Twilight Struggle in the Classroom

[TheCommandTent]

This semester I have a 10 student class for US History II and I have this crazy idea to try and play Twilight Struggle in class during the unit when we are discussing the Cold War.  The problem is I am pretty sure none of these students has ever played a boardgame more complicated than Monopoly.  So I wanted to open up a thread where I can ask questions and get ideas about making this work, if it is even feasible.

So what do y'all think.  Would this even work?  Should I modify any of the rules to make it run a little easier?  For the most part they are bright students and I have time to fit it into the schedule but I don't want to go in without thinking it through and then waste time without accomplishing anything. 

[Nefaro]

How would you go about doing it, being only 2-player?

[TheCommandTent]

How would you go about doing it, being only 2-player?

I would split the class into two teams of 5.  Then have them work together to determine their actions.  This is where I may need to modify the rules or limit the cards but I am unsure about how to go about this without diluting the game to much.

[Nefaro]

I'm not familiar with the TS rules, so I can't give insight into that.  However, the team setup probably shouldn't take much modification other than all the extra time it would take the teams to huddle up and plot nefarious schemes.  I mean.. you probably don't want them passing cards around and talking strategy aloud right next to the other team do you? 

Also be aware that all this extra jabberwocky will draw the game out quite a bit regarding time.

[undercovergeek]

How would you go about doing it, being only 2-player?

were managing

[Barthheart]

we're mangling

Fixed that for you....  :P

[Ubercat]

How would you go about doing it, being only 2-player?

were managing

It's easy to play a game that you aren't playing! No slow consulting of rule books or debating moves.

[bayonetbrant]

http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/903492/twilight-struggle-at-720-in-the-morning

http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/606235/twilight-struggle-in-the-classroom

[eyebiter]

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[James Sterrett]

I was in a group of decently bright students that played Diplomacy in class in 10th grade.  I had lots of fun.  I was already a wargamer, had played Diplomacy, and considered its rules to be trivially simple compared to things on my shelf such as Gulf Strike or Star Fleet Battles.  I was astounded that many of my classmates had trouble grasping the rules.

So, the complexity of Twilight Struggle is likely to be an issue.  More on that a bit further down.

When you say you have class time, how much do you have?  How long will students have to decide how to play each card?

If the point to have them play the game, or to have them start to understand the complexities of the Cold War as a global struggle?  I'm assuming it is the latter.

Brainstorming - I would be tempted to run the game in the following manner with the following changes to the way TS works....

Create teams and assigns the students to specific roles on the team - one should be the President/Premier; the others aligned geographically.  That way each person on each team has an area to analyze and look after, and it reduces the scope of analysis each person needs to perform each turn.

Do not let the students set up the board.  Impose a start state that looks historical.

Stack the deck to ensure the events you want to highlight *will* appear in the order you want.   Same for scoring opportunities.

Give students a cheat sheet of how they influence countries.  You handle the mechanics.  They can pay attention, or not, as they choose; you want them focused on the decisions, not on the game mechanics.

Perhaps throw scoring events out, instead letting students decide on their own which areas are getting better or worse.  Or only score at the end of the game, signaled by a card you stacked into the deck.

Only play a defined period, instead of the entire game.  Each team of students will probably spend 5-10 minutes arguing over each card.  Slow game - but good for their learning, since the strategy is what you want them to wrestle with.

Save a bit of time by making the card play simultaneous with moves written as in Diplomacy.  Alternate resolving results, line by line.  This means that each team also has to worry about the unknowns of the other side's current card play.  It somewhat punches up event play since the events are one-line turns.

[TheCommandTent]

Thanks for the feedback guys.  Still not sure how/if I'll implement this.  The hardest thing now is trying to find some time to prep and plan this out before I get to the Cold War Unit.


While we are on the subject any other game/simulation/RP ideas that would work well to help reinforce the Cold War to my students?

[bayonetbrant]

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/713/nuclear-war

[eyebiter]

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[James Sterrett]

A few further thoughts from sleeping on this...

Don't let an area get scored and then be obviously not going to be scored again - because that region's player will be
out of the game.

Brainstorming a means of teaching-while-playing:

Initially, give each team one card to play.

The first card will have a friendly event and they will play it for the event.  No decision (and remember that you stacked the deck!)

The second and third cards will be played for operations points and will each trigger an enemy-themed event.
   --> This introduces operations but avoids having to make a decision about whether to burn a card for operations points or for the event.
   --> Introduce influencing countries with the second card, and coups on the third card.

For the fourth card, give them a friendly-event card, and let them decide how to play it - for the event or for the operations points.

The fifth card scores the entire map.  This is where you introduce the DEFCON track and its impact as well.

After that scoring round, you introduce the notion of holding a hand of cards they can play for the coming round.

[Barthheart]

Those are great ideas.... not a bad way to teach the game to anyone....