Twilight Struggle, Anyone?

Zarathud · Post by **Zarathud** » Fri Aug 19, 2016 2:20 am

I feel like El Guapo is wringing me out to dry in the wash. Stealing NATO out of my hand!

Archinerd · Post by **Archinerd** » Thu Sep 15, 2016 2:11 pm

Congrats El Guapo.
I couldn't seem to get any momentum with my Commie Agenda and you never gave me any real chance to exploit the few inroads I did manage to make.

El Guapo · Post by **El Guapo** » Mon Sep 19, 2016 9:54 pm

Archinerd wrote:Congrats El Guapo.
I couldn't seem to get any momentum with my Commie Agenda and you never gave me any real chance to exploit the few inroads I did manage to make.

Good game. Losing the Korean War on a 6 was brutal, but the Formosan Resolution was huge as a result - I could just sit on the China Card, and Taiwan gave me domination in Asia.

Zarathud · Post by **Zarathud** » Mon Sep 19, 2016 11:11 pm

I am sinking down the drain against El Guapo as well. My coup attempts failed regularly this game, and El Guapo didn't leave me much room to make mistakes. I couldn't make headroads into Asia, and El Guapo even took back Central and South America after I was making inroads. Coming into the end of the game, my massive lead in the Space Race, the Middle East and Africa isn't going to be anywhere enough.

El Guapo · Post by **El Guapo** » Tue Sep 20, 2016 11:19 am

We'll see if I can do something about that lead in Africa.

But that Mid-East scoring after eliminating my presence there was brutal.

Zarathud · Post by **Zarathud** » Tue Sep 20, 2016 11:28 am

It's the only thing that will keep me in the game until Final Scoring. When I will be crushed unless a miracle happens.

Zarathud · Post by **Zarathud** » Thu Sep 29, 2016 8:03 am

Ugh, I can't seem to catch a break with the RNG. This Final Scoring is going to be ugly if I don't give you the chance to push us to DEFCON 1 on my turn. It's so tempting....

But at least I can use Star Wars to shoot down your Space Dogs. It's the one consolation of having so many disasters to avoid.

El Guapo · Post by **El Guapo** » Thu Sep 29, 2016 8:27 am

I mean, the game was effectively over before this hand-cycle, so no rolls were going to change that.

On the plus side, by the time we get to the Moon it's going to be covered by socialist communes.

Zarathud · Post by **Zarathud** » Thu Sep 29, 2016 10:12 am

Sure, but not being able to keep Africa? I'm pretty embarrassed after making so many mistakes, stumbling and getting boxed in by bad events each turn. But you played a pretty damn fine game Guapo.

At least I have the Caliphate and ISIS to populate the moon colony communes.

El Guapo · Post by **El Guapo** » Thu Sep 29, 2016 11:05 am

IIRC I had one or two helpful events to flip Africa. Though right now I'm at a complete loss to remember what they were. Colonial Rear Guards, maybe? Voice of America?

Zarathud · Post by **Zarathud** » Fri Sep 30, 2016 10:51 am

I had to play an event which let you prevent me from adding influence to a region--Africa. I expected to keep 2-3 battlegrounds, then you realigned me out. And even kicked me out of Cuba!

I had to hold Voice of America and another event that let you directly add 4 influence--which would have sunk me by turn 4. There were reasons why I went into space so heavily.

Still, I was outplayed from Turn 3. Good game, Guapo. I'm pretty happy about the comeback that kept you to only 22 points at the end.

El Guapo · Post by **El Guapo** » Fri Sep 30, 2016 11:21 am

Want to switch sides and do another match? Maybe do the Chinese Civil War variant?

Zarathud · Post by **Zarathud** » Fri Sep 30, 2016 2:37 pm

Rematch accepted. I expect to get trounced again, but I could pull off a YUGE upset.

Isgrimnur · Post by **Isgrimnur** » Fri Sep 30, 2016 2:48 pm

Zarathud wrote:Rematch accepted. I expect to get trounced again, but I could pull off a YUGE upset.

Why does Defcon 1 end the game? </Trump>

El Guapo · Post by **El Guapo** » Mon Oct 03, 2016 9:51 pm

Zarathud wrote:Rematch accepted. I expect to get trounced again, but I could pull off a YUGE upset.

Sent out a game invite.

El Guapo · Post by **El Guapo** » Fri Nov 04, 2016 11:03 pm

Good game, Zarathud - the wheels definitely came off bigly in the last couple turns.

Zarathud · Post by **Zarathud** » Sat Nov 05, 2016 2:57 am

Yea, early play of Destalination after you expanded in Eastern Europe turned out very badly for me. You were suddenly everywhere again. I need to focus more on containment by realignment next time, but at least the dice were kinder to me this time around in coups.

I was happy about getting NATO and working my way through the bad events, then making inroads into the battlefield of Eastern Europe after you took France. I was also pretty happy about how the events turned out to let me reclaim Egypt, then limiting the nastiness of OPEC. But sitting on Central America Scoring and fighting over Mexico was pretty painful, which was why I took my chances in Africa.

El Guapo · Post by **El Guapo** » Sun Dec 25, 2016 11:13 pm

There's a new mini-expansion out for the game on Steam (which apparently existed for the IRL game as well, unbeknownst to me) - Turn Zero.

The main thing it adds are a series of "crisis cards", which play out at the start of the game, and which represent different outcomes for events leading up to the Cold War (mostly WW2-related). You roll a d6 for each event, with a 1 being a very pro-USSR outcome, a 6 being a very pro-US outcome, etc. You also have a set of "state craft" cards, which are one-off cards that you can use to give a bonus to one particular crisis (e.g., add a +1 to the die roll). So the strategy lies in deciding which crises are most important to you to have a good (or at least not terrible) outcome, assessing which crises are important to your opponent, and allocating your statecraft cards accordingly.

So for example, one card is "VE Day", which represents how far each side advanced in Europe during WW2. On a 1, the Soviets made it west of the Elbe (and get bonus influence in W. Germany and Austria), and on a 6, the US/UK reached Berlin first (and get bonus influence in E. Germany, and a different Europe scoring card).

It also has an alternate space race track that you can play with. Basically you get different bonuses for being the first to each important step - one lets you reroll one coup roll a turn, another lets you put influence into an enemy controlled country for 1 IP rather than 2 once per turn, etc.

There are also a new set of additional cards for the US and USSR.

Seems like a fun way to shake up the game a bit.

Archinerd · Post by **Archinerd** » Sun Dec 25, 2016 11:42 pm

It looks interesting. I can't tell if you need both players to have it for a mutiplayer game or not.
Even so, I'll probably wait to pick it up when it's on sale.

El Guapo · Post by **El Guapo** » Mon Dec 26, 2016 12:04 am

Archinerd wrote:It looks interesting. I can't tell if you need both players to have it for a mutiplayer game or not.
Even so, I'll probably wait to pick it up when it's on sale.

It's, uh, $5.

It looks like you don't need both players to have it for a multiplayer game. At least, I have been able to extend an invitation to NickAragua for a Turn Zero game, when (I think) he doesn't have it. He hasn't accepted the invite yet, though, so possible an error will get returned when that happens.

NickAragua · Post by **NickAragua** » Mon Dec 26, 2016 12:10 am

I haven't been able to accept the DLC invite, so I'll be grabbing the DLC and seeing if that helps.

Archinerd · Post by **Archinerd** » Mon Dec 26, 2016 1:49 am

El Guapo wrote:
Archinerd wrote:It looks interesting. I can't tell if you need both players to have it for a mutiplayer game or not.
Even so, I'll probably wait to pick it up when it's on sale.
It's, uh, $5.

I'm cheap.

But you do make a pretty convincing argument.

El Guapo · Post by **El Guapo** » Tue Dec 27, 2016 10:47 am

Apparently there are a few significant bugs with the Turn Zero expansion. The one I ran into last night is that the "First Lightning" USSR event, which degrades Defcon by 1 if used for ops or the event, also degrades Defcon if space-raced (which it's not supposed to do). Also apparently the new "Non-Aligned Movement" card event does not work, and the crisis card effects which prevent certain events from triggering doesn't work.

Hopefully that will be patched soon.

Zarathud · Post by **Zarathud** » Tue Dec 27, 2016 2:22 pm

In after the patch. Finally able to install on a new iPad.

NickAragua · Post by **NickAragua** » Tue Dec 27, 2016 5:05 pm

On the plus side, I barely understand what's going on during turn 0 anyway, so it's not like I'd be able to spot a bug there.

Holman · Post by **Holman** » Fri Jul 20, 2018 7:47 pm

Anyone up for a game via Steam in the coming days?

I'm competent but by no means excellent. My preferred setup is the original optional cards plus both bonus sets, but I'm happy to play any configuration and either side.

El Guapo · Post by **El Guapo** » Mon Jul 23, 2018 2:50 pm

Holman wrote: Fri Jul 20, 2018 7:47 pm Anyone up for a game via Steam in the coming days?

I'm competent but by no means excellent. My preferred setup is the original optional cards plus both bonus sets, but I'm happy to play any configuration and either side.

Sure, I'd be happy to play. I've got regular games ongoing with Archinerd and NickAragua - happy to add another game.

Holman · Post by **Holman** » Mon Jul 23, 2018 7:19 pm

El Guapo wrote: Mon Jul 23, 2018 2:50 pm
Holman wrote: Fri Jul 20, 2018 7:47 pm Anyone up for a game via Steam in the coming days?

I'm competent but by no means excellent. My preferred setup is the original optional cards plus both bonus sets, but I'm happy to play any configuration and either side.
Sure, I'd be happy to play. I've got regular games ongoing with Archinerd and NickAragua - happy to add another game.

Excellent! I deserve more thrashing.

What's a good time for you?

El Guapo · Post by **El Guapo** » Tue Jul 24, 2018 10:19 am

Holman wrote: Mon Jul 23, 2018 7:19 pm
El Guapo wrote: Mon Jul 23, 2018 2:50 pm
Holman wrote: Fri Jul 20, 2018 7:47 pm Anyone up for a game via Steam in the coming days?

I'm competent but by no means excellent. My preferred setup is the original optional cards plus both bonus sets, but I'm happy to play any configuration and either side.
Sure, I'd be happy to play. I've got regular games ongoing with Archinerd and NickAragua - happy to add another game.
Excellent! I deserve more thrashing.

What's a good time for you?

Usually I just use the PBEM-style interface and each person just takes their turns whenever. That said, if you want to find a couple hour stretch to play continuously, I could probably do that starting sometime around 9 - 9:30 eastern tomorrow evening.

Holman · Post by **Holman** » Tue Jul 24, 2018 5:03 pm

PBEM style? (I haven't done much online TS.)

Does that mean just starting a game, inviting a player, and allowing a very long turn time?

El Guapo · Post by **El Guapo** » Wed Jul 25, 2018 10:29 am

Holman wrote: Tue Jul 24, 2018 5:03 pm PBEM style? (I haven't done much online TS.)

Does that mean just starting a game, inviting a player, and allowing a very long turn time?

So as you know, the game is alternating turns. Basically the way the online games work is after one player goes, the game e-mails the other player to let them know that it's now their turn, then they can log in go, and then it e-mails the other player that it's their turn, etc. If both players are logged in at the same time they can see the other player take their turn and then immediately take theirs, so you can log-on at the same time and then bang out all or a big chunk of a game, but you can also log-in when you get a chance after getting e-mail notifications, which basically functions as PBEM-style game.

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