Last Saturday evening I joined three other boardgamers and played a newly published game (2025) called "New Cold War."
New Cold War is a board game for one to four players that simulates global power struggles over three decades from the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989 to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2019. Each of the four players takes on the role of a superpower engaged in a struggle for regional or global domination. The four superpowers are:
- USA
- EU
- Russia
- China
The USA and EU form the Blue Bloc while Russia and China form the Red Bloc and the game mechanics encourage bloc players to be semi-cooperative while each player has individual victory conditions that may rub against those of the other country in the bloc.
The main area of cooperation is on the "media perception" track, which represents how favorably the world views the two blocs. Players from the same bloc can jointly improve their media image through specific actions or events. The media track is on a win/lose scale so that a positive move in favour of Bloc A is simultaneously a negative move to the detriment of bloc B.
Having a positive media perception improves a superpower's prestige and brings other soft-power benefits that can help you to rack up victory points.
Speaking of victory points, there are two ways to win the game: firstly, by achieving (and declaring) two of your hidden objectives; secondly, if nobody manages to achieve two objectives by the end of the third decade, then the player with the most victory points wins the game.
A Highly Playable and Stimulating Game
Although the rules appeared a bit daunting at first, once we got started we found that play moved forward quite briskly, especially during the early stages of the first decade.
For me, this is the most enjoyable "complex" game that I've played so far. The "event cards" remind us of real world events that were in the news during the course of the last 35 years.
Another enjoyable aspect of the game was the ability of players to "veto" some of the events they didn't like if they had the power to do so.
EU Vetoes Brexit and Wins the Game!
I was playing as the EU, and in the third decade of the game one of the other players played the "Brexit" card as an event, which would have damaged my position in the game. Luckily, I was able to veto Brexit and as nobody had achieved two objectives during the game, it turned out that I won the game by a whisker - beating the USA into first place by one victory point!
All through the game I suspected that Russia was on the verge of victory because Russia was the first to achieve an objective, and always seemed to be causing trouble in the EU's back garden, however, it turned out that Tony, who was playing as Russia, felt constantly constrained by the need to "put out fires."
As the EU, I was fairly easily able to dominate north Africa and it was only in the second decade of the game that China began to assert itself on that continent, and the Russians also appeared on the scene to cause some disruption. However, the EU was able to maintain control, and even won control of South Africa, a regional power... and right at the end of the game, the EU also gained influence of Japan (another regional power) and it was those Victory Points that enabled me to pip the USA to victory.
I must say that I was surprised that I had won because I made several blunders along the way, and also telegraphed my second objective so that Russia was able to sabotage my efforts; not only that, but I misinterpreted what I was supposed to be going for!
Although the expected duration of New Cold War is listed as up to 180 minutes, it took us four hours to complete the game. Great fun, and a game I definitely want to play again, and would highly recommend to anybody who enjoys strategy games based on actual events rather than complete fantasy.
Here's an interview with the game designers: https://theplayersaid.com/2025/05/19/interview-with-andoni-orive-and-igor-plaza-designers-of-new-cold-war-1989-2019-from-vuca-simulations/?fbclid=IwY2xjawKY5ShleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETB5Q2RwSlZRamNzWUpLZnpYAR5tlyEM4O5O6y9_UsNytg59ccLFwWTXxqLyUQhaGwXSKVdhCotweEzLHBBg9w_aem_L-CYzPvDulmzUxivq9XKaA
Cheers!
David Hurley
#InspiredFocus