Strategy Cards and DEFCON
Strategy Cards and DEFCON for 13 Days: The Cuban Missile Crisis, 1962.
Command
Any strategy card can be used for its command value. Place up to that many of your influence cubes in one arena, or remove up to that many from one arena. You may use fewer points, including zero. A single command cannot both place and remove, or split across arenas.
Removed cubes return to your reserve. You cannot place cubes you do not have, and neither side may exceed five cubes in an arena.
DEFCON
Each arena belongs to a category matching one DEFCON column. When commanding, placing cubes raises your marker in that category; removing cubes lowers it. The first cube causes no movement. Each additional cube changes the marker by one step.
| Cubes placed or removed | DEFCON change |
|---|---|
| 0 or 1 | None |
| 2 | 1 step |
| 3 | 2 steps |
| 4 | 3 steps |
| 5 | 4 steps |
Raising moves toward greater danger; lowering moves away. Markers stop at the ends of their tracks. Events affect DEFCON through influence changes only if they carry the DEFCON symbol; calculate each affected arena separately.
Opposing events
You cannot choose an opposing faction’s event as your action. Play that card for command, then offer it to the opponent: they may resolve its event before you command. They may decline it. If accepted, they resolve it as though they had played it themselves, during your turn.
Your events and UN events
Instead of commanding, you may resolve the event on a card belonging to your own faction or the UN. Follow its text. Events can override normal command restrictions, but never the five-cubes-per-player limit in an arena.
An event without the DEFCON symbol does not change DEFCON through placing or removing influence. An event with the symbol follows the normal first-cube-free calculation, separately for each arena.
The Personal Letter
During your turn, add the Personal Letter to a strategy card used for command to increase that command by one cube. Then pass the letter to the opponent. The usual reserve, arena and DEFCON limits still apply. The letter does not strengthen an event.
Its holder also wins the Personal Letter agenda and breaks a final prestige tie.