Overview:
Cold War: CIA vs. KGB is an original two player card game in the 45 – 60 minute lite strategy category. I had heard some good things about this game on the various popular gaming podcasts and so had to get a copy and try it out.

Components:
Cold War: CIA vs. KGB is a Fantasy Flight Games “new card box” format game (that’s a sturdy 4” by 7” box with a standard cardboard insert). It comes with a deck of 24 group cards (in 4 suits numbered 1 through 6), a deck of 21 objective cards (the countries and events the two super-powers are fighting over), two decks of 6 Agent cards (one for CIA and one for KGB), two score track cards, two glass beads (red & blue), three holographic style poker chips (one for CIA domination, one for KGB domination, and the green balance token), and a 16 page full color rulebook. The cards are of the popular Chinese Linen finish; they are standard playing card size except for the Agent decks which are oversized with a smooth finish. They are all of excellent quality and feature black and white Cold War era images. The rulebook is well illustrated, with clear instructions and humorous examples. The poker chip domination and balance tokens are overkill, but add that extra touch that puts this game into the top notch category for bits.

Theme:
Each player is the head of their respective country’s intelligence agency. They will select an agent to send to the current objective to aid in its conversion to their side. This game just oozes with theme from the artwork on the cards, to the two super-powers sending agents into other countries to tilt them into their spheres of influence, to the use of proxies to do the actual fighting, assassination, double cross, and mayhem. It brings back memories of “the good old days.”

Setup:
To set up the game, each player picks a side and takes their respective agent deck, domination token, score card, and score bead. Shuffle the objective deck and the group deck. Determine a starting player and give them the balance token.

Game Play:
The game consists of a series of turns. Each turn represents a conflict between the two super powers for control of an objective. Each turn is broken into six phases.

First the Briefing phase sets up the conflict. The top card of the objective deck is revealed. This may be a country or a politically significant event. Each objective has a Stability rating, a Population limit, a Victory Point value, and a set of Bias Icons (more on these later). The event objectives also have a special ability that can be activated by discarding them (and losing their Victory Points).

Next is the Planning phase where each player secretly chooses one of their available agents from their Agent deck and places it face down. You have six agents to choose from at the start of the game, each with a special ability: the Master Spy (the loser of the conflict claims the objective), the Deputy Director (the un-killable man who never takes a break), the Double Agent (picks an opponent’s agent to send on leave for next turn or reveals the agent chosen by their opponent for next turn), the Analyst (look at and reorder the top three cards of the group deck at the start of next turn), the Assassin (terminate the opposing agent if you win the conflict), and the Director (claim the objective on the bottom of the Objective deck as well as the current objective if you win the conflict).

Now comes the Influence Struggle phase, where the conflict actually happens. The player with the balance token decides which player will go first. On your action you must either: Recruit a group, Activate a group, or Pass and do nothing this round. If you have no group in play in front of you, you must Recruit a group.

Recruiting a group consists of drawing the top card from the group deck and placing it in front of you. This card will have a value of 1 to 6. The goal is to get groups in play totaling as close to the Stability rating listed on the current objective as possible without going over, similar to blackjack. The population limit of the current objective is the maximum number of groups a player may have in play.

Activating a group works similarly to tapping a card in most popular CCGs. To activate a group, you pick one of the groups in play in front of you, turn it sideways and may then use its special ability. Once used, a card may not be tapped again (unless it is reset by another card, turning it upright again for later reuse). All cards of the same suit have the same special abilities. The four suits and their abilities are: Military (tap to destroy any other group, even one of your own), Political (tap to steal one of the other player’s groups, it retains its tapped/untapped status), Economic (tap to tap/untap any other group), and Media (tap to look at the top card of the group deck and either recruit it immediately, discard it, or return it face down to the top of the group deck).

Passing is usually done when you are satisfied with your current total and have no wish to invoke any of your groups. When both players pass one after the other, the phase ends and the conflict is resolved.

Now comes the Cease-Fire phase where the player’s totals are compared to the objective’s Stability rating. The player closest to this total without going over has gained dominance in the region. He places his dominance token on the objective and gloats. If both players are tied, the objective has a list of Bias icons (the four suits). The first suit listed is the first tie breaker. The player with the highest value group of that suit wins the tie. If neither player has a card of that suit, go on to the second suit listed, and so on until the tie is broken. If one player’s total exceeds the objective’s Stability rating, that player’s agent has caused Civil Disorder in the region. Their agent is disavowed by their government and is quietly terminated to avoid future embarrassment (unless it was their un-killable man, who just goes back to work). Terminated agents are removed from play for the rest of the game. If both players cause Civil Disorder, both their agents are terminated (except as above) and the objective is placed on the bottom of the Objective deck unclaimed.

But wait, it’s not over yet! Now comes the Debriefing phase where both sides reveal their surviving agent and resolve their special effects. Each agent has an initiative score from 1 to 6. The lowest numbered agent goes first. Here’s where you can double cross the other player by purposely losing and then taking the objective with your Master Spy, or terminate the other agent with your Assassin, or take two objectives with your Director. Much devious planning and second guessing goes on.

In the last phase, Détente, the surviving agents go on leave (except for the un-killable man who hates down time). Agents on leave are not available for next turn’s conflict. Players then update their score card to reflect any victory points gained from taking an objective. The group deck is shuffled (including all discards), the player with the lowest score gets the Balance token, and a new turn begins.

Winning:
The game ends when one player has accumulated at least 100 victory points. They win the Cold War and earn bragging rights.

High Points:
Fun to play. Hidden agents mean you never know if you have it won till the end. You can come from behind if you succeed with the director, and assassinating the other player’s agents is great fun.

Low Points:
Some will not care for the luck aspect of the blackjack mechanic, even though the group abilities mitigate this. Only two players.

Final Impressions:
I found the game to be great fun to play. The feel of the game fit the theme quite well. We found ourselves chuckling at the group actions as conflicts played out. Best Fantasy Flight card game since Citadels.