1st Annual Languish Twilight Struggle Tournament

[Nels]

As the Soviets, think autovictory. The end game tilts against you, so you need to start scoring points. Remember, it's not bad when he draws the scoring cards, it's good. He has to play them, and you get to play ops ops ops. You have to drive that early game to build a lead. That means Europe should score before he has dominance. Asia should score after you have dominance. Middle East should be a wash or go your way. Oh, and you'll probably have to play the China Card to make this happen. Maybe not, if you're lucky. But early points are very important for you, so play the China Card then put an extra point in Pakistan and Thailand to defend it from the US player armed with the China Card.

As the US, stay close. You can come back. It's okay if the Soviets go up by a dozen points. It's not recommended, but don't despair. Build par or an edge in future scoring regions. Maybe most of the regions have scored. That's okay, if the Soviet player isn't near 20. Start building your edge in multiple regions for the late game scoring cards and final scoring. Panama Canal is in there. North Sea Oil. Camp David and Sadat. Voice of America. Grain Sales. KAL. There is a lot of help coming, if you can hold on and build an edge in more regions than he can.

[Solmyr]

My USSR crushed vonmoltke's US on turn 6 via VPs. US had advanced almost to the end of the space race, the only one remaining was the last spot to discard 4 OPS for 2 VP. USSR only advanced in space race to the first spot. Other unscored regions were CA (USSR in Cuba 0/3, US in Panama 2/0 and Costa Rica 1/0, the rest empty) and SE Asia (USSR control of Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and Indonesia, US control of Malaysia).

Turn 5 ended on 15 VPs for the USSR after vonmoltke had to score Soviet-controlled Africa on his last AR. Turn 6 I got ME Scoring (Soviet-dominated with Shuttle, 4 VPs), Willy Brandt and Brush War which could all give me VPs. My HL was harmless Allende, since US could see my HL first and Defectors were still around. This was countered by US Junta which turned Argentina from 0/2 to 2/1. SA was already scored though so perhaps not the best play. AR1 I played Brush War on Panama since CA was not yet scored and Panama was unprotected by neighbors. That gave me 1 VP up to 16. I also had Liberation Theology in hand so could have later taken Mexico for CA control if something went really wrong. AR1 US play was to space Flower Power, but it failed, so ME Scoring won the game with 4 more VPs. Had the US managed to score those 2 VPs from space, Willy Brand would have given me 1 VP for overall of 19. I would still have most likely won at the end of the turn via Mil Ops (Brush War gave me 3, Junta did not give US any, and funnily enough I had zero non-BGs for the US to coup). CA or SEA scoring would also have won me the game. As I see it, that USSR control of Africa on turn 5 killed the game for the US.

[mkiefte]

I'm confused.  Who am I supposed to be playing?

[Berkut]

WTF? Seriously?

[mkiefte]

Yup, pretty much.

[Tamas]

I played like shit, and I was very slow to respond, so I have forfeited my game against Nels. He was thoroughly kicking me around and we barely even started.

[Berkut]

I sure am glad you guys insisted on a playoff.

[Nels]

Thanks for the games, Tamas. If you want to play again sometime, just fire off an invitation.

[sbr]

So what's the scoop on the playoff?

Any chance of another tourney any time soon?

[Solmyr]

This should probably be unpinned.

[Habbaku]

My victory should stand eternal.

[Jacob]

This should probably be unpinned.

Okay, I unpinned it.

Habbaku, it'll still stand eternal - just a bit further down the topic list.

[Habbaku]