Codetornado

I opened the heafty compact box and discovered that there was seemingly one cardboard chit for each breathing man, woman, and child living in America in 1945. After punching chits and watching the entirety of Lord of the Rings on laser disc; I dove into the rulebook. The instructions read like the instruction booklet for putting together an Ikea Store. There were numbers everywhere with every single sentence color coordinated so that rules earlier or later in the rulebook can be cross-refered. Luckily, this is not my first “war” game (I own Twilight Imperium)so I was familiar with how this goes…

After surveying the map and cross checking the rules for the third time (while I got my tires vulcanated), I took on the side of the free world, while the tire store employee readied the Red Threat. After this first game, I was tempted to call the game “Twilight Imperium Struggle” because of its length. That first game took us almost 4 hours, and we only made it to round 6.

Casting aside from the thick, scary, cross-indexed, Nuremburg bible of a rulebook, the gameplay, the concept, and particularly the theme of Twilight Struggle are wonderfully orchestrated.

The game begins just after World War II. Germany is split between the Red (USSR) and Blue(US). The game is broken into ten rounds, each representing a short span of time in the Cold War between 1945 and 1989. The goal of the game is to spread enough of your influence throughout the world to become the reigning superpower by the end of round 10.

—OPERATIONS—

Each player spreads their influence and change their standings (positively or negatively) or their opponents (positively or negatively)in the world by playing cards that are drawn each round. Every card contains a number and which side benefits from the event listed on the card.

INFLUENCE.
Ops Points are used to Influence a country for control.

REALIGNMENT ROLLS.
These rolls are used to reduce the amount of Influence an opponent has in a country or what blow back (bad dice roll) happens and the possibility of giving the opponent control.

COUPS.
In a coup, a player uses Ops Points to boost a die roll in an effort to use military force to take control of a country. Attempting coups on “battleground” countries will cause the Defcon level to drop.

—EVENTS—

When played, the effect on the game is tied thematically to the event on the card.

—SCORING—

Mixed in amongst the Event cards are Scoring cards which (surprisingly)force players to tally up controlled countries in a certain region and determine scores.

—Review—
A rare 2 player only game. Twilight Struggle is HIGHLY thematic.
This isn’t a party game, or even a game for the average board game fan. This game is long and intense. I recommend it for any power gamer as a must have. The satisfaction you have after finishing this game (win or lose) is immense.

If you are down for a long read and a long game I highly suggest Twilight Struggle.

Update 9-10-2012

Short Review:
I love Power Grid. It has to be one of my favorite games of all time. The game mechanics are great. The resource market reacts as a real market would with prices fluctuating with supply and demand. The bidding options for the power plants and the turn ordering keeps the game fairly balanced. I love the multiple maps and the different rule sets they have that keep the game exciting and varied. If you get a chance to play I highly recommend it. The Korean map I personally find the best.

Long Review:

Setup

You will place the resources on the resource tracks, and select the regions you will want to play in. Each player is going to receive $50 at the start of the game.

Recommended Players

This game is playable with 2-6 players

How to Play

There are 4 phases to every turn.

1. Buy a power plant
2. Buy resources
3. Build buildings
4. Power up buildings

Buy a power plant

In the first turn of the game, each player has to buy a powerplant. Once the first powerplant is built, it is optional as to if you want to buy a plant, or not.

The person who is in spot number 1, will go first. Once a player has passed, cannot bid again on this current auction.

Buy resources

You have a resource board where you will have to choose your resources from. Resources refill at the end of the round, so resources in one market may run out if the purchase rate is higher than the resupply rate.

The person in the last spot will go first.

Build Buildings

You much choose from the top layer of power plants and start a bid for the power plant. Using the number in the corner everyone bids until there is one person left. The winner is out for the round.

Power Up

In this part of the game you will power up the number of buildings you are able to, depending on the number of resources and houses available.

How to Win

The person who at the end of the game is able to power the most buildings win. Incase of a tie, money will be the tie breaker.

Personal Favorite Map

Korea-

The Korean map is different in that it has two resource markets. One for the North and one for the South. They resupply at different rates too.

Having different resource markets is my favorite part of this map. You have to make sure you will be able to get resources enough to power all your buildings. I have never been blocked out of purchasing on this map. I do find there is a lot more backstabbing. Purchasing unneeded resources just to increase the expense for the other players. In the original this often stops other plays and slows the game, but in Korea it just makes it more expensive. I have found myself purchasin more resources in order to power the next round, and not haveing to worry about getting back stabbed in the resource market.

I have also found that you don’t necessarily always want to be in first position, because there is a chance your resources (particularly garbage and especially uranium) will all be eaten up a lot faster.

Korean Map:

Difficulty : 6/10
Chance : 4/10
Strategy : 7/10
Diplomacy : 3/10
Replay Value: 10/10

I have now been playing this game for over a decade. I love this game. I know many people dislike the game as it can become problematic if you are too strict on the rules, but I have never encountered this problem. It is a great stab your buddy in the back type game with TONS of card and great art work. I have kept up with all the expansions over the years and now often have to split my deck in order to play the game. With so many cards even I get surprised by interesting combinations.

Alone or with the expansions I recommend this game.

If you are looking for a game that has lots of story telling elements without having to create your own characters then this is it. The game instructions are fairly simple and the learning curve isn’t very steep. This is one my game club and myself fall back on if we feel like something light and more social. It’s definitely one of my favorites and the groups as well. There is a TON of reading (in a good way) and usually takes a minute or two to flip through the colossal book of tales. I would recommend the game to anyone who wants a nice social board game that is light on competition if desired.

This is a brilliant game. Gorgeous production quality of the materials. Play is similar to Twilight Struggle. The challenge of “1960: The Making of the President” is your ability to manage the damage of your own and your opponents event cards. 1960 provides some alternate means of preventing problematic events by overcoming the worst by forcing or blocking events with momentum markers. The trick is knowing when to expend your limited momentum markers to thwart disaster. 1960 (fortunately or not) doesn’t have the constant tension of Twilight Struggle. A winner is not determined until the last turn during election day. The theme of 1960 is impressively integration with the game and easily pulls you in.

30+ plays and Puerto Rico stands the test of time as a great game that provides enough variety to still be fresh even after so much play.

Puerto Rico tests your ability to assess the intentions of the other players. Securing a steady income stream is the initial goal, and then buying combinations of buildings that work well together will define your VP strategy. Whilst being on constant alert for short term tactical opportunities. I play this game often. IT comes out at almost every game meeting. A testament to its longevity and durability.