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Twilight Struggle Deluxe Edition
From Board Game Geek:
In 1945, unlikely allies toppled Hitler's war machine, while humanity's most devastating weapons forced the Japanese Empire to its knees in a storm of fire. Where once there stood many great powers, there then stood only two. The world had scant months to sigh its collective relief before a new conflict threatened. Unlike the titanic struggles of the preceding decades, this conflict would be waged not primarily by soldiers and tanks, but by spies and politicians, scientists and intellectuals, artists and traitors. Twilight Struggle is a two-player game simulating the forty-five year dance of intrigue, prestige, and occasional flares of warfare between the Soviet Union and the United States. The entire world is the stage on which these two titans fight to make the world safe for their own ideologies and ways of life. The game begins amidst the ruins of Europe as the two new "superpowers" scramble over the wreckage of the Second World War, and ends in 1989, when only the United States remained standing. Twilight Struggle inherits its fundamental systems from the card-driven classics We the People and Hannibal: Rome vs. Carthage. It is a quick-playing, low-complexity game in that tradition. The game map is a world map of the period, whereon players move units and exert influence in attempts to gain allies and control for their superpower. As with GMT's other card-driven games, decision-making is a challenge; how to best use one's cards and units given consistently limited resources? Twilight Struggle's Event cards add detail and flavor to the game. They cover a vast array of historical happenings, from the Arab- Israeli conflicts of 1948 and 1967, to Vietnam and the U.S. peace movement, to the Cuban Missile Crisis and other such incidents that brought the world to the brink of nuclear annihilation. Subsystems capture the prestige-laden Space Race as well as nuclear tensions, with the possibility of game-ending nuclear war.
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Average Score
9.00
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10 "Visitor Review" by J.R. Dundas
I have a game collection in excess of 1,600
games, and this game is my favourite. It is a
card driven game about the cold war that is a
cross between a Euro game and a war game. The
rulebook is easy to digest and the playtime is
less than 3 hours. The Deluxe Edition has
components that are equal to any Euro game. A
must have for children of the 60's.
9 "Great Theme" by Kirt P.
For a time in history that captured the hopes
and fears billions, you would think that there
would be more games on this theme - COLD WAR.
This offering from GMT is a great tug-of-war
struggle for control of various regions of the
world from 1945-1990, and is divided into three
eras: Early, Mid, and Late War. Although there
is overlap between the three, the cards are
masterfully crafted to allow seamless play from
one era to the next.
There are other considerations besides swaying
regions to your philosophical leanings. The
Space Race, Military Actions, and the DEFCON
Chart all serve to keep you diverse in your
strategic choices.
The ONLY weakness with this game would be that
when someone CONTROLS Europe during a scoring
round, the game ENDS. Sometimes this makes the
game turn into a slugging match on the
continent, with the rest of the world largely
ignored. If one player decides to focus on
Europe early on, he forces his opponent to do
the same, or risk a loss.
I recommend this game whole-heartedly, and
encourage people who play the first time NOT to
give up if the rules are a bit heavy. Once you
get the mechanics down pat, it becomes a very
enjoyable stroll through the Cold War, with
little risk of nuclear holocaust.
8 "Mutual Assured Destruction on the Kitchen Table" by Andrew MacLeod
Though not a "simulation game" in the traditional
wargame sense, Twilight Struggle is an excellent
portrayal of the tensions of the Cold War.
Although both card driven and making occasional
use of a die roll, it is amazing how much thought
is required before a player can safely make a
decision. "Safely"? Well, actually, there are
very, very few guarantees in this game your
knowledge of your opponent's cards is (once in a
blue moon) limited, and most of the time, it's
non-existent. On your turn, you play a card either
for the historical event it portrays, or for the
operation points it holds. The operation points
can be used to spread your ideology around the
globe, force nations to re-consider alignments,
launch coups, or attempt to gain prestige in the
space race. The problem is, if you use the ops
points, and the event on that card is of use to
the opponent, the enemy gets to use that
event....to your detriment! And just playing
recklessly and blindly won't work: at worst, you
could trigger a nuclear war, which results in
immediate victory for your OPPONENT!
I doubt there will ever be a strategy guide
published for Twilight Struggle, since the card
draw and dice rolls add an unnerving degree of
uncertainty to the game. There are wise and
foolish things that a player can do, most
definitely, but the game really boils down to a
herculean effort of maintaining balance with your
opponent (at least), and to continually engage in
damage control. "Twilight Struggle: The Game of
Uncertainty Management", one could say.
The negatives? It's hard at a glance to tally up
who's in control of what region at any time some
sort of a control chart would have been nice. And
the gameboard (although not unattractive, and
certainly workable) is made with a fairly cheap
cardboard type of material.
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