Labyrinth, Aftermath

Both of us are very interesting with this assymetric CDGs. It departs from standard CDGs with its very different strategies and operations as Yihadist and American. However our two plays have been somewhat deceptive. In both cases, American was able to put a rolling machine of WoI that Yihadist could not stop.

In this last match, American was very lucky with his invasion at Afghanistan with a huge increase of prestige of +3. Yihadist tried to put world opinion against US by moving many countries to soft posture and get a drm from GWOT=-3. But this did not seemed enough to counter American strategy. Then, Yihadist attacked by plotting in countries with troops but failed all his attempts (bad rolls). He changed again his efforts and tried Minor Yihads to remove some countries from Good/Fair back to Fair/Poor. But again he failed. Finally, running out of active cells he concetrated into get an Islamist Rule Country at Morocco. But it was too late and when American shifted to Soft posture, annihilating the GWOT penalty, the play was already decided. It only took some Round waiting for WoI to get enough countries at Good.

In the view of th final result, Yihadist made some mistakes. For example, in Turn 3 his first move was to place two plots in USA to cut American hand. But it could be much better to wait and play the plots later in the turn. Under the menace, American should decide if keeping the 3-ops cards in hand (thus effectively reducing US maneouvres) or play them and risk for uncontested plots in US. For Yihadist menacing to plot in US is as efficient as playing the plots.

We need to rethink Ismalist strategy in the game. It seems that losing Afghanistan is critical, specially if American can shifted it to Good, removing troops. Probably Yihadist needs to make more efforts into Minor Yihads, letting plots only for situations where funding is dramatically decreasing. We will give the game another opportunity in a while, maybe a H2H match at our gaming club to discuss strategies.

Labyrinth, Turn 4

Yihadist changed his mind and decided that he needs at least an Islamist Rule Country to get automatic recruit of cells. He aims for Morocco and recruit some more cells there. Major yihad is a success (2-3-5) and Morocco joins Islamist Rule.

US player now make a big decission. He played two consecutive 3-ops cards to change his posture to soft. Now the GWOT=-3 is not longer applicable and with a prestige of 12, all WoI around Middle East will be a rolling stone.

Yihadist needs a reaction in the Middle East to cut American tide and travels cells to Iraq and Yemen.

American plays Jihadist Videos to concede some recruitments attempts but he shift Yemen to Fair and, later on, he fails to move it to Good.

Yihadist used the American gift to recruit at Arabia and Somalia. Then, in his play he moved to Yemen and tried Minor Yihads at Yemen and Afghanistan. Bad luck for Yihadist he rolled (5-6-2) and failed the three attempts.

US tried again to move Yemen to Good but with a +3drm he just rolled a 1 to fail. So, tired of these bad rounds at Yemisen he moved his attention to Pakistan  to put there a Fair Governement.

Now, Yihadist is almost lost. His only chances are to return some countries to Poor Governement and stop the American WoI tide. But, instead of this, he put a cell at Somalia and tried some plots at Russia and Philippines agains missing both of then.

US has Yemen and Pakistan at Fair Governements. He only needed to shift both of them to Good for winning the War on Terroe. First try is at Yemen. Again with a +drm he rolled a 1 to fail. No win in this round. With his second card he has more luck and finally get Yemen to Good.

Yihadist again did not try to make yihads in US controlled countries, his only chance to stay into the match. It looks like he already psychologically concede the match. He played KSM to place a plot in US.

And US ignored the plot and roll for winning the match with a WoI at Pakistan. With a +2 drm a roll of 4 gave him the victory.

End of game: 12 Good resources for US victory.

Labyrinth, Turn 3

Yihadist begun this turn trying to reduce American operations by playing Martyrdoom operations to place two plots in USA. One other cell moves to Philippines.

USA reacts by sacrificing two 3-ops cards and removing both plots but allowing two free travels, to Morocco and to USA.

Now, hoping that US player is running out of 3-ops cards, Yihadist recruits three cells in Afghanistan by playing Opium event and try two moreplots in Pakistan (again to hit US prestige). But he rolled a 5 and a 6 !!!! and both plots failed.

US player is unmenaced now and he quietly can play WoI in Central Asia to shift the country to Good (another roll of 5) and reduce funding by -2.

Yihadist situation is beginning to be disperated. He moves two cell to Gulf States and made three yihad attempts to remove some Good countries. But rolled again 6-4-4 to fail the three yihads.

Two cells in Arabia are disrupted which increase prestige by +1 and play some reserves waiting for Yihadist menaces.

After some travels to Somalia, US removes troops from Pakistan and Arabia. Yihadist finally succeeds to put an uncontested plot in Rusia to increase funding.

End of turn: Poor Countries:8. Good Countries:6. Good Resources: 9. Prestige: 12. GWOT: -3. Funding: 8.

Analysis: Very bad turn for Yihadist. His early play on USA effectively cut American 3-ops cards but then any attempts to plot in countries with troops or minor yihad failed. On the contrary, American achieve many goals: he removed many troops to come back to low intensity, prestige is still at maximum and Good resources are at a menacing 9.

Labyrinth, Turn 2

Yihadist begun this turn trying to spread cells in the world and he recruit two in Afghanistan and one in Somalia and Algeria, both of them getting Poor Governements.

US continued WoI, this time in Afghanistan (+3 drm) shifting it to Fair and in Pakistan (+3drm) shifitng to Ally.

Two cells are moved from Afghanistan to Pakistan whereas the cell in Lybia infiltrates into Europe through Italy menacing with a dangerous plot in Schengen area.

Now a nasty US event: Mass Turnout. This allow to pass Afghanistan to Good, removing Regime Change marker. US now can move four troops to Pakistan. Afghanistan has shifted from Islamic Rule to Good in a few Rounds wihout any severe penality for US player. Bad news for Yihadist.

Yihadist reveals his plans by playing Martyrdom Operation and placing two plots in Italy. Als he tried to reduce somewhat the US prestige that it is deciding the game and tried a plot at Pakistan. Remember that an uncontested plot in a country with troops reduces prestige. But on a die roll of 4 he failed short.

US continues to ignore plots; he makes disrupt in Afghanistan gaining 1 prestige and WoI in Central Asia by playing HEU. It failed but 1 Aid is placed. Now yihadist has a big opportunity to gain access to a WMD but with a roll of 6 he is far away from success.

Plots in Italy are resolved by rolling for posture in Italy, France (both soft) and Spain (hard). At least now Yihadist had succeed to put a -2 drm into Americans WoI.

To finish this turn,Yihadist move cell to USA (through Spain), to Rusia (through Central Asia) and Indonesia.  US failed a WoI in Pakistan (with only +1 drm).

End of turn: Poor Countries: 7. Good Countries: 6. Good Resources: 7. Prestige: 11. Funding: 9. GWOT= -3.

Labyrinth, Turn 1

It is the first time that I (Titokiza) play as Yihadist so i do not have any clear idea yet of the strategy to follow. For the first cards Yihadist approach was trying tohurt American prestige by moving some cells from Afganistan to Central Asia and Pakistan and playing Schroeder&Chirac event. With this play France and Germany went to soft posture, reducing US prestige by 1. Unfortunally, testing for Central Asia resulted in fair which did not helped muslim.

As in our last play American succeeded to win by playing from a soft posture, this time US (Molina) decided to keep and give a try to the hard approach. American played two events: Abbas and Saleh. With Abbas US hurted Yihadist funding to 7 and increased prestige by 1. With Saleh, it could shift Yemen to Ally, place 1 Aid but Yemen at poor.

Now Yihadist played two 1-ops cards (not a very good initial hand): Uyghur Jihad for the event to get a cell in soft China and another cell moving from Afghanistan to Pakistan.

Quiet Yihadist play had invited US to being aggresive and he launched the invasion of Afghanistan by playing Wahhabism (and giving Yihadists  funding to 9). In spite of this, the invasion has been well received in the media and US prestige is increased by 3 !!!! Next, he played Hijab for the event, leading to a Fair Turkey and reducing again funding.

After losing Islamic Rule in Afghanistan, Yihadist needs to block American troops there as long as possible. For this he recruits three cells in Afghanistan. Then two plots attempts are rolled in Pakistan with one of them succesful.

Wisely ignoring the plots, US decides to make War of Ideas in Gulf States and Arabia. With drm of +1 and +3  both attempts are succesful and Gulf States shifted to goond and arabia to Fair. However Martyrdom operation was activated at China giving two more plots. Solving the three living plots leads to China at soft posture and funding to 9 but Yihadist failed both yihad attempts at Pakistan.

Then, Yihadist continues with his yihads in Pakistan and finally he succeeded (after 4 attempts) and Pakistan went to Poor. Second card allows one more cell in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Systematically, US pursues his War of Ideas using the +2 bonus of his prestige. Arabia is now Good and Central Asia shifts to Ally at the expenses of applying Benazir Bhutto at Pakistan.

To end this hard turn for him, Yihadist travels a cell from Afghanistan to Lybia.

End of Turn: Poor Countries:5, Good Countries: 5. Prestige : 10. Funding: 9. Good Resources: 6, no Islamic Rule Country.

Here is the map:

Analysis: Hard turn for the Yihadists. US invasion on Afghanistan not only removed Islamic Rule but hugely increased American prestige. US took advantage of this and begun a race of WoI with high drm.

Labyrinth: The War on Terror, GMTGames

Xmas holidays had a very bad impact in our Twilight Struggle match. Both of us were offline for nearly ten days. When we came back, enthusiasm into the play was gone and Russians, feeling that their situation was bad, proposed to concede the game and shift to other one. We both agreed and had decided to try again Labyrinth: The War on Terror

 

Last time that we have played Yihadist player (Molina) had two dice roll to win the game. But he failed and, suddenly, American (playing in soft) was in position to get enough good resources to win.

With this experience we have changed sides: Molina (US) and Pomar (Yihadist) and begin a new play.

Twilight Struggle, Aftermath

A very strong initial hand has paved the way for the whole American strategy. Russian had made several concessions at the beginning by no fighting for Italy or Iran, key countries at Europe and Middle East.  Slowly, US position was dominating in the whole world and only a big mistake with the timing for playing the Asian Scoring card, together with some luck in the Indo-Pakistani War allowed Russian player to equals the score. But the feeling for Russian player was that he would need a lot of luck in events giving VPs to really fight for the game.

With the pause in play forced by Xmas and our lack of Internet connection at Holidays locations, the interest and concetration for the match was cooling down and Russian decide to gave it up. Nevertheless, TS is always a very funny and absorbing game that we can play really fast (some times, even a turn per day). It will come bck to our tables (screens) soon.

Twilight Struggle, Turn 4

Mid War cards have been added in this turn. This puts many Scoring cards into play adding the other continents to the fight.

Headlines demonstrated that both players are looking for VPs as they both played a scoring card. USSR played SouthEast Asiaas he controls Thailand and two other countries for a net +2VPand US played MiddleEast Scoring as he is dominating and leads by 2 BG for a net +4VP. As a result US gets 2VP and the match is now even.

As his first card, USSR tried a coup in Egypt but with a dr of 1 it completely failed (just removing 1 US influence). US played a 2-ops card for realignments: first in iraq as he controlled surrounding countries of Arabia, Jordania and Iran which gave US a drm of +2. Winning the roll by 5-1, all Russian influence in  Iraq is removed. Second realignement in Lebanon is unsuccesful.

USSR played Arms Race as event and he catched US player without MilOps, resulting in a easy +3VP. But US counterattacks with Kitchen Debates event scoring 2VP as he controls more BGs.

First Man in Earth Orbit is launched by Soviets that now may see American Headline first. US safely playes OPEC for operations in Panama (0/1) and South Africa (0/3) as Russian does not control any involved country.

Defcon is decreased to 2 as Russian attempt a new coup in Egypt. But with a dr of 2 it fails short. US enjoys the opportunity and scores in Central America adding +2Vp thanks to the control of Panama.

USSR claims for 1 Vp after U2 incident whereas another american spacecraft is crashed.

SALT Negotiations allows Soviet to claim for Decolonization card but increases defcon level by 2. American takes advantage of this increase and tries a coup in North Korea with the China Card. A dr of 4 results in removing all the Soviet influence.

USSR finally played Decolonization to control Nigeria, Cameroon, Angola and Birmania. US hit a coup in Cameroon to remove Russian and control the country (0/2).

End of Turn: Match is even. Russia still clearly leads Space Race but his position is critical in Middle East. The other areas are contested.

Analysis: Both players were seeking for VPs mainly through events. Several cards allowed Russian to even the match and recover many VPs.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 ...

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