Game Review: Twilight Struggle, 4th Edition

By Francis “Private K.” Lalumiere
December 25, 2009

Designers: Ananda Gupta & Jason Matthews
Publisher: GMT Games

Players: 2
Rules Language: English
Price: $55
Links:

What’s this you say? A fourth edition?

That’s right. Originally published in 2005, Gupta and Matthews’ masterstroke went on to win several awards and sell out year after year. So a mere four years later, GMT comes out with a fourth “upgraded” edition that states without a doubt that the Cold War is just as icy as ever.

In a shrink-wrapped nutshell, Twilight Struggle is a card-driven bombshell that some people have a hard time calling a wargame. That’s because you don’t have troops and you never quite attack the opponent, you see. Instead, each card is used either to play the historical event it represents, or to strengthen one’s influence in one country or another (up to the Operations number on the card). When a scoring card shows up, whoever controls most of the territory depicted on the scoring card earns victory points. Simple enough… but then you’ve got to deal with realignment rolls (gentle nudges in the power structure), outright coups d’état, the unending space race, and that pesky nuclear Armageddon threat.

Just that.

I wouldn’t recommend playing this one without a strong deodorant on. Get ready for tension of a rare magnitude in the boardgaming world.

New Map

If you’re boasting about a fourth edition of anything, your end of the bargain is to make it better. How did this one go?

Well, first off the game now has a mounted board. That’s right, folks, thick cardboard that’ll lay flat on its own – you can give your old plexi the night off. I was perfectly happy with the previous, thin cardboard playing surface, but I have to admit I much prefer the new one.

But wait! It’s not just thicker and sturdier, it’s also prettier. While the old board (already old after four years…) was more than serviceable, the new one comes with harmonized colors, information that feels slightly better organized and an artistic direction that overrides the “authentic” vibe of previous graphic elements – for the better, I’d say.
For instance, the Space Race track used to be populated with archive images of actual events, whereas the new track features more homogeneous space icons.

Each superpower also receives the cool-flag treatment, which gives a bit of texture to the adversaries’ home bases.

Small setup influence indicators have been printed on all relevant countries, making preparations for a game faster and easier.

And last but not least, the board now features a Chinese Civil War box, the use of which is explained in detail under section 12.0 of the new rulebook.

New Markers

The whole set of markers has been upgraded to thicker stock. I had no problem with the old markers, but the new ones are a bit easier to handle. Oh, and for the compulsive counter clippers out there: the new markers have very nice, round corners. Keep that jig in the closet…

New Cards

GMT kept the same stock for the cards, but decided to print seven brand new ones – new events that were not part of previous editions of the game. Norad (with a specific use for Canada), Our Man in Tehran (about Pahlavi), Yuri and Samantha, AWACS Sale to Saudis, Special Relationship (a British-American secret handshake), Che and Cambridge Five are making their way into Twilight Struggle decks around the globe as we speak. Stay alert.

One problem, though. Of the seven new cards, three were misprinted. I have to say that’s an impressive blunder. But errata is available on GMT’s website (so you can Magic-Marker your way through this for the time being) and GMT has promised to reprint the cards within the next few months and mail them to every customer affected by the misprint.

Wonderful customer service, as usual, but it’s really too bad they dropped the ball on one of the highlights of the new edition.

New Rulebook

Hopping from a page count of 28 to 32, the new, full-color rulebook does an even better job of teaching the game and provides a new Extended Example of Play: a transcript of the first three turns from the finals of the Boardgame Player’s Association online tournament between Chris Withers and Stefan Mecay. Strong stuff.

Back to that Chinese Civil War box printed on the mounted board: the new rulebook implements the variant originally published in issue #21 of GMT’s own magazine, C3i. Games played with that option force the USSR player to place three Influence in the Chinese Civil War box in order to bring the China Card into the game (and allow play of certain hitherto restricted events).

We’re not done yet! The new rulebook also contains the Late War Scenario designed by Volko Ruhnke and published in issue #19 of C3i. If you feel like a quickie Twilight Struggle experience (only three turns!) that focuses on Late War events, give this one a try.

And lest we forget one of my favorite features: The generous Card Histories section in the back, replete with a juicy historical background for every single card, is now expanded to include the seven new events.

All fine and dandy, but I do have a couple of nits to pick with the new rulebook. First, the rules still refer to an “Events in Effect” box, although that feature has disappeared from the new gameboard. This is not a big deal – I never used those markers anyhow – but it will create confusion for new players reading through the rules for the first time.

Second, there is no mention of the seven new cards in the rules. Each of those cards is labeled “optional” at its top, but it would have been nice to include a short paragraph in section 2.2 to address the matter. Again, veterans will simply shuffle them into the deck (or not), but newcomers might wonder if those are to be used only in certain circumstances. (On the other hand, they may not even notice the “optional” indication and play with the cards anyway…)

New Price

You bet. When Twilight Struggle was originally published in 2005, GMT’s list price was $57. It stayed there until the upgraded fourth edition, where the price actually decreased to $55. This means that GMT was confident enough to increase the printed volume which, in turn, brought the price down – despite the inclusion of upgraded components. Not bad at all for a game on the Cold War first introduced four years ago.
Staying power, I think that thing is called.

Parting Shots

What can I say? I’ve loved Twilight Struggle from the get-go and it’s one of the few games I rate a 10. I’m thrilled with the new components and hey, it’s actually cheaper! I guess it’s also Christmas in wargaming-land…

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