Twilight Struggle is not a light game. Not by our standards, anyway - GMT, the publisher, rate it a mere four out of a possible nine. Mind you, GMT also produce huge games that look like this monstrosity. Let's just say it's a bit more complicated than Lost Cities. As it would be unfair to write a full review of Twilight Struggle after just a handful of games, this is instead our initial impressions of the game.

First, what is it? It's a wargame of sorts, but as it's the Cold War with its intrigue and subterfuge and war by proxy, it's not a wargame as you might know it. In fact, direct conflict is disastrous: trigger nuclear war during your turn and you immediately lose. Nuclear armageddon makes losers of us all, of course, but as the instigator you look pretty bad. I guess that sheepishness you'd feel would make you the ultimate loser.

Twilight Struggle is about influence - spreading your influence, reducing your enemy's influence, and attempting coups to flip countries to your way of thinking. One player takes on the role of the USA, attempting to stymie the red menace, while the other tries to unite the workers of the world as the USSR. The board is a map of the world, with important countries/groups of countries highlighted as boxes and linked to show which are 'next' to each other. The board has a fairly stark and minimalist look, with pale colours to help show which countries are part of which region, and a few tracks for keeping score and tracking turns. The turn track and "Space Race" have photos of US & Soviet leaders and little symbols of spacecraft, but apart from that it's very uncluttered, giving it a sober, war-room-like feel. There are no units, as in most other wargames, but instead tokens representing the level of influence you have in a country, which can be flipped if you have enough to have control. With so many countries and possibilities it's a little overwhelming at the moment, but the blue/red of the control side of the tokens do give a very good overview of the state of play.

At its core, Twilight Struggle is a card driven game. There are 110 cards, each representing an event from the Cold War. Some are events that favour the USA, some the USSR, some whomever plays the card. Each card also has an Operations Value, which can be used instead to spread or reduce influence. If a card has one of your events (or a neutral event) then you have to choose between the Ops Value - allowing you to increase your influence - or the event. You can't have both. If, however, the event helps your opponent, then playing it means the event will be triggered. There are a lot of choices here - how do I minimize the impact of this hideous event that favours my opponent? Is this card worth more as the operations value or the event? If I do use the ops value, do I take the safe option of increasing my influence, or do I take the riskier (but potentially more rewarding) route of kicking my enemy out of that country I need to control?

While you have the long-term goal of trying to control the most regions and gaining the most points, some cards are 'Scoring Cards' that must be played and focuses the players on the short-term goal of taking a particular region. In the beginning, only Asia, Europe, and Middle East scoring cards are in the deck, making the game focused on these areas. If you don't have one of these cards, there's a good chance your opponent will, and your opponent's move may reveal this threat. Unless it's a bluff. Or a double-bluff. Come the 'Mid War', all other areas might be scored, making the game rather tense as you try to guess if your enemy is making plays for a card coming up in the future, or if it's a bluff, or if they're about to gain a bunch of victory points as they take over Europe and play the Europe scoring card. Similarly, if you have a scoring card, it's a game of bluff as you try to build up your influence in that area, whistling and remaining nonchalant as you subtly build up influence without arousing suspicion. It's a fantastic way of abstracting how certain regions became battlegrounds in the Cold War.

Twilight Struggle seems, at this early stage, to have staying power. As further games are played, and the importance of certain cards, countries and strategies become clearer, we're hoping to indulge in some rather tense ideological warfare with more focus and less randomish "um, maybe this is a good move"-type play. The signs are good.

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