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Jim Cote
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Given that the 2 games share a designer and some mechanisms, the comparisons are going to be made. So I thought, after having played Twilight Struggle and digesting the rules to 1960, that I would give a comparative summary:

Scope

TS: Cold War, 2nd half of 20th century
MP: 1960 presidential election

Map

TS: World, spaces are countries connected by lines, expansion normally occurs from countries you have some presence in to adjacent countries, adjacency also helps with realignments
MP: US, spaces are states, no connections, adjacency only applies to Candidate movement between regions

Play Time

TS: 180 minutes
MP: 90 minutes

Setup

TS: fixed/variable, so many units in certain regions
MP: fixed, starting control shown on board

Cards

TS: variable operations points, scoring cards, if you play a card with the opponent's event that event occurs before/after you use your operations points, card actions: place influence, realignment, coups, space race, events
MP: variable campaign points, gathering momentum cards, opponent can force an event on a card you play by using a momentum marker (you can prevent this my using 2 of your own beforehand), each card with N campaign points also gives 4-N rest cubes, card actions: campaigning, advertising, positioning on issues, events

Special Cards

TS: China Card, play for 4-5 OP then give it to opponent
MP: Candidate Cards, each player has 1 for 5 CP, it becomes exhausted on use and can only be restored through events

Special Features

TS: space race, defcon
MP: momentum, media control, issue control, endorsements

Special Actions

TS: headline phase (start of each turn)
MP: debates (turn 6), election day (turn 9)

Campaign Bag (MP-only)

Bag seeded with 10 cubes of each color (and again each time it empties), rest cubes go in bag at the end of each turn, this gives more favorable draws to player who uses cards with lower CP values.

Support Checks: One or more cubes are drawn as required. Those matching the current player are added to state, media, or issue as appropriate.

Initiative Checks: Each turn, including debates and election day, cubes are drawn until 2 match. That player gains initiative. For normal turns, that player chooses who starts. For the debates, that player wins any ties. For election day, that player performs his Campaign Strategy first. If the bag runs out during this process, the other player loses out on additional support.

Influence

TS: both players add influence to each country, if the opponent has the country's stability number or greater of influence than you then it costs 2 OP per influence, you can also affect influence with realignments and coups
MP: only 1 player has influence per state (adding influence first removes opponent's influence), if the opponent carries a state (4+ cubes) or his token is there AND you do not have media control of that region then instead of directly adding influence you must make that number of support checks to add cubes

Scoring

TS: occurs when scoring cards played (player control) and at game end, points are based on amount and quality of regional control
MP: occurs at game end, points equal sum of electoral votes of player with cubes in each state, states with no influence go to player with endorsements in the region or to original state "color"
Michael G
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0506070809
This is definitely one of the games that I most look forward to this year!!!
Michael Hellyer
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070809
After reading this comparison it seems to me that the only things these two games have in common are being based on 20th century history and they both come in a cardboard box.
Last edited on 2007-09-10 22:19:21 CST (Total Number of Edits: 1)
Christian Leonhard
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0708
PlayMe1 wrote:
After reading this comparison it seems to me that the only things these two games have in common are being based on 20th century history and they both come in a cardboard box.

Well, both games DO feature pictures of Nixon and Kennedy on the board...
Michael Hellyer
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Ooh, I hope Nixon has some makeup on in his picture.
Jonathan Franklin
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There is a "Lazy Shave" card. The cards in 1960 are awesome!
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