Variant Rules

Twilight Struggle is definitely a remarkably well conceived game. Here we propose our variant rules, along with their design notes, for the very few aspects of the system that we felt could be consolidated. There are no structural changes nor hardware modifications. We welcome any questions, comments or feedback.

3.0 GAME SETUP

3.1 Place the China card face down in front of the USSR player.

Communist China emerged as a major protagonist of the international political scene when, during the years following the Nationalists’ defeat in 1949, it became apparent to all that the Maoist regime was going to last. Since the first turn of the game covers the years 1945 to 1949/50, it is inappropriate to allow use of the China card during the first turn, in particular because it could be used to tilt the delicate balance of forces in Europe.

4.0 GAME SEQUENCE

4.4 When moving from the Early War deck to Mid War, or from Mid War to Late war, first deal cards from the current deck up to the required hand size or until deck is exhausted (starting with the USSR player), then shuffle the discards, the Mid War or Late war cards (as appropriate) and the existing deck (if any). This constitutes the new deck. Then, if required hand size was not reached, deal cards as necessary.

According to the original rules, when a new Cold War era is reached the cards from the previous era in the discard pile are not incorporated into the new deck. It is thus be necessary to go through the whole new deck before the leftover events from the earlier period (and some of them may be of critical importance) can be accessed again, resulting in chronological aberrations. The raison d’être of this counter-intuitive rule is probably the fact that it is difficult to exhaust the deck by the time you get to the following Cold War era, so this rule guarantees that when you reach a new period on the turn track, the related events are immediately available, but at the cost of a somewhat disrupted timeline. I have chosen to adopt a more linear and rational approach (and have “expanded” the Headline Phase to negate the undesired side effects, see below).

4.5 B Deal Cards.

Each player receives enough cards to bring their total hand size to 9 cards on turns 1-3. On turns 4-10, players should receive enough cards to bring their total hand size to 10 cards. The “China Card” is never included in this total.

This is the hand size adjustment for the extra Headline Phase. (See below.)

4.5 C Headline Phase.

There are two consecutive Headline phases. Players secretly select one Headline card from their hand and the first Headline Phase is concluded. Then, players select a second Headline card and conclude the second Headline Phase. The special ability of the Space Race box 4 applies to both Headline cards.

Due to the number of cards, my change to the rule governing deck constitution when moving into a new Cold War era would, in most games, make Mid War cards available on turn 5 only, that is one turn after it started, and see the game finish with a good number of Late War cards that never made it into the players’ hand. To accelerate the consumption of events and, additionally, narrow deviation from the historical chronology, I have added a second Headline Phase just after the first one.

4.5 D Action rounds

The player with the initiative takes his or her action Round first.

After dealing the cards and just before the headlines phase, a player may claim the initiative if he or she is leading on the Victory track, and if, as his or her first Action Round, he or she does not play a card for Coup attempts, Realignment attempts, Influence placement or any event which directly calls for any influence placement or removal. Any card may be played for Space Race. A War card whose victorious result would generate placement of friendly influence may thus not be played, but cards such as “Five Years Plan”,” Missile envy”, “Grain sales to Soviets” may be played, because their event text does not directly call for influence placement or removal. In other words, the play of the first Action Round card may not, in itself, potentially modify the influence picture on the mapboard in any way, but it may trigger play of another card that does so. If an illegal card is played, it is discarded and the player’s Action round is void.

Otherwise, the player that had the initiative on the previous turn keeps it.

Being the first player of the turn is a privilege: you can react to the enemy Headline immediately if necessary, but the enemy cannot react to yours before you get an opportunity to exploit its effects with your first Action Round. In addition, playing first gives you an edge on the Space Race: the chance to snatch the higher VP value before the opponent catches up with you. I do not think this disparity is justified, especially in view of the fact that it benefits the USSR player, who ultimately lost the Space Race and the game. The variant rule evens out the picture, giving the edge to the whatever player is leading on the VP track, but prevents the potentially devastating effects of allowing a player two turns in a row (playing last, and then first of the following turn).
 

6.4 SPACE RACE

6.4.1 If the die roll fails to fall within the range listed in the target box, the subsequent attempt is automatically successful. Exception: for the last box of the Space Race track ("the Eagle/Bear has landed"), success is automatic after two failed attempts.

In those years leading to Armstrong setting foot on the moon, there was never too wide a gap between the space programmes of the two rival nations. Breakthroughs of one side triggered accelerated efforts by the other to keep up with the pace. This simple rule limits the impact of unlucky dicing and prevents a exaggerated asymmetry between Soviet and US technological achievements in the Space Race.

7.0 EVENTS

7.6 War events:

The Military points may only be scored if the player currently possesses more influence than the enemy in the attacker country.

The Victory points may only be scored if the card die roll was successful and the player currently possesses more influence than the enemy in the attacker country.

Effects of Victory are modified as such:

Victor eliminates all enemy influence in the target country, then chooses one of the following:

> Victor maintains current friendly influence in the target country,

> Victor substitutes current friendly influence in the target country with friendly influence equal to the stability number of one attacker country if friendly-controlled.

> Substitute current friendly influence in the target country with 1 friendly influence if currently possessing more influence than the enemy in the attacker country.

Attacker countries are:

For the Arab-Israeli War event, the USSR player may select any country adjacent to Israel as the attacker country.

For the Korean War event, attacker country is North Korea.

For the Brush War event, the phasing player may select any non-European country with a stability of 1 or 2 adjacent to the target as the attacking country.

For the Indo-Pakistani War event, the phasing player may select either India or Pakistan as the attacking country.

For the Iran-Iraq War event, the phasing player may select either Iran or Iraq as the attacking country.

7.6.1 For all War Events (Arab-Israeli War, Korean War, Brush War, Indo-Pakistani War, Iran-Iraq War), subtract 1 from the War Event die roll if the target country is enemy-controlled (this is already indicated on the 2nd edition Arab-Israeli War card).

OK, Twilight Struggle is not a military simulation. But if most game mechanisms, however abstract, appear remarkably intuitive, the rendering of Wars is a little awkward and more often than not produces effects that are difficult to rationalize. This variant approach is a hardcore wargamer’s point of view, covering, admittedly, a very secondary aspect of the game. It may seem at first a discrepancy with the concision and simplicity of the Twilight Struggle body of rules, but it is in fact easy to assimilate and, by taking into account some pertinent factors, offers a finer tuning of those conflicts. The extent of Superpower support the defender enjoys will affect its chances of resisting militarily, and reversely, the attacker’s cohesion and Superpower backing will affect both the chances and the outcome of victory. “Victories” will render few benefits if the “victorious” Superpower is politically absent from the area.

8.0 DEFCON STATUS AND MILITARY OPERATIONS

8.1.3 Realignment rolls are not subject to geographic DEFCON restrictions. That is, countries in any region may be targeted for Realignment rolls regardless of the current DEFCON level.

(Designer Optional Rules, 2nd edition rulebook p.28)

10.1 SCORING

10.1.2 When play of a Scoring Card results in the opponent scoring any number of points, player receives two points to conduct Operations, that may be used immediately after the score is marked on the Victory Points track.