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Is all this talk about going for handsize reduction defcon win foreshadowing that you're going to shoot for the dreaded FIFTEEN YEAR PLAN with SALT + Star Wars?  Risky? Sure. Impractical? Of course. Hilarious? gently caress YEAH
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Dec 22, 2017 22:31
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| # ? Apr 26, 2024 10:09 |
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You've done bloody well to claw it back to being merely slightly behind. I do agree with you though, failing to counterattack Thailand with with the bear trap was a mistake.
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Dec 22, 2017 22:53
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It's worth pointing out the game is currently on sale on Steam, if anyone watching hasn't bought it already.
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Dec 23, 2017 01:17
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The missed opportunity to get back into Thailand was painful, but oh well. When I saw you avoid putting points into Cuba I knew exactly what you were doing because I once lost a game while drunk-playing TS due to Ortega and as soon as I saw you putting points in there I knew you were going to draw that card. At least you got SALT to pull you out. Hitting the Soviets with a double or even triple 5YP might be worth it because you could burn his hand down to nothing and then force your way back into Thailand without him capable of mounting a response. You have the China card so it's possible you could absolutely ruin his hand with this play. I say try to hold Liberation Theology for discard at the end of the round. CA looks like it could be yours or a tie, SA looks like it's a tie but the Soviets have the initiative to coup, Africa could go red if you lose coup rolls, Europe will need some balancing out but it's the late war so that can easily happen especially with European Unrest, the Middle East might go your way barring a bad Muslim Revolution, and that leaves Asia as a crucial area for a big point swing. Right now it looks like both of you have good opportunities to advance so I say go on the offensive and try to force him onto the back foot. Ithle01 fucked around with this message at 20:15 on Dec 23, 2017 |
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Dec 23, 2017 19:36
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If he wants to play for Asia, Star Wars for Ussuri River Skirmish seems like the obvious play. 2 points each in Thailand and Pakistan means that even Lone Gunman + a 4 pointer can't stop China Card from flipping at least one.
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Dec 23, 2017 23:31
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I'm thinking Star Wars for Ussuri too. Flipping back Asia is just too important to pass on, even though there's the outside risk of an Indo-Pakistani war to consider.
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Dec 24, 2017 00:45
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Straight White Shark posted:If he wants to play for Asia, Star Wars for Ussuri River Skirmish seems like the obvious play. 2 points each in Thailand and Pakistan means that even Lone Gunman + a 4 pointer can't stop China Card from flipping at least one. Ithle01 posted:When I saw you avoid putting points into Cuba I knew exactly what you were doing because I once lost a game while drunk-playing TS due to Ortega and as soon as I saw you putting points in there I knew you were going to draw that card. At least you got SALT to pull you out. quote:CA looks like it could be yours or a tie, SA looks like it's a tie but the Soviets have the initiative to coup, Africa could go red if you lose coup rolls, Europe will need some balancing out but it's the late war so that can easily happen especially with European Unrest, the Middle East might go your way barring a bad Muslim Revolution, and that leaves Asia as a crucial area for a big point swing. Right now it looks like both of you have good opportunities to advance so I say go on the offensive and try to force him onto the back foot. Straight White Shark posted:Is all this talk about going for handsize reduction defcon win foreshadowing that you're going to shoot for the dreaded FIFTEEN YEAR PLAN with SALT + Star Wars?
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Dec 27, 2017 20:15
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This week's episode up a couple days early because of various holiday-related schedule disruptions - enjoy! :-) Next game will be against Theory (author of https://www.twilightstrategy.com)... should start appearing in a few weeks, depending on how things go. Happy 2018 to all! 6.5 - And Here I Thought You Had It All Locked Up 
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Dec 27, 2017 20:18
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Yeesh, that was some bad luck on your part with the last hands. You might have had a chance with better cards, but alas.
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Dec 28, 2017 00:17
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That was some bad luck, but you had good luck at some point too so it's too close to call. Still, it was a close game even without Wargames - although I would've liked to see the double or triple 5YP because when you pull it off it just absolutely destroys your opponent's strategy for the round.
Ithle01 fucked around with this message at 07:30 on Dec 28, 2017 |
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Dec 28, 2017 02:27
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Just stopping by to say that the next game is underway with Theory - the author of https://www.twilightstrategy.com Production schedule will depend, as always, on how quickly the game makes progress...
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Jan 5, 2018 19:37
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Good game Brian! Finally got around to watching the last turn. At least you had him on the run for a bit... As for hilarious SALT + SW combos, my vote goes to Triple Bear Trap 
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Jan 15, 2018 21:20
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Unfortunately Triple Bear Trap isn't possible to do, since that's one of the cards that are removed from the game if the event fires.
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Jan 16, 2018 17:30
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OMFG we're back! And playing Theory, author of the www.twilightstrategy.com website - Theory has also provided his own comments on the game! There is a possibility it may take me 2 weeks on the next episode because I'm GM'ing a Twilight Struggle tournament in Charlottesville next week (and editing/uploading video is difficult while on the road), but I'll try, and otherwise the following week for sure. 7.1 - Domino Theory 
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Feb 16, 2018 18:24
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That is a top quality couple of turns! Definitely see theory's point of view regarding your play. Were you hoping to only give up 1 point for duck and cover? Or space it? Wouldn't 2 points be about as good as you can reasonably get for it?
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Feb 16, 2018 21:38
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You've got enough ops that burning Warsaw for the headline wouldn't be completely terrible and it would help keep up the race for Europe, although it removes one of your big late war trump cards. You could punt on Asia to maximize your ops... but with him holding a bunch of your cards and you holding 2 safe-ish 4ops + China it would be really tempting to make a big push on South Korea. In that case you're stuck headlining Truman or Defectors just to weed out your weak cards... headlining Defectors saves you a vp (and is funny), headlining Truman saves you an op. With how many ops you have I'd lean towards Defectors, especially since he knows you have it.
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Feb 16, 2018 22:36
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silvergoose posted:That is a top quality couple of turns! Definitely see theory's point of view regarding your play. Were you hoping to only give up 1 point for duck and cover? Or space it? Wouldn't 2 points be about as good as you can reasonably get for it? I was originally hoping to space it, but obviously got punished for greed :-) I didn't properly factor Containment into my AR2 play - against likely far superior ops I should have accepted Duck & Cover into Italy to overcontrol it as the best I was likely to get, and then if I decide I need a space shot do Special Relationship or Independent Reds. What I ended up doing with D&C actually ended up being pretty darn good and I effectively got 2 of the points back by not starting the next turn at Defcon 4, so it was a good turn for illustrating (to me) that D&C is not as shiveringly bad as I had it filed. Straight White Shark posted:You've got enough ops that burning Warsaw for the headline wouldn't be completely terrible and it would help keep up the race for Europe, although it removes one of your big late war trump cards. You could punt on Asia to maximize your ops... but with him holding a bunch of your cards and you holding 2 safe-ish 4ops + China it would be really tempting to make a big push on South Korea. In that case you're stuck headlining Truman or Defectors just to weed out your weak cards... headlining Defectors saves you a vp (and is funny), headlining Truman saves you an op. With how many ops you have I'd lean towards Defectors, especially since he knows you have it. Viz punting on Asia... note that could be catastrophic against an Indo-Pakistani War reshuffle headline? (Remember he KNOWS I have Asia scoring, so if he did redraw it it's a nobrainer headine) (EDIT: well not *catastrophic* since country count would go to 5-5, but it's still 2 extra VP that we could avoid with Five Year Plan at the end of the turn). You're right that a "Cram the China Card" strategy is definitely viable ops-wise - though again of course the fact that he knows for certain that I have Asia Scoring means it would have to be a wait-and-see last-couple-action-rounds kind of thing. Headlining defectors as Soviets... whenever I'm the US player for that I always have a brief moment of panic that my card has been Defectored! In this case headlining Truman (which I clearly ought to endure this turn one way or the other) saves me not only an op but a space shot, as Defectors is spaceable...? Brian Reynolds fucked around with this message at 23:41 on Feb 17, 2018 |
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Feb 17, 2018 00:32
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Twilight Struggle second episode was delayed this week, not in the end because of my travel, but because some stupid YouTube auto-bot SUSPENDED MY loving ACCOUNT last week saying episode 2 (literally episode 2 of this game) was a violation of "deceptive practices" terms! Hahahahahahahahahahahaha! You'll see the episode next week... YOU decide! ;-) Anyway I guess my appeal finally got some actual human being to look at the video and now, well after my normal Friday launch time, my account is fixed, the episode is un-blocked, and the strikes removed from my account. So a little adventure in Bot fuckery, but we'll be back on track on Friday. Episode is literally completely in the can, uploaded, processed.
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Feb 25, 2018 20:32
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I wonder what on earth could have triggered that?
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Feb 25, 2018 21:03
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I have absolutely no idea, but when I searched around on reddit and elsewhere I found some scattered cases where it seemed to have happened to others and take at least a week for them to get around to fixing it.
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Feb 25, 2018 21:23
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Okay! So we're back in the saddle with Theory and heading into the Mid War! 7.2 - Chaos Theory 
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Mar 2, 2018 20:25
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Looks like a good round for a really meaty Brezhnev. You've got a very mediumish ops hand with very few events you really want to play, so you could potentially spin Brezhnev into 5 extra ops. And some of those cards are going to really want the extra op for mitigation, since you're almost certainly going to have to play Special Relationship and Colonial Rear Guards. Only real snag is the threat of Bear Trap, but if that happens you've got no shortage of nasty cards you'd just as soon feed to it.
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Mar 2, 2018 21:40
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Lots of fun. Man that was a lot of talk before starting turn 3, though. 
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Mar 2, 2018 22:06
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Brezhnev is the best headline, yes. It turns a mediocre ops hand into a good ops hand, and since you're obviously going to have to hold onto either Voice or Grain Sales (and space the other), you're going to have to play Rear Guards and Brezhnev mitigates that damage quite nicely. It also makes Special Relationship into a not completely wasted turn. On AR1 I think you'd want to either coup back Brazil or coup Panama. Portugese Empire Crumbles lets you flip Angola and get domination in Africa anyway if push comes to shove, but unless you get Brazil you're losing South America, and unless you get Panama he's got a cheap and pretty guaranteed Central America control now that Fidel's gone. On balance I'd lean towards the biggest possible coup in Panama, since you could still fight an ops war for Brazil later. E: I'd do this mostly to hedge against the possibility that he's holding Central America scoring this turn, or that he headlines it next turn and I haven't got Junta. Cerebral Bore fucked around with this message at 22:19 on Mar 2, 2018 |
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Mar 2, 2018 22:16
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What do people think about putting a second influence into France on Turn 3 instead of going to 4 in Thailand? Getting Thailand to 4 wouldn't have been hard on the next card play, and with Theory possibly only having 2 influence for his play and knowing you have 3, there's a real threat being made to control France. (37:44 timestamp for board state.) Domination of Europe is still a non-starter post-Marshall, but a 2 card won't control France any more and an AR 6 poker into Thailand is pretty meaningless as you can go to 2 overcontrol and still have 1 influence left over. I'm unsure whether controlling France on AR 7 would be a good play (especially as a 3 influence AR 7 card gets Thailand to 2/3), but retaining the threat might pose a useful distraction going into turn 4.
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Mar 2, 2018 22:24
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I'm not big on actually fighting for France as the Soviets without either a real prospect for European domination or Blockade still being in play. It just isn't credible enough as a threat in my opinion.
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Mar 3, 2018 09:18
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Couple of thoughts: * Brezhnev is meaty! One thing I'm worried about though is an Africa headline which would currently be a disaster and Portuguese Empire would solve plus pick up Angola - I could then play Brezhnev early in the turn and conserve most of the ops... * The Thailand point was definitely premature/superstitious. A point in France or Spain would have been better (I'd probably lean toward Spain aiming for Brush War protection). I agree with Cerebral that I don't usually fight hard for my 4th battleground in Europe as Soviets. * Right now I would celebrate a Bear Trap with a special Happy Soviet dance! * I somewhat lean toward Brazil coup over Panama because I have many ways into CA but few to resist his SA domination if he gets 3 battlegrounds. But I wouldn't criticize either play.
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Mar 3, 2018 17:43
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It's time for episode 3! In which I may or may not get punished for doing something really boneheaded! I had the vid up a couple hours ago and then Xfinity decided to go out for over an hour while I was halfway through this post - yay! At least it didn't go out during the upload... 7.3 - Theoretical Punishment 
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Mar 9, 2018 22:05
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Holy lord I dislike your coup attempt instead of grabbing poland. It's a potential europe domination! And 3rd bg in europe is so important and it'll final score too and...and...
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Mar 9, 2018 22:56
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Couldn't you have used Mulim Revolution to protect Venezuela and Poland at the same time? Also quagmire quagmire quagmire.
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Mar 9, 2018 23:03
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silvergoose posted:Holy lord I dislike your coup attempt instead of grabbing poland. It's a potential europe domination! And 3rd bg in europe is so important and it'll final score too and...and... tarbrush posted:Couldn't you have used Muslim Revolution to protect Venezuela and Poland at the same time? You know, I think you guys are right - once the OAS happened in Venezuela I just jumped to the conclusion (without apparently looking very hard) that I couldn't save both Poland and Venezuela. And then I was perhaps overconfident that the fact he probably had some other scoring card to focus on meant he'd probably lollygag around in Poland and I'd get another crack at it. So yeah, Bad Brian! BAD STUPID BRIAN! This has not my most brilliant game for European tactical play, has it? :-) tarbrush posted:Also quagmire quagmire quagmire.
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Mar 10, 2018 00:02
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You really should have headlined Cultural Revolution in turn 6. If I've counted the cards correctly, I don't think he could have had any 4-ops cards besides the China Card (or at least it would be very unlikely), which means he'd have been unable to flip Poland immediately, thus giving you both the coup and retaining your European Domination. It would also have let you avoid your hand problems since you could have kept two cards. As for the headline, it should be Quagmire. He's not going to headline D and C because he wants to coup himself, so it's probably going to be Junta with the points into Cuba and the coup into Venezuela, and if he's allowed to do that unchecked, he's got a pretty guaranteed Central America Control and would most likely break your African Domination.
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Mar 10, 2018 00:33
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Yeah I think I'm on the Quagmire bandwagon too. Liberation Theology is going to be vitally important but it's best saved until after the coup.
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Mar 10, 2018 00:57
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Cerebral Bore posted:You really should have headlined Cultural Revolution in turn 6. If I've counted the cards correctly, I don't think he could have had any 4-ops cards besides the China Card (or at least it would be very unlikely), which means he'd have been unable to flip Poland immediately, thus giving you both the coup and retaining your European Domination. It would also have let you avoid your hand problems since you could have kept two cards.
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Mar 10, 2018 01:00
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And here we are with mighty episode 4, as Theory and I head deep into the Quagmire / Bear Trap turn! Much discussion of prior missed opportunities as well... 7.4 - Quagmire Theory 
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Mar 16, 2018 19:44
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I'm an episode behind here. I really don't like the Africa play over Brezhnev - it only gains points when he has Africa Scoring and doesn't have Ask Not or something else he'd rather headline. I feel this has to be less than 1VP on average, and the extra ops/flexibility of earlier Brezhnev will let you be more threatening. Better to be "oh good, he didn't do anything, I can attack" instead of "he didn't do anything, I get to do that thing I really needed to do but also doesn't do anything". When playing Muslim Revolution, why Egypt/Saudi over Iran/Saudi? the latter gives you a potential 2-influence battleground.
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Mar 16, 2018 20:00
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Wow, that quagmire. I agree he should have played more into CA earlier, but in my games I always seem to cede the Middle East so something has to give
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Mar 17, 2018 06:33
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Great game Brian, and good to see it from your opponent's perspective as well. Are you still planning on doing more games or have you run out of higher-ranked opponents? 
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Mar 23, 2018 16:20
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These videos have gotten me to buy and start playing TS. It's a lot of fun!
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Apr 15, 2018 00:25
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