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Sunday, July 24, 2022 - 23:56 SGT
Posted By: Gilbert

The Game's Afoot


With some apologies.


A little clarification on the Twilight Struggle frame game used to help explain current affairs here - it's not quite the vanilla version introduced last month, but an expansion set of sorts (in the vein of Turn Zero and related promotional cards); we may see some new cards eventually, but rest assured, all the old favourites are here, and still make up the bulk of the deck, because let's be honest - nobody learns much from history.

We will introduce the new stuff gradually, and by the way, this was how it all began, for this edition:


Turn 11, Headline Phase (Team Red)


All the cool guys call it "special military operations" nowadays
(By: Twilight Struggle Card Generator)


Team Red plays Russo-Ukrainian War, to kick the New Moon scenario off. Notably, Ukraine isn't represented in the original Twilight Struggle game map, being part of the U.S.S.R. then, but let's be frank - this was never really much about them anyway. Remember that cards in the Headline Phase have to be played for their Event and not Ops, which guarantees at least one Event setting the tenor at the beginning of each Turn. By the looks of it, the world would be seeing a lot more Coups by the big players soon - which was how it turned out.

Speaking of Coups, former Team Blue national security adviser John Bolton (quite possibly of Red Wedding fame) raised some hackles after remarking* in passing that he had been involved in planning Coups for the United States, in particular for Venezuela (currently with 0/3 Influence, recall). Venezuela (quite justifiably) and China among others have pounced on Bolton's statement as evidence that Team Blue's "rules-based international order" is merely window-dressing for self-interest, but frankly, all those past Coups were never really a secret.

[*More bragging than confession, really; a former CIA officer has all but accused Mr. Walrus Mustache of stolen coup valour (which we're imagining, goes something like "That amateur keeps rolling ones and twos on his throws, they must hate him at the craps table"), with Mother Jones doing an in-depth analysis of which U.S.A. Coups he might actually have been involved in (conclusion: not all that many).]


Turn 11, Headline Phase (Team Blue)

Team Blue plays Reagan Bombs Libya for its Event, except for "Reagan" read "Dubya/Obama/Trump/Biden", and for "Libya", read "Syria" (guess what, it was never really about Libya or Syria either, one 2-Influence Middle East state looks much like another, for purposes of The Greatest Game). There is some heated discussion with Team Red over whether the card text has to be followed for scoring purposes, not that it matters since Team Red happens to have 2 Influence in both Libya and Syria anyway. Team Blue takes the lead with 1 VP, then.

[To be continued...]



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