Meltwater

Meltwater dropped me into a very distinctive post-nuclear Antarctica: the last survivors are fighting over the final scrap of land while nuclear winter races toward them. It is a fast two-player strategy game, but definitely not one you explain casually and start playing immediately.

At its core, this is not simply a wargame, even though the struggle for territory is there. The game revolves around survival in a world that keeps closing in on you: you have to manage your people and the remaining space before winter catches up with you.

Interaction is the real point. Rather than thinking only about how to defeat your opponent militarily, you are trying to push their survivors to the limit, so they go hungry and defect. That hunger-management element is what makes it stranger and more interesting than a straightforward war game.

The rules are simple on the surface, but we read and reread them without always understanding exactly what the poet meant. We got there in the end, but I cannot say I went crazy for it. Still, it is distinctive enough to be worth one play. And, if the forums are to be believed, the original edition is more streamlined than the Capstone reprint currently available.