Game: Nuclear Proliferation

Thread: Re: Six-player Non-diplomatic madness!

raolsson — 2008-07-24T21:18:09+00:00

It's a shame you could not be there, KingPut. If there is one thing better than a six-player Nuclear Proliferation, its a seven-player game of Nuclear Proliferation. :-)

Thread: Re: Six-player Non-diplomatic madness!

KingPut — 2008-07-24T21:16:05+00:00

I love the nuke war games. We played them a bunch in highschool / college while listing to 80's Punk music. I'll play anytime. Also, it's never a bad move to attack Malloc.

Thread: Six-player Non-diplomatic madness!

raolsson — 2008-07-24T20:42:15+00:00

Wednesday night at Bobby Tweaks, and Perigee had brought his Nuclear Proliferation to the table. Malloc, Phil W., Chuck, Wargaming Jason, Perigee, and I sat down for a game of madness.

In my past experience with this game, everyone has tended to go nuclear pretty quickly, although I had heard of some previous games where this was not the case. As Popula, the nation that gains two million citizens every time it uses a population card in a hot war, I knew my special ability was not going to do me any favors. As Perigee worked his way through the his secrets and top secrets, I picked up the opportunity to lose my first turn. I was one of the lucky ones. By the end of the secrets round, the first four players had missed their first turns and Malloc had the super virus on him. Wargamer Jason had also picked up the vaccination card, so the rest of us could look forward to getting some sickness thrown our way.

Malloc launched some devastating secret at Malcolm that cost him 25 million, then zapped his population for 25 million to take Malcolm out of the game by turn three. Phil W. and I made a mutual unspoken pact to take Malloc out at that point. Wargamer Jason and Chuck were not familiar with the subtle niceties of Nuclear Proliferation, so it would take our combined efforts to keep Malloc from getting more threatening that he already was.

A few turns further in, I got to weather 50 megatons of nuclear goodness from Malloc, each coming down in ten megaton blasts. It was a good thing I had over 50 million in my population to start with, or I would never have been able to survive the onslaught. A few turns later, I was able to take Malloc out of the game. He directed his final retaliation against me, but I was able to hold up.

Until Phil W. took me out two turns later. My final retaliation took Phil down to one million in population, and when cold war returned, Chuck played a 2 million propaganda card, which took Phil W. out of the game without the option for final retaliation.

At this point, I left to start a game of Neuroshima Hex while the getting was good. Perigee stayed on to observe and revealed that Wargamer Jason won the game with six million in his population left after a few more turns.

When one looks back at Nuclear Proliferation, one has to wonder what strategy would have worked better. For me, probably not going after Malloc quite so early. But if I had not, would I have even survived as long as I did? It is hard to second guess one's diplomatic moves in such situations.

Awesome game. If you have not tried it, you should.

Thread: Revenge II

raolsson — 2007-08-27T19:05:56+00:00

Sal, Malcolm, and I began a second round of Nuclear Proliferation at lunch after our first game ended in taking Malcolm out. Would our second game result in the same?

As in the first game, we played with the nations, Sal playing Asguardland, Malcolm playing Bagmad, and I took Radonia. Sal could add 1 million to her population after every successful nuclear strike, Malcolm could launch a 20 megaton dirty bomb on his turn without a missile and without disturbing the peace, and I could add 1 million in extra population casualties when I successfully launched an attack.

Our secrets and top secrets were less benign than they were in the first game, and this was not a good start for me as I had barely 35 million in population to start the game. By the time the game began, I had lost 10 million of those.

As in our first game, Sal and I had an unspoken agreement to take out Malcolm. If he won on our watch, then we would break even for the day, a fate we could not continue with. And as in any three-player game, two would team up on one to make it a one-on-one game eventually. This time there were dramatic rolls. Malcolm stuck me with a 25 million mysterious death Top Secret, which took me out of the game first. In my final retaliation, I was able to launch a stealth bomber with two fifty megaton cards for the payload. I rolled a triple damage on the first and standard on the second, which left Malcolm (I learned later) with five million in population, which Sal took out with her first salvo.

Two games in under an hour. A phenomenal record for our gaming group, and perhaps an invitation to consider 12 population cards in our next round, when no doubt we will all plot against still yet another player, to be determined at another time. Sal could be a good candidate.

Thread: Revenge

raolsson — 2007-08-27T18:57:17+00:00

Malcolm, who has returned to our gaming lunch crew after a few years of hiatus, has also brought back his copy of Nuclear Proliferation, along with the other versions of this game. Since returning, he has done very well in taking out all comers in this game and a few others, so VuduJoie suggested we all team up on Malcolm. "We all" became Sal and I in a three-player game.

We played with the nations, Sal playing Asguardland, Malcolm playing Bagmad, and I took Little Bittyland. Sal could add 1 million to her population after every successful nuclear strike, Malcolm could launch a 20 megaton dirty bomb on his turn without a missile and without disturbing the peace, and I could revert the game to peace by expending 3 populations cards.

Our secrets and top secrets were relatively benign to begin the game. I got the cloning top secret card and doubled my 25 million population card (which worked well as my next two top secrets took about 15 million of that excess to leave me at plus 10 million). Our cards went directly to nuclear war (although Malcolm delivered a 20 megaton dirty bomb to me and THEN zapped me for 10 million in propoganda before I started the hot war on my turn. Darn Bagmadians!)

For Sal and I, our task was to take out Malcolm, and we pursued that with abandon. There were no dramatic rolls to prevent that outcome. Or to encourage it. We played at lunch, so we started with only six population cards to ensure the game would complete. Malcolm dedicated his final retaliation to taking me out, which he was not able to accomplish. Sal then started focusing on taking me out, which did not take long. My final retaliation did not take her out.

Total game time? Twenty minutes. Time for a second round? You bet!

Thread: Re: Too many secrets and top secrets when combining all thre

davidme — 2007-05-25T08:36:59+00:00

since war has not been declared they do not get a final strike.

Being ousted by Secrets & Top Secrets does give a final retaliation. Propaganda does not.

Official site suggests creating a sideboard of Secrets. Put the number of secrets in the deck that you think is appropriate, then whenever one is drawn, instead of being used, it is put on the bottom of the sideboard deck and the top card of that deck is drawn instead.

It allows all secrets to be used occasionally without having to go through the deck & change them out between games.

Thread: Nuclear War microbadge available

bill_andel — 2007-01-24T00:49:41+00:00

A microbadge for Nuclear War fans is now available. To purchase, follow this link:

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/browse/microbadge/1309

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Ozvortex — 2006-11-28T11:43:48+00:00

The front of the box

Thread: Re: Too many secrets and top secrets when combining all thre

mantra6 — 2006-09-20T20:43:55+00:00

We found the same thing, and culled all repeated secret cards plus some more to make a good balance. We also now play where we no longer say "I have a top secret" and "I have a secret", it is always just "I have a secret", but the honor system says offer Top Secrets first if you have them. Adds a little mystery using a spy to buy the card.

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dreadpirate — 2006-01-09T04:37:23+00:00

Cards made/modified by myself in college. Also requires copy of "Creatures and Cultists".

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Gregol — 2005-08-08T19:13:11+00:00

Your board, loaded up and armed for destruction

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Gregol — 2005-08-08T19:13:10+00:00

Can you see that little Mushroom...Sweet!

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Gregol — 2005-08-08T19:13:07+00:00

Some of the new secret cards

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Gregol — 2005-08-08T19:13:04+00:00

Some of the new weapon systems

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Gregol — 2005-08-08T19:13:03+00:00

Some of the new country mats

Thread: User Review

taragalinas — 2005-02-01T19:01:00+00:00

This is the second expansion to Nuclear Wars. It introduces some new elements to the game:
Submarines, Atomic Cannons, Stealth Bombers, Space Shuttles (these require ownership of the first expansion to be fully implemented in the game), Smart Bombs, Saboteurs and Spies.
In other words: A whole bunch of new stuff with which to blow up your neighbours! And to add insult to injury can also take your chances with the "Radioactive dice" every time you hit someone - Just to see if you can obliterate them some more...

Each player also gets to pick a "country". Each country has a special power that affects the game.

The new elements all work smoothly with the exception of the submarines. These are just tedious and boring to keep track of. The same goes for the so called powers of each country.

If you like Nuclear Wars, this expansion will add extra flavour to the mayhem. But it does in no way elevate it to a higher level of gaming.

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Wisphunter — 2004-09-12T14:22:25+00:00

Back of box

Thread: Re:Too many secrets and top secrets when combining all three games

Jern — 2003-09-28T11:19:57+00:00

Karlsen (#20023),
I've had the same problem, but made up a couple of different decks with the same basic setup of other cards (somewhere in one set of the rules they mention a prefered percentage of cards that are very useful for this) and then I can just pick different decks to get different secrets (also makes the decks a lot easier to shuffle :-) ). You still have to many secrets though so some will have to be left out...

Thread: Too many secrets and top secrets when combining all three games

Karlsen — 2003-09-27T21:11:01+00:00

I own the trilogy and they live as a combined set. In playing this we always find that the I've got a secret round goes on way too long and we can easily lose a couple of players during that round. Even worse, for them, is the fact that since war has not been declared they do not get a final strike.

I must go through the, now rather large, deck and cull some of the secrets and top secrets. Tough job though, so many of them are so cute and must not be removed.

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2001-07-13T07:23:31+00:00

Thread: User Review

BoardGameGeek — 2001-06-30T04:15:51+00:00

A wonderful, dark game that makes me reminisce the good old Cold War days of yore. The "tongue-in-cheek, finger-on-the-button" nature of the game is great and reminds me of "Dr. Stragelove." The new Secret and Top Secret cards are quite funny. Best when combined with Nuclear Proliferation and Escalation.