Asyncron Games has announced the release of a new board game called DEFCON 1, which recreates the intense political and military dynamics of the Cold War era. The game was successfully funded on Kickstarter in 2021 and will be distributed in English by Ares Games, with the release date set for September 2023.
DEFCON 1 is designed for 2-5 players and is a fully asymmetrical strategy game that offers a variety of scenarios based on different years of the Cold War, ranging from 1950 to 1990. Each player controls one of five different blocs, which include the Atlantic Alliance, the Warsaw Pact, the Non-Aligned Movement, France, and China. The game’s objective is to become the dominant bloc by managing military, diplomatic, and economic resources while avoiding the catastrophic nuclear war that could lead to a loss for all players.
The game is played on a 90 x 60 cm game board and features five different phases: Initialization, R&D, Political, Production, Atomic, and Warfare. Players will have to navigate these phases carefully to manage their resources and achieve their objectives. The Defcon level, which ranges from 5 to 1, degrades as the game progresses and determines which strategic options are available to players, such as building nuclear weapons.
DEFCON 1 is fully asymmetrical, meaning that each bloc has its unique strengths and weaknesses, and players will need to adopt different strategies based on their chosen bloc. This feature makes the game highly replayable, with each game offering a new experience for players.