[personal profile] p_h_lee
(this is a technical post about the boardgame Twilight Struggle)

I'm unhappy with US-Japan Mutual Defense Pact. It's far too unilateral for my tastes, and (for the game) decidedly historically inaccurate. There was a real fear that Japan would fall into the Soviet sphere during the early cold war. Part of the reason that the US poured so much money into Japan and its defense was because it was terrified that a communist Japan would eventually read to an all-Red Asia, and they were right to be afraid: the Communist Party of Japan was fairly strong and engaged at the time and posed a legitimate threat, particularly if Japan had been ignored by the US.

So my proposal is to change the wording on US-Japan to:
If the US has any influence in Japan, it gains sufficient influence for control. USSR may no longer coup in Japan.

This means that a strong USSR East Asia push, in the Early War, might result in kicking the US out of East Asia entirely and threaten Control of Asia. Which is way more interesting strategically: a first turn 4 ops into South Korea is actually may be advantageous relative to the Iran coup.

The problem is that US-Japan is fairly weak as a 4 op card now, and this would make it incredibly weak ... pretty much the weakest in the game after Nuclear Test Ban (which is at least situational). So it should be dinged to a 3 op card. This would upset the game's balance, though.

My proposal is that NORAD, an incredibly strong 3 op US Early War card, be bumped to 4 ops, text unchanged.

Thoughts?

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P H Lee

March 2025

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