well, that was weirdly prescient...

last night, i got in a game of cold war:  cia vs kgb with dave p. 

   

produced by ffg as one of their silverline games, cold war allows play as one of the two major intelligence agencies from the 60’s through the 80’s, the komitet gosudarstvennoy bezopasnosti and the central intelligence agency.  

the game is pretty straightforward:  a particular objective is revealed.  both intelligence agencies choose an operative who works to recruit groups to claim the objective.  each group has a point value and a special action that can be used as your agent tries to bring the objective into their sphere of influence.  the winner of the round then gets to add the objective score to their running total.  first player to 100 points is the winner.  

here the kremlin has claimed the objective.  which was a recurring theme for the entire game.  another point in favor of the game is that savvy play can stop a runaway victory by one player.  unfortunately, my play as the cia just wasn't good enough, and dave's kremlin took the victory.

while playing the game i kept getting a strong sense of déjà vu.  over a third of the objectives being fought over during the game are still global hotspots today:  libya, korea, egypt, et al.   kinda makes you wonder, how much longer those particular places will continue to have such a strong influence on global politics. 

like many of ffg’s silverline games, cold war is a a lot of fun, and the fact that it’s portable, has a neat game mechanic, and is quick to play means that cold war is definitely worth adding to your collection.