Twilight Struggle Deluxe Edition

This is one of my favorite board games. It gets you involved, it gets you stressed, it gets you jubilant at things that go well, and crushed when the situation is bleak. In other words, it's the Cold War, all over again, on a board! Besides that, this game will mention neat things about history, and the strategy will get you thinking. This isn't a "win by the rules" game. It isn't a "win by the people" game. It's a "win by compromise" game. This truly is an excellent game. However, it is involved to learn the first time, so if you're playing for the first time you should be determined to put in the effort. It's best to learn with an experienced player who goes a bit easier on you to teach you, or, if you know how to play (or can put a solid hour in to read the rules), pull a friend in and go easy to get them hooked into learning it! The goal is simple. Score 20 points. Or, score the most points by the end. And whatever you do, don't start nuclear war. The actual method of doing that is more complex. You have a deck of cards. Cards are essentially of 4 types. Soviet events, US events, Neutral events, and Scoring. Scoring cards when you play them let you score a region (and they must be played during the turn). Apart from that other cards can be played one of two ways: for the event, or for the points. Here is where the most clever mechanic of the game comes in. I'm the US player. I have a Soviet event card in my hand. Hey, I'll just play it for points instead of the event! Except that when you do this, the event happens anyways. The game literally forces history to happen as you play. The events are split into three decks - early, mid, and late war (and each is shuffled in throughout the game). But that's also where the genius of the game lies, and the stress of the game. You have to compromise. You have to do things which benefit your enemy. And yet, you still have to find a way to mitigate, and hopefully come out on top, even as you play the event that brings your enemy to the brink of victory. Have I played turns where the US player had entirely Soviet events, and the Soviet player had entirely US events? Yes, yes I have. Those are the most interesting rounds, and the most entertaining. The other dilemma: what if you need the operations points (and it's the max amount), but the event is yours and also really good? The game is a game of compromises, and balancing. Think - if people played this, and were used to a give-and-take with their opponents, compromising and yet still achieving, how would discourse look between people? How would politics look? If only we realized, as you must in this game, that the ideal and the perfect are out of reach and aiming for them ends only in disappointment. Instead, we must work together and do our best. And this game - despite you and your opponent being enemies in the Cold War, teaches you to work together even which fighting each other. Again, it takes some time to learn. But every person that I've taught the game (you don't need to read the rule book to learn the game if you play with someone who knows it already) has enjoyed it and become hooked, even if they weren't previously incredibly interested in detailed or complicated strategy games. By mid-war, they're giving me a run for my money (or countries!). Incredible game. Recommend 10/10.

One-Line Review: Twilight Struggle is the game Risk wishes it could be as it cries itself to sleep at night. Welcome back everyone! This week, we're headed back to 1945 to kick off a game of Twilight Struggle; my absolute favorite game. Ideologies will clash, dictators will rise and fall, man will step foot on the moon, and one superpower will emerge victorious!It's been a long road, but World War II has finally ended. Humanity breathes a little easier as the world's nations begin to pick up the pieces, but the respite doesn't last very long. As the dust settles, two superpowers emerge from the wreckage poised at the start of a new age; a nuclear age. Armed with the power of the Atom, the United States of America and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics hold the fate of the world in their hands. It may come as no surprise to you that I'm a huge history nerd. The Cold War is a really interesting topic to study because the Superpowers weren't fighting for land or resources, but for influence; they were fighting for the hearts and mind of the people. Shadow wars, spies, dictators and coups litter the timeline of the Cold War, but the thing that's always really stood out most to me is the fear. For the first time, the threat of global thermonuclear war was hanging over everyone's head. People built bomb shelters under their homes, children grew up learning to duck and cover, and most telling of all, there was a Doomsday Clock. Every new piece of foreign policy, every troop movement, every new technological advance, every day had the potential to move us closer to complete and utter destruction. I didn't live through the Cold War, but I can tell just from reading about it that it was terrifying. Twilight Struggle brings this feeling to your tabletop. Playing Twilight Struggle, you feel like you're balanced precariously on the edge of a cliff with no easy way to back down. You feel the stress of what it's like to lead a nation during a time when everything you do can be viewed as an act of war. It is in creating this feeling that Twilight Struggle completely succeeds. Twilight Struggle is a game of influence and ideology. There's no fighting and no conquering; not directly, anyway. Each player tries to spread their influence among world nations, scoring points when their influence in a region outweighs their opponent's. Each game of Twilight Struggle begins with the setup phase. The US and the USSR each start the game with some influence spread across the globe. Each player also receives some influence they get to place where they think it will benefit them the most based on their starting hand (in Western Europe for the USA and Eastern Europe for the Soviets). In this, Twilight Struggle resembles the many aggressive and defensive setups seen in Chess. There's a whole slew of articles over at BoardGameGeek that simply cover the merits (or lack thereof) of each setup. Each player maintains a hand of Event Cards that get replenished each turn. These ards are separated into three decks (Early War, Mid-War, and Late War) that are added to the game as play continues to simulate the passage of time. On each Event Card is printed an event and an Operations Value. On a player's turn, they may play a card for its event (removing it from the game if it's a one-time event like Castro taking power in Cuba) or for its Operations Value. Events usually have an effect that occurs immediately like the USSR gaining influence in Cuba or the USA advancing in the Space Race. Operations Values, however, allow players to gain influence in three ways: (1) Players can add influence to any country they already influence or adjacent to a country they influence, up to the Operations Value, (2) Players can attempt a Coup in any country in the world to remove opponent's influence and potentially add their own, and (3) Players can attempt a Realignment in order to weaken their opponent's influence over a country. Players can also discard cards from their hand to try to advance in the Space Race. The Space Race provides advantages to the player that's ahead, but also functions as the game's discard mechanic. There's more to the rules, of course, but those are the basics. Twilight Struggle really is a brilliant game. Each of its mechanics adds something great to the experience but I think that the best thing about TS is the tension that it creates. For both players, there are fires all over the world that need to be put out, and many problems are calling for your attention at once, but you only have so many turns to solve them. The USSR player might agonize over whether to commit more influence to Europe before the region is scored or to focus on the Middle East instead where the US is threatening to cut off access to Asia. The US player meanwhile fears the Soviet incursion into Latin America but is conflicted over whether to protect his interests in Asia or South America. You'll find yourself feeling like the President and the director of the CIA all rolled into one as you attempt to coup an opponent's regime or build up influence in Africa so your opponent doesn't expect your sweeping realignment of Europe on your next turn. I'm not sure that I've done justice to Twilight Struggle in this review, but I find that I can't recommend this game enough. If you're a history buff or a fan of strategy games, Twilight Struggle is a must but I encourage everyone to give it a try if you get a chance. Twilight Struggle is game for two players that takes between one and three hours to finish. It's sitting pretty in the #1 Board Game spot as ranked by players over at BoardGameGeek.

Decided to write a new review. I've played this game about a dozen times and realized that it is the best game I've played in that genre. I played three games in about 5 1/2 hours the other day against my son. Losing every game as both USA & USSR. There are alot of things to keep track of and strategies to use. One thing I was doing wrong, according to my son, was using my cards as events and not OPS. Specifically those cards that are removed from the game when used as events. When I did that I would loose my country's card so my hand was the color of my opponents. I really love the game and it does give you a Cold War feel. I'm 62 years old and I remember those times - especially the Cuban Missle Crisis when I lived in Florida. Does remind me of RISK a little but without the luck aspect. But there is dice-rolling in this game but you can get advantages to have your roll modified so less luck. I lost when I didn't pay attention to the buildup in Europe. Every game I would make sure that I didn't let Europe fall. The moment I let my guard down it was over. I haven't read any strategies, yet, because I needed to play enough to get a handle on the flow of the game. I do wish the instruction book had more detail on the cards and their involvement with other actions. I like the way DOMINION has their instructions layed out. I use the pdf of twilightstruggle.com that has like 450 pages of comments, which helps. However I wish there was a published book out there. I would definately buy it! I want to trick out this game by making the counters really thick and make vertical obelisks, out of wood, for those chits that alert you of restrictive actions. I've been trying to find extra counters without paying a ridiculous shipping charge. Local game stores don't carry these counters. This game is real intimidating to begin with. Action rounds, turns, Space Race, Ops track....confusing at first. I didn't want to give up on this game given the $50 price tag and the position on Boardgamegeek.com. I own many games: all Dominion sets, Smallworld,Blockus, Puerto Rico, Carcassome, Ticket to Ride. Plus play others like Tzolkin which I think is more difficult to learn. I can see why Twilight Struggle is rated so high. I hope, one day, to win at this game. This game is not for everyone. It is a two-person game. If you like to play intense strategy (not war) games, then pick up a six-pack and pretzels and begin a wonderful journey.

For such a deep game, it has a surprisingly shallow learning curve. Super easy to pick up and play. A bit expensive for just cards and cardboard components though.

My wife and I purchased this game a couple months ago, and it has been one of the best games I've played. While I grew up playing a variety of tabletop games, my wife has only been exposed to a few common games (Monopoly, Risk, etc.). I wanted a game that would be strategic, fairly quick, and still enjoyable after several times being played. Strategy - this game is absolutely terrifying. As two people who are risk-averse and a little indecisive, my wife and I have a blast getting stressed out in the heat of this military gridlock. The sense of despair that we experience when the other player has an advantage is thrilling, and it really gets us interested in the historic details that surround the Cold War era (we're both too young to have experienced it in person). Game Length - most people suggest around a 3 hour playtime, but our games have never been anywhere near that short. It's probably due to our aforementioned indecisiveness, and we never feel like this is a problem. We usually play a couple hours at a time, then resume the next evening. Because the game is structured in definite rounds, it's fairly easy to simply pause the game and resume later. Replay Value - even though we've only played a few times, we both feel that this game will take quite a long time to "get old." There are so many different ways to approach the game that no two instances will ever be the same. However, I do recommend that players have similar levels of experience when playing. If one person knows all the cards and another is just starting out, I could see it leaving a bad taste in the inexperienced player's mouth. Because my wife and I learned everything at the same time, our games are guaranteed to be competitive and really exemplify the intensity of the Cold War. It's a really fun game, and I'm very satisfied with my purchase.

This game is fantastic and extremely addicting to play. My friend and I had both read through the rulebook as well as several strategy websites to get an understanding of how the game played out prior to our first time playing. It certainly helped, but it will definitely take a couple of games before things go smoothly. Your first game will take anywhere from 3-4 hours, but once you get into the grove of things, games usually take no more than 2 hours unless things are extremely intense and competitive. Don't let that dissuade you though, even on our first playthrough, we both thoroughly enjoyed the experience and found the game to be extremely engaging. I'd also say that if you are on the fence due to not having a ton of knowledge of the Cold War, to give the game a shot anyways. This is primarily a game of numbers, card play, and strategic deployment. The events and topics included in the game merely give background and context to numerical counters or modifiers, so having deep knowledge of the Cold War isn't necessary nor required. If anything, it just makes some of the more obscure event cards a little more "fun" to play. For example, the first time I saw the Samantha Smith card, I got a good chuckle out of it despite the card providing no context to who she was. Though the rule book does provide brief descriptions of the events on each card. If you enjoy games such as Pandemic, or the PC Game XCOM, this game is right up your alley. While not a cooperative game, it is still a blast to play, and will provide you with many tense moments!

Not sure what I was getting when I ordered it due to the fact I never played it before. Being the #1 game on BGG all of this time surely said a lot for it. After playing several games I'm honestly amazed at how well the mechanics produce a true "Cold War" feel. Having grown up during this period it was cool to read the cards as Events and remember the concern on my parents faces during the "missile crisis" in 1962. Cool!! The learning curve in this is the cards, which will take several games to learn how to employ them. However, its well worth the time because the game becomes quite intense. The mechanics are simple and the U.S.S.R. has a distinct advantage in the early war. It might be faster to learn from someone who has played it before, but they will probably kick your butt due to their knowledge of the cards. However, after a period of time you should be able to make a game of it. I highly recommend this game because of its intense play-ability. Anyone who like me had to duck under their desks in drill in elementary school would enjoy just reading the cards for the first time. Hey, what a long strange trip its been!

My friends and I have recently become hooked on Eclipse . The only problem is that most of us live far away from each other, so it's not very often that we're all able to get together for a game. Twilight Struggle has proven to be a more than adequate replacement when there are only two of us and a board game fix is needed. The aesthetics of the map and pieces are beautiful, the strategy goes deep (much deeper than I can fully grasp after only two games, but its scope is very apparent and impressive), and the theme is engaging. I cannot think of the last time I had more fun with a 2-player board game. It takes a little while to learn, but the payoff is well worth the time spent poring over the rules. I suspect that people more familiar with these kinds of strategy games will pick it up even quicker than any of us did.