Objective

Score the most Prestige at game end. Score 1 Prestige per battleground dominated (2 for Cuba). Avoid triggering Nuclear War.

Turn Structure

• 1. Bid for Initiative — highest bid sets turn order; both bids removed.
• 2. Each player plays 1 card, draws 1 card. Repeat.
• 3. Game ends when both players hold 1 card and deck is empty.

Playing a Card

Place the card face-up as a new battleground (neutral zone or your sphere). Then either:

• Command — place/remove your own cubes on any single battleground (up to the card's number). Placing moves that card toward you; removing moves it away.
• Event — only on your own faction's cards or neutral (UN) cards. Follow the card's special instruction.

If you play your opponent's card, they may use its Event before you take your Command.

Domination & Scoring

You dominate a battleground if you have more cubes than your opponent. Ties go to whoever's sphere the card is in. Cuba (face-down card) is worth 2 Prestige.

Aftermath

After the last turn: the player with more cubes on the two leftover hand cards scores 1 Prestige. Then those cards' DEFCON symbols may trigger Nuclear War.

Nuclear War

If 3+ DEFCON symbols of the same colour are in your sphere of influence, you lose. If both players trigger it, no one wins.

DEFCON Colours

• 🟠 Orange — Military
• 🟢 Green — Political
• 🟣 Purple — World Opinion

Cards

• US: Wave & Smile, EXCOMM, U-2 Photographs, Quarantine, Public Protests
• USSR: Strategic Balance, Moscow is our Brain, MRBMs & IRBMs, U-2 Downed, Fidel Castro
• Neutral (UN): Containment, To the Brink, U Thant