Wargame

"Now the trumpet summons us again, not as a call to bear arms, though arms we need; not as a call to battle, though embattled we are – but a call to bear the burden of a long twilight struggle..."
– John F. Kennedy

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.

A deluxe edition, published in 2009 includes the following changes from the basic game:

Mounted map with revised graphics
Two double-thick counter sheets with 260 counters
Deck of 110 event cards (increased from 103)
Revised rules and player aid cards
Revised at start setup and text change for card #98 Aldrich Ames

Upgrade kit for the owners of the previous version includes the following:

Mounted Map with revised graphics
New card decks
Updated Rules & Charts

There are also the deluxe mounted map and deluxe euro-style countersheet upgrades.

Components:

228 full colour counters (260 in the 2009 Deluxe edition)
22"x34" full colour cardboard map (mounted map with revised graphics in the 2009 Deluxe edition)
103 event cards (110 in the 2009 Deluxe edition)
2 six-sided dice
1 24-page rulebook
2 full colour player aid cards

TIME SCALE: approx. 3-5 years per turn
MAP SCALE: Point-to-point system
UNIT SCALE: Influence markers
NUMBER OF PLAYERS: 1 - 2

DESIGNER: Ananda Gupta & Jason Matthews
MAP, CARD, & COUNTER ART: Mark Simonitch

From the publisher's website:

World War 2 air combat game depicting the nighttime air raids of British bombers hitting German cities.

As the head of the British Bomber Command, you plan the attacks on Germany in order to undermine the morale of the civilian population. Or as a General of the German Air Force (Luftwaffe), you defend using your ace squadrons and organizing an effective civil defense.

The gameboard enables you to set up countless variations of these historic events. You play as many nights as you wish - each night takes 30-45 minutes to resolve.

Immerse yourself in the strategic and tactical thinking needed to survive in those dark times.

Gameplay allows for easy entry into the action with some advanced rules for the hearty wargamer. The game rules include weather conditions, full moon/new moon bonuses and penalties, clouds and thunderclouds, fog, flak, searchlights, balloon barriers, target markers, and much more.

The British player secretly plots the course of the bomber while the Mosquito acts as escort or decoy. The German player tries to figure out where the bomber is going, making sure to efficiently use the fuel to get as many hits on the bomber as possible.

Expanded by:

Duel in the Dark: Ju88 Night Fighter
Duel in the Dark: Railroad Flak
Duel in the Dark: Acoustic Mirror
Duel in the Dark: Quad Flak
Duel in the Dark: Skilled Gun Crew
Duel in the Dark: The Walls Have Ears
Duel in the Dark: 3-5 Player Variant
Duel in the Dark: British 3.7in QF Anti-Aircraft Gun
Duel in the Dark: British Searchlight
Duel in the Dark: Early Nights
Duel in the Dark: Baby Blitz
Duel in the Dark: V1-Bunker

Home Page: http://www.duelinthedark.com/

This classic game of pure negotiation has taken many forms over the years.

The first Avalon Hill version has perhaps the widest release, but Avalon Hill (Hasbro) re-released the game in 1999, complete with a colorful new map and metal pieces. They recently released a 50th anniversary edition with a new map and cardboard pieces representing the armies and navies.

In the game, players represent one of the seven "Great Powers of Europe" (Great Britain, France, Austria, Germany, Italy, Russia or Turkey) in the years prior to World War I. Play begins in the Spring of 1901, and players make both Spring and Autumn moves each year. There are only two kinds of military units: armies and fleets. On any given turn, each of your military units has limited options: they can move into an adjoining territory, support an allied unit in an attack on an adjoining territory, support an allied unit in defending an adjoining territory, or hold their position. Players instruct each of their units by writing a set of "orders." The outcome of each turn is determined by the rules of the game. There are no dice rolls or other elements of chance. With its incredibly simplistic movement mechanics fused to a significant negotiation element, this system is highly respected by many a gamer.

Avalon Hill Complexity rating - 3

Re-implemented by:

Colonial Diplomacy
Diplomacy: Classical Variant
Diplomacy: Hundred Variant

The year is 632 AD. The Byzantine Empire is all that remains of what once was the mighty Roman empire. She herself has only just survived a mighty war against Persia. Both empires now lay exhausted from their long years of struggle. Meanwhile, further south in the deserts of Arabia, the prophet Mohamed has given new meaning to an old religion and sets the peoples of that land on a course of action which will echo down the ages. Under the leadership of a succession of caliphs the Islamic Arabs are about to descend on the prostrate bodies of the Persian and Byzantine empires.

The game 'Byzantium' deals with the rise of the Muslim Caliphate and its war with the Byzantine Empire. Your role as a player is to take a stake in each side and outwit your opponents to secure your own personal victory.

A low complexity game of a variety of civil war battles. Modular terrain through the use of hexagonal tiles allows for the setup of several famous civil war battle fields and a plethora of plastic civil war miniatures are used to represent the various forces during the conflict (infantry, cavalry, artillery and leaders). Players manage a hand of cards that provide different orders to your troops in the right flank, left flank and center position of the battlefield.

This game is the first to use what would evolve into Richard Borg's Command and Colors system.

The game rules include the following scenarios:
First Bull Run--21st July, 1861
Pea Ridge--7th March, 1862
Kernstown--23rd March, 1862
Shiloh--6th April, 1862
Gaines Mill--27th June, 1862
Brawner's Farm--28th August, 1862
Antietam--17th September, 1862
Fredericksburg--13th December, 1862
Murfreesboro--31st December, 1862
Chancellorsville--3rd May, 1863
Gettysburg--2nd July, 1863
Gettysburg--3rd July, 1863
Chickamauga--20th September, 1863
New Market--15th May, 1864
New Hope Church--25th May, 1864