Wir sind das Volk!: 2+2 Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• 1. Introduction
  • Who should play 2+2?
• 2. Game Components
  • Basic definitions
  • The game board
  • The action cards
  • Arms race cards & conflict cards
• 3. Set Up
• 4. Sequence of Play
• 5. Turn Order
  • Tiebreakers
• 6. The Actions
  • 6.1 Remove 1 unrest counter
  • 6.2 Build up economy
  • 6.3 Increase living standard
  • 6.4 Trigger the card event
  • New icons
  • 6.5 Engage in the arms race
  • The treasuries
  • 6.6 Take a credit
• 7. Values with Icons
• 8. Arms Race & Conflicts
• 9. Automatic Event
• 10. Specifics for East
• 11. Nuclear War
• 12. End of Decade
  • 12.1 Arms race
  • 12.2 Space race
  • 12.3 Dominance
  • 12.4 Base game end of decade
• 13. Ranking
• 14. Table Talk
• Design Notes

1. Introduction

2+2 is the four-player expansion for Wir sind das Volk!

Basic idea: Players form partnerships (USA & West Germany vs Soviet Union & East Germany). However, there will be only one individual winner in the end.

Players build up their part of Germany and raise its living standards. Furthermore, the two superpowers USA and Soviet Union fight the Cold War on three fronts (global dominance, arms race, space race) – a contest which might end in a nuclear apocalypse.

A superpower wins, if it triumphs over the other one and if its German ally fulfils its base game victory conditions. If no superpower wins, the winner is the German state fulfilling its base game victory conditions.

The 2+2-expansion includes: 1 game board, 40 action cards, 10 arms race cards, 10 conflict cards, this rules booklet, and the die-cut markers as depicted to the right.

The die-cut markers and components are:

• 4 player markers (1 for each player)
• 6 peace doves
• 1 red button (front and reverse)
• 1 marker each for arms race, space race, dominance, US treasury and Soviet treasury (from left to right)
• 1 marker each for US treasury+10 and Soviet treasury+10
• Reminders for 2 events
• 1 extra factory for the base game

Who should play 2+2?

2+2 turns Wir sind das Volk! into a totally new game. Since only every 4th action will be yours, your decisions need to be very farsighted; even the smallest decision can have huge effects; the game balance is extremely fragile.

Therefore you should play 2+2 only when at least 2 players know the base game well. These two players should take the roles of the super powers.

When all players know the base game well, 2+2 will reveal its full charm.

2. Game Components

Basic definitions

• Superpowers: USA and Soviet Union.
• German states: West Germany and East Germany, hereafter referred to as West and East.
• Yellow players: USA and West. They are allied.
• Red players: Soviet Union and East. They are allied.
• Active player: The player currently performing an action.
• Active side: The active player and his ally.
• Dominance advantage: When the dominance marker is in a yellow space, it is held by the USA. When the marker is in a red space, it is held by the Soviet Union.

The game board

The game board shows 4 tracks (one each for treasury, arms race, space race and [global] dominance), a world peace pool and spaces for the end of decade, turn order and sub-decades.

The tracks are similar to the ones in the base game. One detail, however, is new: Most spaces have a victory point value. (The space depicted to the left is worth 1 victory point.) Victory points are earned by the superpowers at the end of the game.

The game starts with 6 peace doves and 1 red button in the world peace pool. Be careful! When all peace doves are gone, nuclear war is only a press of the red button away.

The action cards

For each decade, there is one set of 10 action cards (hereafter referred to as 2+2-cards). Beside the well known card types, there are Blue, Green and Black Cards (with graphic art and title in the corresponding colour).

Some cards have a ban on arms race icon in their top right corner. Such a card cannot be used for engaging in the arms race (see section 6.5).

Some cards have icons close to their card value. These icons are a penalty or a bonus for not triggering the card event. (For more details see section 7.)

Arms race cards & conflict cards

The arms race and conflict cards form 2 separate draw decks. When engaging in the arms race or when affected by a conflict icon, a superpower has to draw 1 card from the corresponding deck.

3. Set Up

The 4 players choose their role. Then, set up the base game according to the above mentioned current rules version. Lay the 2+2 game board alongside the top edge of the base game board.

Put the markers arms race, space race and dominance onto their tracks (each goes into the space depicting its symbol).

Put the markers US treasury and Soviet treasury face-up onto the space "$6" of the treasury track.

The world peace pool is filled with all 6 peace doves and the red button. (All markers are placed face-up.)

Relocate the base game marker End of Decade onto the end of decade space arms race (to be found on the 2+2 board).

Put the 4 player markers onto the turn order track. The initial turn order is: 1. USA, 2. Soviet Union, 3. West, 4. East. Use the black-numbered spaces.

Shuffle both the arms race and conflict cards and stack them close to the board. — Now the game is ready to start. Starting player will be the USA.

4. Sequence of Play

Basically, the sequence of play is identical to the base game. Exceptions are: Every decade consists of 3 sub-decades (called A, B, C) and there are more end of decade phases.

Every sub-decade A is played as follows:

1. Determine the turn order according to section 5. (Skip this step in decade I.)
2. Put the special card of the current decade into the card display. Shuffle the base game cards of the current decade to form the draw deck and deal cards until every player has 2 hand cards. (As in the base game, players may discard hand cards from an earlier decade before receiving new hand cards.)

Important: Use the special cards with the 2+2-icon (instead of the special cards from the base game).

3. From the draw deck, put 3 cards into the card display. Shuffle the 2+2-cards of the current decade and put 3 into the card display.
4. With the remaining 2+2-cards prepare 2 stacks for the upcoming sub-decades: Put 3 cards alongside each space sub-decade B and sub-decade C (see picture on pg. 2). Discard the remaining 2+2-card unseen.

Note: The 2 sub-decade stacks are an automatic sub-decade tracker.

5. Actions. The starting player chooses 1 card from the card display or 1 hand card and performs 1 action. Only a red player may choose the special card. Then player 2 performs one action, followed by player 3, player 4, player 1 again, etc.

Tip: When you finish your action, move your player marker to the right. When player 4 is done, return all markers to their space of origin. That way you always know whose turn it is.

6. The sub-decade ends as soon as there is only 1 normal card left in the card display. (As in the base game, hand cards or the special card don't matter.)
7. The event of this last card is then triggered automatically (see section 9).

As in the base game, line up played cards at the bottom edge of the board, unless a player has to collect a card.

Sub-decades B and C are played in almost the same way. Differences are:

• Ignore steps 1, 2, 4 above.
• In step 3, put into the card display
  • for sub-decade B: The 3 prepared 2+2-cards and 3 cards from the draw deck.
  • for sub-decade C: The 3 prepared 2+2-cards and 4 cards from the draw deck (that is, 1 card more).
• If still in the display, the special card stays there.
• Starting player is the one who would have had the next action in the sub-decade that just ended.

Sub-decades B and C end the same way as sub-decade A. When sub-decade C is finished, play the end of decade (section 12). If there is no winner, discard the special card (if still in the card display), set aside the draw deck unseen, and start the next decade.

In the rare case that the draw deck runs empty in decade III, bring into play 1 unplayed decade II card.

5. Turn Order

For determining turn order, consult the prestige and dominance tracks. Count the steps each marker is off its start position. Both results are positive for the players holding prestige/dominance advantage, and negative for the players in disadvantage.

The starting player is the one with the highest (positive) result, followed by the player with the second highest result, and so on. According to the result, put the player markers onto the turn order spaces 1–4.

Tiebreakers

When tied with a German state, a superpower is ranked higher.

If the prestige marker is in its start space, West is ranked higher than East.

If the dominance marker is in its start space, use the space race track to resolve the tie.

If still tied, use the arms race track. If all 3 markers are in their start space, the USA is ranked higher than the Soviet Union.

6. The Actions

As in the base game, players perform actions by playing a normal card in 1 of 4 ways. He may:

• remove 1 unrest counter, or
• build up the economy of his side, or
• increase living standard of his side, or
• trigger the card event.

A superpower has 2 more options. It can:

• engage in the arms race, or
• take a credit.

In case of a special card, you may only trigger the event (and only a red player may do so).

6.1 Remove 1 unrest counter

The base game rules are not changed. The USA may remove 1 West unrest counter, the Soviet Union may remove 1 East unrest counter (as if they were West or East).

For a yellow (red) player, the removal is free when using a Yellow (Red) Card. In all other cases, players have to pay by dismantling 1 build point in "their" Germany.

6.2 Build up economy

The base game rules are not changed. The USA may build up West's economy, the Soviet Union may build up East's economy (as if they were West or East).

6.3 Increase living standard

The base game rules are not changed. The USA may increase West's living standard and the Soviet Union may increase East's living standard (as if they were West or East, including the decision about where Hamburg or an external factory belongs to).

6.4 Trigger the card event

The base game rules are not changed. A Red Card event may be triggered only by a red player. A Yellow Card event may be triggered only by a yellow player. All other cards' events can be triggered by any player.

Dual Cards: A player may ignore 1 arrow or 1 icon without arrows when triggering a Dual Card event (as in the base game).

Blue Cards: Blue Card events are symmetrical. (Every icon and every arrow exists in red and yellow.) When triggering the event, a red player ignores all yellow arrows/icons; a yellow player ignores all red arrows/icons.

Black Cards: When triggering the event, a player executes all icons and arrows.

Green Cards: When triggering the event, a player executes all icons and arrows.

Icons blended with a coat of arms are executed by West or East (as in the base game).

Left-right arrows: Some Cards depict icons with arrows pointing in both directions. When these arrows have to be executed, move the marker by the net-sum. (1 left & 1 right is a net-shift of 0.) In case of left-right arms race arrows, both superpowers still have to pick 1 arms race card each.

Superpowers and prestige arrows: When an active superpower executes a prestige arrow, it may opt to move the dominance marker instead. A double arrow (which allows the movement of 2 steps) may be split to both tracks.

The strict prestige arrow, however, has to be executed on the prestige track.

Reminder: Do not forget to use the special cards with the 2+2-icon (which never show a prestige arrow).

Non executable dominance arrows: For each red dominance arrow which cannot be executed (because it would shift the marker off the track) the Soviet Union may choose to add +$1 to its treasury or to remove 1 East unrest counter. The USA benefits from non-executable yellow arrows accordingly (+$1 or remove 1 West unrest counter).

New icons: The new icons are explained on the next page.

Example 1: The Soviet Union triggers this event. It ignores all yellow icons and all yellow arrows. This results in the shift of both the space race and dominance markers by 1 to the right. Finally, the Soviet Union has to pay $3 from its treasury.

Example 2: East triggers this event. As a result, 2 peace doves are flipped back to their face-up sides. Furthermore, East opts to shift the prestige marker by 1 in its favour and puts the card in front of itself. (This reflects East's engagement for world peace.)

Variant: As above, but East opts to shift the dominance marker by 1 in US-favour to sabotage Soviet plans.

New icons

Icons with arrows

• Dominance arrows (red/yellow): According to the arrows, move the dominance marker by 1 or 2 to the left or right.
• Prestige arrows (red/yellow): As in the base game. However, an active superpower may choose to move the dominance marker instead. (A double arrow can be split to both tracks.)
• Strict prestige arrow: The same as a prestige icon, but a superpower cannot choose to move the dominance marker instead.
• Dominance-or-prestige icon: The active player chooses whether to move the dominance or the prestige marker by either 1 space to the left or to the right. Ignore this icon in the case of an automatic event. (Note: East, trying to win the game, could move the dominance marker by 1 in US-favour; this is perfectly legal.)
• Space race arrows: According to the arrows, move the space race marker to the left or right.
• Arms race arrows: According to the arrows, move the arms race marker to the left or right. Furthermore, the benefiting superpower has to draw and execute the top arms race card.

Icons without arrows

• Peace dove flip icon (dove with a red X): Flip 1 peace dove to its blank side. If all are already flipped, the active player has to press the red button and put it in front of himself (with the mushroom cloud side face-up). By doing that he triggers a nuclear war and the game ends immediately. (If an automatic event triggers the war, the player who was last active has to press the button.)
• Peace dove reflip icon (blue dove): Reflip 1 flipped peace dove (if possible).
• Peacemaker icon (green peace symbol): Upon finishing his action, the active player collects the card in front of himself. (In case of a nuclear war, the player with the most collected peacemaker cards will win.) Ignore this icon in the case of an automatic event.
• Red "-1" treasury icon: The affected superpower pays the stated amount from its treasury. Move its treasury marker accordingly. (Here, the Soviet Union pays $1.)
• Yellow "+3" treasury icon: The affected superpower adds the stated income to its treasury. Move its treasury marker accordingly. (Here, +$3 for the USA.)
• Red lightning icon: The affected superpower (here, the Soviet Union) draws the top conflict card and executes its effects.
• Black lightning icon: The superpower of the active side draws the top conflict card and executes its effects.
• Green dollar icon: From now on, the cost for each arms race step is increased by +$1. Put the appropriate reminder on the arms race draw deck.
• Red Soviet "-1" icon: From now on, when the Soviet Union chooses the actions Build up economy or Increase LS the card value is reduced by 1 (but not below 0). Put the appropriate reminder into East's territory.

Clarification for base game icons

• Base game icon (red): Follow precisely the base game rules. (So even if the Soviet Union triggers the event, East will benefit from the icon; East may examine only the West hand of cards or the draw deck; superpower hand cards or 2+2-cards are a no-no.)

6.5 Engage in the arms race

Only a superpower may choose this action. It can use every normal card not depicting a ban on arms race icon. On choosing that action, the superpower moves the arms race marker by 1 step in its favour, draws the top arms race card and executes its effects.

Example: In decade 2, the Soviet Union engages in the arms race. It moves the arms race marker by 1 in its favour and draws the arms race card. The effect is the highlighted icon (red column, decade 2): The Soviets deduct $1 from their treasury.

The treasuries

Superpowers track their $-income and payments by shifting their treasury marker accordingly.

When a marker has to be moved off the track, then flip the marker and treat the space –$1 as –$6 (in case of a deficit), or use the treasury+10 marker instead and treat the space $1 as $11 (in case of a surplus).

6.6 Take a credit

Only a superpower can take a credit. It can use every normal card. With this action, the superpower receives income equal to the card value.

A superpower is in the red, when its treasury becomes negative. It is then severely restricted in its choice of actions. It can only:

• Take a credit, or
• Trigger events which add income to its treasury.

Tip: If a superpower is in the red, flip its player marker.

7. Values with Icons

Some cards have one or more icons close to their value. If such icons are to be executed, they are executed after the player action.

Play the card value: Every action except trigger the card event is referred to as play the card value.

An icon right of a value can only be a red or yellow conflict icon. A red conflict icon is executed if a red player plays the card value. A yellow conflict icon is executed if a yellow player plays the card value.

Icons below a value are executed if any player plays the card value.

Example: East builds up its economy with the value depicted above. Because it does not trigger the card event, the icons are executed after East's action. For the black conflict icon, the superpower of the active side has to draw 1 conflict card. This is the Soviet Union. For the crossed-out peace dove, 1 peace dove is flipped in the world peace pool.

8. Arms Race & Conflicts

The arms race and conflict cards form 2 separate draw decks. The following rules apply:

Arms Race cards. Whenever a superpower moves the arms race marker one step in its favour, it has to draw the top arms race card and execute its effects (even if the arms race step is the result of an event or of a conflict card).

The effects are found by cross-indexing the current decade with the superpower's column. Icons are executed from left to right. The superpower decides where to apply the effect. (Unless the icon is blended with a coat of arms; here the decision is up to East or West as usual.)

Conflict cards. Whenever a superpower is affected by a conflict icon, it has to draw the top conflict card and execute its effects. (In the case that both superpowers are affected simultaneously, it is – as usual – up to the active player to decide who draws the card first.)

Example: The Soviet Union draws the above conflict card. The red column is in effect. Therefore, the dominance marker is shifted by 2 to the left.

For both decks:

• The yellow column applies to the USA, the red column to the Soviet Union.
• Discard an executed card.
• You may count the cards still in the draw deck. You may not inspect formerly executed cards, except the last one.

Reshuffle. In both decks there are 2 cards with this icon. It means: Reshuffle all 10 cards of this deck (incl. discards) and form a new draw deck.

9. Automatic Event

Important: The rules of this section apply only to the automatic event itself, but not to resulting secondary effects (like a bonus for a non-executable prestige arrow). Secondary effects are executed per the standard rules.

At the end of a sub-decade, the event of the last normal card in the open display is automatically triggered and executed in the standard way. However:

• For a Dual Card, do not ignore any icon/arrow.
• For a Blue Card, execute all icons and arrows (even if their net-effect is 0).
• For a Green Card ignore icons/arrows on a shaded background.

Which sequence? All icons/arrows are executed from left to right and from top to bottom.

Where? Icons blended with a coat of arms are executed as usual by East or West. For any other red icon, East decides where to apply its effect; for any other yellow icon, West decides where to apply its effect. (All other icons and arrows don't offer any choice. Note that a prestige arrow cannot be converted to a dominance arrow, since there is no active superpower.)

Arms race advantage. A superpower may ignore some of the above rules if it has an arms race advantage. To find out the specific advantage, check the position of the arms race marker before executing the automatic event.

Note: The determined arms race advantage is valid for the complete automatic event, even if the arms race marker is moved during the auto-event.

The meanings of the icons shown below are:

• Plain yellow icon: The USA decides where the effect of an icon is applied, unless it is an icon blended with a coat of arms.
• Yellow icon blended with East's coat of arms: As above. In addition, the USA decides where to apply the effect of an icon blended with East's coat of arms.
• Yellow Dual icon blended with East's coat of arms: As above. In addition, the USA may ignore 1 icon or 1 arrow (as if the card were a dual card).
• Victory space icon: All above advantages are in effect. In addition, US victory can be triggered in the end of decade (see section 12).

For the Soviet Union, the red icons have the equivalent/mirrored meanings.

10. Specifics for East

The special card: Both East and the Soviet Union may play the special card. Whoever plays it must discard 1 hand card or let the yellow side draw an additional hand card from the draw deck. The card will be drawn by the yellow player with fewer hand cards; if both have the same number, it will be drawn by the player whose turn is next.

Police power cards: The Soviet Union may use East's police power cards to remove unrest counters (as if it were East).

Stasi-disbandment: In the rare case that 7 unrest counters are to be returned, East chooses one province to receive 2.

11. Nuclear War

During the Cold War, the world was more than once at the edge of a nuclear war. The destruction of mankind would have known no winner, and normally a game should have no winner as well. However, game dynamics become quite problematic when all players can lose. Therefore, there will be a winner even if nuclear war breaks out.

The game ends immediately with a nuclear war when a player has to press the red button (because there is no peace dove left in the pool). This triggering player loses.

Victory in case of a nuclear war. The winner is the non-triggering player who collected the most cards with a peacemaker icon. In case of a tie, the ally of the triggering player loses the tie.

Peacemaker icons exist only on Green and Black cards. You collect such a card, when you: a) trigger the event of a Green Card, or b) use a Black Card for any action, except triggering the event.

12. End of Decade

The end of decade is amended by the addition of arms race, space race and dominance phases. After these, you play the 10 phases of the base game.

12.1 Arms race

Check the arms race track.

Arms race victory. A superpower wins immediately when the marker is in one of its victory spaces. Skip the remaining phases.

Note: All other icons of the arms race track are ignored during the end of decade.

12.2 Space race

The position of the marker on the space race track tells you what icon(s) to execute.

The red "3-1" icon means: The benefiting superpower (here, the Soviet Union) immediately receives 1 hand card from the draw deck of the next decade. At the start of the next decade, it may discard hand cards from a (then) earlier decade (but not the just received hand card). After that it refills its hand to 3 cards before then discarding 1 of its choice.

Space race victory. A superpower wins immediately when the marker is in its victory space. Skip the remaining phases.

12.3 Dominance

The player holding the current dominance advantage executes the icon(s) below the dominance marker or of a lower value box.

Both superpowers receive regular income from the dominance track. Note that they will receive it even it there is no future decade to come. This is important, since ending the game in the red will result in negative victory points (see below).

12.4 Base game end of decade

Now the base game end of decade is played, phase by phase, starting with Flight/wall, prestige, etc.

If one of the base game victory conditions is fulfilled, the game ends immediately. The winner is then determined in 2 steps.

1. Determine the winning side:
   • the yellow side wins, if East loses (for instance by collapsing due to 4 mass protests or by suffering national insolvency),
   • the red side wins, if West loses.
2. Determine the the winning player. For that, both superpowers add up their victory points on the 2+2-tracks. Note: A superpower ending the game in the red receives –1 victory point for each $2 deficit. The winner is the winning side's superpower, if it has more victory points than the opposing superpower; otherwise the winner is the winning side's German state.

Example: East collapses due to 4 mass protests, this makes yellow the winning side. Since both superpowers have 3 victory points, the USA is not better than the Soviet Union: Therefore West wins.

13. Ranking

In case of a nuclear war, there are 1 or 2 winners and 1 loser. All others are second-last.

For all other victories, there is only 1 winner; all other players lose. Exception: When the game ended in decade IV, the winner's ally is second ranked.

Players earn tournament points as follows:

Nuclear war win

Winner	2nd-last	Loser
4 P	1 P	–2 P

All other wins

Winner	2nd	Loser
4 P	2 P	0 P

14. Table Talk

Before starting the game, agree how much discussion between partners will be allowed. If you want maximum tension, play without any communication. Non-experienced players, however, might find hints and advice helpful. But it should be strictly forbidden to provide any kind of information about hand cards.

Design Notes

I.C.B.M's, S.S.20's, they lie so dormant, they got so many. Midnight Oil, 1984

It was clear right from the start that there should be a four-player version of Wir sind das Volk (WSDV). For pragmatic reasons, however, its design had to wait. We supposed that once the 2-player game was finished, it would be very easy to introduce rules for the superpowers. How wrong we were! Peer's initial idea was somewhat abstract, but the first play test worked quite well. Unfortunately, the Cold War feel was completely lacking. Most crucially, neither playing the USA nor the Soviet Union felt like being the USA or the Soviet Union.

We went back to the drawing board and introduced tracks for the key elements of the Cold War: The arms race, the space race and global dominance. These tracks, along with the new action types (arms racing & take a credit) and the Blue, Green and Black Cards transformed it — it was now a true Cold War game. Eventually the process of polishing and balancing could start.

Sub-decades and automatic events. With 10 additional cards per decade, two half decades were not enough. We tried quarter decades, but they didn't work well. Then we switched to 3 sub-decades including an auto-event. This fixed four design problems in one stroke! (And it is always good when one new rule solves more than one problem.) 1.) Three sub-decades tightened the storytelling arc considerably. 2.) Since there are more Red Cards than Yellow, the red side will benefit more often from the auto-event, thus mitigating the problem of balance. 3.) The arms race advantage could be modeled simply and effectively. (Up to then it was a time consuming procedure with almost no effect.) 4.) Since automatic event plays are faster than player actions, playing time was reduced to ca. 180 minutes, as desired. (N.B.: The last sub-decade includes one extra card to enable all the players to take the same number of actions, assuming all the hand cards are played.)

The Hungarian Uprising. This is a new sort of Red Card, since the event is bad for the red side. This is reflected by the card values, too. (The value is higher for yellow than for red.) Our thinking was: If the event is triggered, the Hungarian Uprising takes place as it did historically. If yellow plays the value, the Uprising does not take place; if red plays the value, the Uprising takes place, but without Soviet intervention. The same concept is used for the Vietnam and Afghanistan events as well.

Conflicts and the arms race. In the real world, the outcome of conflict is unpredictable. That's why we introduced variable costs determined by drawing a card. The same is true for the arms race: Every step in the arms race is a danger to world peace and also the political and monetary costs are uncertain. Engaging in the arms race is playing with fire. Nevertheless, your decisions may be conditioned by the perverse logic of the arms race if your opponent is getting too far ahead. It should be mentioned that the conflict icons also serve another important purpose: Triggering them, a German state can sabotage the plans of its allied superpower to promote its own victory.

Blue, Black, Green Cards. You can only advance along the space track using Blue Cards. It is a race: Who will launch the first satellite? Who will be the first to reach the moon? What happens in the game does not necessarily reflect what happened historically. That's why the Blue Card events are symmetrical. Black Cards address major crisis. Their events, which always remove peace doves, are not very useful for anyone. But, for a superpower playing the value is not a real option either. So maybe the best is to simply leave them on the display — but will the world peace survive a Black auto-event? Black Cards present an exquisite dilemma. Green Cards restore peace doves. And so, by paradoxical Cold War logic, superpowers need green events to progress in the arms race.

Individual victory. Although allied, players pursue their own objectives. There is a real multiplayer dynamic. Play is much less predictable than in WSDV, the situation on the tracks can change rapidly. Winning the game is a tightrope walk. If you hinder your partner too much, he will need precious actions to get back on track, actions which may be desperately needed for the common cause. On the other hand, if you don't slow him down enough, you won't win either. The victory conditions are to be read as: A German state wins by triumphing over the other Germany and reaching full sovereignty.

Nuclear war. Even if the idea of global destruction is utterly repellent, what would a game about the Cold war be without the threat of nuclear war? Almost immediately we rejected the obvious thought of everyone losing if nuclear war broke out. A game needs a clear winner, which is not possible if everyone loses. Players who thought they had no chance of winning would be tempted to play destructively to drag all the others down with them into nuclear apocalypse. Thus, we came up with the idea of making the biggest peacemaker the winner if there was a nuclear war.

Talking of nuclear war, we want to commemorate the man who saved humanity in 1983: Three weeks after the KAL007 was shot down, he was duty officer in a Soviet early-warning command centre and jugded a computer alert of an incoming US nuclear missile to be a false alarm, and thus averted an immediate retaliation strike. Stanislaw Jewgrafowitsch Petrow. To him we wish to gratefully dedicate. (The printed sentence ends after "dedicate" with no object; the printed text also reads "jugded" for "judged". Transcribed as printed.) May many equal his example of moral courage and considerateness — especially in these times with all their Kims and Trumps.