Tom vs Bruce: Twilight Struggle
TURN 3 – Eisenhower
Tom: Ha ha, I just kicked the US out of Israel! I consider this a moral victory no matter what else happens. Can you believe there was ever a time Israel was in play? Man, history is so old.
Bruce: The thing about history is that besides being old, it repeats itself. There is a card called Arab-Israeli Wars that can replace American influence in Israel with Soviet influence, based on a die roll (To Hit Armor Class Ben Gurion). But unlike the Korean War event, which happens once and is removed, the Arab-Israeli War card keeps getting recycled until it is stopped by the Camp David Accords card. So the American position in Israel won’t be secure until the Mid-War, and it’s dangerous for the American player to devote much time to Israel until then, as all his or her influence can be wiped out by the roll of a d6.
Tom: Playing Twilight Struggle with Bruce is like playing blackjack with someone who’s counting cards.
Bruce: He who forgets history is destined to get whammied by cardplay? Isn’t that a saying from somewhere? One thing I kind of wish Twilight Struggle had was counterfactual events: Soviets invade Poland, or US stays out of Vietnam. But I guess that’s what conceding Southeast Asia would be as the US player, and that’s a terrible idea. Twilight Struggle is locked into a particular view of history, which is the view of history that was operative at the time. Which seems like a splendid way to make a historical game. Now, if they only had a card for the South winning the Civil War…
Tom: Oh, hey, great news! I just sent an animal into space. Not such great news for the animal. Bruce, on the other hand, keeps sending the Vietnam Revolt card into space. This sucks for me, because the Soviet player benefits much more from an Earthbound Vietnam Revolt.
Bruce: I sure wish I had some better cards to send into space, but Vietnam Revolts will do for now. Without it, Tom will struggle to make inroads in Southeast Asia because he has no way of getting there apart from coups, which I can prevent if I keep the Defcon at 3 or lower.
Tom: You kids these days probably don’t remember defcons. The idea is that as tensions escalate between the superpowers, they don’t dare cross each other for fear of someone getting antsy and lobbing an ICBM. Twilight Struggle expresses this by making entire continents off limits for dirty tricks. As the tension escalates, the coup opportunity door slams shut in Europe, then Asia, then the Middle East. Dirty tricks are always okay in Africa and Latin America. No one’s going to start a nuclear war over the Third World.
