by leroy43
Quoting myself from 2010...I think I've played the Deluxe edition enough now to put in some reasonable comments about the new cards.
The game feels almost right as is without any additional ip for the US. I think a large number of games will need to be played to see what the stats say.
NORAD is very powerful, IF the US player can get it out in the early war. Quagmire terminates it, so if you don't get it early, it's almost worth forgoing for the 3 ops. But if you can get this out early and then space Quagmire? Bazinga! I've never seen so many Socialist Government plays used to suck influence from Canada. I hesitate to call NORAD a game changer, but it sure makes Canada an interesting place all of a sudden.
Special Relationship is awesome, and is actually worth playing NATO as an event for. 2 influence *and* 2VP? Huge.
Che is interesting in his limited way. You ideally want to pick a 1 stability country in Africa and then go for that South/Central American target you have your eye on (unless South/Central America is desperate for you). I like this card though it gets limited play as an event.
I've seen Yuri & Samantha exactly once, and it's too bad because it's a great headline for the Soviets. However, because it's late war, its effect is really limited. Especially if the DEFCON is already 3 at the start of the turn. Could easily be played without I think.
Cambridge Five is huge. It's a headache every time I have it in my hand as the Americans and I have scoring cards. Urgh! Brilliantly frustrating, but well conceived and balanced IMO.
Our Man in Tehran... can be awesome or can suck. If you pull lots of events you want to see discarded, it's great. If you pull lots of events you would have loved to see next turn, well, who knows where they'll end up in the deck. Timing on this one is important too, because you might be discarding events that get shuffled right back in.
AWACS Sales to Saudis... I'm mixed on this one. If it comes out in time to save you from Muslim Revolution it's fine, but if you're so far behind in the Middle East that you need this card to climb back in the Soviets will have already put in 5 influence into Saudi...
Ames Remixed... Honestly, I liked the old Ames better. I can live with the remix version, but I wouldn't have had my greatest comeback victory ever with the Remix edition.
I think despite Jason's comment that he recommends against playing the new cards with the Chinese Civil War variant that it would work just fine with CCW.
And back to modern times - I would go with option A.