Difference between Khrushchev army cards Fire! vs Loaded Pistol

[WingedIncubus]

Reading the manual on Khrushchev's available command cards when present in an Army HQ I read the following effects for these two cards : The card "Loaded Pistol" grants a New Commander and a moderate Paranoia decrease; the card Fire!, only a new Commander. Both are 2 PPs each.

What is the difference between the two cards? I must be missing something, because just on reading this I would never play "Fire!" to merely change a Commander when I can use "Loaded Pistol" to change it AND get a moderate decrease in Paranoia.

[Gunnulf]

One minor difference is each time you use a card the cost increases, so and least you have two paths here so the cost doesn't get so big so quickly ao as to be unusuable

[lancer]

Hi Drakken,

Both of them give you a new commander but their methods differ.

Loaded Pistol generates greater fear among other commanders (you're sending a message) so you get the paranoia decrease but the activation penalty (from fear) that accrues to Khrushchev is greater than if he merely fires somebody.

Overall they are both tools to do the same job and one is better (although more ruthless) but, as Gunnulf has pointed out, you can only induce so many Commanders to shoot themselves before the cost of doing so becomes prohibitive.

At the end of the game your PDF analysis, as Stalin, will rate how many times you took the ruthless option (this and a number of others) compared to the more humane one.

Cheers,
Cameron

[Jonathan Pollard]

ORIGINAL: lancer

Hi Drakken,

Both of them give you a new commander but their methods differ.

Loaded Pistol generates greater fear among other commanders (you're sending a message) so you get the paranoia decrease but the activation penalty (from fear) that accrues to Khrushchev is greater than if he merely fires somebody.

I've used the loaded pistol card once and afterwards Khruschev's activation penalty went from -4 to -7.