Game Rules

• Starts at 5 (PEACE). Degrades toward 1 (NUCLEAR WAR)
• Improves by 1 at the start of each turn (max 5)
• Couping a battleground degrades DEFCON by 1
• DEFCON restrictions (cannot coup or realign in these regions):
  • DEFCON 4: Europe restricted
  • DEFCON 3: Europe + Asia restricted
  • DEFCON 2: Europe + Asia + Middle East restricted
• Nuclear Subs (card 72): US coups don't degrade DEFCON (when active)

Operations (Ops)

Each card has 1-4 ops. When played for operations, the player does ONE of:

1. Place influence: 1 op per influence in friendly/adjacent country (2 ops if opponent-controlled)
2. Coup: Roll d6 + ops. If > 2 × stability: success. Remove opponent influence, add own.
3. Realignment: Roll d6 per op spent. Both players roll; higher roll removes opponent influence equal to difference. Bonuses: +1 per adjacent controlled country, +1 if more influence in target, +1 if adjacent to own superpower.

Scoring

7 scoring cards, one per region (cannot be held at end of turn):

Status levels:

• Presence: Have influence in ≥1 country in region
• Domination: Control more battlegrounds AND more total countries than opponent, with presence
• Control: Control ALL battlegrounds AND more total countries

+1 VP per controlled battleground in region. +1 VP per country adjacent to enemy superpower (Europe/Asia only).

Country control

A player controls a country when: own_influence - opponent_influence >= stability

Regions and key countries

• Europe (21 countries): W.Germany(4), E.Germany(3), France(3), Italy(2), Poland(3), UK(5), Spain(2), Greece(2), Turkey(2), Austria(2), Canada(4) + more
• Middle East (10 countries): Iran(2), Iraq(3), Israel(4), Egypt(2), Libya(2), Saudi Arabia(3), Jordan(2), Lebanon(1), Syria(2), Gulf States(3)
• Asia (15 countries): Japan(4), S.Korea(3), N.Korea(3), India(3), Pakistan(2), Thailand(2), Malaysia(2), Australia(4), Vietnam(1) + more
• Africa (13 countries): South Africa(3), Nigeria(1), Zaire(1), Angola(1), Algeria(2) + more
• Central America (10 countries): Cuba(3), Mexico(2), Panama(2), Costa Rica(3), Honduras(1) + more
• South America (10 countries): Brazil(2), Venezuela(2), Argentina(2), Chile(3), Colombia(1) + more

Card play rules

When playing a card:

• Your event: Choose event OR operations (not both, except China Card gives ops only)
• Opponent's event: Play for operations, but opponent's event FIRES (before or after your ops)
• Neutral event: Choose event or operations
• Space Race: Discard card for space race attempt (avoids triggering opponent events)
• Starred events (remove_after_event): Removed from game after event fires
• China Card (ID 6): +1 ops in Asia, cannot be headlined, passes to opponent face-down after use

Space Race

• Track with stages 1-8, each requiring a die roll ≤ threshold
• Can space one card per turn (must meet ops requirement for current stage)
• Stages 1-2: need 3+ ops. Stages 3-4: need 2+ ops. Stages 5+: need any.
• First to each stage gets VP bonus

Military operations

• Each turn, must conduct military ops ≥ DEFCON level
• Shortfall costs VP: lose 1 VP per missing mil op
• Coups and war card events count as military ops

Headline phase

• Both players simultaneously select a card from hand
• Higher ops card resolves first (ties: US first)
• Events fire (not operations)
• China Card cannot be headlined
• Defectors (card 103): If US headlines, cancels USSR headline for +2 VP