Twilight Struggle Game Mechanics

US History: Cold War Simulation

Objective: To win the Cold War by gaining political influence throughout the world. This influence is achieved by earning more victory points than your opponent.

Game Turns:

  1. There are three in this game. The first represents the early-Cold War, the second represents the mid-war, and the third represents the late-war.
  2. Your team will be given a hand of cards at the beginning of each turn. (8cards in turn one, 10cards in turn two, and 9 cards in turn three).
  3. Each turn is comprised of action rounds where you play one card from your hand to gain additional influence.
  4. In turn one there are 7action rounds for each side
  5. In turn two there are 9action rounds for each side
  6. In turn three there are 8 action rounds for each side
  7. At the start of each turn the USSR will have the first action.
  8. Once a card is played, you and your teammates must decide how to use the card as you have options.

Card Options:

  1. Play the Event:
  2. You would do whatever the card text tells you to do.
  1. Use Operation Points

They are found within the star in the upper left hand corner of the card. (this card has 1 operation point) With these points you can do one of three things… you must choose which to do.

  1. Place Influence
  2. Purpose - Allows you to gain influence in a country/countries
  3. Place an influence marker(s) equal to the number of operation points in any country/countries adjacent to your home nation, in a nation in which you have influence at the beginning of the turn or any adjacent nation.
  4. You can use the influence points in multiple countries.
  5. If the enemy controls a country, it costs 2 operation points to place one influence marker there.
  1. Realignment Rolls
  2. Purpose - Reduces enemy’s influence in a country/countries
  3. You must spend all operations points on realignment rolls.
  4. Can target different countries or the same country multiple times
  5. Acting nation can target any country... i.e. doesn't need influence adjacent
  6. Each player rolls a die, remove influence equal to the difference between the die rolls. Only the defending nation can lose influence.
  7. Add the following modifiers (applicable to both sides) into each die roll.
  8. +1 for each adjacent controlled country
  9. +1 if adjacent to the player's superpower
  10. +1 for the nation that has more influence in the target country
  1. Coup Attempt
  2. Purpose - Can reduce an enemy's influence and add your own influence in a country.
  3. Acting nation can target any country... i.e. doesn't need influence adjacent
  4. Multiply the target country's stability rating by 2 = coup prevention number
  5. Roll a die and add the operations value of the card to the die roll. = coup attempt number
  6. If the coup attempt number exceeds the coup prevention number, the coup is successful.
  7. If successful, take the difference between the numbers and subtract enemy influence from the target country. If all influence for the enemy is removed and there is still a remainder, you may add influence to the target nation equal to the remainder.
  8. If the target nation is a battlefield country, reduce the DEFCON status by one

Control of a Country

  1. This is determined within a country by subtracting the amount of influence the superior superpower has by the influence of the inferior superpower. If the difference equals or exceeds the country's stability rating, the superior superpower has control of the country, otherwise they have influence. You must have at least one influence point to have influence.

Military Conflict

  1. We will fight three wars. Fighting happens at the beginning of the action rounds in which they are scheduled to be fought.
  2. Once a conflict begins, neither side can add influence in warring nations.
  3. In the Early War
  4. Korean War:
  5. Will begin in the 2nd action round and continue through the 4th action round.
  6. At the beginning of each action round each side should roll a die adding one influence for each ally or controlled nation adjacent to North Korea for Soviets and South Korea for the US. Whichever side rolls higher can remove one influence from the other side in either Korean nation.
  7. If either the US or the USSR are reduced to zero influence in both North Korea andSouth Korea the war is over and the victorious nation gains enough influence to control both countries.
  8. In the Mid War
  9. Vietnam
  10. Will begin in the 3rd action round and continue through the 8th action round.
  11. At the beginning of each action round each side should roll a die adding one influence for each controlled nation adjacent to Vietnam. Whichever side rolls higher can add one influence intoVietnam.
  12. At the end of the war the victorious side can remove enemy influence from Vietnam, remove their own influence too and replace it with enough influence to control Vietnam, and + 2 VP
  13. Six Day War
  14. Will happen in the 4th action round.
  15. At the beginning of the 4th action round each side should roll a die adding one to the die roll for each influence in Israel, Egypt, and Syria.
  16. Whoever wins the die roll gains 1VP, no influence is lost on either side.

Scoring Victory Points:

  1. At the end of the turn the victory points will be tallied and the game score adjusted.
  2. Both sides figure out their score in that region using the following ...
  3. You have Presence in a region if you control one or more countries in a region.
  4. You have Domination in a region if you control more total countries and more battleground countries (Purple heading) than your opponent. You must also control at least one regular country (Yellow heading) to achieve domination.
  5. You have Control in a region if you control more total countries and all battleground countries in a region.
  6. You are awarded the number of victory points listed on the card for the level that you achieved.
  7. Additionally, you are awarded more victory points if you meet the following conditions.
  8. Add 1 victory point to your total for each battleground country you control in a region.
  9. Add 1 victory point for every country that you control that is adjacent to the enemy superpower.
  10. Move the victory point token to the appropriate place along the victory point track.
  11. Here is when scoring cards are introduced in the game...
  12. Early War - Asia, Middle East, Europe
  13. Mid & Late War –All

Setup:

  1. USSR gets 17 influence in the following countries: Syria-1, Iraq-1, North Korea-3, East Germany-3, Finland-1, India-1, Egypt-1, 6 more to be distributed in Eastern Europe (light purple). The USSR places their six before the US.
  2. The US gets 27 influence in the following countries: Canada-2, Iran-1, Israel-1, Japan-1, Australia-4, Philippines-1, South Korea-3, Panama-1, South Africa-1, UK-5, 7 more to be distributed in Western Europe (dark purple)

After a game turn:

  1. Score the board
  2. After each turn increase the DEFCON status by one (toward peace)