So we’re both a little obsessed with this game, it’s a clever 2 player, quickish game which we’ve had for probably 6 months to a year created Matthias Cramer and produced by Capstone Games.
When we first got this game, for some reason my other half decided he wanted to play as Nixon, only as Nixon and that he would and indeed could change history if he played well enough.
We did that for about 6 months, him taking the Nixon character and myself playing as the journalists and i’ll be honest, I probably won 95% of the games. It’s really fun because each time you get different options and the battle for evidence and the race for initiative and momentum mean it can often be really tight when we play.
The overall premise is that as the journalists, you need to create 2 links to witnesses in the case to be able to prove the President has been involved in nefarious tasks and as Nixon, your job is to try to stop this by redacting evidence and witnesses while you both fight for Momentum and Initiative. Each round the winner of the initiative gets a larger hand of cards to play and the momentum winner also gains bonuses – the journalists may get extra evidence for example and of course, if Nixon gets enough Momentum before the journalists file their story, possibly one of the greatest political crimes would be hidden from the world forever.
In a new twist or to twist it up a bit, the man has recently been looking more into games which can be won in rounds, and he loves the idea of having to win as both characters – this appeals to me as a massive Terry Pratchett fan, with the game of Thud sitting on our shelves this might actually help my gameplay – so recently the rule is, you win, then you switch to the other side and you have to win as the other character so in the most recent set of games that we have played, first I played as the journalists and lost, it was a close match but I think this gave him a false sense of security! Having never seen the cards for Nixon, I was a bit blindsided but thankfully have a pretty good memory and having seen them played against me, I managed to win, and then back into the comfort of the journalists I became the first official champion.
I’m looking forward to playing more as Nixon, just to see all the ins and outs and special cards on offer, I’m hoping that for me it gives me a better idea of how to win on both sides, things that the man may have missed!
Anyone out there played this? Or interested in a good 45 or so minute game for 2 players? Drop me a line and i’ll happily talk you through it – or hand you over to the board games expert in the house who’ll be able to talk at you about any games you fancy!
Half Baked Productions 