Flash Review — Watergate

Players: 2
Age: 12+
Playtime: 30-60 min
Complexity: low-med

It’s the Nixon administration against the staff of the Washington Post, and while the latter works to establish a link between the President and the Watergate break-in, the former does its best to conceal evidence and bury the lead.
Play cards to recruit informants, take the initiative, gain momentum, move pieces of evidence within your grasp, and bring your opponent to their knees.

Each turn, you play a card out of your hand and trigger one of its many potential effects. You could try to bring a piece of evidence a few steps towards your side on a tug-of-war track; you could move the momentum token closer to you (to set off special abilities) or do the same with the initiative token (go first next turn!); or else you could execute the card’s powerful event, to recruit an informant, neutralize evidence acquired by your opponent, silence a potential threat forever...

Recruited informants go on the board’s periphery, while acquired pieces of evidence are placed in a chain that the Washington Post hopes will eventually connect the President (in the center) to one of the informants. Unless the Nixon administration manages to take that information out of play, of course. The Washington Post will juggle multiple chains of evidence at once, waiting for one of them to pay off, while the Nixon administration does its damndest to kill the story.

By and large, it’s amazing this game even exists. Many casual gamers will be put off by the theme, whereas hardcore gamers might dismiss the short rulebook as “too simple.” The truth falls somewhere in between, in a situation where the end result is bigger and better than the sum of its parts. The history-dripping theme combined with the accessible ruleset make Watergate an engrossing experience, which is a surprise coming out of such a small package. (In a way, it’s reminiscent of 13 Days, for those familiar with that compact game about the Cuban missile crisis.)

Most easily forgotten rule: Whenever a token (of any type) reaches space no. 5 at either end of the tug-of-war track, the player sitting on that side acquires the token immediately.

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