[Twilight Struggle] - Game 6 - Game Over - Reagan Accepts A Draw From The Soviets

Iron Weasel

In a typical game of Twilight Struggle, the draw deck will reshuffle while dealing out the cards for Turns 3 and 7. Occasionally, the deck will reshuffle immediately before Turn 10 as well.
What this means is that cards can fall into one of several categories:

• Any card played or discarded on Turns 1 and 2 will be guaranteed to be redrawn between Turns 3-7
• Any card played or discarded on Turns 3-6 will not be redrawn until Turns 7-10
• Any card played or discarded on Turn 7 or later will probably not be redrawn, and if it is, it would only be on Turn 10

Source: http://twilightstrategy.com/2011/12/15/general-strategy-reshuffles/

So that card draw is legit.

Preda

The problem is not that the card isn't legit, the card was reshuffled and could get out this turn, but that there are still 3 cards that should have been handed out before reshuffling (warsaw pact, captured nazi scientist and Red scare/purge), we don't have them and you have only 2 card left...
2 of them are neutral, so if the neutral is shuffled when the others are and not when every card has been handed out, than some card could not come out before reshuffle.

Iron Weasel

Looking back at my PMs, my Turn 3 hand had 9 cards, including China. But I think that's ok, because when you have the China card, you get to take two cards with you into the next Turn, no?

Preda

That's actually right. And since you still have 3 cards, than everything could be all right.
Sorry, made all my calculation on 8 cards and forgot about China...

Iron Weasel

No worries, it can be hard to keep track of everything, especially in a PbP.

Anyway, it’s your AR5.

Kirindal

American AR 5

NORAD for Ops
+1 to Algeria
+1 to Burma
+1 to Costa Rica
+1 to Indonesia

@Iron Weasel

Iron Weasel

Nothing says "end of the round" like a good old-fashioned interrogation.
Captured Nazi Scientist for the event
Sputnik away!

Preda

CIA for Event We could see your hand (witch is, unless I totally did something wrong Warsaw Pact and Red Scare/Purge) and with the 2 influence goes:
+ 1 in Nicaragua
+ 1 in Guatemala

@Iron Weasel to confirm the hand;
@stever777 to wrap up the turn.

Iron Weasel

Your CIA analysts must have intercepted my World of Warcraft comms chatter!

(Those are indeed my remaining cards)

stever777

Sport often served as an outlet for the intense competition between the Superpowers, and that competition was never so intense as at the Olympics. The Olympics served as a test bed to see which society could make the greatest strides in human physical achievement. It fit neatly into Communist ideology of “the New Man.” The games frequently reflected the global political situation, as with the terrorist attacks in Munich, and became overt political tools with the US boycott of the Moscow games in 1980, and the Soviet boycott of the LA games in 1984.

The North American Aerospace Defense Command is a joint military organization sponsored by the governments of Canada and the United States. Its mission is to jointly monitor and control the air space over North America from unfriendly incursion. It was founded initially to protect against the threat of low flying Soviet bombers attacking from the Arctic region. During the Cold War, the Command was famously housed in the Cheyenne Mountain facility depicted in the film Wargames. At its height, NORAD commanded 250,000 military personnel. The command illustrates the full integration and cooperation of US allies into the US nuclear umbrella and alliance structure.[/center]

Code named “Project Paperclip” in the United States, the victors of World War II scrambled to “recruit” former Nazi scientists into their own research establishments. In the West, such efforts involved shielding scientists from war crime investigations. Perhaps the most famous case is Wernher von Braun who is thought of as the father of America’s rocketry program. Stalin was reportedly confounded by Soviet failure to grab this knowledge base first.[/center]

In an effort to bring to a close the inter-service bickering that marred U.S. intelligence during WWII, President Truman created the United States’ first independent agency capable both of intelligence analysis and covert operations. Its 40 year cat-and-mouse game with its Soviet counterpart, the KGB, would be the stuff of legend, and one of the hallmarks of the Cold War.[/center]



Mid-War cards shuffled into Draw Pile.

PM me your Headline cards for the Khrushchev turn.

stever777

Sorry, I've been sick recently.
Can't catch a break.

Iron Weasel

No worries, man. Get better!

stever777

Headlines chosen. U.S. has higher Ops so American event goes first:

In 1973, difficult climatic circumstances and dramatic crop failures prompted President Nixon to allow for massive grain sales to the Soviet Union. While a blow to Russian pride, the program was nevertheless a step towards normalized relations between the superpowers. Additionally, it provided an enduring domestic lobby to pressure for continued thawing in economic relations between the two countries. In 1980, President Carter suspended the program in retaliation for the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Shipments were resumed a year later under President Reagan. This culminated in a treaty with the Soviets, with the Soviets promising to buy 9 million tons of US grains per year.

Central America and the Caribbean were frequently termed America’s “backyard” and “lake.” With the advent of Fidel Castro in the 1959, Americans could no longer take the region for granted. The US reaction to communist influence in the area provoked direct US military intervention in the Dominican Republic (1965) and Grenada (1983). In the closing years of the Cold War, Nicaragua, El Salvador and Honduras, became frontline states in the struggle between the superpowers.

US to decide to play SEA Scoring or return it to the Soviets.

In Southeast Asia the process of decolonization intertwined with superpower rivalry in particularly deadly ways. Beginning with the British counter-insurgency in Malaya, to the US wars in Vietnam and Cambodia, and ending in 1979 with the Sino-Vietnamese war, Southeast Asia would command American attention like no other region. However, after America’s humiliating withdrawal from the region, it would cease to play a central role in Cold War politics.

Kirindal

Return SEA Scoring back to Iron Weasel's hand.

With the Ops points, attempt to coup Mexico.

@Iron Weasel

Geth roll, 1d6+2 for Mexico Coup

Edit: Vs Stability 4, -1 Influence in Mexico

Mexico Coup:

1d6+2 5 [1d6=3]

Iron Weasel

That coup cost me two points – how irritating! And now DEFCON is at 2!

Oh well, let’s get SEA Scoring out of the way. That nets me two points, plus two more for Central America, which brings me to 8VP.

@Kirindal and @Preda for US AR1.

stever777

American Action Round 1

Kirindal

American AR 1
China for Ops

+1 Influence in Burma
+1 Influence in India
+1 Influence in Pakistan
+1 Influence in Philippines

@Iron Weasel

Preda

+ 1 influence in Japan as China extra point.

stever777

@Iron Weasel

Iron Weasel

We Will Bury You for Ops
+1 India
+1 Botswana
+1 Brazil

Kirindal

Duck and Cover for Ops
+1 Algeria
+1 India
+1 West Germany

@Iron Weasel

Iron Weasel

Flower Power for Ops
+2 Brazil
+1 India

@Preda and @Kirindal

stever777

The People’s Republic of China played a pivotal role during the Cold War. While the PRC’s influence was largely limited to satellites in Asia, the country was important to the uneasy balance of power that ultimately descended upon the post-WWII world. While beginning as an ally of the USSR, China became a counter-balance to Soviet influence in Asia during the later stages of the Cold War.

Perhaps the most famous quote of the entire Cold War, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev uttered this immortal line while addressing Western ambassadors at a reception in Moscow. With these words Khrushchev announced a period during which he would probe the West for weakness and opportunity. The Berlin Crisis exemplified this expansionist policy.[/center]

The US Congress passed into law the Federal Civil Defense Act, in reaction to the first Soviet tests of nuclear weapons in 1949. Duck and Cover is perhaps the most memorable of a variety of civil defense efforts to raise awareness of nuclear attack. Ironically, such films may have assisted in increasing the possibility of nuclear war by making the possibility of such a conflict “thinkable” by the general public.

A term reportedly coined by the poet Allen Ginsberg, “flower power” came to represent the nonviolence and peace movements of the 1960s. The classical context for the phrase was the placement of daisies into rifle muzzles, and the anti-war slogan “make love, not war.” Flower power is also representative of the general ambivalence to the use of military force that resulted from the American experience in Vietnam.

American Action Round 3

Kirindal

Camp David for Ops
+1 India
+1 Japan

@Iron Weasel

Iron Weasel

Fittingly:
Olympic Games for Ops
Realignment attempt in South Africa

Geth, roll 1d6+2 for Soviets
Geth, roll 1d6 for Americans

Soviets:

1d6+2 4 [1d6=2]

Americans:

1d6 5 [1d6=5]

Iron Weasel

Ugh.

Geth, roll 1d6+2 for Once More, With Feeling
Geth, roll 1d6 for America, Fuck Yeah!

Once More, With Feeling:

1d6+2 5 [1d6=3]

America, Fuck Yeah!:

1d6 1 [1d6=1]

Iron Weasel

There we go. Americans out of South Africa.

@Preda and @Kirindal

Kirindal

Brush War for Event

Targeting Brazil

Geth, roll 1d6-1 for Brazilian Brush War


@Iron Weasel

Brazilian Brush War:

1d6-1 2 [1d6=3]

Iron Weasel

At last, some luck!

Africa Scoring

@Preda and @Kirindal

Preda

3 score and exactly the ones in your favor?
And you blame luck...

Iron Weasel

Hey, I bribed stever fair and square!

stever777

Following a lull in the Middle East peace process caused by the 1976 presidential elections, President Carter entered office with a burst of new energy on the subject. Through direct personal appeal, Carter was able to bring ultimate resolution to the Yom Kippur War and completely change the dynamic of the Middle Eastern question. Israel and Egypt normalized relations and a framework for Middle East peace was agreed to. Years later, this would allow for the Oslo accord, and the Jordanian–Israeli Peace Agreement. Additionally, Carter also secured the complete realignment of Egypt. Once a Nasser led hotbed of anti-Western feeling, Egypt was to become one of America’s foremost allies in the region. Sadat would pay dearly for the leadership he showed during the talks. He was assassinated by Islamic radicals in 1981.[/center]

Sport often served as an outlet for the intense competition between the Superpowers, and that competition was never so intense as at the Olympics. The Olympics served as a test bed to see which society could make the greatest strides in human physical achievement. It fit neatly into Communist ideology of “the New Man.” The games frequently reflected the global political situation, as with the terrorist attacks in Munich, and became overt political tools with the US boycott of the Moscow games in 1980, and the Soviet boycott of the LA games in 1984.

Also characterized as low intensity conflicts, brush wars tended to begin in reaction to local conditions either within a state or between states. However, due to duration, or superpower intervention, an essentially local dispute could be elevated to superpower conflict. Examples include the civil war in Mozambique and the war between Ethiopia and Somalia.

African history throughout the Cold War reflects the promise and tragedy that go hand in hand with that continent’s experience. At first buoyed by the political success of rapid decolonization, the jubilation would devolve into cynicism. One after another, newly independent governments would give way to “presidents for life”, political corruption, economic chaos, and ethnic violence. Lacking resources, African governments quickly took advantage of the superpower rivalry to maximize economic and military support for their regimes. In the post-colonial era, a variety of proxy civil wars were fought on the continent. Angola, Mozambique, Chad and Ethiopia were but a few of the nations that experienced violence, theoretically in the name of the global struggle between communism and capitalism.

American Action Round 5

Kirindal

American AR 5
Alliance For Progress for Ops

It's Adventure Realignment Time!

@Preda

Preda

Ok, time to clear Central America of nasty Sovietic influence!
Geth roll 1d6+2 for US Realligment in Mexico
Geth roll 1d6+1 for URSS Reallignment in Mexico

US Realligment in Mexico:

1d6+2 7 [1d6=5]

URSS Reallignment in Mexico:

1d6+1 4 [1d6=3]

Preda

Mexico wiped out, moving to Cuba:

Geth roll 1d6+2 for US Realligment in Cuba
Geth roll 1d6+1 for URSS Reallignment in Cuba

US Realligment in Cuba:

1d6+2 6 [1d6=4]

URSS Reallignment in Cuba:

1d6+1 6 [1d6=5]

Preda

No good, trying again:

Geth roll 1d6+2 for US Realligment in Cuba
Geth roll 1d6+1 for URSS Reallignment in Cuba

US Realligment in Cuba:

1d6+2 7 [1d6=5]

URSS Reallignment in Cuba:

1d6+1 5 [1d6=4]

Preda

Fidel has clinged to the last strands of his power, but his days are numbered!

Total effect of reallignment: -1URSS influence in Mexico, -2 influence in Cuba

@Iron Weasel

Iron Weasel

As the Americans push back in Central America, their dear President meets an untimely end. It is Fidel who has the last laugh!

Lone Gunman

@Preda and @Kirindal, whatcha got left?

Preda

We have US/Japan Mutual Pact, SALT Negotiation and Bear Trap.

Preda

@Iron Weasel for the action point.