Tiny Cold War: Small game, Great potential

There is song that goes: "War has never been so much fun". And for some games out there this is true. Is Tiny Cold War one of them?

So you are a member of a solitaire wargamers group on Facebook and one day a little game pops out, that catches your attention immediately. Just a small free PnP solo game about the cold war era, which some of us remember very well, at least from what our parents and grandparents told us about it.

You know you need to test this ASAP!

Tiny Cold War by Sebastiano Zamperetti (read the interview HERE) let´s you replay the biggest and most threathening events from the second half of the last century on a strategic level. With cards and dice, no need for fancy miniatures and huge maps. You simply get a "playmat" (included in the pnp package) with rules, 18 cards, add some dice and a defcon counter and you ready to go.

Oh by the way, did I mention you get to decide which side of the conflict between West and East you want to play?

Each round you look at one card from the deck and resolve its effect. You can manipulate political or military influence, and later in the game you get involved into space race, which is a very cool addon to gameplay. Every card/event resolves differently and you have different options how to stop it from resolving (you don´t wanna let the oponent reach higher influencen then you have – if this happens on two fronts, you loose the game in the end. You can also lose by letting the Defcon to reach 0, then the whole world goes nuclear apocalypse good bye mode). You also roll d6 and check the table for good or bad results (its better to roll with advantage, when you have overhand).

There is not much more to say about the game: it´s simple, straightforward, with some cool features and options to entertain the player for several session. The gameplay is fun and very inspirative, makes you immediately imagine your own scenarios with this system.

The cards are real photos depicting events from the Cold War like the Berlin blockade or Cuban Crisis. The text describes these events in a nutshell, so the game also has an educative value, which is very nice. An extra card is the "Intelligence report", which lets you take a look at upcoming events and gives a chance to adjust your strategy for the next turns.

All in All, I very much recommend Tiny Cold War as a cool little strategic wargame, that you will play a lot. AND the printer friendly BnW version is a real must if you want "just to try". 

(by the way, this is still the beta of the Game, so there will by some changes done in future)

Homepage: https://www.tinycoldwar.com/

Designer Interview: https://sologamersdiaries.webnode.sk/l/designer-interview-tiny-cold-war/