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.

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.