Review
Meltwater
Meltwater is an odd, brisk two-player strategy game in which nuclear winter is not backdrop but the clock coming for you. It is less a straight wargame than a nastier contest over who goes hungry first.
- Published
- 2018
- Designer
- Erin Escobedo
- Publisher
- Capstone Games, Hollandspiele
- Players
- 2
- Playing time
- 60 min
In Meltwater, the last survivors of a nuclear war are crammed onto the final scraps of Antarctic land while nuclear winter bears down. It is an unusual premise for such a quick strategy game, but it does the job immediately: nobody is fighting for glory because there is nowhere left to go.
The underlying rules are simple, although the rulebook is less helpful than it ought to be — a charitable B-. We had to read sections over and over before the game’s intention became clear, which is an unfortunate hurdle for something meant to move this briskly.
You do not always need to crush them; making life sufficiently bleak that people begin to leave will do.
TheCuttlefish
Once you have untangled it, though, its particular trick emerges. This is not purely a war game: you manage hunger, and pressure the other side until their survivors starve and defect. You do not always need to crush them; making life sufficiently bleak that people begin to leave will do. Antarctica gets very small at that point.
I did not fall in love with Meltwater, but its strange idea is interesting enough to merit at least one play. Players looking for the cleaner version commonly report that the original edition is more streamlined than the Capstone reprint currently available.
I did not fall in love with Meltwater, but its strange idea is interesting enough to merit at least one play.
TheCuttlefish
Source: BoardGameGeek
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