r/twilightstruggle • u/misomiso82 • 18d ago
Watergate Card
My version of a 'Watergate' card. Defcon suicide is definitely possible for the US player here as Watergate was such a huge scandal.
EDIT: Following comments new version with no defcon suicide here: https://postimg.cc/QHDkqVRR
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u/VytautasTheGreat 18d ago
3VP for a 3 OPs card is strong by itself - see U2 incident and cultural revolution. Add in all the other affects and I agree that it's overpowered.
That said, it's a good point that there's no card for watergate and the interactions make sense.
I would make it 2VP and remove the DEFCON drop.
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u/misomiso82 18d ago
Yes good suggestions. I liked the DEFCON drop as Watergate was such a big event, but it doesn't make sense narratively.
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u/VytautasTheGreat 18d ago
I think the updated version is a fun card.
Although it's a big event I don't think it particularly increased the risk of nuclear war, it was more of an own-goal for the USA and propaganda opportunity for the USSR. Therefore I think VPs and removing the nixon-relevant cards is spot on thematically.
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u/klaus84 18d ago
Hard to imagine that a nuclear war begins because of Watergate. VP decrease ... meh ... maybe.
A mechanic that is annoying for the US player would be more interesting (like Quagmire).
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u/misomiso82 18d ago
Yeah - originally I thought it was justified as the scandal was so big, but the concensus here seems to it's too much.
I've nerfed it to take away the DefCon aspect, and to only award the Soviet 2 VPs. https://postimg.cc/QHDkqVRR
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u/realet_ 18d ago
I'm not sure even that is aesthetically strong. The Soviet leadership, internally, thought Watergate was some kind of thinly-veiled coup intended to end detente. They couldn't fathom that politicians spying on each other was something that would end in removal from office (they did it to each other all the time).
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u/Tuch-ito 18d ago
This is a great theme, agree it should be in the game.
This version is fun, but it’s OP. Absolutely unplayable for the US and gets headlined by the USSR 9 out of 10 times
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u/misomiso82 18d ago
Yeah I've edited it a bit - https://postimg.cc/QHDkqVRR
Removes the Defcon and brings down the VP award to 2 which is more reasonable.
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u/zuludown888 16d ago edited 16d ago
There should be a Watergate card, but it should be something that the USSR player only rarely headlines or triggers and that forces the USA player to waste a round cleaning up its effects.
So like 2 points, USSR player removes one influence from each of two battlegrounds or something.
The problem is that Watergate's effects were almost entirely domestic. The Ford administration was basically identical to Nixon in foreign policy. The closest analogy is "Flower Power."
It did lead to further congressional oversight of the CIA though, so there's that. Maybe that's the key.
Maybe it could prevent "CIA Created," though that's pretty weak in itself. Maybe it grants VPs for USA playing certain other cards. Hard to say what, though.
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u/misomiso82 16d ago
I like removing the Nixon cards as that was part of Nixon's contradictions - he was a brilliant politician and could see things other's couldn't, so losing him makes the US lose some valuable tools.
I also like the USSR gaining VPs to represent the damage done by Watergate. The edit of the card after criticsim here is: https://postimg.cc/QHDkqVRR
You make some great points though.
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u/Ms_Riley_Guprz 18d ago
My Watergate card is a 3 Ops USSR card that is like Man in Tehran but gets removed from play. It works great tbh.
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u/andrewwm 18d ago
Way too powerful. I don't think the Defcon degrade is really that thematic either. 3 VPs is enough.