Tom vs Bruce: Twilight Struggle
TURN 4 – Khrushchev – Mid War cards are added
Tom: Bruce decides to hold the Olympics. Normally our legions of trained gymnasts would turn this into a decisive victory for the Soviet Union. But in Twilight Struggle, the guy who plays the Olympics card only has to a roll a four or lower on a d6. What a terrible sporting event. Bruce takes the gold medal in d6 rolling and racks up a couple more victory points.
Bruce: The Olympics is one of those cards known as “Defcon Suicide” cards. It’s even an example in the rulebook. Because just like in Chris Crawford’s Balance of Power, you lose if you trigger nuclear war. The catch is that the person who is considered to have triggered it is the person whose turn it is. If someone plays Olympics, the other player can boycott. This degrades the Defcon by one. If the Defcon is already 2, boycotting take it to Defcon 1, and the person who played Olympics is the person who loses. Ouch!
Tom: Sometimes rules are tricky because they make no sense. Nuclear armageddon because someone decides to opt out of sports?
Bruce: Defcon suicide is a tricky concept. There are cards that allow you to take an action as part of an event. If this is your opponent’s event, and you manage to trigger it at Defcon 2, your opponent can merrily use that action to stage a coup in a Battleground country. Whoops! You blew up the world. Emphasis on you, the person who triggered the event and allowed your opponent to conduct the coup. The guy who actually played the coup action gets off scot-free. If one of these cards is hanging out in your hand, you need to make sure you either play it at Defcon 3 or above, or hold it, or play it into space.
