Twilight Struggle: Historical Order First Playthrough, Strict Chronological Order

Pictures: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1hOQ-Km_9T06NbaQhkELzeGFJijoj0uK2
One scoring card was assigned each turn and the two sides placed what influence points they had
to try and win as many points as possible in that region per turn. This was to try and constrain the
choices that I would be making to a focused region so they weren’t as arbitrary and the focus was
on the cards/events instead of my decision-making
Pre-game:
USSR Influence Placements:
3I Poland (occupied at the end of WW2)
3I E. Germany (occupied at the end of WW2)
1I Hungary (occupied at end of WW2)
1I Romania (occupied at end of WW2)
1L Austria (split control with allies from the Potsdam conference)
US Influence Placements:
4I W. Germany (Allied control after WW2)
2I Italy (AMGOT control after WW2)
1I Austria (split control with the USSR and allies from the Potsdam conference)
 TURN 1: Influence generally spent fighting for Europe
Headline: Cambridge Five canceled by Defectors
Defectors is a card that could be played anywhere in the turn order historically and it only makes
sense for the US player to play it as the headline event.
USSR1: Red Scare
US1: Captured Nazi Scientists
USSR2: 5 Year Plan, discards UN intervention. 2I Italy
The USSR is trying to get control of the only easily accessed battleground to secure points when
the European card is scored.
US2: Vietnam revolts. 1I France
The US follows suit, securing its easily accessed battleground.
USSR3: Special Relationship (US: 1I FR). 2I Italy
US3: Containment
USSR4: Socialist Governments. -2 W Germany, -1 Italy
The USSR continues the fight over battleground countries
US4: Truman Doctrine. -1I Austria
The US player does not have any good options here and opts to undermine support around E/W
Germany in case of a realignment attempt later in the game.
USSR5: Marshall Plan (+1I Austria, W Germany, France, Finland, Spain, Canada, Denmark)
Coup France: -1I.
USSR continues fighting over the battlegrounds. The US player reinforces battlegrounds and
spreads influence, opening up paths to Africa and pressuring the USSR in Denmark.
US5: Decolonization (+1I: Indonesia, Burma, Zaire, Algeria). 1I Fr 1I W. Germany
The USSR spreads influence to hard-to-reach countries and the US continues to try and hold
onto battlegrounds in Europe.
USSR6: CIA Created (US coup Zaire -1USSR +1US) 1I Hungary
US needs military ops and goes for the coup removing influence in a location the USSR can’t
directly influence. The USSR moves to gain control of Hungary.
US6: EU Scoring: USSR +1 VP
Round End Scoring: US -2
 TURN 2: Influence generally spent fighting for Asia
Headline: Indo-Pakistani war +2 VP; Romanian Abdication
USSR1: UN intervention cancels Independent Reds. 2I Afghanistan
USSR plays UN intervention on the next card in order. UN Intervention is a flexible time period
card that could not be played at the headline phase.
US1: Blockade discards Comecon. 1I Taiwan
US plays Blockade and chooses to discard COMECON, the first available USSR card that can be
discarded with Blockade.
USSR2: Arab Israeli war (fails)
US3: Olympics (Wins: +2VP)
USSR4: NATO. 2I Pakistan, 1I Laos, 1I India
US4: Duck and Cover (+2 VP)
USSR5: US/Japan Mutual Defense Pact. 2 India, 2 Thailand
US5: Korean War (fails). 2I S. Korea
USSR6: Nasser
US6: Asia Scoring: USSR +9
Round End Scoring: US -1
 TURN 3: Influence generally spent fighting for the Middle East
Headline: Defectors cancels Suez Crisis
US player again has the Defectors card and cancels the USSR’s headlined card.
USSR1: Formosan resolution. 2I Iraq
US1: Warsaw Pact: (1I: Hungary, 2 Finland, 1 E. Germany, 1Poland). 1I Iran, 2 Israel
USSR moves influence from eastern Europe to the ongoing fights in the Middle East.
USSR2: Destalinization: -3 Romania, -1 Finland; 2I Libya, 1I Syria, 1I Israel
US2: East European Unrest: -1I E Germany, Poland, Hungary
USSR3: NORAD. Coup Iran: -2I
US3: De Gaulle Leads France. Coup Egypt -2I
USSR4: Nuclear Test Ban
US4: Fidel. 2I Israel
USSR5: Cambridge 5: 1I Israel
US5: Red Purge
USSR 6: 5 Year Plan. 2I Egypt
US6: ME Scoring: USSR +8
Round End Scoring: 0
 TURN 4: Influence generally spent fighting for Central America
Headline: Our Man in Tehran (US); Junta +2 Mexico, Coup Panama: -1I US
USSR1: Colonial Rear Guards (US: Thailand, Indonesia, Laos, S Africa): 1I Nicaragua, Mexico
US1: Brush war Mexico: Success
USSR2: Arms race (ops). 1I Costa Rica 2I Honduras
US2: Voice of America -2I Cuba; -1I Nicaragua, Costa Rica
USSR3: OAS Founded (2I Panama). 1I Cuba
US3: Puppet Governments: +1I Argentina, Brazil, Guatemala
USSR4: Nuclear Subs 1I Cuba, El Salvador
US4: Che (-1I, +3I Guatemala) 3I Costa Rica
USSR5: Bury You
US6: Summit USSR wins
USSR7: Kitchen Debates: Coup Panama: -1I
US7: Central America Scoring: +1 USSR
Final Scoring: +1 US
 TURN 5: Influence to be spent fighting for South America
Headlines: OPEC USSR +3 VP
USSR Wins with 20 VP
 Event Playthrough
(This is the prior student’s playthrough but I include it here for reference purposes as I refer to it
in the project paper)
 Setup – these distributions are based on what each player chose. This highlights how
even with a set order of cards, the game requires each player to make decisions
o USSR influence
 Poland – 2
 Czechoslovakia – 1
 Hungary – 1
 Romania – 1
 Austria – 1
o US influence
 Canada – 1 (for 3 total)
 Spain / Portugal – 1
 France – 2
 Italy – 1
 W. Germany – 2
 Turn 1 (note – red is USSR and black is us)
o Headline Cambridge 5 (optional) (34-63)
 Add 1 to Sweden
o Headline Captured Nazi scientist (1945-1973)
 Only effects space race
o Red scare / purge (1945-89)
 Only effects op so doesn’t matter
o Defectors (1945-89)
 No effect
o Five-year plan (1946-1950)
 No effect
o Vietnam revolts
o Special relationship (optional) (46-?)
 Add 1 to Benelux
o Containment (January)
 Only effects op
o Socialist governments
 France Spain Italy – 1 each
o Truman doctrine (march 12)
 -2 Poland
o Marshall plan (June)
 Spain
 Italy France Benelux Norway Denmark w. Germany each +1 US
 Would never play action as Soviet Union
o Decolonization (1947-1979) (July)
 Same as above, us would never play
 Laos, India, Algeria Libya each plus 1 USSR
o Cia created (September)
  US +1 Egypt
o Indo Pakistani war
 US gains 2 VP for winning, gains influence in India +1 and USSR -1
o SCORING
 Mil ops VP penalty
 US gets 2 VP
 Europe
 0 VP, USSR and US control 1 country each
 Middle east
 0, neither controls a country
 Asia
 Both have presence
 USSR domination, controls Laos Vietnam and N. Korea
 USSR +1 battleground
o TOTAL POINTS- USSR +6 VP,
 Asia scoring card doing most of the work
 Turn 2
o headline UN intervention (1947-?)
 Note – counterfactual to rules of game, cannot be used during headline
and only is used with opponent’s event to cancel out, so will just discard it
because want to play all the events
o Headline Romanian abdication (Dec 30)
o Blockade (1948-49)
 Removed all west German influence rather than lose event
o Independent reds
 Matched USSR influence in Romania
o Arab Israeli war
 Israel switches to soviets, USSR gain VP and mil ops
o Olympic games
 US places 4 op in W. Germany to regain control and defcon goes down
o Comecon (1949-1991)
 Poland, Czech, Bulgaria, Hungary
o NATO
o Duck and cover
 US gains 2 VP
o Korean war (1950-53)
 USSR gains 2 VP and 2 mil ops
o Us japan mutual defense pact
o Nasser (1954-1970)
o Warsaw pact formed
 Add 2 to turkey,1 to Hungary, 1 to Czech, 1 to Yugoslavia
o Formosan resolution
o Picture 1- skewing heavily USSR after 2 rounds of early war
o SCORING
 Mil ops VP penalty – USSR gets 3
 Europe
  Both have presence
 Domination – USSR controls more countries but not more
battleground so neither have domination
 Middle east
 USSR + 2
 Asia
 Both have presence
 Domination – USSR controls more countries but not more
battleground so neither have domination
o TOTAL POINTS USSR AT 11 VP
 US gaining grounds in Asia, USSR no longer dominates
 USSR gaining ground in Middle East
 Turn 3 – note it is short because ran out of early war cards, normally there will be cards
replayed, so will wait to rescore until the end of next round
o Headline Suez crisis
 minus 2 France and uk
o East European unrest (1956-1989)
 -1 from Germany Czech and Hungary
o Destalinization
o De Gaulle leads France (1958-1969)
o NORAD (optional) (58-?)
 No effect
o Fidel
o Nuclear test ban (1963-?)
 Uneven amount of cards and wouldn’t be fair to play now, so saving until
start to next round
o Scoring
 Mil ops – neither made it
 USSR still at 11
 MID WAR
 Turn 4 – stronger for US with events requiring placement of influence around the globe;
many event cards impacted VP
o Headline Nuclear test ban (1963-?)
 USSR gains 3 VP to 14
o Headline Our man in Tehran (41-79)
 Doesn’t do anything for the purpose of this simulation
o Junta (1945-?)
 Control of Venezuela
 Failed coup in panama
o colonial rear guards (1946-1988)
 Philippines, Nigeria, Angola, Zimbabwe
o Brush war (1947-?)
 USSR gains 1 VP, controls Kenya
o Arms race (1947-1989)
 No effect because no mil ops in us
o The voice of America
  -1 USSR Egypt, north Korea, Laos, Venezuela
o Oas founded (1948, 67)
 US +1 panama and Nicaragua
o Puppet governments (49-?)
 Columbia, El Salvador, Haiti
o Nuclear subs
o Che (optional) (1955-67)
 Successful coup in Nicaragua not in El Salvador
o We will bury you
 USSR VP plus 3 to 18
 **closest USSR comes to victory
o Summit (59, 61, 72, 73, 74, 79, 85, 87, 88, 89)
 US gains 2 VP to 16
o Kitchen debates
 US gains 2 VP to 14
o U2 incident may
 USSR gains 1 VP to 15
o Opec sept
 No effect, but USSR literally could have won the game if it did have
control in those places
o SCORING
 Mil ops – USSR +3 to 18
 Note- will score se Asia at end of Mid War, because it is one time score
 Europe
 Both have presence
 Neither have domination or control
 Middle east
 Nothing
 Asia
 Both have presence
 US domination +7 VP
 +1 US battleground
 18-8 =10
 Central America
 Both have presence
 Neither have domination
 +1 USSR for controlling Cuba
 11
 South America
 US presence +2
 9
 Africa
 Both have presence
 Us has domination +4
 +2 US controlling battleground
  TOTAL USSR +3 VP (so us very much came back this round in the
scoring, throughout the regions, though was losing in action rounds)
 Turn 5
o Headline Latin American death squads (60-89)
o Headline Ask not what your country can do for you... (61-73)
 This will not be an event used because it involved changing the hand and
we want the cards played
o Alliance for progress (1961-1973)
 +2 VP US
o One small step (61-69)
o Cuban missile crisis
o Lone gunman
 +1op in Egypt for USSR
o Quagmire (1964-1975)
 Don’t want to use
o How I learned to stop worrying
o South African unrest (1964-1994)
o Flower power (1965-70)
o Cultural revolution 1966-1977
 USSR +1VP
o Brezhnev doctrine
o Usuri river skirmish march
o Salt negotiations (1969, 72) (removed from play if used as event so use first date,
November
o Scoring
 Mil ops = +5VP US (3 US)
 Europe
 Both have presence
 Neither have domination or control
 Middle east
 USSR presence +3 (0)
 Battleground +1 USSR
 Asia
 Both have presence
 US domination +7 VP
 +1 US battleground
 +7 US
 Central America
 Both have presence
 Neither have domination
 +1 USSR for controlling Cuba
 6
 South America
 US presence +2
 8
 Africa
  Both have presence
 US has domination +4
 +1 US controlling battleground
 TOTAL US 13 VP (US picking up steam now with Asia scoring)
 Turn 6 – heavy South America round, reflecting shift in focus
o Headline Willy Brandt
 USSR +1VP and +1 W. Germany
o Headline Liberation theology (1969-?)
 Guatemala Nicaragua and Dominican Republic each +1
o Allende (1970-73)
o Panama Canal returned
o Abm treaty
 +2 USSR in brazil and 2 in Honduras
o Nixon plays the china card
 US gains 2 VP (at 14)
o Sadat expels the soviets
o Grain sales to soviets (73-80, 81-?)
o Shuttle diplomacy
o Portuguese empire crumbles
o Camp David accords
o John Paul elected pope
o Bear trap (1979-92)
 Same as quagmire
o Muslim revolution
o Missile envy – odd number of cards so will carry over to next round
o Round slightly too short, missing 1 action round but will still score because close
enough
o SCORING
 Mil ops = no change, stays at US 15
 Europe
 USSR has domination +7
 +1 battleground
 US+7
 Middle east
 Nothing
 Asia
 Both have presence
 US domination +7 VP
 +1 US battleground
 +15 US
 Central America
 Both have presence
 Neither have domination
 +1 USSR for controlling Cuba
 +14 US
  South America
 Both have presence, neither have domination
 USSR battleground +1
 +13 US
 Africa
 Nothing
 Southeast Asia (only scored once)
 Nothing
 TOTAL US 13 VP (US rolling now with Asia)
 Turn 7- skipping and going to late war, normally this wouldn’t happen with cards going
back in, but for the sake of this exercise cards not replayed, as explained in paper
 LATE WAR
 Turn 8-9 (will play all cards before scoring rather than scoring twice because not enough
for multiple rounds)
o Headline Terrorism (49-?)
o Headline missile envy
o War games** (1956-95)
 Not applicable
o Iran hostage crisis (79-81) (connects with terrorism)
o The iron lady (79-90)
 +1VP us
 Socialist gov no longer playable
o North Sea oil
o Solidarity (1980-?)
o Iran Iraq war (80-88)
 War failed
o AWACAS sale to Saudis (81-87)
o Latin American debt crisis (82-89)
 Now USSR controls Chile and Argentina
o Yuri and Samantha (82-85)
o Star Wars (1983-?)
o Soviets shoot down KAL-007
 +2 VP US
o Marine barracks bombing
 -1 US Israel Egypt
o An evil empire
 +1 VP US
o Pershing II deployed (84-85)
 +1 USSR
o The reformer (1985-91)
 +2 Italy + 2 Greece USSR
o Glasnost (85-89)
 +2 VP USSR
 Links with Reformer
 + 2 Spain +2 Hungary
o Ortega elected in Nicaragua (85-90)
  Coup failed
o Iran contra scandal
o Aldrich Ames remix (85-94)
o Regan bombs Libya
 +1 us
o Chernobyl
o Tear down this wall
 Coup in Poland
o Final scoring
 Mil ops – nothing, stays at us 15
 Europe
 USSR has domination +7
 +1 battleground
 Us=+7
 Middle east
 USSR presence +3
 Battleground +1
 Us =3
 Asia
 Both have presence
 Us domination +7 VP
 +1 us battleground
 +11 us
 Central America
 Both have presence
 Neither have domination
 +1 USSR for controlling Cuba
 +10us
 South America
 Both have presence, neither have domination
 USSR battleground +3
 +7 us
 Africa
 Nothing
FINAL SCORE = US UP 7 VP, US WINS

(Name here for 2018 submission purposes only)

Andrew Workman