Mastodawn

I lost this game of #TwilightStruggle very badly

This was my position going into Turn 6. I didn't really document, but I believe I lost very early in turn #7 which is to say, my opponent scored something like 26 points or so in that time

I'm not sure I've ever played a game in which I got so many scoring cards and so few ops I was the USSR (random draw)

Anyway. As you can see, I thought this was a particularly unusual board state. I drew Asia and Europe scoring on T1 and what I seem to recall was a pretty crappy hand otherwise except COMECON, and so what happened is I tried a COMECON trap to win big in Europe, which sort of worked as I got Italy and then France (and I scored Asia for 1 point, before it got much contested)

I proceeded to win pretty big in Asia, and I believe I got Southeast Asia in my favour in turn. Which is why I had so many points. But it came crumbling down. I believe I drew Central America and Africa on turn 6, and my opponent (the US) was able to take Poland, Italy, and Thailand (!) all in the same turn, and had Europe scoring, plus I think I was giving him points on nearly all my cards. He got himself to 19 points and then played Duck and Cover in the Headline Phase of T7

#wargaming #coldwar

IanMoore3000 Jan 7

It's always strange when the real people behind cards in games you play die.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cj0n29395j3o

#TwilightStruggle

Aldrich Ames, CIA agent who sold secrets to the Soviets, dies aged 84

The double agent compromised more than 100 operations and betrayed more than 30 agents spying for the West.

Show thread

J. Alan Henning Jan 5

In the rematch, as the USSR, I again lost control over Europe, but this time I scored the Middle East twice, Asia once, and Southeast Asia with its special card. So I managed a clean win in four turns. #TwilightStruggle #Boardgames

J. Alan Henning Jan 3

I have, and not for the first time, let the USSR overrun Europe.

(In Twilight Struggle, you automatically lose if one player dominates Europe when its scoring card is played. Twice I've played a long game elsewhere, built a lead in VPs, but lost on this card.) #Boardgames #TwilightStruggle

Clio's Board Games Sep 23

#OTD 45 years ago, the Iran-Iraq war began. Both countries exhausted themselves in the process of the war. (Image from #TwilightStruggle)

Nauss in Montréal Sep 19

Here's an #introduction to this account

I'm @nauss and this is the account where, I guess, I'll talk about - and maybe post pictures related to - my board game habits

Some games to which I more or less know the rules at this point, in no particular order: #TwilightStruggle, the shorter #TSRedSea, #ImperialStruggle, the excellent #BayonetsAndTomahawks produced by talented locals, #HereIStand, #VirginQueen, #PaxRenaissance, #PaxPamir, #Arcs, maybe #JohnCompany but I'm not certain, and at least the Breaking the Bismarck Barrier scenario of #EmpireOfTheSun (finally, a game with real hexes). I have played several COIN games but the one I like the most is #AndeanAbyss. I love #DominantSpecies. I'm starting to love #Nevsky

Definitely not a tabletop board game but I'm also a big fan of #CivilizationVI, e.g. #Civ6. More hexes!

Interested in playing more games with locals, connecting with other people in town, or playing with other places' locals when I'm out of town. Looking at you, Ontario

I don't use Facebook, Discord, or almost any spyware social media if I can help it - and I only use BoardgameGeek begrudgingly. Happy to be on wargamers.social now, I've been thinking about spinning up a more game-focused account for awhile but it's always been on the backburner 😀

J. Alan Henning Jul 28, 2025

@kensanata You inspired me to play again. We were fairly balanced through four rounds then I had a disastrous hand: my first two scoring cards, and my son headlined a card forcing me to show them. So he knew what I had, and I had two fewer cards to plan for the scoring events. He quickly racked up 16 points. I then misread the Olympics card, the USSR boycotted, and I accidentally started a nuclear war. #TwilightStruggle #BoardGames

Steve Jul 11, 2025

Twilight Struggle x2, 2 players

There's this thing that happens where when you start to know too much meta knowledge about strategy that you didn't earn yourself, or play too many reps on an app, a game becomes less fun. Twilight Struggle suffers from this. I used to play quite experienced players (and lost!) and knew "best moves" which makes TS a little staid. Luckily, I've forgotten most of that knowledge, so when I suggested to a friend we play some TS at a brewery it was between two players who've played a fair amount but only remember the basics of meta approved "good" strategy. It revitalized the game for me, we had a great time talking and playing, so much so that we made it through two games in the afternoon and the 2nd one went to final scoring. Glad I've held onto the collector's edition I bought all these years, it's still a nice production despite tons of complaints from people when it came out.

#twilightstruggle #gmtgames #boardgames #tabletop #tabletopgames #wargames #brettspiele