Twilight Struggle - Game 2: USSR - Part 1

Twilight Struggle is a two-player game where players play as either the US or USSR during the Cold War. store.steampowe...
Wondering where Game 1 is? It was recorded nearly 3 years ago! • Let's Play: Twilight S...
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New to the channel? I do Let's Play videos -- these are like walkthrough guides of gameplay with continuous English commentary trying to explain my decisions and what strategy I use. If you're looking for hacks or cheats, you're in the wrong place!

[@rafagd]

"Israel is not considered adjacent to Iraq for the games purposes" well, there's a whole Jordan between them...

[@neffffffffff]

yeah, i was gonna say it's not just "for game purposes" that israel and iraq aren't adjacent.

[@PokojniToza1804]

@@neffffffffff Shut up Jordan, you meddling little brat!

[@gamermoment4327]

@@PokojniToza1804 :(

[@Tethloach1]

Jordan seems to fly under the radar while Israel, Iran, Iraq, and some other countries are always mentioned in the media because of important factors like oil aka energy to power industrial civilization.

[@alibouk227]

@@Tethloach1 I think jordan in general isn't as dangerous and doesn't have nearly as much drama and wars around it.

[@demonac]

**SPOILERS** Okay, the Cold War-est thing is you both destabilizing the hell out of Central America because you were each convinced that the other had a sinister agenda [scoring card] in the region. #Paranoia

[@alexeyvlasenko6622]

The US trying to realign Cuba multiple times, and failing horribly each time (Bay of Pigs? Explosive cigars for Fidel?), is also pretty historically true and hilarious.

[@TheEyeofMobius]

I remember my first time playing this with my friend. I played as US, got badly bullied into submission, triggered Armageddon at the end of the 3rd round in the face of certain defeat, embraced the ascendancy of anarchy.

[@derf2170]

Thanks quill for no ads, much appreciated

[@stevepittman3770]

Man I love watching this game being played. I get to play it so infrequently that between games I forget a bunch of stuff and end up stumbling my way through every time.

[@midnightfox6378]

Soviets main advantage is that they begin so they can coup. Thats why usa starts with more influence and has stronger cards

[@DeKoen]

True.. USA has to try to survive as much as possible in early war. Making good picks which rival cards to burn and trying to have the advantage of space race.

[@colesonadams6194]

Really interesting looking game.

[@Duchu26]

Ah yes, Comecon, my favourite convention. You all should see my Marx cosplay.

[@ZumbaMarx]

Duchu26 s-seize my means of production senpai UwU

[@soupwizard]

"One morning I shot a Capitalist in my pajamas. How he got into my pajamas I'll never know."

[@z13131313]

I love this game, glad you’re playing again :)

[@pchelagmail]

51:35 There are several examples of weird geography on the map - Canada counting as West Europe, Finland as both East and West Europe, Libya as Middle East. And the answer to that is geopolitics - it makes sense from history POV (Finland straddling the fence, Turkey being under US influence, etc.)

[@TheAtkey]

Canada, Greece, and Turkey were NATO members during the Cold War that is why they are counted as being in western Europe for this game.

[@Supergforce777]

44:59 every world leader for the past 20 years be like

[@MegaVictor1129]

Quill! i have played a game where it was won by european domination,i was on late war as the US and did a nasty chernobyl event play and blocked the Soviets from playing anything there and just used events + influence to just get everything and win with the scoring card ! BTW destalinization is one of the strongest cards in the game! you can remove 4 influence from useless places and put it anywhere like in far away places like argentina or nations that are locked for the US because it ignores domination so it doesn't cost double.

[@theredarmy4884]

Nice win with Europe control! I actually had a game when I was the US, and the Soviets had Europe control, but I still won by forcing DEFCON suicide (I forced them to discard a card with Five Year Plan when I knew they had CIA Created in their hand, which allowed me to lower DEFCON to 1 on their turn, giving me the win), which was a really neat way to win the game. We were in mid-war, but Europe scoring was scored turn 3, so I knew I had a few turns to try and figure something out. Felt great to win that one.

[@demonac]

USSR regains influence in Eastern Europe due to the power of COMICON!

[@3rdmillenniumfuture607]

Thanks for this. Will be playing my son, hoping that since I lived through this and he was born just at the end it might give me an edge.. or maybe not. Anyway very helpful ta

[@pastaqueen29]

Absolutely love this game Quill! Keep it up!

[@kinagrill]

Well it makes sense the game is USSR focused in tempo and direction. In real history, the Allied Forces were constantly required to do counter-responses to the USSR since it was the USSR that was the aggressors in just about anything of note that happened during the Cold War.

[@nyxana4796]

I remember trying to play a game of this on the physical version... ...a game which lasted several hours and took up the ENTIRE floor of the room we were using!

[@gma5607]

Nyxana ‘The ENTIRE floor’ What, were you playing in toilet cubicle?

[@RealPattyP]

Woo more Twilight Struggle!

[@darkmark8910]

I hope you play this game again... but against one of those pro-level peeps! There's a good amount of them who make KZbin videos and do tournament play. That way you could showcase some of the more innovative strategies out there ;)

[@cragsclaw]

Fantastic game. I played two player, against friends, a lot when it first came out on iPad, years ago. It was an excellent port, by Playdek, of the boardgame. I have high hopes for their upcoming port of COIN (counter insurgency) series game, Labyrinth.

[@matthewhunter5747]

Crag Claweye was

[@ElzariusUnity]

Waiting for Paths of Glory online

[@Capitainetim]

2:33 OH! I remember this game now! not to late ^^

[@laurenf.7922]

they made a build finally? fuckin' cool

[@ultraspider6267]

Love your content quill keep up the good work 2nd

[@jethroschneider4524]

Hey quill18 long time fan and im excited that you playing one of my fav games. I highly recommend the saito version on apps.saito.network its the version i play mostly. Keep the good vids coming!!!

[@TheZakanater]

looks like a cool game

[@Martin-vp9lv]

Always play your OPPONENTS event for the ops, IF you can manage/negate the event. This stacks the deck in your favor over time, and will give your opponent more of YOUR events, and this makes it more difficult for HIM to manage/negate YOUR events. Only play YOUR event if there is something very valuable to be gained from it. Oh, and ALWAYS keep an eye on the MILOPS situation and avoid losing points on that one. The AI for this game is unfortunately not very strong.

[@willchappell9989]

Coup with de-Stalinization!? no quill noooo that's your best card in the game use the event

[@willchappell9989]

You could've gained domination over Europe again simply by taking Spain/Portugal

[@willchappell9989]

Note: Love you're playing this game it's amazing, just a little frustrating (and amusing) to watch!

[@willchappell9989]

He couldn't have couped Syria, DEFCON restrictions

[@willchappell9989]

Lucky getting de-Stalinization back, better use it right this time

[@willchappell9989]

Noooooo

[@scythian12]

Going to be pedantic here, but quill when you explain the rules you should be precise, if feeling the need to go on about them instead of linking the rules to viewers. Realignments also get a bonus if someone has a majority or control in that state.

[@adithya992000]

Do you guys know where we can play this online?(for free)

[@lonerangerv1224]

you lost domination in Europe because you both had the same total amount of countries in Europe. you had 3 battle grounds to the AI 2. you need at least 1 battleground and 1 non battleground and more battlegrounds and more total countries for domination.

[@catsgomoew1639]

Almost like precipice

[@aidanbleakley199]

I got a Trump2020 ad in the middle of this episode. Interesting choice KZbin!

[@ElzariusUnity]

It's not really a super-smart AI. It's just insanely lucky roll AI

[@Assassinus2]

Aww. Why is nuclear exchange bad?

[@pchelagmail]

Because it's a strange game - the only winning move is not to play.

[@Dukebag12345]

try playing precipice

[@MuppetLord1]

Is there any WW1 or WW2 game like this?

[@Ender7j]

I doubt it, those Wars were very different by nature. If you haven’t played Axis and Allies...

[@icook1723]

For WW1, you have Path of Glory. For WW2, there is Barrbarosa to Berlein.

[@Ender7j]

Ian Cook that looks really cool!

[@icook1723]

@@Ender7j of the two, Path of Glory is better. It is also as a bit of a flip compared to this game. Here tempo and turn order gives the USSR an advantage. In PoG, the CP clearly have the tempo and turn order advantage, but the advantage lies with the allies. Why Blockade. The blockade is an early card the allies can and will certaintly play, and it sets a vice on the CP meaning they have to push, holding means allies win. As each side has its own deck, there is no possibility of blockade ending in CP hands.

[@icook1723]

@@Ender7j and GMT, the makers of this game, also have For the People, the american civil war.

[@srelma]

I can't bear to watch this. Usually quill is much better than me in all computer games, but he's absolutely horrible in this game. He spends 90% of his time explaining the rules and 10% to actually thinking what would be the best card to play.

[@pchelagmail]

I appreciate him explaining the rules. Even if I know the game, most of people that watch the video, don't, and without knowledge of the game mechanisms it can look really dense. Hopefully Quill playing TS will bring some new people to the game, which means I'll be able to play with someone on my level (that is, low level).

[@hubertnnn]

Wow, by looking at the title I expected one of the "Phoenix Wright ft My Little Pony" games.

[@Soundeagle3456]

no NZ in this map LOL

[@n0nchalanc3]

Continually referencing DEFCON "lowering" when the number gets smaller is kinda annoying considering a smaller number is more severe

[@VengD]

DEFCON is lowering though... He doesn't say the threat is lowering. The number is lowering.

[@Ender7j]

Tegnet what you said :)

[@ultraspider6267]

First

[@Maeyanie]

25:25 "...the tempo in the early game is all in the Soviets' favour..." You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.