Heating up the Cold War
Fighting the Twilight Struggle
The post-WWII "Cold War" between the
West and the East was not characterized
by major military campaigns, but instead
reflected intrigue and influence being
exerted throughout the world.
Appropriately, GMT's latest card driven
game (CDG), Twilight Struggle (TS),
covers this noteworthy period in history
without showcasing massive armies or
surging fleets on the map. While this is the
first published effort from co-designers
Jason Matthews and Ananda Gupta, they
have obviously learned their lessons quite
well because TS is a smooth, highly
interactive, incredibly tense, quick playing,
and very enjoyable game. By taking a
macro, geopolitical view of the long
`struggle', TS takes a complex conflict
and makes it playable with ease.
Indeed, Twilight Struggle is the easiest
to learn CDG published to date, but let's
face it it is not easy managing a super-
power through one crisis after another.
So let's take a look at some basic aspects
of play, while also providing some strategy
tips, to assist all you would-be Presidents
or Premiers out there.
"The disproportionate burden the Red
Army had borne in defeating Hitler gave the
USSR a moral claim to substantial, perhaps
even preponderant, influence in shaping the
postwar settlement. It was at least as easy to
believe, in 1945, that authoritarian
communism was the wave of the future
as that democratic capitalism was."
Setup
In most cases, the USSR will want to
spend three starting Influence to control
Poland while the US will want to control
West Germany with four of their starting
Influence. After that, how to spend your
remaining points is not as obvious.
For the remaining three Soviet
Influence, generally one point can be
dispersed to each of three different
Eastern European locales.
(NOTE all quotes are from John Lewis
Gaddis' excellent book, The Cold War:
A New History (Penguin Press, 2005)
by Steve Carey
STRUGGLE
THE COLD WAR, 1945-1989
01,_
Hungary has a central position
as it connects to four other countries.
Yugoslavia offers access to Italy, while
also buffering Greece and protecting
Hungary. Czechoslovakia can be important
because it is adjacent to two battleground
countries, namely East Germany and
Poland (it also can protect Hungary).
Don't overlook split Austria which
connects to three battleground nations.
Also, Finland can be a contested nation
because like Austria it is both West & East,
but often player priorities lie elsewhere.
The US would also have three
remaining points, which can be divided
between France (but watch out for De
Gaulle!) and Italy (two Influence needed
for control). If you feel that you can
spare a point, Turkey is an attractive
alternate site as it threatens Romania but
more importantly connects to the Middle
East (Syria), which may be crucial if the
US gets booted out of that region. If
you want to be conservative, put three
Influence in Italy to better secure
that key battleground nation.
Remember rule 3.1 that allows both
players to examine their initial card hands
before allocating their Free Influence,
which may steer players in a certain
direction. For example, if the USSR player
draws Romanian Abdication, he would
probably not want to place Influence into
that country since the event would grant
him full control.
Don't overlook the possibility of your
opponent popping out the Europe Scoring
card during the first Headline if he has the
setup advantage, so you probably want to
ensure at-start parity in the region with
your discretionary influence.
"There was little choice... but
for the United States to assume global
responsibilities... planning a postwar
world in which democracy and
capitalism would be secure."
Headline Phase
Part of the fun of the game is springing
a nice card on your opponent during the
Headline Phase. No player is going to want
have 'Red Scare/Purge' (to reduce all your
cards by one Ops) headlined on them for
the whole turn. Indeed, there are a lot of
great plays that can be made as a headline,
but that thought brings to the forefront
one of the key principles of TS:
"Know where you are in danger".
To avoid danger, players must make
constant situational assessments through-
out the game. This is especially crucial
during the Headline Phase, and is even
more acute for the US player because
the Soviets get to play first during the
subsequent action rounds. For example,
making a play such as 'CIA' (to reveal the
Soviet hand) is usually a sound headline
strategy for the US. Not only is viewing
the Soviet hand at the start of the turn
obviously beneficial, with that one Ops the
US can perform a Coup on a battleground
country somewhere and thus degrade
DEFCON a level. This could prevent
the USSR from attempting a Coup or
Realignment in an important area of
the map.
What if it is Mid War and your
opponent dominates the Middle East?
You both know the Scoring card for that
Region is due to come up again (and you
don't hold it). A fine headline play would

be The Voice of America' which allows
the US to remove four Soviet influence
from non-European countries. Such an
event/action during the Headline Phase
could thus restore the balance of power
in the region before its scoring card gets
played by the Soviet player, saving you
precious VPs.
It rarely makes any sense to play an
opponent's event during your Headline
Phase because you would sacrifice the Ops
from the card. It's a very risky call for any
Soviet player to headline a US event while
expecting his opponent to headline
`Defectors'. When you have a handful of
enemy events, play them during the Action
Phase and use the resulting Ops to improve
your board position.
Be very cautious in playing Scoring
Cards as headline events since they go
second and an enemy headline can literally
change the balance of power in an entire
region. I was involved in one game where
the US had domination in a lightly
contested Africa and so played its Scoring
card in the Headline Phase. But the USSR
player headlined 'Portuguese Empire
Crumbles', which caused domination to
change hands in region. So in a snap,
things went from a +4 US VP advantage
to a -4 VP Soviet advantage...
an 8 VP turnaround!
Make sure by being clever during the
Headline Phase that you are not exposing
yourself to harm elsewhere, and that you
don't leave a better headline card sitting in
your hand. I've also seen occasions where
a player was dealt a great hand, but because
of a poor headline choice they ended up
having to play their cards defensively, or
even lost the contest to an opponent's auto
victory because they were in danger and
did not immediately address the situation.
"Victory in World War II brought no
sense of security, therefore, to the victors.
Neither the United States, nor Great Britain,
nor the Soviet Union at the end of 1950
could regard the lives and treasure they had
expended in defeating Germany and Japan
as having made them safer: the members of
the Grand Alliance were now Cold War
adversaries."
Action Rounds
As mentioned, the Soviets go first in
each action round. This is a significant
Strategy Tips for Twilight Struggle
advantage as the USSR can get the jump
on the US. For example, since DEFCON
automatically increases one level at the
start of each new turn, this could give the
USSR opportunity for a Coup in a
battleground country located in a region
that would then be closed (due to
DEFCON dropping a level) to the US
right after the Soviet play.
Let's say a turn ends at DEFCON 2,
but increases to DEFCON 3 at the start of
the new turn. By going first, the Soviets
could use the first action to conduct a
Coup against a US controlled Iran (Middle
East battleground). DEFCON would
lower to 2 after the attempt. Since Level 2
also prevents Coups (and Realignments) in
the Middle East, the US player could not
follow suit with his own Coup or Realign-
ment in a Soviet controlled battleground
in that region (or a battleground country
anywhere else on the board for that matter,
since doing so would lower DEFCON to
one and cause the game to go BOOM!).
Another key principle of TS is:
"Every action by your opponent must be
weighed for its potential threat level".
If the USSR player creates 'South African
Unrest', and follows that event with
`Decolonization' (and so spreads even
more Soviet influence into Africa), be
wary of the imminent arrival of the Africa
Scoring card. Likewise, if your USSR
opponent bypasses events such as 'Warsaw
Pact Formed' or 'Comecon', it may very
well indicate that he does not have the
Europe Scoring card and is focusing his
attention elsewhere.
There can be a certain bluff element to
TS, but both sides have so many pressures
and objectives and a constant lack of
resources to accomplish them all that it is
somewhat unusual for a player to have
spare resources to conduct bluffing
maneuvers. Plus it's often better to look
ahead and use spare Ops in regions where
you know Scoring cards are forthcoming
(e.g., early Influence plays in Africa before
the Mid War shuffle).
Placing Influence will be the most
common action in the game. It is impor-
tant to gain control of countries as it forces
your opponent to pay double (2 Ops) to
force their way in. If your opponent has his
sights on your territory, add extra
Influence and he will have to pay 2 Ops
per Influence until your control is finally
broken. Countries that become controlled
tend to stay controlled in TS, Coups and
Realignments not withstanding. If you
can't outright control a nation, placing just
one Influence in a country allows you to
place points into adjoining nations starting
next turn, thus expanding your reach.
Coups are the dagger strike for any
would-be world dominator. They can
quickly turnaround control of a region, can
affect the DEFCON track (when at-
tempted in battleground countries), and
also provide you with much-needed
Military Ops (even when the Coup fails).
If both you and your enemy have Influence
in a country, an unsuccessful Coup will
not cause you to lose any points there, so
don't hesitate to give it a try.
What's that you have no Influence in
a certain region that you'd like to get into?
Try a Coup! If you succeed in knocking
out enemy Influence and placing any of
your own, on the next turn you can start
to spread the tentacles of your empire via
Influence placed in adjoining countries.
If you manage to roll well, you may even
gain control of the target country.
Coup attempts are an essential weapon
in your arsenal, especially against those
lower (1 or 2) Stability-rated countries.
Realignments probably won't be used
that often, but when the circumstances are
right they can be very decisive. Consider
when Fidel gains control of Cuba the US
player should not panic, he should Realign!
By virtue of the adjacent United States of
Heating up the Cold War - Fighting the Twilight Struggle
America, the US player can counter the +1
DRM for those 3 Soviet influence in Cuba.
And if the US player can control Nicaragua
and/or Haiti, each country would give him
the advantage in a Realignment roll with
their +1 DRMs. The more surround
support you have via controlled countries,
the better chance that your Realignments
will succeed.
Recall that a successful Realignment
does not allow a player to place his own
Influence, but may cause him to lose
Influence (if any) when unsuccessful.
Thus, it's often not worth it to plant
Influence into a target country prior to a
Realignment just for the +1 drm if you
roll bad and your opponent rolls well, you
can lose big.
Note that while restricted by DEFCON
(just as are Coups), Realignments attempts
themselves do not affect the DEFCON
track.
So, Realignments are a flexible tool in
your bag of tricks, and are best used where
you have support (i.e., control adjacent
nations) and have no Influence present
(i.e., nothing to lose) in the target country.
Switching gears for a moment, be
careful of playing cards just for their event
VPs. In some cases, the cards are removed
from the deck when the event occurs. In
other cases, the VPs depend on a die roll
and you may play the card for nothing if
you fail. If a 2 Ops card can be used to
break enemy domination of a region
when a Scoring card still remains to be
played, many times it would be a better
move to go for Ops rather than risking a
die roll for 2VPs.
So remember another one of TS's keys:
"On-board need overrides VP greed."
Never assume that the enemy is
conducting an action or playing an event
without due purpose. Constantly monitor-
ing the balance of power in scoring regions
especially those with Scoring Cards still
unplayed is absolutely vital. In TS, it
is very easy to get caught up in the -
excitement, so don't allow yourself
to get distracted.
"The Anglo-French-Israeli invasion
took place at the end of October, 1956,
just at the height of the crisis over Poland
Sequence of Play
A. Increase DEFCON Status
B. Deal Cards
C. Headline Phase
D. Set Required Military Operations
E. Action Rounds
F. Check Military Operations Status
G. Reveal Held Card (Tournament only)
H. Flip The China Card
I. Advance Turn Marker
J. Final Scoring (after Turn 10 only)
and Hungary."
Military Operations
This is one area where players can really
shoot themselves in the foot (and arm, and
torso, and head...well, you get the idea).
By failing to perform necessary Military
Operations (basically Coups and War
Events), players can easily sacrifice VPs to
their opponents at the end of a turn. Over
the long haul, it can be devastating (if not
lethal) to ignore Military Operations. With
so much going on around the map, it's not
too difficult to overlook your Military
Operations Track and get caught short.
If you don't conduct Military Ops, at least
try to manipulate the DEFCON track to
reduce your liability events such as
`Cuban Missile Crisis' and the wonderful
`How I Learned to Stop Worrying' are
quite useful to this effect.
That takes us to another key Twilight
Struggle principle: "Neglecting your
Military Operations is a sure-fire recipe
for disaster".
"Non-Alignment provided a way
in which the leaders of the third world
states could tilt without toppling: the idea
was to commit to neither side in the Cold
War, but to leave open the possibility of
such commitment."
Holding Cards
Usually a player will want to hold an
enemy card to prevent its event from
benefiting his opponent, or to hold one of
his own events until its effect can be fully
realized. In TS: "Timing is everything".
If we assume that the USSR player holds
`OPEC', logic dictates that he maximize
the card's scoring potential by controlling
as many of the indicated countries as
possible. However, if he holds such a
card till later on, when such scoring
positions hopefully improve, he could be
losing out on some needed VPs now and
later may never come to pass. Generally
speaking, it's not worth it to hold a good
card for the perfect time when you can
make better use of the card now. Simply
stated, the on-board situation can change
too rapidly, and benefits can then be
reduced or even lost.
One of the intriguing aspects of TS is
the fact that enemy events still occur
during your Ops play of their cards, and
this is where the Space Race is prominent.
Besides gaining some VPs and special
abilities, the Space Race is most note-
worthy because it allows both sides to
dump enemy cards without triggering the
event. But those non-played enemy events
may eventually come back to haunt you
later in the game, so it may be best to get
the removable enemy events out of the
deck now, as painful as that may be.
And consider this when you are dealt
enemy event cards, you can often minimize
their effect whereas if your opponent held
the same card, he would maximize the
effect. Here's a simple illustration: the US
player holds the 'CIA Created' card and
plays it as his first action (or headline, as
mentioned above) to reveal the Soviet hand
for the entire turn. But when the USSR
player has the card, he plays it as his last
action of the turn to basically nullify its
effect and also remove it from the game.
And when you do play an enemy event,
you decide if the event or your Ops use
occurs first again, this is a matter of
timing to your best benefit.
So instead of distressing about a bad
hand when too many enemy events are
dealt to you, instead think about what your
opponent could do if he held such hand!
Scoring Cards can be both a blessing
and a curse they cannot be held, and
when played you lose an opportunity to
improve your board position that round.
Get too many Scoring cards over the
course of a few turns, and that could be a
serious problem. Otherwise, it is of course
nice to control the timing of a scoring card
though this advantage is somewhat offset
by the mandated play requirement. If it
looks like you're losing grasp of a region

whose Scoring Card you possess, consider-
ing playing it early in the turn to minimize
the VP damage. This also opens up the
rest of the turn to focus your resources
elsewhere.
`Mao had launched the Cultural
Revolution, in the summer of 1966, as yet
another of his periodic maneuvers to
eliminate potential rivals. 'I love great
upheavals', he chuckled at the time."
China
'China' is a unique card by possessing
it, you deny it to your opponent. The
temptation is always there to play powerful
'China' when you get into a pinch (and
believe me, there will be a plethora of
pinches in this game!), but it may be best
to play your regular hand and save 'China'
for a true emergency. Consider when the
US player holds 'China' on the final
Action Round of the turn, and DEFCON
is at 4 while the US Military Operations
Track is still at 0. Playing the 'China card
for a Coup can save you 4 VPs and that's
something worthy of serious consideration.
'China' also can be an insurance card
for a USSR player who has a card (or two)
taken from his hand (via events like 'Five
Year Plan' or `Grain Sales'). Instead of
being compelled to play a detrimental
enemy event, 'China' can be substituted
instead and the harmful card could still
be held.
But the Soviet player should not rely
too heavily on fickle 'China' once the Mid
War deck kicks in. With cards like 'Nixon'
and the 'Ussuri Incident', the US can
swipe the 'China' card right out from
under the Soviet player's nose. Of course,
a 'Cultural Revolution' can pluck the card
back from the US player just as easily.
And don't forget that the US loses the
`Formosan Resolution' event effect after
he plays 'China'.
Perhaps the best use of 'China' is
playing the card for 5 Ops in the region
just prior to Asia scoring. That's a
powerful combination which can spell
a significant difference in VPs.
"Stalin's goal, therefore, was not to
restore a balance of power in Europe, but
rather to dominate that continent as
thoroughly as Hitler sought to do."
Strategy Tips for Twilight Struggle
Balance
Like in games covering the Pacific War
in World War II, the US player will usually
be under the gun at the onset of a game of
Twilight Struggle but he should never give
up. Early War events do favor the Soviets,
and the US is in real jeopardy of losing the
game before the halfway point (Turn 5). By
the end of Turn 3, if the US can be -7 VP or
better, he has a very good chance of going the
distance (10 turns). Mid War will stretch the
resources of the USSR, and Late War will
find the Soviets desperate to maintain
necessary presence
in Europe. Indeed, if the US can survive
the initial Soviet onslaught (be especially
mindful of a USSR control Europe
strategy), he has the upper hand over the
long haul. When the Late War cards kick
in, they can give the US the outright
advantage in controlling Europe (and thus
winning the game outright).
One imperative for the US is to keep the
USSR out of Central and South America as
long as possible. Cuba potentially is worth
three VPs all by its lonesome anytime Central
America is scored. So the US player should
think twice about playing 'Fidel' if he holds
the card better to send Fidel into Space
(insert your own appropriate joke here).
Chances are that the USSR will eventually
get into the area (a Soviet Coup in Panama
is a ripe early opportunity, or a Mid War
`Junta'), but the longer the Reds are kept
out, the better. And when the 'Fidel' event
does occur, the best US response is usually
to attempt a quick Realignment to knock
him down (or better yet, out).
The greatest early danger for the US, other
than a quick-start Soviet all-out European
Blitz, will likely be in the Middle East. Israel is
very fragile, and it is certainly possible for the
US to have no Influence in the Middle East
at all at some point. This can be disastrous if
timing allows the Mid East Scoring card to play
under such circumstances. It could even end
the game if it comes up soon again after the
first reshuffle and the situation isn't remedied.
Needless to say, it is very important for the
US to at least maintain presence in the Middle
East.
Indeed, being shut out in any region
during scoring is potentially devastating,
and must be avoided whenever possible
The US player should be inclined to
play his big early events (e.g., `NATO'
or 'Marshall Plan') as Ops at the onset
to strengthen his board position, and the
events can always kick in later. t ut don't
forget that South Korea is at risk from the
`Korean War', and any support (-1 drm)
that Japan or Taiwan can give can be
decisive.
Having said all the above, it's still
apparent from many reports that newbies
should play the Soviets first until they
become more comfortable and confident
with system and strategy.
Note that Automatic Victory can't
occur once the game is over and End Game
Scoring ensues. It doesn't matter what
order you score the regions in, or if one
side exceeds the +/- 20 VP level. Whoever
has the VP advantage after all regions are
tallied will be the winner, simple as that.
"The Cold War could have produced a
hot war that might have ended human lift on
the planet. But because the fear of such a war
turned out to be greater than all of the
differences that separated the United States,
the Soviet Union, and their respective allies,
there was now reason for hope that it would
never take place."
Conclusions
Because of the great variety of card
plays, and a conflict that spans the globe,
Twilight Struggle possesses almost infinite
replayability. Thus, an article such as this
can only reveal the tip of a proverbial
iceberg in preparing players for the
marvelous gaming journey to come.
This design remarkably captures the
psychological nature of the struggle, and
every contest will be a learning experience.
And what a fun experience it will be.
Though it was published at the tail end of
2005, Twilight Struggle stands head-and-
shoulders above a fine crop of games that
were released throughout the year. I am so
impressed with it, that leads to my last
comment regarding the game:
"Twlight Struggle would be my selection
for 2005 Game-of-the-Year".