Brush War

1947– ?

Also characterized as low intensity conflicts, brush wars tended to begin in reaction to local conditions either within a state or between states. However, due to duration, or superpower intervention, an essentially local dispute could be elevated to superpower conflict. Examples include the civil war in Mozambique and the war between Ethiopia and Somalia.

Time: Mid War
Side: Neutral
Ops: 3
Removed after event: No

One of the Big Three Mid War neutral events, along with ABM Treaty and Junta.  Unlike ABM Treaty, it works well regardless of how fortified the battleground is; unlike Junta, it can still flip countries even at DEFCON 2 and is not geographically restricted.  Brush War’s drawback is that it depends on isolation, but isolation can be manufactured, and even with one neighbor, you still have a 50% chance of success, and those are pretty good odds for a heavily-defended battleground.

Brush War is most commonly used on 2-stability battlegrounds because the 1-stability African battlegrounds are easily flipped by coups or direct influence placement.  In addition, I especially like to use it on Thailand, Pakistan, or Italy: countries that are normally not subject to coups at any point, and therefore very difficult to flip once controlled.  Thailand in particular I find is a frequent Brush War target: unlike Pakistan or Italy, it is not always necessarily surrounded by similar influence.

Of course, Brush War can (and often does) play a key role in the Mid War regions as well.  It just happens to stand out as one of the few events that can immediately flip a European or Asian 2-stability battleground, in an otherwise very stable pair of regions.  The shifting demands of the game, of course, will dictate where Brush War ends up being used.

In general, the US benefits a little bit more from Brush War than the USSR: the USSR has coups, while the US often struggles to get Mil Ops and flip battlegrounds at DEFCON 2.  Plus, Italy (a lucrative Brush War target) is often off-limits to the USSR’s Brush War if NATO has been triggered.  (Not that you would, as US, play NATO to protect Italy from Brush War very often, but it’s a nice benefit if the USSR played NATO for you.)