Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Twilight Struggle, Turn 3

Cards have shuffled this turn so the three Scoring Cards form the Early War are back in play (as well as many other events).

With his incredible good luck in this match, American is able to play for the second time in a row Defectors to counter Red Scare/Purge card. So Russian has expended a 4-ops card without any effect.

First Russian card is to successfully send an animal into space. This allows Russian to play two cards into Space Race track until American reach this level and also it discarded a strong American event: US/Japan Pact. US quietly increase influence in Iran (0/3) and India (0/3).

Russian player decides to invest The China Card into Asia to gain 5 ops and control Afganistan (2/0), fight for South Korea and Burma.  Whereas, with his peaceful approach, US organizes the Olympic Games. USSR played the games but he lost giving +2VP to US  for a net lead of +6.

Then, under the support of USSR, North Korea invaded South Korea. This card gave 2 Mil Ops to Russian player and menaces to shift Asia to Red hands. But dr is just a 1 and war fails. US can not avoid the formation of Warsaw Pact allowing Russian to control countries in Europe whereas he puts influence for controlling South Korea (1/4), Indonesia(0/1) and Turkey (0/2).

Evil Red player continued to aggressively play and supported  Pakistan in its War against India. This time luck is with Russian and a dr of 6 made a complete shift in India towards Russian control (3/0). Besides, USSR win 2VP reducing american lead to +4VP.

Short in Mil Ops, US promotes a coup at Syria. A dr of 4 removes all Russian influence and puts 1 American.

Russian is forced now to play Scoring in Europe. The forced play of Warsaw Pact resulted in presence for both Powers. American scores again by sending his first satellite into orbit and Russian takes advantage of his double allowed play in Space Race to put a man in Space and score 2VP.

For the last card of this turn America revealed a real suprise as he kept Asian Scoring card. Instead of playinf the card at the beginning of the turn with a better position in Asia, American was too ambitious and he must now pay for the Indo-Pakistani war. The result is Russian domination in Asia and a net +5VP.

End of turn: After this turnover, now Russia is leading by 2VP. Both Powers fulfilled the required Mil Ops.

Twilight StruggleMap_turn 3

Analysis: Everything seemed under American control but he poorly managed the timing for the Asian Scoring card and now the tide has turned again. Russian advantage in Space Race is clear allowing him to play two cards per turn, discarding dangerous US events.

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Twilight Struggle, Turn 2

With the Europe scoring card out in the first turn, we expect a hard struggle for Asia (USSR controlled) and Middle East (US control).

Headlines went out as US played defectors to null Nasser avoiding Russian infiltration in Egypt.

USSR reallocated some influence by playing De-Stalinization and moves into  Iraq (2/0)  and Syria (2/0). Feeling a hard fight in Middle East, US put all his efforts to control Arabia (0/3).

Russian went hard in his next card and tried a coup in Iran to stop US domination. With only a 3 in the dr, USSR succeeded to remove Iran from US control but did not go into the country. US continued to menace into the Middle East and expended the China card to regain Iran (0/2), control Egypt (0/2) and entering in Pakistan (0/2). Now Russian must react because is not longer dominating Asia and is leaded in Europe and Middle East.

Insisting in his previous strategy, Russian tried another coup in Iran, this time by playing UN Intervention and avoiding US associated event (Duck and Cover). With a dr of 2 the overall result is the same: one less point of American influence but no Russian markers in Iran. In the mean time, US scientists crashed their first attempt to launch a satellite.

After his bad luck in Iran and the failing of Nasser, USRR is happy with the actual situation and allows scoring in Middle East for a net loss of 1 VP.  Us pursuits his penetration in Asia by India and Philippines (0/1).

USSR takes control of Laos (1/0) and US, taking advantage of the  equilibrium in Asia, played Asia Scoring card for no VP. Romanian Abdication gave control of Romania to USSR (3/0) and US last play is the India/Pakistani War. Even if there is no Russian influence in any of the countries, so American can not win influence there, it still has the opportunity to win the war, adding 2Vp, and with the 2 Mil Ops it is his only way to fulfill the MO requirement as no coups are allowed with defcon at 2. Unfortunately, dr is just 1 and no VP are awarded.

End of Turn 2: +4VP (US), defcon at 2. Enough Mil Ops for both Powers. Europe continues to be dominated by American whereas Middle East and Asia are shared.

Twilight StruggleMap_turn 2

Analysis: Both players had Scoring cards for the continents dominated by the opponent. We have seen that both tried to remove rival domination instead of reinforcing his own control. In this fight Russian was really unlucky with two poor coups at Iran and the null effect of Nasser.

Monday, December 17, 2012

Twilight Struggle, Turn 1

 

Both Superpowers begin the match by reinforcing their positions in Europe. URSS established COMECON and US the Marshall Plan. URSS controls East Germany (3/0) and Poland (3/0) whereas US had firmly control of West Germany (0/5) and Italy (0/4).

Then both Powers shifted their attention to Middle East and Asia. URSS takes Vietnam (2/0) and Iraq (3/0) but at the expenses of allowing US to form NATO. US controlled South Korea (0/3), Iran (0/2), Jordania (0/2) and risking decided to invest into France (0/3) and, in this way, it dominated Europe.

As it could be expected URSS immediately reacts by playing De-Gaulle reverting France to (1/1) and equalising in Europe. US counterattacks in Asia and promotes a coup in Thailandby using a 4-Ops card. With a dr of 5, Thailand felt in the influence of US (0/4).

Kremlin is not happy with American domination in Asia and invest the China Card to Countercoup in Thailand. With the Vietnam revolt played as the headline, China card had a value of 6. An incredible dr of 6 changed influence by 8 points and put Thailand in Russian hands (4/0). With Defcon at 3, US cannot react to this coup and decided to retake France (1/4) and it is again dominating Europe.

URSS seemed to have no cards to contest US domination in Europe and launch their first satellite into orbit and winning 2 VP. Unsurprisingly, US played Europe scoring. With US domination against USRR presence, this gave a net +5 VP to US, shifting the score to +3VP (US lead).

As his final card USRR played Blocked in the hope to catch US without 3-ops cards and removing US influence in West Germany. But US revealed an ugly surprise as it used USRR event to discard Warsaw Pact. A nice help from the USRR player. To finish his turn, US expends 3 ops to make realignments in Middle East. In spite of a net drm +1 the three consecutive dr only succeeded to remove one influence point into Irak.

End of Turn 1: +3VP (US). Both Powers had enough Military Operations and defcon was at 3. US dominates Middle East and Europe whereas USRR dominates into Asia.

Twilight StruggleMap_turn 1

Analysis: Weak first turn for Russians. Too confident that he could stop US by playing De Gaulle, USSR did not menace American domination in Italy and, after being forced to play NATO, he is in real bad position in Europe. The lucky card hand of American player allowed him to manage efforts in Middle East and Asia.

Sunday, December 16, 2012

And Now ,...

 

After two months of intensive play we need to decide the next installment in our matches. Paths of Glory is really involving so we would like now a lighter game. Something that we know the rules pretty well and card play can be fast.

And the winner is ...

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Changing sides from the last time that we have played, now Molina will be the  Russian player and Pomar the US.

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

PATHS OF GLORY, preliminary

 

Our first AAR corresponds to the terrific game Paths of Glory.

Allied Powers will be leaded by Titokiza and Central Powers by Molina.

 This is the Journal of our game.

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Monday, October 15, 2012

Welcome

 

Hi, we begin this blog as a journal of the wargames that we play.

After a few games by PBEM using Vassal and ACTS we have decided that it is time to carry a journal of all our mistakes.

You are welcome to see these After Action Reports and to enligth us with your comments and criticisms.

If interested you can find us at ACTS.

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Our first game will be Paths of Glory, the World War I simulation by Ted Raicer published by  GMT.

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