Glossary

Terms and abbreviations commonly used on this blog and the TS community include:

___/___	Shorthand for describing the influence in a country. France at 2/3 would mean that the US has 2 influence in France and the USSR has 3.
AR	Action Round.  AR1 refers to the first Action Round of a turn; AR6/7 generally means the last Action Round of a turn
BG	Battleground country. By extension, non-BG refers to a non-battleground country.
CCW	The Chinese Civil War, an optional variant that helps the US
COMECON Trap	A particular USSR opening setup and headline that aims to take over Europe with Turn 1 realignments
Decol	Decolonization
DEFCON suicide card	A card that, if played, will cause that player to lose by thermonuclear war  because DEFCON dropped to 1 on his turn.
DEFCON restrictions	The current DEFCON affects what regions are able to be couped / realigned.  Europe at DEFCON 5 only, Asia at DEFCON 4 and higher, Middle East at DEFCON 3 and higher.  The Mid War regions can always be couped or realigned.Note that this is distinct from DEFCON dropping by a level each time you coup a battleground.  At DEFCON 3 you may coup a Middle East or Mid War region battleground, but not an Asian non-battleground.  At DEFCON 2, you cannot coup a battleground anywhere in the world, but you may coup any non-battleground in Mid War regions (but not a non-battleground in the Middle East or Asia).  At DEFCON 2, you may also conduct realignments in Mid War regions, but not any other region.
De-Stal	De-Stalinization
Early War regions	Europe, Middle East, and Asia.
Hold card	Ordinarily, you will play all of your cards except one, which becomes your “held card” for next turn.  If you play the China Card, you will hold two cards; if you are forced to discard a card (e.g., via Blockade or Grain Sales to Soviets), you won’t hold any.
Mid War regions	South America, Central America, and Africa. Sometimes Southeast Asia, in context.
Ops	Operations. “Playing a card for Ops” refers to playing it for the Operations points value, rather than for the event.
Overcontrol	To control a country with more influence than necessary. Usually refers to controlling the country with one more influence than necessary; double overcontrol means controlling with two more. For example, if Thailand is at 3/0, then the US has overcontrolled it; if India is at 1/6 then the USSR has double-overcontrolled it.
RS/P	Red Scare/Purge
Third World	Another term for the Mid War regions: South America, Central America, and Africa
Turn 3 / Turn 7 reshuffle	The draw deck tends to reshuffle on Turns 3 and Turn 7. This has a considerable strategic impact on the game.
VoA	The Voice of America