The reason is because at the start of the game defcon is at Five, so you want to overprotect it to make an Italy coup less likely since the defcon usually is at two and if the US player loses Italy it’s hard to get it back. Also if you don’t put anything into Italy, the Soviet player just takes it turn one without a fight.
With thanks to Rich who's already replied in part! The longer answer...the agreed balance for games with optional cards is to give USA a +2 influence advantage (which offsets the USSR's early war card advantage). Historically the best opening was decided to be 4-4-2 (west germany, italy, iran); this protects Italy against a Socialist Governments headline. When holding SocGov as USA, you can set up 4-3-3 (3 in Italy, 3 in Iran) as now the only risk is a big coup on Italy itself (as we saw here, lol). There's now newer schools of thought about putting less in Italy but 1 in France, so if the USSR opening coup of Italy isn't enough for control you can walk back in as the USA. Basically the 'general' AR1 T1 as USSR is to coup either Italy or Iran - and bear in mind you can *only* coup Italy at DEFCON 5. So it's usually T1 AR1 or never.
@@TScrowcrowlas Thanks for the explanation. I'm used to playing on a board with the Chinese civil war and normal influence. However, if the soviets open up with taking Italy with influence (provided you put nothing there) its open for the US player to coup. And if the USSR player coups in Iran it opens up for you to just place influence in Italy. At least that is how my games tend to develop, but I only play with one friend so we have our own internal metagame lol
@@Asael42 very interesting! I've never played the CCW variant :D And yeah it's fun when you have a regular oppo and build a whole new game between yourselves haha!
It seems contradictory to hope for a Soviet snowball in game 2, and then headline a score for 0 when you get 8 clean ops in two plays out of your hand. Building up an early game lead involves early scores and battlegrounds. Also, couldn't you have protected France from realigns in the headline with a random BG coup to keep Defcon from going back up to 5 instead of playing to Algeria?
![VENEZUELA vs. ARGENTINA [1-1] | RESUMEN | ELIMINATORIAS SUDAMERICANAS | FECHA 9](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/SJfoPdeOPCQ/mqdefault.jpg)
Enjoy watching your games! Question. On game 1 , turn 4, why didn't you ABM Algeria to try to get control of Africa before scoring?
Looking back I have *no* idea! I can only think I was nervous about the already-dominated areas and thought about ABMing over in ME/Asia instead :/
anyways, thnx for the games and hope you enjoyed the evening!
Thanks Lukas! Had a great time, and not more than...mildly(?) hungover 😆
I'm wondering, what is the reasoning for placing influence in Italy with the initial placements? Thanks for making these vids!!
The reason is because at the start of the game defcon is at Five, so you want to overprotect it to make an Italy coup less likely since the defcon usually is at two and if the US player loses Italy it’s hard to get it back. Also if you don’t put anything into Italy, the Soviet player just takes it turn one without a fight.
With thanks to Rich who's already replied in part! The longer answer...the agreed balance for games with optional cards is to give USA a +2 influence advantage (which offsets the USSR's early war card advantage). Historically the best opening was decided to be 4-4-2 (west germany, italy, iran); this protects Italy against a Socialist Governments headline.
When holding SocGov as USA, you can set up 4-3-3 (3 in Italy, 3 in Iran) as now the only risk is a big coup on Italy itself (as we saw here, lol).
There's now newer schools of thought about putting less in Italy but 1 in France, so if the USSR opening coup of Italy isn't enough for control you can walk back in as the USA.
Basically the 'general' AR1 T1 as USSR is to coup either Italy or Iran - and bear in mind you can *only* coup Italy at DEFCON 5. So it's usually T1 AR1 or never.
@@TScrowcrowlas Thanks for the explanation. I'm used to playing on a board with the Chinese civil war and normal influence. However, if the soviets open up with taking Italy with influence (provided you put nothing there) its open for the US player to coup. And if the USSR player coups in Iran it opens up for you to just place influence in Italy. At least that is how my games tend to develop, but I only play with one friend so we have our own internal metagame lol
@@Asael42 very interesting! I've never played the CCW variant :D And yeah it's fun when you have a regular oppo and build a whole new game between yourselves haha!
in T1 with both Suez and DeG I would probably give up France. By playing Suez your way you have traded good position in ME (possible dom) for France.
That's totally fair yep ;) can't do everything all at once and resignation on France probably only costs me 1VP in the long run :/
At 1:01:00 I would have loved to see you tap Italy. Then you would force the opponent to choose between protecting it and getting mil ops.
I *totally* missed that! Duhhhh me :/
It seems contradictory to hope for a Soviet snowball in game 2, and then headline a score for 0 when you get 8 clean ops in two plays out of your hand. Building up an early game lead involves early scores and battlegrounds.
Also, couldn't you have protected France from realigns in the headline with a random BG coup to keep Defcon from going back up to 5 instead of playing to Algeria?
Definitely could have done both those things! I suspect 2 games back to back online is at least one too many for me XD