New Cold War is a game about geopolitics that takes place from 1989 to 2019. It begins with the disintegration of the Soviet Union and ends with the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic. Players (from 1 to 4) take the role of the great powers fighting for the new world order: Russia, China (forming the Red Bloc), the United States and the European Union (Blue Bloc). The allied powers will have to cooperate with each other (exchange of cards, media marker…), but victory will be individual. There are two victory conditions: a power must declare two of the hidden objectives on its agenda during the game or lead the victory point score at the end of the last turn of the game. The game consists of nine turns divided into three decades with a game duration of 150-180 minutes.

New Cold War is a Card Driven Game (CDG) featuring the 135 most important events of the 30 year period covered by the game. Your power’s cards can be played as an event or as operations, while opponents’ cards and your own negative cards are played as OPS and the event is executed for or against the power to which it belongs. OPS can be played in six different ways: 1) placing or removing influence on countries on the map (based on their stability, geopolitical value and initial alignment), 2) by staging a coup d’état, 3) stabilizing or destabilizing countries to protect or favor access to them, 4) advancing on the prestige marker, 5) advancing on the media marker, either alone or in cooperation with your ally (it is a track that is contested by blocks) or 6) creating a reserve of OPS to play in later rounds or game turns.

In this series of Event Card Spoilers, we will cover several different types of cards included in the game and from the different Decade Decks and give their details so that you can understand how the game works and how it incorporates the historical narrative of the new Cold War struggle between super powers from the end of the first Cold War through 2019.

Card #82: 1st Decade Deck – Warsaw Pact Dissolved

Warsaw Pact Dissolved is one of the five Crisis Cards in the game that represent the most damaging events for each of the powers. The effects of this card set back the Prestige, Media and Victory Point Tracks. The Crisis Cards are cards that must be played and do not grant operations points (notice value of zero in the upper left hand corner of the card), so it is advisable to avoid having them in your hand. Warsaw Pact Dissolved is very likely to appear in the 1st Decade of the game and contributes to sinking the starting position of Russia at the beginning of the game by reducing their standing on the Prestige, Media and Victory Point Tracks.

On the other hand, the United States starts with a very favorable position that allows it to lead the game in its first half. This initial asymmetry represents the historical context resulting from the end of the Cold War with the American victory. The two new powers appearing on the international scene, China and the European Union, begin the game in an intermediate situation with respect to Russia and the United States.

The next card up in the series will be Card #134: 3rd Decade Deck – Rise of the Far Right.

You can catch up on the series to date by following these links:

Card #7: 1st Decade Deck – The Tibetan Conflict

Card #105: 3rd Decade Deck – Annexation of Crimea

Also, if you are interested in learning more about New Cold War, you can visit the Board Game Geek game page at the following link: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/405994/new-cold-war

The game is not yet ready for pre-order but should be sometime in the next several months.

-Grant