13 Days: The Cuban Missile Crisis, or, Twilight Struggle in 45 minutes

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I'm working on a review of this as well and agree pretty much down the line here. It's definitely TS Express. In fact, I felt like I knew what to expect from it as soon as I opened the box and looked over the components. It's actually pretty neat, and it does hit the high points while narrowing the focus to the Cuban Missile Crisis and not the whole Cold War. Hardcore TSers will probably scoff at it, but I think the designers really did well in condensing that design into something more approachable.

Yeah, it completely surprised me how good it was. I expected it to be solid, but it's got that pull that keeps grabbing you and wanting you to bring it back out. Every play of this has been two back to back as one game wasn't enough.

Which raises the question of why not just play Twilight Struggle rather than two hours of Thirteen Days...

Here's a link to the rules: goo.gl/CCLTob

www.jollyrogergames.com/13-days

Designer Asger Sams Granerud, Daniel Skjold Pedersen
Artist Jacob Walker
Publisher Jolly Roger Games

craniac wrote: Which raises the question of why not just play Twilight Struggle rather than two hours of Thirteen Days...

That's a fair point, but that commitment to 13 Days isn't required. It's also not quite as deep as I point out so that may be a consideration. I know Twilight Struggle's not a brain burner, but the strategy and effort involved is a step beyond this game.

Sometimes too I'd rather have multiple games in the same time frame as a large one so that I can wipe the slate clean and try again, refocusing my strategy. The process of learning the game and applying that knowledge is a shorter loop.

Plus you can teach it to a new player in less than ten minutes and at the end they won't feel like they had no idea what to do,

TS is a great game no doubt and it's worth 2 hours. But this is a very comparable alternative if time, game knowledge, depth or space are concerns.

I'm a nut for anything that has to do with the Cold War. Where's this game available for sale?

stoic wrote: I'm a nut for anything that has to do with the Cold War. Where's this game available for sale?

I think it just hit Kickstarter backers a few weeks ago and should be available retail in a couple more weeks. Unfortunately you can't get it quite yet.

Since it's Jolly Roger/Ultra Pro I imagine it will get normal distribution and be available most places.

Yeah, it's Ultra Pro...which is kind of weird. I got a shipping notice from them and I was like WTF is coming from Ultra Pro...they threw in a big pack of sleeves, so that was nice.

stoic wrote: I'm a nut for anything that has to do with the Cold War. Where's this game available for sale?

Coolstuffinc has it on preorder for Q2. But, Kickstarter.