8 May 2007

Chronicles of the Cold War (part 1)

Game: Twilight Struggle

Players: Ricardo – America
Me – USSR

This report will cover the events of two games of Twilight Struggle between me and Ricardo.


Round 1:

The game started with an earlier American advantage. Having Ricardo all the scoring cards of the the early war during the first two turns he was able to know were to invest and beat me in the scoring of those areas.

But not having any scoring card had its advantages! First of all, I had the chance to play more cards, meaning more influence around the globe. And second, without knowing were the scoring would be, I was investing in all the regions at the same time. These two factors combined allowed me to spread my presence in all the regions at the time, and not concentrating my efforts in a single one. The result was that during the middle war, I was able to unbalance the score in my favour, being able to keep it that way until the end of the game, rushed by the “war games” card. In the end, USSR won by a single point at the beginning of turn 10. If the game would finish in the end of the turn, I would probably maintain the win, since USSR had more influence overall.

USA 0 – 1 USSR

Round 2:

We played the round 2 of this game just three days after the first one. The start of the game was almost the same, with the Americans gaining an early advantage. But unlike the previous game, USSR was unable to catch up, and by mid war, USA had enough advantage to finish the game with the “war games” card, at the beginning of turn 8. Once more, USSR had more influence of the world, but with 3 more turns to play, the situation could become more balanced.

In this round I had more problems placing influence on South and Central America, and Ricardo kindly removed the influence I had as soon as he could. The scoring cards were more balanced this time as well, and I did not had the advantage of having more cards to play. Also, for the first time one faction achieved “control” over a region; I was able to control the Middle East, and having a huge score on that region, that helped me to lose by a single point only.

USA 1 – 1 USSR

After two “Cold Wars”, USA and USSR manage to win one of them, both by a single point only. Just like during the real Cold War, there seems to be a tie. Can you get more realism than that?

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