A Brand new boardgame company based in the UK from the designer of Blue Water Navy, published 2019 by Compass Games

Blue Water Navy on BoardgameGeek

My first independent game will be 2 Minutes to Midnight,
a medium complexity grand strategy game on the cold war running around 6 hours playtime.
It should be available Christmas 2021 and will be kick-starting in June.
Please sign up to the newsletter for updates.

2 Minutes to Midnight is a fresh design using a chit-pull

system to explore the cold war in 5 year turns starting in 1946. The game is designed to be a sandbox where many possible (but plausible) things could happen - but within the historical boundaries of the cold war.
 

The rules are short and easily understood - the complexity comes in the depth of action allowed to the players - there are many options available but you'll need to carefully allocate your scarce resources to achieve your goals.

The game is highly asymmetrical - the US has presidential elections & national debt to worry about, while the Soviets must try to achieve their 5 year plan and navigate freedom (or lack thereof) within the Soviet Union itself.

The chit cup contains money - the primary resource, which can be used to:

• Influence a country, marking it as pro-US or pro-USSR or changing its government type (Communist, Democratic or Authoritarian).

• Invest and create trade opportunities, improving the economy

• Recruit spies

• Research technology

• Strengthen strategic forces (ICBM, SLBM, Interceptors)

• Deploy armies into civil wars or proxy wars

• Calm down an angry populace

The cup also contains around a dozen events per turn which, when pulled, may trigger - or may not - some of those that do not go back into the cup for next turn and some are gone forever. This means that you aren't quite sure what's going to happen in each game.

Technology is represented by a technology tree including nuclear weapons, the space race, armed forces and for the Soviets agricultural progress.

​

Military is covered in three areas - nuclear, which prevents aggression against your nation; Conventional - which gives options to be more aggressive; Navy - boosting intelligence gathering and ability to invade from the sea, as well as hunting enemy strategic missile submarines.

​

Spies are deployed by players to try and instigate coups or stamp them out.

​

Lastly, there is an intelligence track - a high intel capability from U2 spy planes, satellites or submarines gives more ability to react to opponent activity.

​