by team_bonnie
I am feeling confident that I can now lay claim to the worst Turn 1 Headline play in the history of Twilight Struggle.This was the first full game of TS for Bobby and myself. (We did play the quick Late War Scenario from the Deluxe rulebook first as a teaching play.) This will not be an exhaustive record of the session, just some of the key events that stood out in my memory.
I (gainfully employed and a dabbler with stocks and options) played the USA.
Bobby (graduate student in Sociology) obviously took the USSR.
Turn 1
I did not have any real compelling Headlines for USA from the initial deal. I decided to play the Blockade event so that 1) it would be removed from the deck and 2) I could discard one of the USSR events in my hand (I believe my plan was either De-Stalinization or Socialist Governments). You can imagine my horror when the USSR Headline was revealed to be Red Scare/Purge. With no 4 OP cards in my hand, that meant the 4 Influence I had just placed in West Germany at the initial set-up simply vanished into thin air. Is it possible to have a worse start than that?
For the only other detail recalled from Turn 1, I did play the Formosan Resolution event. Not a real strong play, but it did help me for the first round of Asia Scoring as well as protect South Korea after taking control of Taiwan. By the second time with Asia Scoring, I had already used the China Card.
Turn 2
The deal was the most notable occurrence this turn. My hand consisted entirely of USSR events... and Bobby's hand consisted entirely of USA events. What are the odds of that? Just needed to mitigate damage at that point.
Turn 3
By the end of the Early War, the USSR had a sizable lead at -12. USSR had Domination in Europe with Presence in Central America and Africa. We matched Presence in Asia and Middle East, and neither of us had acted in South America yet. On the Space Race, we were both still at "Dog in Space" after each of us failed to advance to "Man in Space" with Turn 3 die rolls.
Turn 4
The start of the Mid War had a lot of action. I feared that an early Soviet play of South East Asia Scoring would likely propel USSR to an Auto-Victory. But the USA hand was dealt South America Scoring and the Alliance For Progress event. I decided to take a chance that USSR did not have SEA Scoring this turn, and instead gun for South America.
I Headlined SALT Negotiations and went fishing for Red Scare/Purge, which was played in Round 1. The focus then was building influence in South America. Mid-turn, I played the "Ask Not..." event and dumped 4 USSR events. (One of the cards dumped was Nasser, which later made it back in the USSR hand to be played after the event for Sadat Expels Soviets - back from the grave to haunt my influence, I guess.)
By the end of Turn 4, SEA Scoring did not happen, but South America Scoring and Alliance For Progress did. With South American Domination, the USA was able to pull the game back from the brink.
Turn 5
Expecting SEA Scoring in the USSR hand, my plan was an early play of the China Card to boost USA influence in that sub-region. To my dismay, the USSR Headlined Cultural Revolution to take the China Card back. But I was able to counter in Round 1 with Ussuri River Skirmish to take it back myself. With the influence from the China Card, I was able to reduce SEA Scoring from a Soviet landslide to a manageable loss for the USA. (In discussions at turn end, we decided Bobby should have played SEA Scoring earlier in the turn when he had a bigger advantage - such is the poor play of noobs.)
Turns 6 - 7 - 8
Not too many details are recalled as the Mid War moved to the Late War. USA maintained Domination in the Americas. Asia and Middle East remained deadlocked. Africa was largely ignored. Europe still tilted towards the Soviets with a large influence battle over France brewing. USA was dealt Eastern European Unrest during Turn 7, but this card was held for a bigger Late War bang in Turn 8 to help break the Soviet grip on Europe.
Turn 9
USSR actions suggested that the Asia Scoring card was in hand. With the big continent at equal Presence, USA played the Chernobyl event to block further Soviet OP influence placement in Asia. Asia remained deadlocked.
Turn 10
On the reshuffle heading into Turn 10, USSR was incredibly unlucky to draw both Central and South America scoring cards, and USA Domination could not be broken in either.
Final Scoring
USA Domination in Europe, Central America, and South America. USSR Domination in Africa. We matched Presence in Asia and Middle East.
The double-count of USA Domination in Central and South America at the end of Turn 10 and Final Scoring pushed the game-long USSR advantage into an unexpected USA win.
Final VP Count = USA +2
I am sure our noob-play was quite poor in many places. There was the Turn 1 Headline fiasco for USA. USSR did not Coup Iran in Turn 1 Round 1 or even monkey with Italy. USA then did not use the Iran influence to move east into Asia. We probably played too many events rather than taking the more-valuable OPs (I think the Olympics were actually hosted 3 or 4 times). Our DEFCON level rarely made it to 2, whereas I have now read that it should predominantly end turns at 2. Many more, no doubt.
Blasphemy alert... I did like the game... not as much as Agricola though. Honestly, of the BGG Top 10 games that I have played (TS, Puerto Rico, Power Grid, Dominion), I don't feel that any of them come close to Agricola. But to each his own, right? Things I did like in TS: always too much to do and not enough resources to do it, the mix of planning and reaction, the poker-like guesswork around what is going on in the opponent's hand, and the theme itself. Bobby really did not care much for TS. Since he is my main playing partner, that unfortunately means that TS will not be hitting my table much. Maybe I'll be able to convince him to give it another chance. Afterall, it is ranked #1.