoil that he doesn't have any more cards in his hand worth more than 1 point. (Note however that due to a small design flaw, the Gunman peek doesn't show the China Card, whether active or inactive! -- I had forgotten he had it when he threw it down last Round!) And I'm not sure there are any targets worth a 1 point coup attempt (since I have to have some influence in a country to try a coup at all). And one of his cards would help me if he played it for ops to power his coup! And another of his cards would only help me if he played the event!

So my guess is that he'll have to let me take the Victory Points and play his benign card for the event -- which will put out more than 1 influence somewhere he may not care about yet -- or play his benign or neutral card for the 1 point of influence -- where he can manually place the influence himself.

Whereupon I quickly learn that I haven't evaluated the situation correctly :P :


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It doesn't matter that he had almost no hope of doing anything with a coup even in Pakistan (although that was a good idea, since if I draw the Pak/India war card I might be able to nerf him in India). He only has to play that card for 1 point of military ops, and he brings his Milops to 4 -- while degrading the DefClock to 4! Which means he has all the military ops he needs this Turn to avoid a victory point penalty. So much for my extra 2 VPs...

TURN FIVE -- ROUND 0


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But not any time soon, because the Defcon level notches back up once to 5, total peace.

I have to say that mis-estimating my ploy to score a couple of extra points at the end of the previous round, is... irritating... but after all it wasn't like I had any other better options. I played what I could at I think the best times available. That card wouldn't have worked any better earlier, and was always going to be a hard gamble when I did play it. At worst, I burned it from the deck so that Bart couldn't play it at a more opportune time in his favor (as the card is pretty well designed for).

While I'm ruminating on the end of the Round, what about the card Bart didn't play? -- since I saw his hand earlier (via event), I know what it was, but haven't said what yet for spoilers. Since the new deal out (but not a reshuffle yet -- so still no scoring for Europe again this Turn), he may hold onto that card a long time.

That card was Romanian Abdication, which would have given me instant influence to control Romania (and also removed all his influence, if he had any there). Not a big deal really, the way the game is going -- an extra non-battleground state doesn't mean a lot other than as insurance against him taking away my better scoring options there.

Well, it won't help him in the Space Race, and playing it for influence won't really help me much, so I won't be surprised if we see it come out eventually rather than him playing an event more helpful to me.

But it won't be here in the Headline Round. Instead...


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...he's going to take my China Card back! MINE!! :tickedoff:

Still, I suppose that's better than being able to play a (slightly weaker) version of the China Card twice for free. Although, come to think of it, he'll be playing a just-as-strong-because-it's-the-same-card China Card twice in a row for free. :P

Well poot. Do I care? I do not. Let him play that silly card again soon.

Taking account of my China Card NOT BEING THERE ANYMORE :tickedoff: {inhale} ahem, this is what I've got to work with this Turn.


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I have play one of those (ignoring the China Card which ISN'T THERE ANYMORE {gnashing teeth}) as an event this Round, too.

I have some interesting picks, and I seriously thought about doing the Indo-Paki war (again) this Round before he adds enough influence to India to make that less likely a win for me -- something he can easily do now that he has the China Card again.

Unfortunately, I didn't choose to play the China Card for Ops, although that would have been funny since its 4-power would have triggered before his 3-power card, so he would have taken away something I was going to have to give him anyway!

What I did choose, because I have very few naturally helpful European cards this time, and let's all remember, Europe First, is:


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While I thought seriously about repairing my challenged France, I decided this was a good opportunity instead to pound his control of Italy, and reduce his control lead in West Germany.


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With Bart's Headline card having already triggered, I can segue directly into our first Round.

TURN FIVE -- ROUND 1

Having stomped on Bart's control of West Germany and Italy, I still have a long way to go to taking them for my own political control. So I decide to keep working on that while I'm on a roll!

I thought pretty seriously about taking my China Card back with Russia's version of the same event, Cultural Revolution; and then wondered if maybe I should play that for ops instead, aiming for a coup in Europe since currently the Defcon is low enough to try that. But even with a 3-strength card, the current numbers looked too chancy for trying a coup. And playing it purely for influence would be silly, since I can trade it for my China card back and get more influence out of it (at a Round delay) while denying its influence to Bart -- assuming he doesn't play it out of the gate.

I did have another 3-power card, with a US trigger ability, that I could play for influence, though, and without worrying too much about its effects.


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If he throws away my event cards, fine, the faster they'll be reshuffled and redealt with a chance for me to use them instead. If my cards in his hand are mostly high-powered, then he'll have a harsh dilemma foisted on him whether to discard any or not! Mua ha ha ha haaaaa.

And what shall I do with my 3 Influence? You don't have to guess hard!

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Creepin' on mah germy itl scorz!

Which Bart promptly creeps back, even more creepy... um... er? -- with a 4 power card. But weirdly, he doesn't play the China card. Which either he forgot he could play (thanks to his event) or was saving for later in actual Asia (more likely).

Instead he plays this for its influence:


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Which is straight up giving me 3 VP next Round, unless he has UN Intervention (again).

Which he might, since I don't see it (I think?) in the current discards. And he did discard 2 of my cards from his hand to pick up 2 others, thanks to the "Ask Not What..." effect. (The game showed them to me; they were Allande and, not too surprisingly, the Romanian Revolution or whatever it was.)

So, what did he do with that Influence? Again, you don't have to guess hard!


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That didn't entirely undo my two-round run of influence mongering there, but he isn't going to let me creep any closer if he can help it -- and in fact he's taking the opportunity to move a little on France, too.

TURN FIVE -- ROUND 2

After he set up a 3 VP score for me last Round, I feel pretty safe inferring either that Bart has the card (UN Intervention) that's going to nerf that score, or that he's so desperate he's willing to spot me the points, including by playing more influence this Round even if he could nerf it.

Either way, I figure I have a free Round to take back my China Card.


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Which I do. However desperate he is, he won't be using those 4 Influence in Europe this Turn! -- or in Asia either, and we've got both the Asia and the Southeast Asia scores coming up soon (possibly both in his hand already).

Then I discover I've mis-estimated an implication of him using UN Intervention -- which in fact he does have.


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Oh, did that not look like UN Intervention? Look more closely, toward the bottom. He played it first, allowing him to then play one of my cards from his hand for Op point without the event triggering. Which he used for a coup in Pakistan, giving him control there. Which almost completely nerfs my scoring advantage in Asia generally.


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I'll still net 2 points if he does nothing else before Asia scores again, but he's pushing hard to take the lead there.

Oh, and my Pak/India war card? Now pretty pointless as a gamble.

Oh, and the Bury card he played as an event last Round? -- the one which gives me instant VPs if he doesn't play UN Intervention this round? He played UN Intervention, so that counts!

Thanks to a bit of genius play on his part, he got to spend two strong cards of mine for Ops (and effective operations, too), without triggering their events.

Now leaving me a real dilemma what to do next Round...

TURN FIVE -- ROUND 3

Well. Ugh. Oh, did I mention last time that Bart's play also prevents me from doing coups in Asia for a while? Because it had that effect, too.

In a way, my plan continues to work? I guess?

I'm using my early advantages in Asia to distract Bart while I've been concentrating pretty much exclusively on Europe for the past few Turns. My plan left him with the hard choice to fight me from taking a game-winning control in Europe and leaving me with an eventually game-winning score in Asia, or to at least nerf me in Asia while I continue consolidating power in Europe.

He has now almost nerfed me in Asia, thanks in no small part to a genius bit of play this Turn so far (see prior entries) which didn't do me any favors in Europe either.

This leaves me with some hard choices of my own. Why?

1.) I've got three problematic cards of his which are not especially strong as Ops for me. One I can hold to the next Turn (I think), one I can burn on the Space Race this Turn, but one I'll have to play for Ops. So I've got a hard choice about when to do that and what to sacrifice to him for doing so. I'm pretty sure doing this will only improve his Asia situation, so do I spend those Ops in Asia to soften the blow, or keep concentrating in Europe, or...?

2.) ...should I be trying to put enough influence in South America this Turn to make my eventual scoring there (which I have to do this Turn) worth anything more than a useless Round? Unfortunately, I've got no cards for events in SouthAm, although I do for Africa. Which should be coming up as a score soon, but I don't know when. Since Bart is ignoring Africa, he may not have that card yet either; but then I've been ignoring South America and I've got that scoring card! But should I be ignoring it, or...?

3.) ...should I continue to focus on Europe, where the right kind of score there can outright win the game automatically? After a point, that's going to become a lot harder to do, and I don't think we're at that point yet. So I should be making hay of Europe while the sun is still shining, right?

Getting my China Card back and (per the event which returned it) ready to play, helps a lot, because it gives me 4 Ops to work with, or 5 if I use it in Asia. But I can't use it for coups there. But it's naturally more useful in Asia, so that leads to...

4.) ...should I shift over to trying to get more points from a coming Asia score? My Iran/Paki War card is kind of useless now, too, unless I spend influence repairing that situation. (I can't spend the Ops on realignment there, because the game treats that like a coup except with no gain in military points for the Turn. With Bart's genius coup last Round, the Defcon marched down to 3 which shuts out further coups in Asia! -- also thus shutting out realignment attempts against his influence somewhere.)

In the end, after much consideration...
...
.......
..................


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...I stayed the course. With a thousand points in the City of Lights. Or 2 points there. With 2 in Italy. Both from playing my China Card for Ops.

But that gives me control (for now) of Italy and France, which I might work on consolidating for the rest of this Turn, depending on what Bart does next.

Those seven (iirc) points I spent trying to score a measely point or two in Canada, though, are sure coming back to bite me in the butt. I could have been here with a 6:8 lead in West Germany by now (2 points to break his control, then another five raising me from 6:3 to 6:8).

Still, focus is paying off, even if I lament a lack of proper focus in my focus up to now.

Then Bart throws out a card to score all the VPs.


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Keep in mind, he started this Round with a genius Military Op play, so he's not only ahead in MilOps, but also has fulfilled his budget for this Turn!

After squawking in panic, though, I realize he's playing the card for influence points instead.

...oh, of course, he needs to try to do something about my--


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--uh... my... my goodness, he sacrificed 3 Victory Points to take over Angola and start on South Africa instead.

I figure this means he has the Africa scoring card, and is setting up for a nice VP run later -- rather than getting 3 now, he's hoping for 6 or 7 for the rest of the game.

Assuming I let him do that.

And assuming there's a rest-of-the-game...

TURN FIVE -- ROUND 4

With Bart spreading capitalism among the diamond mines of southern Africa, I have a quick choice about whether to stay the course or to oppose this by decolonizing the Portugese colonies of--


(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimagizer.imageshack.us%2Fv2%2F1024x768q90%2F922%2FLYNOBs.png&hash=919fbe928523d89c190e7758386be20d88ca99d7)

-- yeah, no, Africa doesn't win the game for me, Europe does.

My only serious choice was what to sacrifice first out of my several remaining 2 point cards -- I choose the Arab/Paki War since it doesn't do me any good currently -- and whether to crack his control of West Germany or not.

Option 1.) I spend the 2 points against his control in West Germany, increasing my influence by 1. Result: he can take it back easily, and/or spend some influence similarly cracking my newly constituted control in Italy and France.

Option 2.) I spend the 2 points bringing Italy and France up to par with the rest of my controlled territories. Result: Bart will now need to sacrifice 4 influence just to crack my control anywhere there, but he can pour points into WestGerm similarly to make things hard for me. Which he could do anyway for Option 1.)

...um, of course, you already saw my snapshot, so you know which option I took already, right? Right. :) But that's why.

So is Bart setting up for score in Africa?


(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimagizer.imageshack.us%2Fv2%2F1024x768q90%2F922%2FUw4dDg.png&hash=94af2f1b8ab848ae0e282cdf62fa1e49e1cabe69)

Well, he deefffffffinitely played one of his stronger European cards for 3 more influence in Africa, 1 each in Botswana, Zaire, and South Africa, all for control.


(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimagizer.imageshack.us%2Fv2%2F1024x768q90%2F921%2FvFPQXX.png&hash=4dd0b744c7d6be198682038684e79be04c5327cc)

That's an awfully strong maybe!

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!


(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimagizer.imageshack.us%2Fv2%2F1024x768q90%2F922%2F9zDfKM.png&hash=1f4deebc89b456099f8a8cf1b21010073262201d)

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:


(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimagizer.imageshack.us%2Fv2%2F1024x768q90%2F923%2FHPvxgy.png&hash=fb2be2c6bfd77e5b88503e4aea8be0674aeab485)

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


(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimagizer.imageshack.us%2Fv2%2F1024x768q90%2F923%2FZ3ZSv5.png&hash=86a2d5854fe0f8ac4ab87822539c3094e5676f24)

...and so now he's ahead only by 2 instead of 6 or something. phew?

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...


(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimagizer.imageshack.us%2Fv2%2F1024x768q90%2F922%2FM80z8W.png&hash=c9c45f50f06dac527a38ea8e44b2a127e5592430)

...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...

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...!


(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimagizer.imageshack.us%2Fv2%2F1024x768q90%2F921%2FDYRH05.png&hash=be6ba67fbb0561bbc7836c250c1988bb2f3590fa)

...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!

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!


(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimagizer.imageshack.us%2Fv2%2F1024x768q90%2F921%2FdJoMhn.png&hash=4b4e276c7fe5e3293142df8b96c28ad214b5f869)

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...


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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.


(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimagizer.imageshack.us%2Fv2%2F1024x768q90%2F921%2Fgq51yQ.png&hash=a6abc0f5476ab807773e0dde56a367606caf6012)

Before that happens, his selected event triggers:


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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.


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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.

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!


(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimagizer.imageshack.us%2Fv2%2F1024x768q90%2F921%2FKD6AsJ.png&hash=e32dff9a37157984ef2855bd0992be0ec13765ca)

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.


(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimagizer.imageshack.us%2Fv2%2F1024x768q90%2F922%2FMyTVh1.png&hash=80be714462be2734f46d3c7b7146c264f7655f25)

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


(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimagizer.imageshack.us%2Fv2%2F1024x768q90%2F921%2FM9zzkb.png&hash=90013cb9f3a5afd22e4d71bd50176e8a4fe7a6f1)

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.


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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...

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.


(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimagizer.imageshack.us%2Fv2%2F1024x768q90%2F923%2FSQIO9M.png&hash=a0b9f623ef0179975ccb5257c30fea0b91d19f43)

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:


(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimagizer.imageshack.us%2Fv2%2F1024x768q90%2F921%2FAOxkbm.png&hash=4d9e5fbe4001180478b8166968cd3857621dc69f)

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.


(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimagizer.imageshack.us%2Fv2%2F1024x768q90%2F924%2FXYbqi2.png&hash=4bfd50a8d98eed360000c945484beef440e6c4d5)

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.


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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.


(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimagizer.imageshack.us%2Fv2%2F1024x768q90%2F923%2F3kO1aq.png&hash=3c9b7283ad29a765193bb953dd8dbebd6aa3909e)

I have a feeling I'm going to look back on this time as when I should have kept pumping points into West Germany...

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.


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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.


(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimagizer.imageshack.us%2Fv2%2F1024x768q90%2F923%2FzJtrMq.png&hash=34b5a15ab8cde42362320b8ec90b1e0cf8ada5c7)

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.


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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.


(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimagizer.imageshack.us%2Fv2%2F1024x768q90%2F922%2FmVO7Eg.png&hash=3b370654654662b9314d42205ddcfa6de1a81900)

I could just spit.

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...


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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:


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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:


(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimagizer.imageshack.us%2Fv2%2F1024x768q90%2F922%2F7Ckncp.png&hash=d80a7ee10e1bcd7c23d7256a91fe9bceb2c8236b)

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.


(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimagizer.imageshack.us%2Fv2%2F1024x768q90%2F921%2F53hFFM.png&hash=87527f5aa55851ba84d6e587161b16ae6ca3d148)

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.

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:


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


(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimagizer.imageshack.us%2Fv2%2F1024x768q90%2F924%2FnE7eoy.png&hash=2d7465d1b96e3558084d6e78f18f7b66052df2dc)

...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.

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.


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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...?


(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimagizer.imageshack.us%2Fv2%2F1024x768q90%2F921%2FtSeiUB.png&hash=7015170c9fd4a6003516c50e621b933d8efe54a6)

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...

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...


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...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.


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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..?


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...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:



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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.

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


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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.


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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:

 
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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!


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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!"


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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:


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

-- ----

-- wait. Wait, am I about to score huge in Central America?!?

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:


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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:


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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.


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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).

 
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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?

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:


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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.


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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:


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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:


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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.

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.


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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.


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


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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...

TURN SEVEN -- ROUND 4

I'm in pretty good shape so far this Round -- I haven't made any improvements in Europe yet, but I've set up a nice scoring in Central America eventually (or a major distraction there for Bart eventually as I concentrate on rooting out freedom and democracy in Yrryp or however it's spelled without the borgeoise luxury of vowels.)

Bart's nuclear sub card suggests he's about to try a coup in order to put points safely into MilOps without triggering an autowin for me (and so to avoid giving me back those 2 points he got from a similar problem I had last Turn).

That being the case, I ponder whether to improve my holdings in the Middle East a little (and if so, by direct influence or by an OPEC event)? Or put some more 3-point influence in Southeast Asia (where his coup seems likely to shoot, and where I could stand to get farther ahead of his expected coming score)? Or is it time to work on Europe a little again?

Either way, if things go to plan, I've only got this and next Round to play, because I expect to be putting some dangerous cards into the Space Race the last two Rounds!

Barth, though, must be feeling a lot of pressure for someone still 13 points ahead...!


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This suggests to me that he has at least one, maybe both, of the Asia scorers now.

That being the case, after a bunnnnch of pondering, I decide to try a 2-part strategy of setting up an OPEC event score by playing COMINTERN for influence and taking back Iran and Iraq -- plus nudging up Poland a point back toward control.


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At worst, I can still play OPEC for influence points next Round to adjust any good coup results he gets, and I'll still have improved my MidEast position substantially while partially fixing the Ultrapope's damage in Poland. But if things look okay enough, I've set up a little 2-point layup to cushion the evident fact that I'm not going to get my coup-difference Victory Points back this Turn.

On the other hand, who knows? -- Bart surprisingly doesn't play for a coup yet, but drops 3 points of influence (from temporarily sacrificing the Cuban Missile Crisis) into Mexico (to break my control there) and Panama (to keep a bit of an edge there).

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He still has plenty of time to get his coup points, but now I'm wondering whether he plans to make use of those Unclear Subs at all... ;)

TURN SEVEN -- ROUND 5

With three Rounds remaining in the Turn, I'm still planning to spend the last two Space Racing some dangerous cards away, and ignoring two other dangerous cards -- thus playing OPEC by the process of deduction. Originally I meant to play this as an event, and cash it in for a single VP.

But after a ton of pondering, I've decided to sacrifice it temporarily for 3 influence instead, putting one point back into Mexico for 1:3 control (which will also re-establish control on a border territory to the US), and the other two points into West Germany: because while that still leaves me behind 8:4, and him still in control there, I need to be getting back to my Europa!Win plan sometime and that means clawing West Germany away from him.

Then Barth plays, as somewhat expected, the Southeast Asia scoring card.


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And you know what? Fine. I'm sorry I wasn't able to keep a good lead here, but it's a heck of a lot better than the giant lead Bart had been building, and I'm glad to escape with a VP in my favor. Let us never speak of this again. (Which we won't, because this particular scoring card leaves the game once someone plays it!)

What surprises me is that with 3 Rounds left, he's already throwing out this scoring card rather than trying to improve his situation again. I think on the balance this is probably a good sign for me in the next few rounds...

TURN SEVEN -- ROUND 6

With two rounds left, my racy Space plan comes into play, which I feel safer about now that Barth already played the Asia Scoring card unexpectedly last round: that probably means he has a ton of harsh or scoring cards remaining in his hand, which I'm nearly sure to benefit from.

And no bad Space Luck (tm) this Turn -- yet! -- since I roll a natural one for success.

Then Barth sacrifices Latin American Death Squads for influence, not for the event -- which doesn't trigger for me because it's a neutral card -- and I don't know what the heck he was thinking, playing SEasia score already. He could have used that influence to take away my VP there. Instead, he takes control of Panama, and Guatamala.


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Which isn't going to help him much whenever the time to score this comes.

TURN SEVEN -- ROUND 7 of 7

As my final Round this Turn arrives, I discover what veterans of the game have doubtless been chuckling about in the background:

the twice-a-turn Space Race play only factors for the first player to put a man in space.

Leaving me with three crappy cards from which to choose a final play.

The Truman Doctrine would be super-deadly as Barth could use it to wipe all my influence from West Germany, requiring me to start over again from scratch at 2 Ops a point to catch up for four points, and that's assuming he doesn't feed more into WGerm to screw with me! No way I'm playing that.

And Grain Sales to Soviets would suck because it gives him a 50/50 chance to pull the Truman Doctrine from my hand and play it! No way there either. (Although that's the card I was going to play on the Race, since it's my final 2 point card.)

By deduction, that leaves:


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Which gives him even more control in Panama (fine, I don't care if he's ever rooted out of there, we'll fight over the two battleground states that also give me special scoring), and starts him on Venezuela (which is a battleground-scoring state for South America).


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(Forgot to zoom in there, so apologies for the low res.)

What he should have done earlier was run a coup attempt in Venezuela, since he could do that safely thanks to his Nukey Subs, and even if he failed I'd hand him 2 VPs for not being able to do any coups at all. We'll see if he thinks of that this Round.

Meanwhile, where to put my lone VP of influence? -- and it has to be influence because I can't try a coup at all without auto-losing right now, and I hate realignment attempts (which I currently can't even try safely anywhere valid without serious risk of losing my own influence).

After some thought about Israel (to match him 1:1) or Mexico (to help lock in next-door points for all future Central America scores), I decided to buff up Italy a little, 5:8, so he'll have a harder time taking it away from me again. (He's already had to waste some points trying to nix me there.)

This, however, is stupid, because I forgot I don't currently control Poland. I should have put the point there and regained control! Argh.

Fortunately, one of my guesses did turn out right: Barth had another scoring card, and it was...


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This improves my score quite a bit -- or rather it reduces Barth's score. He's still ahead at the end of the Mid War, by 7 points. oof.

TURN EIGHT -- ROUND 0 of 7

With three Turns remaining (and nominally 24 Rounds, counting the Headliner), we go into the Late War (and a nice quote from Jimmy Carter). This also means the Late War cards get shuffled into the deck for the deal, no reshuffle yet.

And my hand could be a lot worse:


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Granted, East European Unrest and the Iron Lady are no joke, but if I can finagle control of West Germany before playing the Truman Doctrine, I can keep EEU in my hand indefinitely. Maybe. Grain Sales may have to be played eventually. (I can space Thatcher or EEU or Grain Sales, any one, whichever is more bothersome. And at least the others have 3 Ops.)

But I definitely have to play an event for Round Zero (the Headline phase), and... well, I would rather hold the Warsaw Pact as long as possible or play it for Ops, since as long as it doesn't trigger I'm keeping NATO from being playable. Summit is something I prefer not to risk on a gamble, being still far behind, even though I'm one region ahead on the die roll -- especially since Barth, remember, will be able to see my card pick thanks to his Space Raciness! (Note: do not do a Google search for this.)

Since that problem affects any choice, there's only one card I have which won't make a difference if he sees it first:


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SLUT Negotiations! :D

...wait, sorry read that wrong. SALT. Okay, that's much better.

Since Bart chose a 2-power event, mine triggers first, reducing the Defclock to 5 (already reduced to 3 from 2 at the start of the Turn), and making any further coup attempts by anyone worth -1 power this Turn.

Also I get to pick any any one non-scoring card from the discard pile; and after lots and lots of soul-searching I decide to take back a particular neutral 4-power card, not for its event (which I don't care about) but because I think (or maybe feel) it's time to power on in Europe again and none of the discard events will help me with that but 4 safe influence will.

What won't help me, and what very well might lose me the game, is the ouchy card Barth plays for his Headline:


(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimagizer.imageshack.us%2Fv2%2F1024x768q90%2F924%2FXfOOKs.png&hash=69b2552c1b221324ff79f0e42c2fe713e530dfaf)

Aww, that doesn't seem so bad, it doesn't even affect Europe...?

Yeah, but Barth uses it to remove one point of influence each from Iran and Iraq, nixing my controls there, and two points from South Africa, tightening his grip on it.

Effectively this means I have zero scoring power in the Middle East and Africa now. Whereas Bart has 6 potential scoring each place. And a current score of 7.

Know what that adds up to?

19.

Know what he needs to autowin outright?

20.

As some of my oppressed and/or fleeing Russian citizens would say: oy.

TURN EIGHT -- ROUND 1 of 7

So, you may be asking yourself, "Self, does Jason have any chance at all of avoiding a loss?!"

Sure. I mean kind of! I mean maybe!

As dangerous as things are, they could be at least one order of magnitude worse. If I hadn't managed to engineer a huge score in Central America, and turn around Bart's eventual score in Southeast Asia for a point in my favor, Bart would be in position now to win pretty much whenever he could play either the Africa or Middle East scoring card.

Currently he has to play both, plus get a point from somewhere.

As it is, he might have both cards in his hand (they sure weren't in the discard pile, although they might still be in the dealing deck), and play them both across the next two Rounds. But he might not either.

But since he might, I've got to hit hard as quickly as possible as often as possible.

Now, I could have chosen to try to fight off his coming scores in those places; but if I'm pressuring Europe then... well, in hindsight maybe that isn't so great: he can coast in those two areas while punching to keep me from winning outright in Europe, and pick up those 12 points automagically along the way. Especially since I don't have control of the European score card, and don't know where it is -- Bart could have it! If he plays it soon, that would block me from a Europe autowin for, well, possibly the rest of the game. But in that case I know the situation and can focus on working elsewhere; besides which I'll have pulled quite a few points making his own autowin (on points) much harder.

The worst case situation if I set up the Euro auto-win, is that he doesn't have EuroScore (thus delaying a score there by a Turn or so), and just fights my efforts there while coasting on his wave.

Well, anyway this is kind of moot since by the time I wrote out this analysis I had already committed to fighting for a Eurowin.

How to start with that? Several options commended themselves, but eventually I decided I needed to secure my dangling Poland, so:


(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimagizer.imageshack.us%2Fv2%2F1024x768q90%2F924%2FF53wMc.png&hash=49325403da9ba26f016a5a8f83d3561c4c3eada9)

It's time to Pact 'em up and move 'em out!

I was fuzzy about playing this earlier when I had a chance (or two? can't recall, slept a lot since then...), because I didn't want to allow Bart to trigger NATO. At this point, though, I don't care -- it would only mean I can't try coups anymore in Europe, which is nearly impossible for even Barth to try.

Naturally, I don't give a fig about most of the East European nations, so I don't care to add influence there. But I'll be perfectly happy to remove all US influence from up to four East nations! Starting with Poland (now 0:4), and then including Austria and East Germany (now 0:6 and 0:5).

That locks those battleground states solidly off (plus Austria as my token non-bg state that I need for proper dominance and eventually control of the continent). It isn't very likely Bart will be breaking my hold on any of those before game-end. France and Italy are also locked solidly in my favor with a 2 point lead of control in each.

That leaves West Germany. And I have some plans for it.

Much to my not-surprise:


(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimagizer.imageshack.us%2Fv2%2F1024x768q90%2F923%2F0cqnty.png&hash=fba5fa11556e6289833efd1aecf45eacf71c44e0)

And that kicks him back up to 13 points ahead.

At this point I should probably be fighting him for Africa, but nope. Perish the thought!

TURN EIGHT -- ROUND 2 of 7

Wait, did I say "perish the thought" of fighting to keep him from putting close to a win scoring Africa?

Sorry. I meant "PERSHING THE THOUGHT!"


(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimagizer.imageshack.us%2Fv2%2F1024x768q90%2F924%2FyG8wFZ.png&hash=991c44ee7c524f7c0961a265480a76d4f3beb8e0)

This not only breaks his control of West Germany, but solidifies my hold on Italy and France even farther, plus gives me a VP back to make his autowin a little harder.


(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimagizer.imageshack.us%2Fv2%2F1024x768q90%2F922%2FExhjoK.png&hash=35a5eb6f2629bcfc930bd8c6552030faf496a81e)

That screenshot summarizes my last two Rounds. And also how my worthless dalliances with Canada haunt my dreams of ever winning the game, sigh. Those points, put instead in West Germ, could have been decisive for me by now.

Then, Bart, feeling the pressure, makes a mistake. Not one he can't come back from, surely, but still a mistake:


(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimagizer.imageshack.us%2Fv2%2F1024x768q90%2F921%2FZ8RyPF.png&hash=ea5e6de0f3c0d24f3dd5930e95283d2681dace9d)

Playing this card itself isn't the mistake -- it's actually rather clever, since while the event triggers for me, it triggers too late to stop him from scoring huge in the MidEast.

The mistake is using this card for influence, and then NOT socking all those points into bolstering West Germany.

Oh, he does put a point into WestGerm, taking back control, but the other three points he puts into... Benelux? What the heck is that? That isn't a real place! Is that Luxembourg, Lichtenstein, and... and what?? I feel like that's supposed to be Holland and Belgium.

Anyway, woo, he controls them now -- which helps his scoring not at all (unless there's a special card he's holding I don't know about), since he already controls a non-battleground state somewhere in Europe for his own bid at domination.

He could have seriously ruined my day with that 4 point card. And could still do so! -- but not as much.

TURN EIGHT -- ROUND 3 of 7

Last Round, Bart chose a play which, if I end up pulling a win out of this game after all, will be the main reason: instead of loading up influence into West Germany, forcing me into an attrition fight to wrest control away, he plopped one point there for re-establishing control, and then three points somewhere that made no sense.

He did this by sacrificing "Muslim Revolution", which is a USSR event, thus triggering for me. And I took what advantage I could by removing all his influence in Egypt and Jordan.

(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimagizer.imageshack.us%2Fv2%2F1024x768q90%2F923%2F2tNXO9.png&hash=d7d7bcf4e4d3e89de7730cc5e937c40652ffa4a6)

Not that that helps me even slightly, because we'll probably never see MidEast scoring again. But that's the genius of him sacrificing that card right now.

But since he didn't dump all his points into WestGerm, even though he could, then I can play Red Scare for Influence (instead of its event, which being neutral doesn't trigger for anyone), and get:


(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimagizer.imageshack.us%2Fv2%2F1024x768q90%2F921%2FHv32Pa.png&hash=d812a26e3fa6f26922e5325618361645d066437a)

...that. That isn't control, yet, but now if Bart plays another 4 influence card -- and I know he has at least one, namely the China Card -- he'll secure control only 2 points ahead. And that's something I can whittle on. He could have put a Euro win completely out of my feasible grasp, but now I have a small chance.

Or do I?

Not too surprisingly, he does play the China Card for influence. More surprisingly, but very worryingly, he plays that influence in South America:


(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimagizer.imageshack.us%2Fv2%2F1024x768q90%2F924%2F5CTxXi.png&hash=c6e85f6d1e3ad93e049bdcb73a113291cb000718)

Instantly taking control of enough states that he would score 7 points.

There isn't much I can do about it, either.

TURN EIGHT -- ROUND 4 of 7

At this point, Bart is about to win at will if he plays both South America and African scoring. And there isn't much I can feasibly do about it: I don't have enough influence on either continent to blunt his control in battleground states.

(Also he just sent me a Steam message after playing his upcoming Round, with simply a smile emoticon. That doesn't bode well...)

My best play under the circumstances, is to trigger the Iron Lady:


(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimagizer.imageshack.us%2Fv2%2F1024x768q90%2F921%2FzICB9M.png&hash=f61e9fe584dddbd7b46b882d89eca8016518b6a8)

Not gonna lie, Thatcher is freaking awesome -- for Barth! But in a backhanded way, this helps me put down 4 Ops, not just three.

First, I put 2 points into WestGerm, bringing me finally ahead there 8:9.

Then, I put 1 point into Poland, so that when I have to play another tough card later I'll be able to survive it.

Then the game gives me a free point in Argentina! -- which will give me access to two battleground states there, next Round, which Barth won't be able to get to anytime soon (assuming he even needs to, which he might not).

For this, "Socialist Governments" (whatever that is) is no longer playable; I tried to find it in the card list and failed, so as grand finaleish as this Turn looks I'm not going to worry about it.

Also, Bart gets a VP back. And I lose all influence in the UK but that isn't important to me.

You will notice this is a desperate gamble, because if Barth really does have SAmScoring...


(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimagizer.imageshack.us%2Fv2%2F1024x768q90%2F924%2Fifvwnz.png&hash=81c6cfcaf377106994a829a177b2eebfab41d06a)

...like that (sigh)...

...then he'll have the 7 points he needs to win the game instead of being 1 point short.


(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimagizer.imageshack.us%2Fv2%2F1024x768q90%2F922%2FadzqIZ.png&hash=9f022816f4c00eb25486331b8b588b8a4ead26db)

And that's the game. {Shaking my dang head}

Well, with my Horrible Blue Hand of a few turns ago, I can't say I'm surprised; but Bart turned it around again fast by wisely concentrating on spreading out quick scores instead of trying to prevent my European autowin.

In that light, maybe taking control of Brexit or whatever that fake country was, was just a joke on his part, or him being nice and not putting Europe out of reach. Although had he done so, I would have concentrated on the secondary continents a little quicker and maybe staved off the end for another Turn. But I doubt it.

All hail Bartheart, for persevering past some personal tragedies to come roaring back with only a few days of gameclock remaining, to take the win!  O:-) 8)

And now he can read the gamethread!  :D

As a reminder, Barth's side (up to whenever he stopped making notes on it, which was a while back) can be found here (http://grogheads.com/forums/index.php?topic=16777.0).

Good read as always Jason. And a good hard fought game. I thought I had it sewn up 2 turns previous but I muffed it by NOT playing the SE Asia scoring card in the headline phase then your card play costing me a huge lead...well done.
O0

Man, Turn 6.

But aside from being dealt a deadly hand there, other contributions to my loss:

0.) Yeah, focusing on Canada for a mere few points of score when-if-ever that card came back around, was stupid. But ultimately it didn't count one way or another. But it was still gravely stupid and could have cost me an autowin later.

1.) Too much focus on Europe for the autowin. This allowed Barth to recover (Asia) and develop well everywhere else, eventually tugging my attention away from Europe after all to fight rearguard actions attempting to minimize his coming scores. New principle then: a European autowin is fine, as long as it can be feasibly set up in the first few Turns or picked up after some good luck in a Turn later. Once the mid-war started, I should have dropped that focus (if not before) and just looked for an opportunity to chip and putt in. But I was already soooo close, I thought I could force Barth to keep fighting to keep me out of it; whereas, until the EuroScore was even on the table again, he could ignore me all day long and work on other regions, and even allow I'd score well in Europe as long as he could spoil my control for the autowin there -- because he'd be setting up multiple decent or very good scores elsewhere. Not incidentally, this is what largely happened.

2.) Very much relatedly, once I saw evidence early in Turn 8 that he had scoring cards he was having to deal with, I should have immediately focused my attentions elsewhere. Indeed, I already had thought seriously about picking up one of a couple of major West Hemisphere cards (each applicable to both Central or South America) from the discard pile thanks to my SALT Negotiations, so in my head I must have already seen danger looming. But even if I had kept my 4-point Red Scare choice, I might have delayed my loss long enough to turn it around had I stopped trying to hope he had a Euroscore he was trying to win before he played -- which, notice, made no sense as a strategy anyway! If Bart did have the EuroScore, and was working hard on winning by scoring somewhere else first, that's still where I should have focused and not on Europe, accepting that my Eurowin was consequently never going to happen: on this theory, I'd have to parry his attempt at an early 20 point autowin, and so not be able to take advantage of a forced score to autowin Europe, after which I'd never see that score card again anyway with only two Turns remaining. Whereas if he didn't have the Euroscore yet, I might still be able to set that autowin up in one of the last two Turns but only if I survived parrying his 20point autowin attempt(s) this Turn.

It's possible that by the time I realized he was going for major scoring in Africa and SAmerica, I couldn't have stopped him from autowinning on points anyway. But I could have tried, and I didn't. And more importantly, I should have stopped trying to focus back on Europe a long time previously until when-if-ever I DEFINITELY saw a clear Eurowin opportunity.

Going after / back to Europe was a fatal miscalculation both on overall strategy for the game, and more tactically for Turn 8 after pulling out a 6 point (total) reduction of his lead through region scoring (plus and minus a few other Victory Point adjustments after the Blue Death Hand of Turn 6.)

Nice wtite up. Just picked this on my tablet and really helped my understanding of how to play it.

Thanks for the compliment! I'm currently learning how to play Fire in the Lake by game-mastering it for the forum, although things are moving a bit slow right now. (Link's in my sig.) It's, superficially, like a more complex Twilight Struggle, between four players, strategically fighting the Vietnam War.

We still have two slots open, for playing North Vietnam or South Vietnam, if you'd be interested!