#quartermastergeneralthecoldwar

More Quartermaster General: The Cold War. Very close again; the West went out to a large lead in the mid game and was trying to push for the auto-victory, but couldn’t quite open up a big enough lead and so ended up fading towards the end as the Soviets and Non-Aligned combined to chip away, including the use of Soviet nukes when the West let their escalation level get a bit high. The non-Aligned would pull out a near win in the end despite China getting clipped by Western-backed armies in Korea, Manchuria, Vietnam, and even China itself. A slightly earlier rise of China, or an earlier and more aggressive US pivot to the Pacific to contain them, are some of the more interesting historical what-ifs raised by the game. #bgg #boardgamegeek #boardgames #quartermastergeneral #quartermastergeneralthecoldwar https://www.instagram.com/p/BwWK4EiDL29/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=o3d1pq5v3l4q

Finally introducing @eclectic_farrell to QMG: The Cold War. After a big Soviet build-out in the early game where they were looking really strong, the Soviets just slightly misjudged when to do a big push in Germany. The espionage cards were all in position but I held out an extra couple turns to push it as late in the game as possible, but it was too late as the US/NATO started revolts in Poland and Hungary which then derailed the final push. As I always say about these games, timing is everything, in The Cold War even moreso than the others. There is kind of an interesting quirk to the US and Soviet nukes: the US can fire theirs at any time, while the Soviets can only fire on their turn. This means the US can fire theirs on the last turn of the game without fear of retaliation. I haven’t quite figured out what this means for Soviet play, but I think it means that you can’t just wait for the end, if you’re going to do a major push in Europe (which you might have to in order to contain the West - they have a huge number of potential points there) you’re going to have to target the late middle game and use your own nukes to knock out the Western nukes. You also really cannot afford to let the West’s escalation stay low. You need to force them to escalate in the middle game or risk falling way behind, so your big nukes can be in play late and you can defuse the possibility of US/NATO first use. Also since the US/NATO nukes destroy cards off your deck instead of costing VPs, if you retain a reserve of cards late (not necessarily easy to do) you can blunt their effect. Interesting and subtle design choices. BGG says I’m up to 7 plays on this already, after a bit of a slow start in getting it to the table, and it’s gone over very well with everyone I’ve played it with so far. I’ve been very happy with it; the 3-player dynamics seem to work very well with more attention to the traditional problems of the genre than it looks on first inspection. Now to give the team game a try sometime. #bgg #boardgamegeek #boardgames #quartermastergeneral #quartermastergeneralthecoldwar https://www.instagram.com/p/BvyPf73Dmh3/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=gb79eqbqk592

The missiles are ready to launch in Quatermaster General: The Cold War. Finally got to try the West! Super-close game again, if I had done a little bit of math on my last card play instead of guessing I would have won by several points, but instead the Soviets pipped me a single point. I think you really have to use your nukes as the US/NATO - maybe not necessarily fire them, but the threat is really important. We had our first significant nuclear exchange, actually between China and the US as the Chinese were on the wrong end of a hot war in Asia. The Chinese nuclear arsenal is neither large nor particularly powerful so it was a fairly limited exchange, but in some ways it was nice to see that element of the game getting into play. The model of the nuclear standoff actually seems fairly good; the US and USSR both have huge nukes which, if deployed, have an interesting effect: they don’t do a lot to help you win the game, but they can make someone else lose. So they really do work as deterrent, forcing the opponent to slow down the escalation or risk game-wrecking VP losses. The other interesting thing is that the USSR can wage their proxy wars without actually driving up the escalation level much, while the US/NATO’s reliance on air power and WMDs does cause escalation when used. Anyway, like in the other QMG games, a lot of thought clearly went into the model and there is a cool amount of attention to historical detail for a game that’s pretty accessible and mostly a fun, pretty intense game with a lot of action. I actually didn’t have quite the same high expectations from this as I did for Victory or Death or 1914, but I’ve been really enjoying it and I think it’s as good as any of the others (and they’re all excellent). #bgg #boardgames #boardgamegeek #quatermastergeneral #quartermastergeneralthecoldwar https://www.instagram.com/p/BvqIUUwjgPh/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1m2xkq9m3wzru

View from the Non-Aligned position in Quartermaster General: The Cold War. I’ve played the game 3 times now, and the Non-Aligned each time, so I’m kinda getting the hang of them. They rely on using a ton of Espionage cards, and then knowing when to unleash them - they have a lot of point-generating capability and a lot of breadth, but not much depth. It seems like they can’t afford to get into tit-for-tat exchanges, they have to build up potential. It helps that they should not be a priority target early, as they start pretty weak. Good game! The period of the Cold War hasn’t been a super-fertile period for interesting games of global scope - Twilight Struggle and the old Victory Games Cold War are the two that come to mind, both of which are OK but not great - but I think this generally succeeds both as a game and a period piece. But there is clearly still a lot of room to explore here. The Cold War period is, I think, still understood in only a very simplistic way by Americans; games are a good way to explore this history, and while Quartermaster General isn’t a deep historical study, it is a game with some nuance, and nuance is good. #bgg #boardgamegeek #boardgames #quartermastergeneralthecoldwar #quartermastergeneral https://www.instagram.com/p/BuYPFKvDF9X/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1qpr6r8jvlvb9