Notes
- Iron Triangle (Iran/Afghan/Pakistan)
- This is extremely important for both sides. If the USSR knocks the US out, they are looking good for both Asia and ME. If the US gets a footprint, the USSR will have to battle with them the rest of the game in that area. The iron triangle gives the US player +1 in Afghanistan and access to both the ME and Pakistan/India (while denying easy access to Pakistan/India to USSR).
- DEFCON Tempo
- In most games of Twilight Struggle, DEFCON is deliberately kept at 2 nearly all the time. Coups in battleground countries are so vital that both sides naturally gravitate towards DEFCON 2. Generally this means that the USSR is more than happy to get the one battleground coup per turn, and keep DEFCON at 2 otherwise.
- Playing with Defcon is a valid and equally strategic way of winning as victory points would be (probably more so and quicker honestly).. do not underestimate this potentiality.
- Pick your battles wisely.
- I see a lot of new players try to win everything. There is no quicker way to tipping your hand to your opponent. Sometimes, just score that card for your opponent and be done with it. If you signal to him that you’re trying to win back a region, an experienced player will usually see and drive you deeper into the hole.
- The discard deck gets shuffled in for Turn 3 and 7 in most normal games. Pay attention to when scoring cards come out and when they might get redrawn. If Asia scoring hasn’t appeared in Turn 1 or 2, it will be guaranteed to be in one of your hands on Turn 3.
- Also the best time to burn a rough opponent’s card in the space race (or into the discard via other means) is on Turn 3 and 7 since it will be a while before it will be drawn again. For US, consider cards like Decolonization and De-Stalinization.
- Contrast that with how you should play your really good recurring cards before turn 3 and 7, so you can hopefully get them in play again with the reshuffle.
- The early game is lopsided to the USSR. The late war game is lopsided to the US.
- It means that the Soviets should usually be more aggressive to push a quick win or a strong early positioning.
- For the US the beginning of the game is all about damage mitigation and trying to keep the USSR from getting a better position. It’s almost impossible to win as US in early war (except maybe an Experienced player vs a Novice).
- Mid war for both sides is about trying to chip away at your opponent.
- Late war for the Soviets is damage mitigation and late war for the US is trying to push that marker back past the 0VP marker.
- Space Race should be reserved for truly awful cards
- cards that will immediately lose you the game (e.g., DEFCON suicide cards)
- cards that provide your opponent access to a region (e.g., De-Stalinization)
- cards that remove your access to a region (e.g., Voice of America)
- cards whose Ops value is not enough to repair its damage (e.g., Ussuri River Skirmish)
- cards that give your opponent multiple plays in a row (e.g., Quagmire/Bear Trap)
- cards that give your opponent lots of VPs (e.g., OPEC)
Opening + AR1
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USSR: 4 eg, 4 pol, 1 yug.
- AR1.. coup Italy or Iran.
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US: 4 wg, 3 italy.
- If you have marshall to headline, then open with 3 wg, 2 italy, 1 greece, 1 turkey
- AR1.. protect israel, get thailand, get greece/turkey
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Headline/AR1 is important for USSR.. allowing them to chain.
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Last AR is important to US.. use high op card to force USSR to respond to you next turn in headline rather than chain cards.
- There are three types of AR7 plays: breaking USSR control, playing into a non-battleground, and managing bad USSR events.
Realignment Rolls
- Realignments are good when you already have a crushing advantage (control of the target country and a hefty bonus due to adjacency) and you want to 100% remove your opponent’s influence so they can’t even claw their way back into the region. They’re also good when you’ve pretty much lost access to a country and you’d like to push the enemy out as well, since you have nothing to lose.