Afternoon Struggle

Stanley's intrigue with Twilight Struggle seemed to end at the high rating on BGG, as repeated threats to play it with me had morphed into a kind of bedtime-avoidance meme. I couldn't ask Sally - she'd once suggested that 'the twilight struggle' was what preceded 'the insertion of the twilight imperium'. Instead we all played Burgle Bros a couple of times (great game!)  before I set TS up again at Sally's folks house this afternoon.

Just like when Kevin Costner cut the grass in Field of Dreams, baseball players Stanley materialised, hypnotised by the chits, and played a couple of open hands before we graduated to standard hidden-cards play.

Stan was the US and I the USSR. Over forty-five years (or ten rounds) we play cards to grapple for influence and control of the political world. There's very little actual fighting - any open warfare has a cloaked feel to it, as one side or the other (possibly both) funds battles in climes far-flung from their home territories, for ostensibly unrelated reasons. In fact if you get too cantankerous and cause nuclear war - a danger tracked by the DEFCON status - you instantly lose.

So it's less melee, and more slippery political machinations. At the start of each round both sides play a 'headline' card, which is an event that - when played optimally - you hope swings the game, or at least a region, toward your control. Then players take turns with the rest of their cards playing them either as operations points (the number) or the event, with a crucial caveat - if you play a card for operations but it contains an event 'owned' by your opponent, it gets triggered anyway. Played events usually go from the game, whereas cards used for points will be reshuffled into the deck when it runs out.

All the events and operations are geared towards the same goals though - adding (or removing opponent's) influence from a country, or having enough influence there to turn it into outright control.

Some cards will score a region You can win by reaching 20 victory points, or having total control of Europe.

 Light side up is influence, colour-side up is control

My mini-playthrough last week (4 rounds) stood me in reasonable stead at the outset, as I focused my efforts in Europe and took an early lead. In fact Stan was convinced I was going to win, until I pointed out to him that my strong position wasn't enough for an outright win - but it would be a dramatic points swing. However when the Europe scoring card it came into Stan's hand, and I didn't realise that his chipping away in Europe was anything more than stubbornness. Suddenly Europe was scored and I realised that my near-total-control was nowhere near what it had been.

Meanwhile Stan had been spreading himself across the southern hemisphere and hot on the heels of Europe, he scored southeast Asia and catapulted himself up the score track.

I knew it was coming

As we entered mid-war, my stranglehold on Europe was deteriorating and Stan was sitting pretty on 11 points. I pushed into Central America and waited impatiently for Africa scoring. Stanley was developing his space flight technology, which acts as a kind of grease to the wheels of politicking, giving him little advantages on the map and triggering small points rewards. He also played Central America scoring which gave me a measly three points before I could do anything more exciting with it.

He was on the receiving end of some rough luck though when no less than three times a decent die roll could have given him victory, either by moving him up the space race track or winning a battle on the map. But when the end came in round eight, it was self-inflicted on my part as I gambled - despite my controlling more regions than Stan, he won the Summit battle and claimed a victory for the US.

Africa never arrived.

Both Joe and Martin really rate Twilight Struggle and I can see why. Compared to our COIN experience with Cuba Libre the play is very speedy and I would never have guessed how funny it is - Stan's cries of despair on his appalling dice rolls were matched by both us gnashing our teeth at having hands full of the other side's event cards. There's a slight lack of control (dice rolls, card hands) I found much more appealing than a heavy-thinking, zero-sum approach. That does mean fate can crap on you from a height at times, yes, but the game moved so fast we could forgive it that.

Stan gave it an "8.5, maybe 9" saying he liked how you're forced to change plans during the game. I'd agree! And be keen to play again.