History TabletopGame / TwilightStruggle

* AllMuslimsAreArab: "Muslim Revolution" is a powerful Soviet Mid-War card, which give a possibility to remove all US influence in 2 out of 8 countries, most of which are part of the Middle East.

* AllMuslimsAreArab:"Muslim Revolution" is a powerful Soviet Mid-War card, which give a possibility to remove all US influence in 2 out of 8 countries, most of which are part of the Middle East.

* ExtraTurn: A few US cards allow the taking of extra turns ("North Sea Oil") or the forcing of the opponent to skip theirs ("Kremlin Flu", unless if it's a Scoring card). "Quagmire" and "Bear Trip" can force these situations if they are out of cards with a high-enough ops to discard and try to roll out of (especially if their opponent was able to slap "Red Scare/Purge" on top of them).

* TurbulentPriest: The Mid-War "Pope John Paul II Elected" card for the Soviet player, the counterpart for Poland what De Gaulle is for France - remove 2 Soviet influence and add 1 US influence. Actually, the card is potentially more damaging than "De Gaulle", as its play also allows the Late War "Solidarity" event to happen (add 3 US influence in Poland).

[[JustForFun/IThoughtItMeant Has nothing to do]] with the rivalry between [[Literature/{{Twilight}} Team Edward and Team Jacob]], nor with the game TableTopGame/TwilightImperium, nor with [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic Twilight Sparkle]]. It is also not a before-the-end prequel to ''TabletopGame/Twilight2000''.

In December 2010, ''Twilight Struggle'' became the highest-ranked game on [=BoardGameGeek=], displacing ''Puerto Rico.'' It has also won several awards. Online play is popular, with tournaments being held annually.

** Even the two Soviet events that involve the US possibly having to discard a card in his hand ("Blockade" and "Latin American Debt Crisis") are worded and act more like threats, as they go "If the US player does not discard a card worth 3-ops," followed by a bad thing that happens to the US' position on the map ("Blockade": Lose all US influence in West Germany; "LADC": Double Soviet influence in up to two South American countries).

* RageQuit: A player who gets tired of his opponent's antics can decide at almost any moment to do necessary moves [[NukeEm to intentionally start]] [[TakingYouWithMe a nuclear war]] - losing the game, but in style.

** So can Olympic Games (if you play it and your opponent boycotts, DEFCON falls by one. If it falls to one and nukes fly, it's the hosting country's fault.) There are several cards that can cause the playing player to lose automatically like this throughout the deck - the website Twilight Strategy calls them "DEFCON suicide" cards.

* LuckManipulationMechanic: The optional "Our Man in Tehran" card allows the US player to draw the top 5 cards in the draw deck, discard what they want, and shuffle the rest back (provided there is at least one US-controlled country in the Middle East). The alternate space race track also allows this for a player that reaches the sixth spot and the other hasn't gotten there yet - they may re-roll a coup attempt once per turn.

''Twilight Struggle'' is a card-driven board game for two players which covers the entire Cold War. One player plays the United States and the other plays the Soviet Union. In each turn, both players are dealt a hand of cards, and then play them one at a time, alternating. The object of the game is to spread your superpower's influence into as many countries of the world as possible. By doing this, you score victory points when regions are scored, the timing of which is determined by cards. Cards are divided into three groups: Early War, Mid War, and Late War. This makes it more likely that events like Fidel Castro's coming to power in Cuba, OPEC's founding, Chernobyl, etc. will happen in their historical era.

All cards (except scoring cards) have both an event and an operations number (ops for short). Some events are playable by both superpowers, others are associated with one or the other. If you play a card that has one of your opponent's events, the event happens anyway. Cards can be used to play the event or for ops. Ops can be used to directly place influence on the board (adjacent to where you already are), or for a coup attempt. This involves a die roll plus the ops value of the card; if you roll well enough, then you can replace an opponent's influence in a country with some of your own, or at least reduce his or her influence in the country. Less-stable countries are more vulnerable to coups. Cards can also be played to advance on the space race, though generally only one card can be used on the space race per turn. The significance of this is that if you play a card with one of your opponent's events on the space race, the event does ''not'' happen. There are also scoring cards, such as "Asia Scoring"; when this card is played, the player with the superior position in that region (here, Asia) will earn victory points ([=VPs=]).

Some countries are battleground countries. These are more important than non-battleground countries - in addition for scoring a VP for each you control, controlling more of these than your opponent nets you Domination (worth more [=VPs=]), while controlling ''all'' battlegrounds in a region nets you Control (even more [=VPs=]; except for Controlling Europe where it's an InstantWinCondition)[[note]]In both cases you must also control more countries in total[[/note]]. Also, any coup attempt (regardless of success) in a battleground country reduces the DEFCON in the game. The DEFCON (which simulates Cold War tensions) can rise and fall during gameplay. For example, events like Nuclear Test Ban move DEFCON up (towards peace), while other events and coups in battleground countries push it down (towards nuclear war). As DEFCON drops, where you can do a coup attempt or realignment becomes restricted (for example, at DEFCON 3 coups in Europe and Asia are prohibited).

The points use a tug of war mechanic: Every time the Soviets score points, the VP marker moves in a negative direction. Every time the Americans score points, it goes in a positive direction. If it ever reaches -20 or +20, that is an instant win for the appropriate player. Controlling Europe is also an automatic win. Other than that, if DEFCON ever falls to 1, World War III starts and the game ends instantly. Whoever was the phasing player (the player whose card play was being resolved) when DEFCON hit 1 is blamed for the nuclear war and loses the game.

[[IThoughtItMeant Has nothing to do]] with the rivalry between [[Literature/{{Twilight}} Team Edward and Team Jacob]], nor with the game TableTopGame/TwilightImperium, nor with [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic Twilight Sparkle]]. It is also not a before-the-end prequel to ''TabletopGame/Twilight2000''.

* RiskStyleMap: Countries are grouped into regions (Europe[[note]]further divided into Eastern and Western[[/note]], Asia[[note]]with a Southeast Asia subregion[[/note]], Middle East, Central America, South America, and Africa). Individual countries border each other via lines drawn on the game board rather than strictly by geography (e.g., Chile and Bolivia physically border each other in real life but do not border each other in the game owing to [[WarOfThePacific historical animosity]]). Borders come into play chiefly when playing a card for ops for influence (you can only place influence in a country where you already have influence or a country bordering it) or realignment (controlling neighboring countries gives you a +1 to your roll) - some card events also take borders into account (i.e., rolls for war cards have a -1 for each neighbor of the target your opponent controls).

** The Early-Middle-Late War division of cards means events go off roughly around the time they went off in RealLife (e.g., the Early War Castro card will probably go off earlier than the Late War Chernobyl card), though events can be deferred to a later turn. The situation on the board will likely turn out this way to varying extents as the game progresses (e.g., Italy or South Korea falling under Soviet control early on).
** The "Turn Zero" expansion enables this to six different events that took place at the close of World War 2 (Yalta/Potsdam Conferences, VE Day, the founding of Israel, the 1945 UK elections, the Chinese Civil War, and VJ Day), which allows alternate starting influence set-ups and possible rule changes (e.g., a very good result for the US in the "Chinese Civil War" event would make Taiwan a permanent battleground country, add three US influence to make it start US-controlled, and replace the "Formosan Resolution" card with a "Nationalist China" card - in-universe it's the result of the Nationalists under Chiang Kai-Shek getting very rapid US support and being able to hold on to the south part of the Mainland) to the board before the game even starts.

* LethalJokeCharacter: Or "card", rather. The Early War US-only CIA Created card is only worth 1 op point, but if the Soviet player has it and doesn't treat it with care it can make him automatically lose[[note]]The card's text explicitly gives the US player 1 op point, so if there is '''any''' Soviet influence in a battleground country in Latin America or Africa (i.e., Cuba post-Castro) and DEFCON is at 2, the US can coup there, force DEFCON to level one, and win automatically because it was the Soviet player who played it[[/note]]. Ditto for the Mid-War "Lone Gunman" card for the American.

* CubanMissileCrisis: An in-game card that can be used by either player. Sicking it on your opponent means DEFCON immediately goes to two and they are not allowed to coup anywhere on the board, or else it will start nuclear war and s/he will automatically lose. There's also an escape clause mirroring what happened in RealLife - he may cancel the card by forfeiting two influence in certain countries (Cuba for the Soviets, West Germany or Turkey for the US).

* ActuallyFourMooks: Several "countries" on the board are actually several countries being represented as one space: Spain/Portugal in Europe, Laos/Cambodia in Asia, the Gulf States in the Middle East, and a bunch in Africa[[note]]West African States, Saharan States, SE African States[[/note]].

* ChessMotifs: As befitting a game set in the Cold War - as noted by the game's designers, entire countries are treated as little more than pawns in the grand game against the opposing superpower, with the occasional bishop in battleground countries like France and China acting as a rook or perhaps queen. In-game it's invoked in the "''{{Wargames}}''" card, which has the outline of a rook on it and includes the famous "How about a nice game of chess?".

* IronLady: ''[[TropeNamer The]]'' [[MargaretThatcher Iron Lady]] is a Late War card that wipes out any Soviet influence from the UK as well as neutralize the Socialist Governments card (allows the Soviet player to remove US influence from Western Europe). It also gives the Soviets one influence in Argentina thanks to the Falklands War.

* TheSpaceRace: Operates as a safety valve in-game in that players can rid a card from their hand that would help their opponent each turn. If successful, it can also award VP as well as special benefits if you're in the lead, such as forcing your opponent to show his headline card first (until he catches up).

* LuckManipulationMechanic: The optional "Our Man in Tehran" card allows the US player to draw the top 5 cards in the draw deck, discard what they want, and shuffle the rest back (provided there is at least one US-controlled country in the Middle East). The alternate space race track also allows this for a player that reaches the "lunar landing" spot and the other hasn't gotten there yet - they may re-roll a coup attempt once per turn.

* LuckManipulationMechanic: The optional "Our Man in Tehran" card allows the US player to draw the top 5 cards in the draw deck, discard what they want, and shuffle the rest back (provided there is at least one US-controlled country in the Middle East).

* AllYourBaseAreBelongToUs: As noted by the game designers, Central America and the Caribbean had historically been basically the United States' geopolitical private pond (the game starts with 1 US influence in Panama) - any serious Soviet sally into the region would be more a bigger black eye on US prestige than a bolster to Soviet prestige. As such, Soviet Control or Domination of Central America is worth a bit more in VP to the Soviet player than to the US player thanks to two of the region's three battlegrounds (Mexico and Cuba) being US neighbors (players get 1 extra VP at scoring for controlling each neighbor to the other superpower). Scoring Soviet Control isn't that uncommon thanks to a bunch of Soviet cards that are focused on the region ("Fidel", "Liberation Theology", "Che", "Ortega Elected in Nicaragua").

* ActuallyFourMooks: Several "countries" on the board are actually several countries being represented as one space: Spain/Portugal in Europe, Laos/Cambodia in Asia, the Gulf States in the Middle East, and a bunch in Africa[[note]]West African States, Saharan States,

* AllYourBaseAreBelongToUs: As noted by the game designers, Central America and the Caribbean had historically been basically the United States' geopolitical private pond (the game starts with 1 US influence in Panama) - any serious Soviet sally into the region would be more a bigger black eye on US prestige than a bolster to Soviet prestige. As such, Soviet Control or Domination of Central America is worth a bit more in VP to the Soviet player than to the US player thanks to two of the region's three battlegrounds (Mexico and Cuba) being US neighbors (players get 1 extra VP at scoring for controlling each neighbor to the other superpower). Scoring Soviet Control isn't terribly uncommon thanks to a bunch of Soviet cards that are focused on the region ("Fidel", "Liberation Theology", "Che", "Ortega Elected in Nicaragua").

** The "Turn Zero" expansion enables this to six different events that took place at the close of World War 2 (Yalta/Potsdam Conferences, VE Day, the founding of Israel, the 1945 UK elections, the Chinese Civil War, and VJ Day), which allows alternate starting influence set-ups to the board before the game even starts.
* BananaRepublic: The Mid-War Junta card grants two influence in Latin America as well as realignment rolls or a coup attempt - presumably success results in this trope happening in-universe.

* DefconFive: Used correctly; DEFCON Five is the starting setting (i.e. "no danger"), while DEFCON One instantly triggers WorldWarIII and a game over to whoever started it (which isn't necessarily the one who actually brought it down that far). The DEFCON level also determines where on the map a player is allowed to perform aggressive actions like coups - the lower the level the more regions that are closed off.

* ChessMotifs: As befitting a game set in the Cold War - as noted by the game's designers, entire countries are treated as little more than pawns in the grand game against the opposing superpower, with the occasional bishop in battleground countries like France and China acting as a rook or perhaps queen.
** Also invoked in the "''{{Wargames}}''" card, which has the outline of a rook on it. It even has the famous "How about a nice game of chess?"

* InternationalShowdownByProxy: On a broad level, the whole game is like this for the US and Soviet Union through control of countries or specific card events (e.g., Arms Race, Kitchen Debates, Summit, OPEC, etc.), as measured by the VP track.
** For the specific example of showdown-by-sports, you have the UsefulNotes/OlympicGames card, where the winner as determined by dice roll (host country gets +2 for home field advantage) wins 2 VP. Like what happened in the 1980 Moscow Olympics and 1984 Los Angeles games, the other country may choose to boycott them.

* SwordOfDamocles: Some cards derive their most utility from the threat of their play rather than actually playing them. The biggest example is probably the Early-War "Warsaw Pact Formed" card, where the Soviets have the choice of either placing 5 Soviet influence in Eastern Europe (max 2 per country) or removing all US influence from ''four'' Eastern European ''countries''. That second option can be utterly devastating to any US attempt to break into Eastern Europe, but the card is single-use (once it's played it's out of the game) - as a result, if the US player gets it in his hand in the Early War he will usually play it and set off the event quick while he has little or nothing to lose, rendering it safer for him to make forays into Eastern Europe once that card is gone with Mid- and Late War events like "John Paul II Elected Pope" and "Tear Down This Wall".
** Other cards that can have this effect include "De Gaulle Leads France"[[note]]Removes 2 US influence and add 1 Soviet influence in France - US players frequently don't touch France if they don't know where this card is and the Soviet player isn't about to straight-up take it via ops because leaving it empty means only the 1 Soviet influence would get added if this card is played[[/note]] and "Blockade"[[note]]US loses all its influence in West Germany if it doesn't discard a card worth at least 3 ops - the US often sinks a lot of influence investment into West Germany to start and will often be forced to play conservatively by holding on to a 3- or 4-op card through a turn just in case the Soviet player challenges with "Blockade"[[/note]].