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Watergate review – The conspiracy grows

In 1972, one of the nation’s greatest scandals occurred. A sitting president was accused of illegally wiretapping and spying on his political rivals, looking for dirt to win the next election. That president? Richard Nixon. And the ones that broke the scandal? The press!

Watergate is a 2 player game about power, conspiracy, and the press. One player will take the role of the Nixon administration, whose goal is to wait out his term while silencing or censoring any attempts to bring the scandal to light. The other is a newspaper editor, putting the pieces together and bringing the conspiracy to light.

This battle between the powers that be and the free press is represented by a few abstract mechanics. The core of the game is a tug-of-war between the two players. At stake? Momentum tokens, influence tiles, and the powerful initiative token. Each of these is important for each player to attempt to control for different reasons. To do so, each player will play out their hand. Nixon will start with the initiative, and therefore 5 cards to play in any order. The editor, meanwhile, will start with only 4, and will continue having only 4 cards until they win the initiative themselves. See, the player with the initiative not only starts each round of card playing, but also has 1 more card, so they get the last word as well.Cards primarily impact the tug of war. Cards can be played for a weak tug-of-war effect, which saves them for a potential later turn, or can be played for a devastating event effect. These event effects offer game changing effects, like bringing an informant on board for one player or the other, or moving multiple tokens on the tug-of-war at once. However, when played as an event, a card is put back in the box, never to be seen again.

Each player does have access to some cards that can always be played for their event text. These are journalists for the newspaper, and conspirators for Nixon. These offer powerful effects that can be used over and over.  For example, journalist Ben Bradlee can be played in response to one of Nixon’s conspirators, exposing them and sending them to the box.  Meanwhile, conspirator Chuck Colson forces the editor to lose a card at random, breaking their stride and preventing possible plans.After each player runs out of cards, they hand out the hard earned rewards. There are 3 reward types that players fight for in tug-of-war. The first is the initiative token. The holder of the initiative has a huge advantage in the next round. The player with initiative gets 5 cards instead of 4, and plays the first and last card in each round. The second reward is a momentum token. As the editor gains momentum, they get a few powerful one-time abilities. But it’s difficult to grab, because while Momentum is a resource for the editor, it means victory for Nixon. If Nixon gets 5 momentum, he wins immediately.

The last thing players can win from this central tug of war are evidence tokens. There’s usually 3 evidence tokens up for grabs each round. There are 3 different colors of evidence, representing audio recordings, evidence from the Watergate Complex, and financial documents. As each player gains evidence, they place it on the evidence board, a red-string style board that draws evidence from informants to Nixon himself. If the Editor connects evidence from two face up informants to Nixon in the center, then the Editor can go public and win the game. Of course, if Nixon wins evidence, it means his administration censors and blocks that evidence. He can then place it wherever he wants face down, blocking the editor from connecting evidence to his informants.Informants aren’t in the game by default, either. Each player’s deck includes a card for each specific informant. For the most part, once someone plays that card, then it becomes their informant for the rest of the game. There are events that can flip a witness to a confidant, or vice versa, but since events are a one-and-done effect, these cards should be used carefully.

The most important thing about the game are those cards. This game lives and dies on the balance of the cards, and the historic context around them. Nixon’s deck plays loose with the rules, taking cards out of the other player’s hands, overpowering the editor’s influence on the tug-of-war track, and even starting with the initiative.

The Editor deck, on the other hand, uses the light of the free press to push back against the hegemony. From exposing Nixon’s accomplices (and getting them removed from the game) to pushing for action and snagging evidence from the far side of the tug of war. The strategy for each is important as well. Does the editor fight for every Momentum, in the hopes of preventing an easy win for Nixon? Do they push for the initiative while you have it to prevent the advantage going to the other player? Does Nixon rush momentum? Or keep the editor from winning the evidence they need o win their game, and stall out the game?There’s no way for any player to win it all in the tug-of-war. They have to choose which options to go for, which cards they need to save for later, and which cards to burn now for an advantage. The strategy is extremely deep, and despite the asymmetry, both sides of the board have equal access to victory.

The historical context of the game is interesting as well. The rule book has a lengthy explanation of the Watergate incident, and each card has quotes from the newspaper and various people involved. The cards also each have photographs straight out of the newspapers from the time. Each of these makes players feel like they’re a part of the conspiracy (or are unraveling it) in real time.

So often, historic games get a bad rap. This, however, is a standout game, with great decisions despite its relatively simple mechanics. Add onto that a historic theme that matches perfectly with the game play and the cards in question, and you have one of the best games for 2 players.

Tabletop Editor | [email protected]

Unpublished game designer, programmer, DM and progressive activist. Always willing to see what cool ideas people have in the board game industry. I love a good gimmick, but strong mechanics are still important.

90

Excellent

Watergate

Review Guidelines

A tight 2-player card game where one player is attempting to expose a conspiracy, and the other is attempting to coast through the rest of their term. Simple rules back up a game of deep strategy in a tug-of-war system designed to force players to prioritize specific goals.

James van Tonningen

Unless otherwise stated, the product in this article was provided for review purposes.

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