1989: Dawn of Freedom

 The GMT game 1989: Dawn of Freedom is about the historical events in Eastern Europe when the Soviet Union restricts and stops financial and military support of the satellite countries under its influence. It uses the Twilight Struggle card mechanics. The cards are based on events that took place during 1989 that had an impact on Eastern Europe. The two players are the Democrat player and the Soviet player.

The map is similar to that in Twilight Struggle, in that there are major regions (countries) and sub-regions (geographic areas or groups). 

There are scoring cards but diverging from the Twilight Struggle mechanic is the power struggle. If a player controls one sub-region, they get six cards. They get two additional cards for each additional region they control. If the opponent controls no sub-regions, they lose the power struggle. Players then start alternating playing cards, with the initiative going to the player who played the power struggle card. The player with initiative can play a card with a suit (rally in the square, march, petition, or strike), a wild card, or a leader (but must name a suit). The opponent must play a card matching the suit or a leader card. Players can only play leaders that match a space they have control over in that country (religious space for church leader, elite space for elite leader, etc). If the player with initiative or the opponent cannot play a card, the other player wins the power struggle. The loser rolls a die, applies any modifiers, and must remove the influence listed in that country. The winner then rolls a die, applies any modifiers, and receives victory points based on the number. If the Democrat player won the power struggle and rolled a modified result of four or more, then Soviet control of the country fails and becomes democratic. That country can never again have a power struggle and not be scored again for the rest of the game (card removed from the game). Regardless who won, the country is scored for both players. However, each time the Soviet player wins a power struggle in a country they receive a bonus each time it is scored based on the number of times they won. This is indicated by influence markers beside the country name.

I really liked this game for its historical theme and the familiar Twilight Struggle mechanics.