[Twilight Struggle] Olympic Boycott causes WWIII

[Aussie_Lurker]

Wasn't sure where to post this, so decided to put it here. Recently downloaded a computer version of one of my favourite Board-games-Twilight Struggle-& was playing against the AI tonight. It was an hilariously enjoyable/tense game. Stand offs in the Middle East & Asia, in particular, had brought the world down to the brink of nuclear war (Defcon 2). The US (me) was ahead on points, & I was currently engaged in trying to control Europe. Then, on a whim, I decided to Stage the Olympics......not realizing that the USSR's decision to boycott the games would drive the world into WWIII.......thus causing me to lose the game.

So no Bay of Pigs, no Cuban Missile Crisis & no Afghanistan......just a stupid Olympic Games!!!! The world ended, not with a bang.....but with a whimper .

If you want to try the game, it is very much worth it. You can find it here:

http://store.steampowered.com/app/406290/Twilight_Struggle/

 

[Leifmk]

Reminds me of playing Balance of Power back in the Amiga days. Any damn fool little conflict (such as disagreement over foreign aid to some African nation) could and would escalate into WW3. Never managed to survive a full game.

 

[Aussie_Lurker]

Reminds me of playing Balance of Power back in the Amiga days. Any damn fool little conflict (such as disagreement over foreign aid to some African nation) could and would escalate into WW3. Never managed to survive a full game.

Yes, the designers of the board game said that Balance of Power was a major influence over their own game.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

I was in Grade 12 back in 1979, the year before the West boycotted the Moscow Olympics (because of the Russian invasion of Afghanistan). We had a debate section of the curriculum that year, and my partner and I were assigned to argue in the affirmative that Canada should boycott the Olympics.

We weren't looking forward to this, since most of our classmates were jocks, some of whom were definitely not happy with an Olympic boycott.

We must have done a decent job, though. The teacher took a before and after vote, and our debate was declared a tie: both sides gained the same number of votes over what we'd had when we started (there were quite a few undecided to begin with).

So World War III didn't break out then. However, we did have to write an essay about World War III later on in the course (our teacher was in university back in 1962, during the Cuban Missile Crisis, and told us that if/when World War III did happen, it would start in the Middle East).