TWILIGHT STRUGGLE (closed beta) activating soon on Steam

[BanzaiCat]

I wrote up an intro/AAR piece to Brant for hopeful inclusion on the Front Page. I can attest to the fact that the game very much favors the Communists early on.

But I also suck at this game, too.  :(

[JasonPratt]

Red Scare/Purge and 1 or 2 other cards seem bugged in that I can never headline them.

Are you playing with the China Civil War option on? Because that deactivates certain China-related cards as events (they can still be played for influence points or other things like that) until the Soviet player invests 3 influence into China.

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

I wrote up an intro/AAR piece to Brant for hopeful inclusion on the Front Page. I can attest to the fact that the game very much favors the Communists early on.

But I also suck at this game, too.  :(

Yup, early war favours the USSR, mid war is neutral, late war favours the USA.

[DennisS]

I need more videos or lets plays.I am quite lost.

I am very close to buying this..but I just downloaded a pdf file of the rules. Thirty pages of densely packed writing. This is a very complex game, under the hood.

Most of the rule book is taken up with an example of play and descriptions of the events depicted on the cards.  The actual rules are fairly simple.  Just remember that in the early war turns, the only scoring cards in the deck are Europe, Asia, and the Middle East.  Try to concentrate on getting and holding influence there.  If you're the USSR, make sure you attempt a coup in a battleground country in Western Europe right off the bat.  Italy's usually a tempting target due to its low stability.  Attempting a coup will knock the defcon track down and prevent the US from staging their own coup in Europe.  Also, you should definitely try for Iran, Iraq as controlling that corner of the ME gives you a path into Asia via India, Pakistan, Afghanistan.

This advice is precisely what the 428-page pdf file on TS strategy advocates.

Having lived through a very significant part of the events of the cold war, this game is intensely interesting to me. I lived on or near NATO bases for ... 15 years, between 1960, and 1980, and the Cold War was always part of my life.

[JasonPratt]

My introduction to the coming mp game with Bartheart (or with someone else, according to circumstances), has now been occurred!

[bboyer66]

I'm 0-11 to start out with  LOL

[JasonPratt]

...I nominate Bboyer as a possible substitute for Barth if he can't make it.  >:D

[JasonPratt]

I think B_C's entry went live this afternoon (or Michael Enkenfels' did anyway  O:-) ): http://grogheads.com/?p=10815

[Ian C]

Still interested in this game. Any overheating since the update?

[Arctic Blast]

Had a crash issue last night when the game just completely froze, but no heat problems thus far.

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

I think B_C's entry went live this afternoon (or Michael Enkenfels' did anyway  O:-) ): http://grogheads.com/?p=10815

Good stuff.  Makes me wish I were back home so I could pick this up. 10 more days.  Couple questions arose after reading the AAR.  In the board game, the US must use its 7 set up points in Western Europe only.  Did they change that for the PC game? The player is initially limited to using one card per turn for the Space Race.  Does the PC version let you throw more?

[JasonPratt]

As far as I have played, the Space Race is limited to one card per turn dumped into it (although of course there are a few events, too.)

The initial influence placement rules in the PC version are definitely 7 for US, 6 for USSR, in Western and Eastern Europe respectively, with Austria and Finland counting in both categories, and with Turkey and Canada counted as Western Europe for purposes of the game.

[Ubercat]

I think B_C's entry went live this afternoon (or Michael Enkenfels' did anyway  O:-) ): http://grogheads.com/?p=10815

Good stuff.  Makes me wish I were back home so I could pick this up. 10 more days.  Couple questions arose after reading the AAR.  In the board game, the US must use its 7 set up points in Western Europe only.  Did they change that for the PC game? The player is initially limited to using one card per turn for the Space Race.  Does the PC version let you throw more?

It's just like the board game. The US AI, incidentally, always puts 4 in W Germany and the other 3 in Italy. That's exactly what I've always done, as I've long considered it the optimal placement.

You can only space 1 card per turn until you reach the space that lets you space 2, as long as you're the first one to reach it. Once the other player reaches that spot, you're back to only 1 per turn, just like the board game.

[Nefaro]

Some day I'll get around to learning the other game that uses the system - Labyrinth. 

Had it for a few years w/o ever playing.  And now there's an expansion coming soon.  :-\

[JasonPratt]

There's at least one more game (other than Labyrinth) using a modified version of this system, although I don't recall offhand what it is... {checking} Oh right, Dawn of Freedom, which is essentially the final year (1989) of this game.

We the People and Hannibal: Rome vs Carthage use a similar prior system, which TS was inspired by. For the People and Path to Glory are, I think, Civil War and WW1 versions of WTP and so use a similar system.

Here I Stand (early Reformation Europe) and its direct sequel The Virgin Queen (Elizabethan Europe, duh), have been described as having somewhat similar mechanics to TS.


There are some connections to the COIN series (card assisted counterinsurgency games), although obviously those will be much more tactical: Fire In The Lake (Vietnam); Andean Abyss; Cuba Libre; and A Distant Plain (Afghanistan) -- those were developed by the same guy who adapted the TS system into Labyrinth.