by placid
I recently acquired Cold War: CIA vs KGB in my quest for some fairly light weight two player fun.
This game has it in spades.
Still reading?
Objective
Each round starts with a Briefing which is the selection of an Objective card. Each objective has an varying Influence point value (in the diamonds in this picture) which is achieved in a very similar manner to blackjack (combined card values up to but not exceeding 21).
The number of pawn figures on the left hand side of each card shows the maximum number of cards a player is allowed to play to achieve a particular objective. These vary from one to five which makes for quite different game play.
Agent
Once the Objective is known, each player uses a Planning step to secretly select an agent. The six agents have varying influence on the way the End of round final victory is determined.
Groups
Players alternate between either drawing a new Group card and Recruiting the group by placing it face up in front of them, or Mobilise a Group card previously placed on the table to use its special ability. A player may also pass if they do not wish to do either card based action (such as when they have already achieved the Objective point value).
Each group card has a number (3+1+5+6 = 15), which is counted towards the Objective point value, and an icon (with associated colour) representing a special ability. Despite the varying names and point values for each group card, it is the special abilities that really distinguish the cards and creates the main variation in game play.
Abilities
The special abilities can be summarised (in the same order as the pictures above):
Media 0 = Look at the top group and decide whether to: keep it, discard it (if it would make you exceed the Objective influence value), or replace on top of the draw deck (for the other player to draw)
Economic $ = Turn on(Ready)/off(Mobilise) the special ability of any card on the table (except other economic)
Political * = Move a group from either player to the other player
Military ^ = Move any card on the table to the discard pile
These abilities can be used to steal a card from an opponent, or get them to discard a card (often forcing them to draw a less optimal valued card).
If you choose to use a Group card ability rather draw a new Group card, Mobilise the card by turning it sideways (ala tap the card) and perform the applicable action. Once a card has been mobilised its ability may not be used again unless an Economic power is used to make the card Ready to use again.
End of round
A Cease fire begins when both players are unable or choose not to take any further actions.
At that point the player who is closest to the Objective value is considered to have Dominated. In the case of a draw, the symbols at the top of the Objective card are matched to each players card so the person with the highest value of each type of group is deemed to have Dominated.
If the current objective was Vietnam (9 influence value), as in the picture above, in the case of a draw the player with the highest total value in $ cards would be deemed to have Dominated. If both players had the same value of $ cards, the * cards would then be compared until a clear winner.
Next comes a Debriefing where each player's agent is revealed and their special ability is enacted. This can have some significant impacts on the outcome such as the Master Spy who turns a defeat into a victory (and a victory into a defeat!) or the Assassin who kills the opposing agent if that player is dominating.
Once the agent's abilities are resolved, the player who is finally dominating scores the Victory Points shown on the bottom right of the Objective card.
The agent used for the current round is then exhausted and considered to be on leave until after the next Planning step so you will need to work out a strategy for playing a series of agents rather than just one.
The first player to achieve 100 points is the winner.
Final thoughts
There are a few more wrinkles in the game play but that should be a pretty good synopsis. The drawing and playing of group cards is very quick and shouldn't involve any amount of contemplation as the choices are usually obvious.
The secret agent adds a delicious twist which I think is the mechanic that makes this game a winner rather than a dud."
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