Thursday 17 November 2011

Cold War Classic

Whilst Sam and Andrew struggled cooperatively for control of Middle Earth (see below), Steve and I, down the road in Montpelier, went head to head with a struggle of a more modern kind.
Before Steve arrived, I had piled up a few choices, including Cuba, which we'd both played for the first time recently, and La Citta (another of The Works £7.99 wonders, one I haven't managed to play yet). I'd also included a couple of two-player games; Martin Wallace's A Few Acres of Snow, and BGG darling Twilight Struggle.
Having assessed the options we agreed that it would be wrong not to play a dedicated two-player game, given the circumstances, and I left it to Steve to make the choice. Acres would be a long rules learn, but a shorter game. Twilight Struggle (slightly) easier to grasp, much longer to play. Steve opted for Twilight Struggle.

The rules are a bit of a bear; it's not hugely complicated, but the direct conflict, zero-sum nature of the game means that you really need to be up to speed before going in. We started in on the rules description at 7.45, and an hour later we were setting up the first turn. I was USSR, Steve the free world.

The first turn took 45 mins, and was a fairly tentative affair -  there were no scoring cards - and we were just finding our feet. Turn two was very different, as I held the Middle East scoring, and Steve the Asia scoring; unfortunately for Steve, I had made some in-roads into Asia in turn one, so was able to concentrate on shoring up the Middle East to maximise my score there, and in the end, Asia was a dead heat, though I scored a few points for controlling battleground countries.

Turn two had taken a bit longer, and as we went in to turn three, the early war deck had to be re-shuffled, giving the potential for a repeat scoring of Middle East and/or Asia, along with the inevitable battle for Europe.
The whole of round three was a tug-of-war for Europe, and we were beginning to get a good feel for the game. It's daunting, of course, trying to take in the situation in every region at once. But what you realise through playing is that different regions become the focus of a round if someone holds a scorecard, which makes for a more managable cognitive load.

Steve managed to keep Europe out of my grasp, but hadn't managed to do the same in the Middle East, both of which scored in the final round of turn three. My Middle East victory pulled the VP marker all the way to my 20 VP goal, and the game was up. We were both glad in some ways, because it meant we'd completed a game rather than left it hanging (Steve confided he was going to call it a night at the end of the turn); but I was more glad than Steve.

I could really get into this game, if it got played more often - if time/tiredness were not factors, I think we would have both gone in again with a much more focussed, aggressive stance. It's well-deserving of its classic status; grown-up without being dry, competitive, but with enough luck from the cards to not feel too mean. The theme is perfectly in tune with the gameplay - I like the way the influence builds up in certain hot-spots; the more influence your opponent has, the more you need to have to try and wrest control, leading to mini-skyscrapers of chits in certain places.  All this, and the ever-present threat of nuclear armageddon - what more could you ask of a tuesday evening in november? JB

4 comments:

  1. The first turn took 45 minutes, the second turn took even longer? That's crazy cakes!

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  2. I looked at this one a little while back for my 2 player collection. The Geek gave mixed reviews so I'm glad you rate it highly....

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  3. Well the turn length just depends on how much thinking you have to do, which will be a result of how critical the situation in each region is, and whether it's scoring that turn. Although from turn four onwards there are seven rather than six action rounds, so it will get longer, if you make it that far. I have heard it said that it's a game that doesn't feel like it's taking as long as it does, and I'd agree with that.

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  4. In other words you were surprised when you heard the dawn chorus drifting in through the windows as you packed the game away?

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