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Washington’s War - ACTS Ladder Launch 3

Turn 0 in Washington’s War equals the Setup.  In this matchup I am the British player and Smith is the American.  His first move is to place the Committees of Correspondance: he gets one Political Control (PC) marker in each of the 13 colonies.  Smith’s initial placement is very close to my initial placement in the previous round:

NH Battleboro
MA Falmouth
RI Newport
CT New Haven
NY New York City
NJ Morristown
DE Wilmington
PA Basset Town
MD Baltimore
VA Alexandria
NC Salem
SC Camden
GA Savannah

This was followed by my placing 2 PC for the King:

NY Fort Niagara
NY Oswego

Commentary

I’m hoping this game actually makes it to the conclusion, after my previous effort being for naught.  For whatever reason that is just the outcome when Burke and I play.  I went for the Northern route, trying to keep Detroit occupied by connecting it to the rest of the colonies.  Not too much else to report at this point.  Hoping for a good game.

Headline Phase

SU: Pershing II Destroyed - EVENT
US: Star Wars - EVENT + OPS

This is pretty much my only good card, so why not lead with it.  I bring down France, W.Germany, and Finland. The US pulls Reagan Bombs Libya, and returns it to retake W.Germany and France.

7 Game Turns

SU: Duck and Cover - EVENT + OPS
US: North Sea Oil - OPS

3VP for the US and I add to Angola and Finland.  I’m most worried about Europe right now.  If I can claw back Africa from CONTROL then that would be a bonus.  Duck and Cover goes to taking back Finland and adding to Zaire.

SU: Terrorism - EVENT
US: Missile Envy - OPS

The US tosses Solidarity (Yay!) and now will have to play every card this turn.  I’m hoping this means some cards beneficial to me come out.  In a show of just how bad things are for me, the US plays Missile Envy for OPS (To be fair, Missile Envy can backfire at DEFCON 2), and takes Paraguay.  This gives the US Domination in South America.

SU: East European Unrest - SPACE
US: Chernobyl - OPS

Blowing up on the launchpad again ends the Soviet plans for Space.  The US takes Czechoslovakia.  I’m not exactly sure why, possibly a distraction to keep me focused on Europe.  I’m not really in danger of losing Europe but I’m still aiming for a draw there.

SU: Reagan Bombs Libya - OPS + EVENT
US: Iran-Iraq War - OPS

I add to France, losing the US control of it, but have to give up 4VP in the bargain.  The US promptly takes it back though and adds to Mexico.  I think the US just has extra OPS he needs to throw around at this point.

SU: Marine Barracks Bombing - EVENT
US: Liberation Theology - EVENT + OPS

My second and only really other good event: I remove 1 from Israel and all from Jordan and Lebanon.  In the US turn I get 2 in Cuba and 1 in Panama, he puts it right back in to Cuba, keeping CONTROL of Central America.

SU: China Card - OPS
US: The Iron Lady - OPS

I’m hoping he doesn’t have a 3OPS card in his hand, but unfortunately he does so my OPS in France are a waste, and I’ve given him 1VP for holding the CHINA card at the end of the game.

SU: An Evil Empire - OPS + EVENT
US: Flower Power - OPS (No EVENT)

I decide to Coup Paraguay.  It will give me some MILOPS and possibly take away his domination of South America.  Unfortunately I succeed only in removing all his influence without placing any of my own.  He easily takes back Paraguay and breaks Syria to remove my domination of the Middle East.  My own fault for not tossing at least 1 OPS in to Lebanon when I had the chance.

Commentary

Well I knew the moment I drew my cards the game was over, it was just a matter of playing out the game to the conclusion to see what the final score would be.  I’d have claimed some sort of moral victory if the score didn’t reach 20, but I wasn’t even able to manage that.  It was really critical for me not to lose out completely in Africa and Central America, and I could have so easily added OPS to countries there to make sure that didn’t happen.  To Lukas’ credit however he did outplay me on several occasions and certainly deserved the win, better cards or no.

This means I will be moving back down the ladder for my next match.  I won’t know exactly how many rungs I’ll descend for a few days while other games end and the ladder gets updated.

Aside: We actually played an 8th round in Turn 10 but I’m excluding it here because it was a mistake.

Final Scoring

Central America 8VP
South America 4VP
Africa 11VP
Middle East -6VP
Europe 6VP
Asia -6VP
Military operations in last round -2VP
Asia Card 1VP
=16 + 7 = US win 23VP