Crisis: 1914

I went into Crisis: 1914 expecting another diplomatic game in the Congress of Vienna/Churchill mould: serious historical grounding, respect for the events, and presumably a ruleset that would make me feel like I was managing Europe just before it exploded. Instead, I found something much lighter: a variation on flip 7—or flip 9, if you have the nerve—with a little hand management, a Belle Époque aroma, and artwork full of waxed moustaches. I mean that fondly, not as an accusation.

The game lasts six rounds, six weeks of negotiations before all hope is lost and the First World War begins. Each player takes one of the countries that led those negotiations, receives its slightly asymmetric deck, and tries to accomplish its own diplomatic objectives.

During a round, we play cards, resolve any abilities they have, and add their diplomatic value to a shared total/track, trying to be at the top when the week ends. The catch is that drawing and climbing steadily flirts with busting if you go over 32—and that is not difficult at all. On the surface, it looks dispiritingly simple, to the point where a player could imitate a bot and toss random cards from their deck. Yet each country’s few distinctive cards and special rules are enough to complicate the choices and leave room for provocations, reversals, and punishing greed.

In our game, playing Germany, I had stopped the Austrian provocations and was the clear favourite. But I had to gamble on a 66% chance of winning, a reverse BLTG happened, and I fell victim to a Russian provocation. The Russian, however, was a greedy hobbit: he blew himself up on tension while standing on the winners’ podium, and the French player—who had spent the entire game kneading croissants—ended up taking the victory. That interaction is exactly where the game’s juice lies: you are not building some grand diplomatic system; you watch the others take risks, push them when you can, and hope they burn before you do.

It is not an earth-shattering game, and it does not convincingly pretend to be a heavyweight historical beast. With 4–5 players who have played it before, know what their country does, and above all know how it loses, it can deliver a very enjoyable game of diplomatic push-your-luck.