First off, this series is being done as a bit of a lark as wargaming has absolutely nothing to do with Christmas so if anyone is offended, please just stop reading now.

On the 11th day of Christmas War Gaming my true love gave to me…

11 Influence Controlling

Twilight Struggle is a low-complexity card driven game that borrows its main mechanics from games like We the People. The game takes place on a board that looks at the entire world map of the Cold War period, where players will fight to exert influence in attempts to gain allies and control for their superpower. The game is very tense and turns into a tug of war where one player will play a major event to take a significant action or take control of a country and the other player will fight to undo what has been done. In the end, victory points are scored from controlling various regions by having the most influence in individual countries.

In the game, Influence markers are placed one at a time. However, all markers must be placed with, or adjacent to other friendly markers that were in place at the start of the phasing player’s Action Round. This represents the superpower’s ties and networks in those countries. If the Influence markers are placed by the play of an Event they not subject to this restriction, unless specifically stated otherwise on the card. If the amount of influence is sufficent to gain control of the country, the markers placed will be turned to their darker side. It costs one Operations Point to place an Influence marker in a country that is friendly-controlled or uncontrolled and it costs two Operations points to place an Influence marker in an enemy-controlled country. If a country’s Control status changes while placing Influence markers, additional markers placed during that Action Round are placed at the lower cost.

In the picture above, the United States player has placed enough Influence to gain control of West Germany and has a slight buffer as they only need 10 total Influence to Control the space or 4 more than the Soviet player. This is because the Influence number in West Germany is 4.

If you are interested in Twilight Struggle: The Cold War, 1945-1989, you can order a Deluxe Edition 8th Printing copy for $70.00 from the GMT Games website at the following link: https://www.gmtgames.com/p-927-twilight-struggle-deluxe-edition-8th-printing.aspx

You can catch up on the posts in this series to date at the following links:

A Spotter in a Smokestack – Saipan: The Bloody Rock

2 Bridges Blowing – Holland ’44: Operation Market Garden

3 Blockade Runners Running – Kaiserkrieg! The Great War 1914-1918

4 Moudjahidate Defending – The Red Burnoose: Algeria 1857

5 Sherman Tanks – Sherman Leader: The World War II Ground Combat Solitaire Strategy Game

6 Miami Warriors Assaulting – Kekionga!: A Dark and Bloody Battleground, 1790

7 Landing Craft Landing – D-Day at Tarawa

8 Viet Cong Hiding – Fire in the Lake: Insurgency in Vietnam

9 Corsair Ships Pirating – The Shores of Tripoli

10 Ottoman Troops Besieging – Fire & Stone: Siege of Vienna 1683

-Grant