There was a bit less gaming for me in March, just with being that much busier. I did get to play a few games though, including a couple games of Twilight Struggle. Twilight Struggle, published by GMT Games is one of my favourite board games, and always makes it into the top ten of my annual top 50 lists.
It’s always a delight to get it to the table.
Twilight Struggle was my first GMT title. I get the idea that most people’s first GMT title is Twilight Struggle. It’s just such a good game, and it’s a real gateway into this rather unique and brilliant publisher.
The game is card-driven, with players taking on the role of either the US or USSR over the course of the cold war. Each superpower works to spread its influence across the world through operations and the historical events of the cold war.
I love the card-driven system of this game, with cards being used either for operations points or for the events depicted on them. Thematically, the cards represent different events from the cold war, such as The Marshall Plan, the formation of NATO, the Cambridge Five, and the leadership of Margaret Thatcher.
There are several ways that points may be scored, but it’s mostly done through control of countries, regions, and key battleground states. The game is essentially a tug of war, with each superpower pulling the game in opposing directions until either one reaches a score cap of 20, or is leading when the game comes to a close.
I’ve never had that happen yet. We’ve come close, but we’ve always had a scoring victory before the end of the last turn. The early stages of the game sees a slight advantage for the USSR, while the US gets the advantage in the late game. I prefer playing as the USSR, myself, but my last game saw me playing as the US.
It was great to play this in March. It’s ultimately just a thoroughly satisfying game. There are a ton of really difficult choices to be made, which is what I enjoy in a game. You can plan ahead, but you need to be reactive. You can stay cool and rational, or you can get bogged down in tit-for-tat operations fighting over some random country. It was Thailand last time…
What a fantastic game!
No Rerolls 
I’ve recently started playing this on Steam, at first I was a little surprised that it’s so highly rated by “gamer” gamers because it seemed kind of simplistic and random but the more I get into it the more I see why it’s so popular. Each move can affect so many things. I’m really digging it.
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I think it’s because the core game is so simple, but there’s so much more going on that you don’t realise at first.
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