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When I click on the European influence bar, it gives us the status of the situation in that region. As you can see, the status is even for both sides across Europe.

After I see what the AI did on this turn, I'm more than convinced he's not holding a European Scoring Card. I'm also wondering if he even has the Asian one in his hand too.

I need to think about damage control in Asia for turn 2. Africa can wait till round 4.

For this turn I need to limit what this event does against me. This is the best of the 2 Soviet cards in my hand to play at this time. In the next slide you'll see what De-Stalinization is a bad card for us!

Now you know why I held this card back. At this point in the game it doesn't seem that bad, right? The Soviets have already spread influence into Africa and Asia. But I want to limit them on access to Central and South America too. This is one of those Dandelion effect cards, allowing the Soviets to spawn seeds of Communism across the world.

Its turn 6, the final one this round.

This is one of those areas the AI shines at. Blockade card is so dangerous for the US if played properly. The AI held back this card till the end and used it as an event in hopes that I would not be able to counter it. Luckily I still had the 3 point De-Stalinization card. It hurts to ditch it in this case but the alternative is far worse. I can't lose control over Europe!

Since no scoring card was played, I'm banking influence in key areas for future conflicts in Europe and Asia. This slide shows what the world situation after 6 turns of play. From here, the political scene only gets messier! [:D]

A final note for this turn. As I mentioned in the slide, Containment really made a huge difference in what I was able to do this round. With so many '3's' that were essentially '4's' I was able to keep a hold of the Bear by the tail. I was very fortunate in my card draw. Normally the US is not sitting this well in the world at the end of Round 1.

I see I misspelled sense...LOL [:'(]

Okay, to explain one thing about this slide. Why did I not coup or realign any countries my turn? There was little to no benefit in my eyes to doing any of those actions this round. One major factor was I would rather have secured areas in Europe and strength my hold in the Middle East then to dabble in Asia or Africa. It would of been wasted action in most cases.

One area I could of tried is in Iraq. With my control over Iran, it would of given me a +1 bonus to any action I brought against them. I thought about using the Suez Crisis Ops points for a coup in Iraq but if I failed because of poor die roll, it would of been a wasted turn. By gaining firm control over Egypt and buffing up Israel, I gained an advantage by planning ahead for future cards that haven't yet been played.

Even though I lost 4 points, this was a great round for the US. I'm sure I could of done things a bit different here and there. Maybe someone of more experience could point out more optimized plays?

Round 1 is finished, 9 more to go! I'll start posting Round 2 tomorrow.

Absolutely love this game. One quick question, is there a way to save the game while in progress?!? My only complaint thus far. Great AAR!!

ORIGINAL: Marcus the leper

Absolutely love this game. One quick question, is there a way to save the game while in progress?!? My only complaint thus far. Great AAR!!

Yes, I have 2 separate games saved right now, my AAR game and one for fun. You should note that you can't go back and try something different, once something has been done its done. But you can leave the game when you want and it will save the progress you made. So, yes you can save, you just can't go back and do turns over.

New Round, New Headlines!

With the cards I drew this round I can only effectively use 'CIA Created' and the 'Olympic Games'. My 2 highest Ops Points cards are to valuable this round to use as a headline. I probably could use 'Duck and Cover' to lower the DEFCON to 4 but I'll take my chances with Europe.

The 1 point CIA card for a headline is just to good to pass up this round.

The Soviet player goes after France with his Headline. It removes 2 US influence and adds 1 Soviet influence there. In addition it cancels NATO out of France.

After that plays out, my spy's get to see what the Kremlin's up to!

Again it seems like I got a better draw than the Soviets, their hand isn't very good either. I know he's going to after Europe so I can now plan accordingly. Since I have the Middle East Scoring Card and I know he has the Nasser card, I can plan ahead for any attempts on Egypt.

With my CIA headline I get to use the 1 Ops point for something. Since its only 1 point and no countries are easily coup'd by it I decided to dump 1 influence point in Egypt to counter the Nasser card.

Since I know the Soviets have the Europe Scoring Card, I expected this move. Italy and France were just to ripe for the taking. Italy falls first, the battle for Western Europe has begun!

I can take comfort in knowing NATO is now in effect. This means no Soviet direct actions (coup's and realignments) against any US aligned countries in Europe for the rest of the game!

I decide to play 'chicken' with the Soviet moves in Europe. I will counter what ever moves he makes there. I believe with cards in the Soviet's hand, he'll blink first.

Note that even though NATO is in effect, Italy is not aligned with anyone at this time. Soviets go for a bold move to completely cancel out US influence in the country. If it worked it would of been a brilliant move, 5 Soviet influence points would of been extremely difficult to cancel out. In fact I probably would have to write off Italy, it would take 2-3 turns to get Italy back to the state it was before the coup attempt.

I believe it would of been wiser to spend the Ops Points on taking control of Italy. That is just my opinion, when I play this game I usually go for the safer plays. Failed attempts like these, in my eyes, just passes the initiative to the other player. Only in extreme desperation or if Yugoslavia/Austria were under my control would I attempt this move.

This turn I use 'The China Card' outside of Asia. This is a special card that bounces back and forth between the 2 players. Once a side uses it, it goes to the other player and then can be used the next round by them. Its the only card in the deck that will give you 5 action points, however you have to use all those points in Asia. Otherwise it's just a normal 4 point card.

Note that I marked Egypt with an action symbol, this was a mistake on my part, that action came on my Headline turn with the CIA card. I place 1 influence point there.

Lady luck is so on my side in this game! WOW, I can't believe how many failures the Soviets are racking up in this game. To be honest, this is not a very fair representation of prior games I've had! Thanks Ivan for making me look good in front of everyone! [:D]

I know at this time the Soviet failure in Italy has probably forced them to move on to other areas of the world. This is a good thing for the AI or any other player to do. It's like butting your head up against a brick wall at this point. The big gamble didn't pay off, so its time to write off your losses and move on to strengthen your hold on in other regions.

Since I've been fortunate with so many Soviet failures so far, I'm able to straighten my position in other areas of the world. I've laid the foundation in the Middle East to nullify a few cards coming up.

So far this is the worst move the Soviet AI has made in the game. It just blows my mind on why it made this poor choice of action. I have control over Iran next door, Pakistan has 1 extra influence point to prevent low level coups and the Soviet player has no countries bordering Pakistan to nullify my Iran bonus.

This was an extremely low probability action, and a waste of the 1 point. I think that point would of been better spent in several different areas. You could strengthen N. Korea for future conflicts or put a point of influence in either Burma/Algeria/Cameroon/Syria/Lebanon. Even using the card's event would of been a better option than what it did!

Using 1 point to reinforce your positions is not a bad idea, sure the opposition can still over come your additional point but forces them to use a higher point value card to do so or makes the odds very poor.

Now is the time to gain control over the Middle East. Next turn the Soviet player has to use the Europe Scoring Card and I have to use the Middle East Scoring Card. I'm choosing to eliminate any Soviet presence in the ME by using the realignment option. I have a 58.3% chance of doing some sort of damage to the Soviet influence in Iraq.

I can see it now, my ambassador talking with Iraqi head of state, pointing out all the failures the Soviet system has brought upon itself. "Now Mr. Prime Minister, you don't want to hang out with those losers do you?" [8D]