I got soundly beat by @Benkyo . I made it to turn 9 as USA, but by that time I needed to be dealt both Aldrich Ames and Asia Scoring to have a chance of making it to the end.
Despite a very significant 10 points for Africa scoring in turn 7 going my way (he knew my whole hand except that card, so it wouldn’t have seemed at all likely), I was unable to even get into a plus score ever. I felt like I had great cards in the first couple of turns, but still arrived in the Mid war at -4 or so. I had one nasty bit of bad luck with my nuclear subs not firing, which was costly at the start of the Mid War, but I think overall it evened out, as it tends to.
I tried to do justice to Ben’s skill by keeping track of the cards and analysing the options carefully. I think I didn’t play too badly, but it was a bit too stressful for me, and I ended up being rather relieved to finish. Against anyone with a rating below about 1700 I’ll switch back to my normal practice of winging it.
Well played @Benkyo

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