''Twilight Struggle: The Cold War, 1945–1989'' is a

board game A board game is a type of tabletop game that involves small objects () that are placed and moved in particular ways on a specially designed patterned game board, potentially including other components, e.g. dice. The earliest known uses of the ...

for two players, published by

GMT Games GMT Games is a California-based wargaming publisher founded in 1990. The company has become well known for graphically attractive games that range from "monster games" of many maps and counters, to quite simple games suitable for introducing new ...

in 2005. Players are the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

and

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

contesting each other's influence on the world map by using cards that correspond to historical events. The first game designed by Ananda Gupta and Jason Matthews, they intended it to be a quick-playing alternative to more complex card-driven wargames. It achieved critical acclaim for its well-integrated theme, accessibility and introduction of

Eurogame A Eurogame, also called a German-style board game, German game, or Euro-style game (generally just referred to as board games in Europe), is a class of tabletop games that generally feature indirect player interaction, lack player elimination, ...

elements. After being voted the number one game on

BoardGameGeek BoardGameGeek (BGG) is an online forum for board gaming hobbyists and a game database that holds reviews, images and videos for over 125,600 different tabletop games, including European-style board games, wargames, and card games. In addition t ...

from December 2010 to January 2016 (eventually dethroned by ''Pandemic Legacy''), it has been called "the best board game on the planet". ''Twilight Struggle'' is played competitively and was unofficially adapted for play-by-email and live online play. GMT released a ''Deluxe Edition'' in 2009, as well as a ''Collector's Edition'' as part of the

crowdfunding Crowdfunding is the practice of funding a project or venture by raising money from a large number of people, typically via the internet. Crowdfunding is a form of crowdsourcing and Alternative Finance, alternative finance, to fund projects "withou ...

campaign for the game's official adaptation into a

video game A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual fe ...

; this ''Digital Edition'' was released in 2016. With over 100,000 copies sold, the game is GMT's all-time best-seller.

Gameplay overview

According to its designers, "''Twilight Struggle'' basically accepts all of the internal logic of the

Cold War The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...

as true—even those parts of it that are demonstrably false." The game board thus presents a map of a

bipolar world Bipolar may refer to: Astronomy * Bipolar nebula, a distinctive nebular formation * Bipolar outflow, two continuous flows of gas from the poles of a star Mathematics * Bipolar coordinates, a two-dimensional orthogonal coordinate system * Bipola ...

according to domino theory, where the US and USSR spread ''influence'' to all other countries (except China, which is shown as a powerful card, which must be handed to the other player if used, representing China tilting from one bloc to the other), and attempt to establish ''control'' depending on the ''stability'' of a country. One scholarly analysis proposed that " ile ''Twilight Struggle'' is at its core an area control game, what set its apart from being marked as a ''

Risk In simple terms, risk is the possibility of something bad happening. Risk involves uncertainty about the effects/implications of an activity with respect to something that humans value (such as health, well-being, wealth, property or the environ ...

'' clone is the combined effect of material aesthetics and design mechanics meant to embrace a particular point of view tied to the Cold War zeitgeist." Gameplay is divided into ten turns. Each turn players randomly draw a hand of ''event'' cards from a single deck. The starting deck contains only ''early war'' cards, with historically appropriate ''mid war'' and ''late war'' events shuffled in on turns 4 and 8 (for a total of 103 cards in the first edition). Players both use a card in the turn's ''headline phase'' (in which each player must play a card for its event) and six to eight ''action rounds''. Twilight struggle example

Operations and events

Cards have ''operations point'' values that let a player take one of three actions on the board: to place influence markers in or adjacent to countries where he already has influence; to attempt ''realignment'' to remove enemy influence, with bonuses depending on existing influence; or to attempt a '' coup'' that can reduce an opponent's influence and increase his own influence in a single country. Realignment and coup attempts partially rely on dice rolls to succeed. If a card's event is associated with that player, or neutral, the player must choose either to conduct operations or get the beneficial effect of the event. However, if a player conducts operations using a card with an opponent's event, the event occurs as well. For example, the US player can use two operations points from playing the Soviet event " Fidel", at the expense of its effect: "Remove all US Influence in Cuba. USSR gains sufficient Influence in Cuba for Control." A further option, allowed once per turn, is to expend a card attempting to advance in the ''

Space Race The Space Race (, ) was a 20th-century competition between the Cold War rivals, the United States and the Soviet Union, to achieve superior spaceflight capability. It had its origins in the ballistic missile-based nuclear arms race between t ...

'', avoiding triggering that card's event. Strategy requires players to anticipate reactions to what their opponent might play.

Scoring and victory

Regional ''scoring cards'' award ''victory points'' to both players based on their respective level of influence—''presence'', ''domination'' or ''control''—in that region when the card is played. The regions have unequal values: domination of Central America is worth three VP but domination of Asia is worth seven. Normally players will hold one card per turn into the next, but scoring cards may not be held. Player actions are constrained by the ''

DEFCON The defense readiness condition (DEFCON) is an alert state used by the United States Armed Forces. For security reasons, the U.S. military does not announce a DEFCON level to the public. The DEFCON system was developed by the Joint Chiefs of Sta ...

'' and ''required military operations'' tracks. A coup attempt on one of the ''battleground countries'' reduces DEFCON by one each time, representing an increase in tensions and restricting the regions where coups and realignments may be attempted. If DEFCON 1 is reached during a player's action round, that player is deemed to have caused a

nuclear war Nuclear warfare, also known as atomic warfare, is a War, military conflict or prepared Policy, political strategy that deploys nuclear weaponry. Nuclear weapons are Weapon of mass destruction, weapons of mass destruction; in contrast to conven ...

and loses immediately. Each turn, however, players will also lose victory points if they do not conduct military operations (coup attempts or playing war events) at least equal to the DEFCON level. Victory points are gained or lost on a shared one-dimensional track, and a player who reaches 20 VP in his or her favor wins immediately. Control of Europe when its scoring card is played also awards an early victory. If neither player has won by the end of turn 10, a final scoring occurs in which each region is scored once. According to an analysis of the game's design, "In some respects, ''Twilight Struggle'' resembles a modern-style

more than a wargame", in that the game offers multiple paths to score and win. It summarized the game play thus: "Rules and limited strategic choices governing Event triggers combine to ensure a roughly-accurate historical experience; within this framework of bad and suboptimal choices, one player will eventually squeak out a victory."

Theme

Although ''Twilight Struggle'' was designed to be simple and playable, it has strongly thematic gameplay – that is, the rules reflect the logic of the Cold War, and the cards refer to actual historical people and events, generally being illustrated with historical photographs. For example, the rule that a player may only add influence to a country where they already have influence or to an adjacent country means that players’ influence moves across borders in a predictable way, simulating domino theory. Meanwhile, the Space Race track includes steps named "Man in Space", a reference to

Yuri Gagarin Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin; Gagarin's first name is sometimes transliterated as ''Yuriy'', ''Youri'', or ''Yury''. (9 March 1934 – 27 March 1968) was a Soviet pilot and cosmonaut who, aboard the first successful Human spaceflight, crewed sp ...

, and "

Space Shuttle The Space Shuttle is a retired, partially reusable launch system, reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft system operated from 1981 to 2011 by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as part of the Space Shuttle program. ...

". Meanwhile, individual cards reference not only major historical happenings, such "

Marshall Plan The Marshall Plan (officially the European Recovery Program, ERP) was an American initiative enacted in 1948 to provide foreign aid to Western Europe. The United States transferred $13.3 billion (equivalent to $ in ) in economic recovery pr ...

", " Destalinisation", and "Captured Nazi Scientists", which invokes

Operation Paperclip The Operation Paperclip was a secret United States intelligence program in which more than 1,600 German scientists, engineers, and technicians were taken from former Nazi Germany to the US for government employment after the end of World War I ...

, but small-scale ones, such as "Yuri and Samantha", based on schoolgirl

Samantha Smith Samantha Reed Smith (June 29, 1972 – August 25, 1985) was an American peace activist and child actress from Manchester, Maine, who became famous for her anti-war outreaches during the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union. ...

's visit to the Soviet Union. Other events reflect the culture of the Cold War, such as "

Voice of America Voice of America (VOA or VoA) is an international broadcasting network funded by the federal government of the United States that by law has editorial independence from the government. It is the largest and oldest of the American internation ...

" and "

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games (Olympics; ) are the world's preeminent international Olympic sports, sporting events. They feature summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a Multi-s ...

", which allows one player to boycott the Games. A few are metatextual, such as " How I Learned To Stop Worrying" and "

Wargames ''WarGames'' is a 1983 American techno-thriller film directed by John Badham, written by Lawrence Lasker and Walter F. Parkes, and starring Matthew Broderick, Dabney Coleman, John Wood and Ally Sheedy. Broderick plays David Lightman, a ...

", both referring to films about the Cold War and even wargames themselves.

Development

Wargaming hobbyists Jason Matthews and Ananda Gupta met in 1998 at a board gaming club at

George Washington University The George Washington University (GW or GWU) is a Private university, private University charter#Federal, federally-chartered research university in Washington, D.C., United States. Originally named Columbian College, it was chartered in 1821 by ...

. They hoped to take advantage of a resurgence in wargaming led by card-driven games, but wanted a quick-playing game to fit their own schedule—more in the vein of ''

We the People The Preamble to the United States Constitution, beginning with the words We the People, is a brief introductory statement of the Constitution's fundamental purposes and guiding principles. Courts have referred to it as reliable evidence of ...

'' and '' Hannibal: Rome vs. Carthage'' than the likes of ''

Paths of Glory ''Paths of Glory'' is a 1957 American anti-war film directed by Stanley Kubrick, from a screenplay he co-wrote with Calder Willingham and Jim Thompson. It is adapted from the 1935 novel of the same name by Humphrey Cobb, which in turn was ...

''. They rejected a

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War () was a military conflict fought from 1936 to 1939 between the Republican faction (Spanish Civil War), Republicans and the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalists. Republicans were loyal to the Left-wing p ...

theme after realizing they did not know enough about the period. Gupta suggested the Cold War theme, which fit well for Matthews, who had studied it extensively when majoring in

international relations International relations (IR, and also referred to as international studies, international politics, or international affairs) is an academic discipline. In a broader sense, the study of IR, in addition to multilateral relations, concerns al ...

in the 1980s. According to Matthews, the Cold War had not been depicted in a two-player board game before. Design drew on many other games. The influence-based scoring system derived from '' History of the World'', and scoring cards from the work of Alan Moon. Using game mechanics to incentivize historical behavior came from experience with '' For the People''. The futility of nuclear war, and its relation to conventional military operations, came from the video game '' Balance of Power'' as well as '' Supremacy''. ''Twilight Struggle'' takes its title from John F. Kennedy's inaugural address. Early versions were more complex and simulation-like, but through

playtesting A playtest is the process by which a game designer tests a new game for bugs and design flaws before releasing it to market. Playtests can be run "open", "closed", "beta", or otherwise, and are very common with board games, collectible card games, ...

eventually almost every mechanic was abstracted and the event deck made much smaller: "Many clever and interesting ideas were discarded as being contrary to the fundamental guiding principles of the game – fast play, simple rules, and getting a lot of gameplay value out of the cards." By the summer of 2000, Matthews and Gupta were promoting a

prototype A prototype is an early sample, model, or release of a product built to test a concept or process. It is a term used in a variety of contexts, including semantics, design, electronics, and Software prototyping, software programming. A prototype ...

at the World Boardgaming Championships. Their first choice of publisher was

, where Gupta had had a playtesting job. GMT founder Gene Billingsley immediately felt drawn to the theme but had doubts about the game's marketability, and placed it on the company's Project 500 list—it would be published if it achieved 500 preorders. The game ultimately shipped in December 2005 with a retail price of $57.

Later editions

Matthews subsequently wrote a set of optional rules to simulate the

Chinese Civil War The Chinese Civil War was fought between the Kuomintang-led Nationalist government, government of the Republic of China (1912–1949), Republic of China and the forces of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Armed conflict continued intermitt ...

, and Volko Ruhnke developed a scenario starting in the late war era. Both were included with the ''Deluxe Edition'' in 2009, in addition to new map art, event text revisions and a set of optional cards. In addition to a ''Collector's Edition'' made with luxury materials, potential bonuses with ''Digital Edition'' preorders were a set of new cards and the ''Turn Zero'' mini-expansion, which adds an earlier starting point and the possibility that historical events such as the

1945 United Kingdom general election The 1945 United Kingdom general election took place on Thursday 5 July 1945. With World War II, the Second World War still fresh in voters’ minds, the opposition Labour Party (UK), Labour Party under the leadership of Clement Attlee won a lan ...

, the

Battle of Berlin The Battle of Berlin, designated as the Berlin Strategic Offensive Operation by the Soviet Union, and also known as the Fall of Berlin, was one of the last major offensives of the European theatre of World War II. After the Vistula–Od ...

, or the

happened differently. GMT made a reprint of the new cards and expansion available for general purchase. In 2022, GMT released Jason Matthews's game ''Twilight Struggle: Red Sea''. Based on the

Horn of Africa The Horn of Africa (HoA), also known as the Somali Peninsula, is a large peninsula and geopolitical region in East Africa.Robert Stock, ''Africa South of the Sahara, Second Edition: A Geographical Interpretation'', (The Guilford Press; 2004), ...

in the 1970s, especially the deposition of Haile Selassie, it is designed to play similarly to the original game but only take 35 minutes to play. In addition, cards from ''Twilight Struggle'' and ''Red Sea'' may be used in either game.

Reception

Initial reviews were positive but sales were not as successful. However, when Alan Moon, an influential designer of

s, endorsed the game the first printing sold out quickly. According to one account, "''Twilight Struggle'' came out the same weekend as the

Boardgame Players Association The Boardgame Players Association is a non-profit corporation established to support the shared interests of board game players. The BPA is best known for hosting the World Boardgaming Championships. In addition to its flagship event, the BPA al ...

's Winter Activation Meeting ... Though it was not an event on the schedule, ''Twilight Struggle'' was the talk of the show ... At PrezCon a month later, the dealer sold out in the first few minutes he was open." Jon Waddington for ''Gamers Alliance Report'' was positive but noted problems with unclear card and rule book texts (in the first edition). "I cannot quite give Twilight Struggle an unqualified recommendation, and yet I consider it one of the best games I've played in the last few years." Rating the game 93%, ''

Armchair General "Armchair general" is a derogatory term for a person who regards themselves as an expert on military matters, despite having little to no actual experience in the military. Alternatively, it can mean a military commander who does not participat ...

'' reviewer Kaarin Engelmann pointed out that "One of its strengths is that few other games deal with the subject, yet it is not important to remember pre-

Glasnost ''Glasnost'' ( ; , ) is a concept relating to openness and transparency. It has several general and specific meanings, including a policy of maximum openness in the activities of state institutions and freedom of information and the inadmissi ...

years to enjoy the game." Game designer Zev Shlasinger commented: "''Twilight Struggle'' gives you a compact history lesson about the Cold War ... Coupled with that is the game's accessibility and the design's cleverness, all of which make ''Twilight Struggle'' stand out among the crowd of recent political wargame releases." Users voted ''Twilight Struggle'' the highest-ranked game on

from December 2010 until it was unseated by '' Pandemic Legacy'' in January 2016. This led later commentators like ''

FiveThirtyEight ''FiveThirtyEight'', also rendered as ''538'', was an American website that focused on opinion poll analysis, politics, economics, and sports blogging in the United States. The website, which took its name from the number of electors in the U ...

'' Oliver Roeder to call it "the best board game on the planet"; Wit
prototype map
'' Vice Motherboard'' Michael Gaynor called it "the best board game ever created". It became GMT Games' all-time best-seller, with lifetime sales of approximately 100,000 copies .

Awards

* 2005 –

Charles S. Roberts Award The Charles S. Roberts Awards (or CSR Awards) is an annual award for excellence in manual, tabletop games, with a focus on "conflict simulations", which includes simulations of non-military as well as military conflicts. From its founding in 1975 ...

for ''Best Modern Era Boardgame'' and James F. Dunnigan Award (to Gupta and Matthews) * 2005 – Nominated for

Origins Award The Origins Awards are American awards for outstanding work in the gaming industry. They are presented by the Game Manufacturers Association (GAMA) at the Origins Game Fair on an annual basis for games released in the preceding year. For example, t ...

for ''Historical Boardgame of the Year'' * 2006 –

International Gamers Award The International Gamers Awards (IGAs) is an award for strategy board games and historical simulation games. The IGAs "were created to recognize outstanding games and designers, as well as the companies that publish them. The awards are truly i ...

for ''Best 2-Player Strategy Game'' and ''Best Historical Simulation Game'', the first game to win two IGAs. * 2006 – BoardGameGeek Golden Geek Award for ''Best Wargame'' and ''Best 2-Player Board Game'' * 2006 – Nominated for the

Diana Jones Award The Diana Jones Award is an annual award for "excellence in gaming". The original award was made from a burned book encased in lucite. The award is unusual in two ways: first, it is not an award for a specific class of thing, but can be awarded ...

for ''Excellence in Gaming'' * 2007 – Nominated by ''

Games A game is a Structure, structured type of play (activity), play usually undertaken for entertainment or fun, and sometimes used as an Educational game, educational tool. Many games are also considered to be Work (human activity), work (such as p ...

'' magazine for ''Best Historical Simulation'' * 2011 –

Lucca Comics & Games Lucca Comics & Games is an annual Comic book convention, comic book and gaming convention in Lucca, Italy, traditionally held at the end of October, in conjunction with All Saints' Day. It is the largest comics festival in Europe, and the secon ...

Best of Show in ''Boardgame for Experts'' (for Italian edition by Asterion Press) * 2012 – Ludoteca Ideale winner (Italian edition) * 2012 – Gra Roku nominee (for Polish edition by Bard Centrum Gier) * 2024 – GAMA Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts and Design, Hall of Fame Inductee * 2025 – Board Game Geek Hall of Fame

Influence

Jason Matthews reused mechanics of ''Twilight Struggle'' in several games. For example, in '' 1960: The Making of the President'', the countries are replaced by states, and victory points are replaced by electoral votes deciding the

1960 United States presidential election Presidential elections were held in the United States on November 8, 1960. The Democratic ticket of Senator John F. Kennedy and his running mate, Senate Majority Leader Lyndon B. Johnson, narrowly defeated the Republican ticket of incumbent ...

. Similar adaptations are '' Campaign Manager 2008'', '' 1989: Dawn of Freedom'' and ''

Founding Fathers The Founding Fathers of the United States, often simply referred to as the Founding Fathers or the Founders, were a group of late-18th-century American revolutionary leaders who united the Thirteen Colonies, oversaw the War of Independence ...

''. Volko Ruhnke used it as the "starting point" for the mechanics of ''

Labyrinth In Greek mythology, the Labyrinth () is an elaborate, confusing structure designed and built by the legendary artificer Daedalus for King Minos of Crete at Knossos. Its function was to hold the Minotaur, the monster eventually killed by the h ...

'': "What would ''Twilight Struggle'' look like if it were covering 2004 to 2009?" Matthews and Gupta next collaborated on '' Imperial Struggle: The Global Rivalry Between Britain and France, 1697–1789''. Gupta characterized ''Twilight Struggle'' as an "older cousin" to ''Imperial Struggle''.

Online play

Following a

campaign on

Kickstarter Kickstarter, PBC is an American Benefit corporation, public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York City, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative project ...

, ''Twilight Struggle Digital Edition'' was released in 2016. Developed by Playdek and published by Asmodee Digital, this paid version allows play against a computer in addition to another player. It was released for

Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

macOS macOS, previously OS X and originally Mac OS X, is a Unix, Unix-based operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple since 2001. It is the current operating system for Apple's Mac (computer), Mac computers. With ...

iOS Ios, Io or Nio (, ; ; locally Nios, Νιός) is a Greek island in the Cyclades group in the Aegean Sea. Ios is a hilly island with cliffs down to the sea on most sides. It is situated halfway between Naxos and Santorini. It is about long an ...

and Android; the campaign had also promised a Linux edition. Before 2016, it was available in Wargamesroom for PC. Other alternatives, allowed by GMT games only if at least one player owns the board game are: * Saito (available in English and Chinese) * F14 (available only in Chinese) * Automated Card Tracking System (for play-by-email) complemented with: ** Cyberboard Gamebox ** Module for the open-source Vassal Engine ** TwiStrug virtual board.

Competitions

''Twilight Struggle'' has been played in different online and live tournaments since 2005. Currently, among the most relevant active tournaments, the following stand out: * International league (hybrid: online and face-to-face): ITSL * International online leagues: OTSL and RTSL * Asynchronous international leagues: RATS and BPA Tournament * National leagues: KTSL, LFTS, French League, UK League, Greek League, LPTS, Nordic League and various regional American leagues. * On-site championships: TS Convention, WBC Tournament * 2-Day Online Tournaments: Online World Cup, Mind Sports Olympiad, Grand Slams * Team Tournaments: Nations Cup and US Cup Most of these championships count their results within a unified rating (ITS Rating), allowing to know in advance the level of each player and thus being able to balance the schedules in an optimal way. Some of the competitions are broadcast live with commentators in specialized channels like ActionRoundZero or Caecius. The original rule book included the tournament rule of revealing held cards at the end of a turn, to prevent

cheating Cheating generally describes various actions designed to subvert or disobey rules in order to obtain unfair advantages without being noticed. This includes acts of bribery, cronyism and nepotism in any situation where individuals are given pr ...

by holding a scoring card. In more modern competitions this was replaced by showing the bottom of the card, demonstrating that it is not a scoring card. The ''Deluxe Edition'' rule book includes an annotated "Extended Example of Play" taken from a Boardgame Players Association play-by-email tournament. The ''Collector's Edition'' rule book provides for tournament players to bid starting influence on their preferred side. In most of the current competitions, +2 influence points for USA and option cards are used as standard, obtaining a balance very close to 50% between both sides. The original rules allow for a tie, although in the Playdek application in case of a tie in Final Scoring the victory is given to the American player and in case of a tie through Wargames the victory is given to the player who did not event the card. Most of today's competitions follow the original rules and therefore allow for ties.

ITSL

ITSL (International Twilight Struggle League) is the oldest active tournament in Twilight Struggle, since 2006, including most important Twilight Struggle players. Jason Matthews himself played in the first edition.

Nations Cup

The Nations Cup is played by national teams who take decisions by consensus. The competition starts with a Qualifying Stage, after which the strongest teams play in the Final Stage.

References

External links

''Twilight Struggle'' homepage
* {{Bgg title, 12333, ''Twilight Struggle'' American board games Asymmetric board games Board games introduced in 2005 Board wargames with artwork by Rodger B. MacGowan Cold War board wargames GMT Games games Play-by-email video games