1960: The Making of the President

For years, 1960: The Making of the President was the little sibling of Twillight Struggle that had somehow slipped past both my table and my shelf. Having finally met it, I can say the new edition makes a lovely first case for itself: it looks properly cared for on the table, yet does not demand an entire Tuesday evening after work before it will show you what it has.

Its basic structure sits close to Struggle, only without the intermediate scoring that repeatedly takes the temperature there. Play is driven by the cards and the contest between the two sides, but the difficulty is markedly lower and the game gets to its point with less ceremony.

Momentum tokens and bag building are the genuinely interesting additions, giving the system something beyond simply playing the card in front of you. On a first play, though, chance feels rather prominent and the gap in card strength rather wide; this may be one of those designs that needs a second sitting before its full shape becomes clear.

Its real virtue is how smoothly and quickly it moves, to the point where another game immediately afterwards feels quite plausible. But if I want this sort of political, card-driven conflict and have the time, I only need two words: Imperial Struggle.