Nuclear War (card game)
Encyclopedia
Nuclear War is a card game
designed by Douglas Malewicki
, and originally published in 1965. It is currently (as of 2007) published by Flying Buffalo
, and has inspired several expansions. It is a satirical simulation of an end-of-the-world scenario fought mostly with nuclear weapon
s.
At the start of a game, each player is dealt a number of "population cards," ranging in denomination from 1 million to 25 million people. Players must protect their population, as the total loss of population leads to player elimination. They are then dealt a number of cards, which may be of the following types:
Initially, players take turns playing secrets. Once all players have played all secrets and replaced cards from the deck they can announce 'no secrets' and place two cards face down. Players then take turns during which they will play a third face down card, and then reveal the oldest face down card (first in, first out) and resolve it. Secrets and propaganda cards are resolved immediately upon being exposed, while missile launches take more than one turn to properly setup.
Once players have a warhead fitted to a delivery system (for example by revealing a missile on one turn, and revealing a warhead on a subsequent turn), they may launch an attack. A successful attack reduces the target player's population; when a player's population reaches zero, they may launch an immediate retaliatory attack (called "final retaliation") but are then out of play. Often, this strike will end another player's game, leading to a final strike on a third party, and so on. Hence, in some cases, many players can be removed at once (via this mutual assured destruction
method). If a player is knocked out with a propaganda card, no retaliation is allowed. When someone launches an attack, "war is declared" and propaganda
cards are now worthless until a player is eliminated, at which time "peacetime" resumes. Some groups play that if a player is eliminated by a secret during peacetime, no retaliation is allowed, even though this is not stated in the rules, in the same way that there is no rule in Monopoly
about a "free parking jackpot" but people play with one anyway.
The object of the game is to be the sole player still in play after all attacks are resolved. More often, retaliatory strikes remove all players. If all players are eliminated from play, then there is no winner. Alternatively, a variant scoring system determines the winner via a point system—1 point for a knock out, 2 points for a propaganda knock out, 3 points for a retaliation knock out, a variable number of points for position depending on number of players, and finally 2 points for surviving (with the survivor not necessarily being the points winner).
The delivery systems in the game reflect those rockets in the American arsenal at the time, including Atlas, Titan
and Saturn
rockets. The available systems include the XB-70 Valkyrie
deep penetration bomber, which had been cancelled several years prior to the game's release, but which had two operational prototypes at the time.
has released a number of expansions, many of which can be played separately or with the original game. Each expansion highlights the worries of the end-of-the-world scenarios—including actual, theoretical and feared weapons—at the time of their releases.
Nuclear Escalation (1983): Adds deterrents and defensive capabilities, space platforms, the "glow-in-the-dark nuclear death die", and more.
Nuclear Proliferation (1992): Each player now represents a different country with unique special powers. Adds submarines, atomic cannons and more.
Nuclear War Booster Packs (1995): Booster Packs of 8 randomly packed card from a set of 47 new cards.
Nuclear War Bonus Pack #1: 9 new countries, warhead cards, a set of population cards, a bumper sticker and a player assistance chart.
Nuclear War Bonus Pack #2 — India
/Pakistan
War Variant (1999): Combines the Nuclear War game with the India Rails
game.
Weapons of Mass Destruction (2004): More cards for the game including new cards usable as either a missile or a warhead and a Deluxe Population deck featuring characters from Nodwick
, Kenzer & Company
and Dork Tower
.
Nuclear War Bonus Pack #3: Same as Bonus Pack #1 but with new style of population cards from Weapons of Mass Destruction.
In 1999 Pyramid
magazine named Nuclear War as one of The Millennium's Best Card Games. Editor Scott Haring said "Back when people were well-and-truly scared of the possibility of nuclear vaporization (I guess today either the threat is lessened, or it's become old hat), Nuclear War dared to make fun the possibility of mankind's dreaded nightmare via a card game."
Card game
A card game is any game using playing cards as the primary device with which the game is played, be they traditional or game-specific. Countless card games exist, including families of related games...
designed by Douglas Malewicki
Douglas Malewicki
Douglas Malewicki is an American aerospace engineer and inventor. Many of his inventions concern flying vehicles, but the range is quite diverse...
, and originally published in 1965. It is currently (as of 2007) published by Flying Buffalo
Flying Buffalo
Flying Buffalo Incorporated is a Scottsdale, Arizona game company that publishes role playing games, card games, gaming materials, and runs Play-by-mail games....
, and has inspired several expansions. It is a satirical simulation of an end-of-the-world scenario fought mostly with nuclear weapon
Nuclear weapon
A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission or a combination of fission and fusion. Both reactions release vast quantities of energy from relatively small amounts of matter. The first fission bomb test released the same amount...
s.
Gameplay
The game is a multiplayer game, with each player having a small cardboard playmat upon which cards are placed and revealed. It is intended to be played by 3 or more players, but can also be played with only 2.At the start of a game, each player is dealt a number of "population cards," ranging in denomination from 1 million to 25 million people. Players must protect their population, as the total loss of population leads to player elimination. They are then dealt a number of cards, which may be of the following types:
- Secrets which usually steal or reduce another player's population.
- PropagandaPropagandaPropaganda is a form of communication that is aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position so as to benefit oneself or one's group....
which steal another player's population, but have no effect once war has started. - Delivery Systems (Missiles & Bombers) which stay in play ready to hold a warhead.
- Warheads which are fitted to a Delivery System, or discarded if there is not one available for them.
- Special which are usually defensive cards to shoot down incoming Missiles, or cards to increase the devastation caused by attacks.
Initially, players take turns playing secrets. Once all players have played all secrets and replaced cards from the deck they can announce 'no secrets' and place two cards face down. Players then take turns during which they will play a third face down card, and then reveal the oldest face down card (first in, first out) and resolve it. Secrets and propaganda cards are resolved immediately upon being exposed, while missile launches take more than one turn to properly setup.
Once players have a warhead fitted to a delivery system (for example by revealing a missile on one turn, and revealing a warhead on a subsequent turn), they may launch an attack. A successful attack reduces the target player's population; when a player's population reaches zero, they may launch an immediate retaliatory attack (called "final retaliation") but are then out of play. Often, this strike will end another player's game, leading to a final strike on a third party, and so on. Hence, in some cases, many players can be removed at once (via this mutual assured destruction
Mutual assured destruction
Mutual Assured Destruction, or mutually assured destruction , is a doctrine of military strategy and national security policy in which a full-scale use of high-yield weapons of mass destruction by two opposing sides would effectively result in the complete, utter and irrevocable annihilation of...
method). If a player is knocked out with a propaganda card, no retaliation is allowed. When someone launches an attack, "war is declared" and propaganda
Propaganda
Propaganda is a form of communication that is aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position so as to benefit oneself or one's group....
cards are now worthless until a player is eliminated, at which time "peacetime" resumes. Some groups play that if a player is eliminated by a secret during peacetime, no retaliation is allowed, even though this is not stated in the rules, in the same way that there is no rule in Monopoly
Monopoly (game)
Marvin Gardens, the leading yellow property on the board shown, is actually a misspelling of the original location name, Marven Gardens. The misspelling was said to be introduced by Charles Todd and passed on when his home-made Monopoly board was copied by Charles Darrow and thence to Parker...
about a "free parking jackpot" but people play with one anyway.
The object of the game is to be the sole player still in play after all attacks are resolved. More often, retaliatory strikes remove all players. If all players are eliminated from play, then there is no winner. Alternatively, a variant scoring system determines the winner via a point system—1 point for a knock out, 2 points for a propaganda knock out, 3 points for a retaliation knock out, a variable number of points for position depending on number of players, and finally 2 points for surviving (with the survivor not necessarily being the points winner).
The delivery systems in the game reflect those rockets in the American arsenal at the time, including Atlas, Titan
Titan (rocket family)
Titan was a family of U.S. expendable rockets used between 1959 and 2005. A total of 368 rockets of this family were launched, including all the Project Gemini manned flights of the mid-1960s...
and Saturn
Saturn (rocket family)
The Saturn family of American rocket boosters was developed by a team of mostly German rocket scientists led by Wernher von Braun to launch heavy payloads to Earth orbit and beyond. Originally proposed as a military satellite launcher, they were adopted as the launch vehicles for the Apollo moon...
rockets. The available systems include the XB-70 Valkyrie
XB-70 Valkyrie
The North American Aviation XB-70 Valkyrie was the prototype version of the proposed B-70 nuclear-armed deep-penetration strategic bomber for the United States Air Force's Strategic Air Command...
deep penetration bomber, which had been cancelled several years prior to the game's release, but which had two operational prototypes at the time.
Expansions
Flying BuffaloFlying Buffalo
Flying Buffalo Incorporated is a Scottsdale, Arizona game company that publishes role playing games, card games, gaming materials, and runs Play-by-mail games....
has released a number of expansions, many of which can be played separately or with the original game. Each expansion highlights the worries of the end-of-the-world scenarios—including actual, theoretical and feared weapons—at the time of their releases.
Nuclear Escalation (1983): Adds deterrents and defensive capabilities, space platforms, the "glow-in-the-dark nuclear death die", and more.
Nuclear Proliferation (1992): Each player now represents a different country with unique special powers. Adds submarines, atomic cannons and more.
Nuclear War Booster Packs (1995): Booster Packs of 8 randomly packed card from a set of 47 new cards.
Nuclear War Bonus Pack #1: 9 new countries, warhead cards, a set of population cards, a bumper sticker and a player assistance chart.
Nuclear War Bonus Pack #2 — India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
/Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
War Variant (1999): Combines the Nuclear War game with the India Rails
Empire Builder (board game)
Empire Builder is a railroad board game centered on the construction of railroad track, and then the delivery of goods along those railroad tracks. The original Empire Builder game is set in North America, but the line has expanded to include games set across the world, on the moon and even in a...
game.
Weapons of Mass Destruction (2004): More cards for the game including new cards usable as either a missile or a warhead and a Deluxe Population deck featuring characters from Nodwick
Nodwick
Nodwick is a comic strip created by Aaron Williams, based around the conventions of fantasy role-playing games, in particular Dungeons & Dragons . It debuted in Dragon magazine issue #246 , first with short strips, and later receiving a second strip in Dungeon magazine, making fun of one of the...
, Kenzer & Company
Kenzer & Company
Kenzer & Company is a Waukegan based publisher of comic books, role-playing games, board games, card games, and miniature games....
and Dork Tower
Dork Tower
Dork Tower is an online comic created, written and drawn by John Kovalic. It chronicles the lives of a group of geeks living in the fictional town of Mud Bay, Wisconsin. Mud Bay's design is strongly influenced by the author's home town of Madison, Wisconsin. Topics have included role-playing...
.
Nuclear War Bonus Pack #3: Same as Bonus Pack #1 but with new style of population cards from Weapons of Mass Destruction.
Awards
- Nuclear Escalation - Charles Roberts Award for Best Science Fiction Boardgame of 1983
- Nuclear Proliferation - Origins AwardOrigins AwardThe Origins Awards are American awards for outstanding work in the game industry. They are presented by the Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts and Design at the Origins Game Fair on an annual basis for the previous year, so the 1979 awards were given at the 1980 Origins.The Origins Award is commonly...
for Best Fantasy or Science Fiction Boardgame of 1992 - Nuclear War - inducted into the Origins Adventure Gaming Hall of FameHall of FameA hall of fame, wall of fame, walk of fame, walk of stars or avenue of stars is a type of attraction established for any field of endeavor to honor individuals of noteworthy achievement in that field...
In 1999 Pyramid
Pyramid (magazine)
Pyramid is a gaming magazine, publishing articles primarily on role-playing games, but including board games, card games, and other sorts of games. It began life in 1993 as a print publication of Steve Jackson Games for its first 30 issues, though it has been published on the Internet since March...
magazine named Nuclear War as one of The Millennium's Best Card Games. Editor Scott Haring said "Back when people were well-and-truly scared of the possibility of nuclear vaporization (I guess today either the threat is lessened, or it's become old hat), Nuclear War dared to make fun the possibility of mankind's dreaded nightmare via a card game."
External links
- Flying Buffalo's Nuclear War site
- Designer Douglas Malewicki's Nuclear War site
- Official online version of Nuclear War from GameTable Online website