Board Game: Twilight Stuggle

Friday night I popped round to Dale's to try out his new board game Twilight Struggle. It pitches the USA vs USSR during the Cold War and is ranked number 1 at Board Game Geek and after having played it would say it fully deserves the ranking. We had a great game- Dale explained the rules and off we went. The rules are simple and intuitive- I think we looked up one thing all night.

The game is pretty strightforward. You get dealt 8 or 9 cards some of which are helpful to your side, others helpful to the opposition. Most card's have an influcen points total and you can use thes epoints to influencce countires and get them into your faction. If you play a card that helps the opposition the event on the card (usually helpful to them) takes place as well, if it is your own faction's card you can either play the event or take the influence points. Different cards and events can bestow victory points and each side is trying to score 20 victory points whilst also avoiding a thermonuclear war! There are ten turns and each is split into several phases. Each turn you must play 8 (or 7) of the cards you were dealt and try to increase your victory points. It's a simple but engaging game and each turn there are many, many twists. It was the most enjoyable board game I've played in a long time and am seriously consideiring getting myself a copy too.




Craig