I feel like writing about board games.

Board games have been my gaming focus for the last few years. In a way, physical cardboard has always been my focus, in gaming, and in life. Magic: The Gathering dominated my youth - I would spend an unhealthy amount of time thinking about the game, even though I never really pursued higher competition than traveling an hour to the big city to try and win some Dual Lands. It shaped my whole being: how I socialize, what I do for entertainment, my college majors, my anxiety. I always gravitated towards gamers, which I regret to a point. But most of that regret actually comes from video games. Physical games have always been a brilliant experience for me.

So I want to pay some tribute to the games that mean a lot to me.

Except Magic. I don't know if I'm ready to dive that deep and write an autobiography.

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Twilight Struggle was one of the earlier board games to be added to my collection. It had everything to do with hype. I am not a history buff. American History largely goes in one of my ears and out the other. I am also not a "War gamer". At least not yet. I like complex games, but I don't like complex rules - games should be complex because the decisions are complex.

BoardGameGeek has been instrumental in helping me make purchasing decisions, and Twilight Struggle is one of the highest rated board games across the entire site, and provided the proper motivation to buy the game. I confused critical acclaim with compatibility: if this is truly one of the great board games, I will surely like it, theme be damned.

Twilight Struggle is a game of Cold War events, and cards that depict those events. The players play the part of the two global superpowers of the time, US and USSR. The board is a world map you would find in any classroom, with an abstract overlay that describes the state of the world during the Cold War. Countries have a stability number- the higher the number, the more difficult it is to exert your influence there. Highly stable countries slowly move back and forth between one player controlling it, and the other player putting a few more points into it to temporarily remove that control. Low stability countries are susceptible to more wild swings. "Coup" is a common action that either player can take. After playing a card and rolling a die, influence from the other player is removed, and sometimes your own influence is added if you happen to roll high enough. This has an additional effect beyond just controlling that country - it can remove a player's ability to act on huge areas of the board.

The easiest example of this can happen right from the first action. Iran is a country controlled by the United States player at the beginning of the game, as part of the initial setup. It also happens to be the only country that the US player controls in that area of the board. If the USSR player manages to remove that influence (which they can very easily do, using a high value card as well as the fact that they perform the very first action of the game), it essentially gives Western Asia to the USSR. The US player can respond with a Coup of their own, but another system in the game* also gives the USSR the chance to respond with yet another Coup, and also the last Coup allowed to happen in the Middle East.

*DEFCON Status is a space on the board that, as players approach nuclear war, more regions of the board lose their ability to be Coup'ed. DEFCON usually changes after a Coup happens in a particularly important country.

The act of playing Twilight Struggle is unusually brutal. It is ultimately a game about managing a hand of cards, and minimizing risks. Many times, a card you play will also do something good for your opponent, and vice versa. You have to time your cards properly, and misdirect your opponent so they have less chance to thwart your plans. Every turn has around 200 legal moves, so a large burden is put on evaluating those moves to find the one that you absolutely need to do now.

One game, I began a round with intentions to pour everything I had into Asia. I knew my opponent would do the same. However, my hand I've been dealt gives my opponent a powerful strike against my European countries. Even if I gain control of Asia this turn, when we inevitably turn our eyes back to Europe, my hopes of victory would surely be lost. So how much time can I really focus on taking Asia?

Score cards are the glue that keeps your brain together in this massive puzzle of a game. When you are dealt a Score card as part of you hand of eight cards, you have to be ready to fight. By the end of the turn, that Score card must be played - failing to do so results in an instant loss. So when you have the European Scoring card, it shapes your entire strategy that round.

When should I score Europe? Should I try and squeeze in a few more points, but risk losing more if my opponent matches my plays with stronger cards? Or maybe I should get it out of the way before it spirals out of control, take a small loss, and turn my attention to other regions?

Score cards are a blessing and a burden. Knowing that a region will be scored with 100% certainty is an informational advantage. However, it effectively reduces your options in how you exert your influence on that region, because all Score cards do is score points. That means one less card to help shape the world to your liking.

This ends up being my favorite part of Twilight Struggle. The cards may be the same every game, but Twilight Struggle is artistic in that you get a fresh mix of them every time, and the value of the cards change drastically. Some games start at a roaring pace, with multiple regions getting scored right away, turning the gaze of both player to maybe just one region. The result is a brutal fight that results in no winners - the board certainly changes, but not to the net benefit to either player.

I love Twilight Struggle because it is about making the best of bad deals: everything I do is going to help my opponent no matter what I do, but I'm going to minimize the damage to the best of my ability. It is about winning the small fights without losing sight of the bigger picture. Strokes of genius are rewarded just as much as mistakes are punished. It is a true test of skill and logic.

I don't get Twilight Struggle to the table very often, usually from too many players or just other games. But I don't have to play it to love it: reading online strategy is fascinating, and the game system is so cool that I just like talking about it around my nerd friends that have never touched it. I see it as everything a game should be: thoughtful and rewarding. It also works on many other levels, but being rewarded for a well fought battle with a smile and a deep discussion of strategies after it is over is what I value most.

If you don't want to play Twilight Struggle, I understand completely. But I think you should at least be aware of it, as I feel it is a very good example of a game that is as good as it could possibly be. Every part of the package is masterfully crafted. And for all its abstraction and dry looking components and themes, it mostly boils down to a game that is about making sure your numbers are bigger than their numbers. I believe anybody can play Twilight Struggle for that reason.