USA Victory in Twilight Struggle

Jose and I got together for two games this evening. In round one, we played Axis & Allies Europe. Jose and the forces of evil temporarily beat down the German war machine. It's been a while since I've played this game and I seem to remember why. Europe seems like an incomplete hybrid of the Original and Revised game. Jose and I agreed that Revised is a more appealing game especially with the global scope.

Round two saw another game of Twilight Struggle. This time we used the optional rules allowing for Realignment rolls without DefCon restrictions and for the splitting up of Operation Points between multiple activities. This completetly changes the game. It seems to help the USA quite a bit as they are in a much better position to use realignments to their advantage. The USA also seems to have more high value cards which can be split up amongst various activities (just going by memory). One way this benefits the Americans is in Europe. The NATO card prevents Soviet realignment rolls in Western Europe while the corresponding Warsaw Pact card does not do the same for Russia. Normally Europe is solidly locked up between East and West and Russia is able to concentrate on Third World adventures. The optional rules make it very easy for the USA to meddle in Eastern Europe. This was devastating to the USSR as European Scoring came up 3 times during the first 7 turns and the USA held dominance twice. Combined with steady realignments of the USSR out of Central and South America led to victory in 7 turns for the USA. Congratulations Jose! This is the first time I have seen the USA win a game of TS.