TWILIGHT STRUGGLE (closed beta) activating soon on Steam

[Bardolph]

Just picked this up and have only played through the tutorial once. The desktop icon was killing me, it has nothing connecting it to the game visually other than the letters T and S.
Boardgamegeek to the rescue: here is a nice icon to replace the TS one.

https://boardgamegeek.com/filepage/39703/twilight-struggle-icon

Tip that feller or at least give him a thumb :)

[pfig]

I've been reading about TS for ages, and with the Steam release I thought the time had come.

However, I waited for the Three Moves Ahead show about it, and while it's clearly one of their favourite games ever, I realised there is a lot of dice rolling (even if in the digital version it happens behind the scenes).

As someone who loathes Risk, I'm not sure now I would like TS... Do you feel like there is enough in there to make one overlook the luck factor?

[dinsdale]

As someone who loathes Risk, I'm not sure now I would like TS... Do you feel like there is enough in there to make one overlook the luck factor?

I haven't had time to play the digital version, but, in the board game luck balances itself out. I played quite a few games and never felt the dice were influencing the game outside of the usual wildly lucky streak.

This is a very popular competitive tournament game, so I would imagine luck is not the primary game decider over a handful of games.

[tgb]

Actually the dice are not behind the scenes, but very much in-your-face.  Cards are more important than dice rolls, and the real luck comes in the hand you are dealt.  That said, there is real skill and strategy in digging your way out of a crappy hand of nothing but scoring cards and events that favor your opponent.

[Queeg]

The dice definitely play a role, but the other layers of the game - the different card combinations/actions and the various country-specific modifiers that impact the dice rolls - reduce the feeling that's all random luck.  The biggest "luck" factor, by far, is just the hand you get dealt.  But fortunes of war....

I'm 0-6 agains the Soviet AI.  But still having fun. 

[tgb]

I downloaded it the same day I had major surgery, so I had two weeks in the hospital to learn how to get my butt kicked.  I probably lost 6 games as the Americans and 5 as the Soviets, but at least now I can make it into the Late War period.

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

Stupid brain.  Love having it fart on me and me screwing up DEFCON degrade vs. DEFCON improve in my addled noggin and then play a card during DEFCON 2 which hands a nuclear war win to the Soviets on turn 8 when I had +16 VP as the US.

[tgb]

Is anyone else finding that when the AI plays de-Staliniation, turn tine increases dramatically?  I mean Pride of Nations slow.  At first I chalked it up tp the fact that I was playing on an old laptop, but I find it happening on my desktop as well.

[tgb]

Just beat the AI for the first time (Turn 4).  I had read somewhere that it didn't understand European Control, and other than a too-little-too-late attempt to keep me out of Poland just let me steamroll my way through.

Most of the game was played at Defcon 2 or 3, so it was just a matter of spending influence like a drunken sailor.

[pfig]

Thank you all for the clarification - I'll be getting it stat!

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

Is anyone else finding that when the AI plays de-Staliniation, turn tine increases dramatically?  I mean Pride of Nations slow.  At first I chalked it up tp the fact that I was playing on an old laptop, but I find it happening on my desktop as well.

I had it happen once.  Took about 5 minutes for the AI to decide where to relocate influence.

I am starting to see some patterns in the AI.  I think with Europe that it reaches a max spending limit level and just decides it's not worth the effort to concentrate on it.  It does seem to like dumping points into Africa early and goes nuts for Asia.  In my last game, Thailand got up to 14 US and 12 USSR influence in it.

[JasonPratt]

As someone who loathes Risk, I'm not sure now I would like TS...

Since everyone else addressed the luck factor, allow me to mention: this is definitely NOT Risk -- aside from a very superficial physical resemblance of the map, the mechanics are a thousand percent different.

[Moreb]

Am I the only person that doesn't loath risk? I remember my parents having it when I was a kid.  I seem to remember, maybe incorrectly, the pieces were wooden in wooden boxes and just loving the map. When I became an adult I bought the game on a whim, played a few games and then moved on to Axis and Allies. Thus began my love of gaming.

100 posts! Wheres my ribbon?

[Barthheart]

I love Risk! I have four different iterations... three are just different vanillas.  O0

[Nefaro]

I love Risk! I have four different iterations... three are just different vanillas.  O0

Risk is still light strategy fun, although I will only break it out when others demand.

I have two, still.  From over a decade ago.  Regular old 90s one with the horse & inf figures and the old LOTR one.  Keep them for playing with the very youngest.

Haven't needed to in awhile since the gamer kids in the family have all graduated to bigger stuff.  So the Risk games gather dust.