You’ve heard about how Twilight Struggle is the number one rated game on BoardGameGeek. How almost everyone who’s ever played it has raved about it, called it one of their favorite games.
But you’re hesitant. Is this game really for you? You’ve never played something like it before. It’s not like any of the other BoardGameGeek Top 10 like Dominion or Power Grid.
In my mind, Twilight Struggle is the best board game ever made. But truthfully, it is not a game for everyone. Candidly speaking, there are some real deal-breakers about it, and it’s better for you to figure that out sooner rather than later.
Should you get Twilight Struggle? A six-question quiz.
- Do you enjoy playing (and have opportunities to play) 2-player games?
- Are you able to set aside enough time to play this game? Your first game might take up to 4 hours; once you’ve learned the rules, the longest game you’ll play is probably around 3 hours, with the shortest being 1 hour and the average being 2 hours. This varies by playgroup, of course, but this is not a filler game!
- Do you enjoy games that require a lot of thinking?
- Do you enjoy games that are extremely tense and nerve-wracking?
- Are you OK with games that have a small but not insignificant luck component?
- Are you OK with the fact that it may take you two or three plays to really understand the game?
If you answered no to any of these six questions, then sadly Twilight Struggle is probably not the ideal game for you.
Note that these questions did not include “Do you enjoy Cold War history?” or “Do you enjoy wargames?”. Although fans of Cold War history and/or wargames will love this game even more, most people who enjoy Twilight Struggle have not had much prior interest in the Cold War or wargames.
If you answered yes to all of these questions, then you will probably enjoy Twilight Struggle (and in fact most likely really enjoy it). Check out our “New to Twilight Struggle” page to get started.
Twilight Strategy 
I would say that if you answer no to one or two of the questions, then you might still consider giving Twilight Struggle a try. If you have a friend willing to teach you, then you might find out that something like a little luck or being only 2-player can be overlooked considering how great Twilight Struggle is otherwise.
Well, I said “no” to question number two but I gave it a try anyway. I played Twilight Struggle with my son. Oh man, enlightenment came! One, then two then three times… today we set up the fourth match, maybe this time I’ll be the winner. Maybe…
Greets from Turin, an Italian battlefield.
LOL @ 6.
Either I am stoopid or the number of games needed to “understand” this game is way beyond “one or two”.
or even “two or three”. see, I told you I was probably stoopid. In all seriousness it takes a lot of playing to “get it” and to be decent you need even more, if you don’t know most of the key cards and where they are each turn you’ve no chance, and because early on its easy to get blown out early it takes even longer to get to know the mid and late war cards. I’m enjoying it a lot, but I still feel like I am guessing some of the time and not playing “good” and I think “good play” is really required to get the most out of the psychological aspect of the game
Especially since deck memorization is such a large part of the game.
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