NEW Weapons of
Mass Destruction Expansion $19.95
NUCLEAR WAR CARD GAME: A comical cataclysmic card game for 2-6 players
of all ages. A humorous confrontation between touchy world powers as
each
player attempts to sway his opponents’ populations with diplomacy,
propaganda,
and finally nuclear weaponry. Little old ladies defect in electric cars
and the dread SUPERGERM spreads devastation! Takes about 10 minutes to
learn and about 30 minutes to play. Invented by Doug Malewicki in 1965,
this game has remained popular for over 20 years. Anyone who ever had
to
participate in a "civil defense drill" by hiding under his or her desk
in grade school, or ever had a bomb shelter in the back yard should
play
this game. One of the few games where it is possible to have no winners
(often everybody loses!). You have to play it to believe it. This
game’s
a blast! It was chosen for Games Magazine’s "Games 100" for 1984. "The
quintessential ‘beer-and-pretzels’ game: simple, fast, easy to learn,
and
loads of fun. Minimal prep time: shuffle the decks and deal." - Tim
Kask,
Adventure Gaming Magazine. (Boxed, 140 cards and spinner). - $29.95
OUT OF PRINT
NUCLEAR ESCALATION CARD GAME: intended as the ‘expansion set’ for
Nuclear
War, this game can be played separately or shuffled in with Nuclear War
to make a bigger game. It brings the devastation up to date with cruise
missiles, MX missiles, new Special cards, sneaky Spies, and Space
Platforms.
(And don’t forget ‘Skippy’ the feared SuperVirus). This game won the H
G Wells Award for best SF Boardgame of 1983 awarded at Origins 1984
even
though it is a card game! (Boxed, 148 cards plus our special,
"radioactive"
die.) - $29.95
NUCLEAR PROLIFERATION: the second ‘expansion set’ for Nuclear War,
this explosively funny card game is for 2-6 players of all ages. Choose
which world power you’ll play: Little Bittyland, Bananaland, Bermuda
Triabland,
Bagmad, or one of many others included. Use your country’s Special
Power,
secrets, top secrets, & propaganda to gain control of, or eliminate
your enemy’s population. When that inevitably fails, all-out war breaks
out as players launch stealth bombers, submarines, scud missiles, and
fire
atomic cannons at each other. Stop attacks with patriot anti- missiles,
stealth fighters, decoy missiles, saboteurs, and other special cards.
Nuclear
Proliferation adds special trading sessions, new top secret and other
special
cards. It’s a sarcastic, humorous look at the futility of Atomic
Warfare
in the post-cold war 1990’s, Can be played by itself, or combined with
Nuclear War, Escalation, or both! - $29.95
Home, Games,
MAKE
ORDER
NUCLEAR WAR FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS.
NEW QUESTIONS:
1) Can disinformation or guardian angel be used to destroy a
"running" secret like vaccination being used by another player?
Well, first of all, the vaccination is not a "running" secret. It is
something that happened to you when it was played (your population was
vaccinated) and you are to keep it in front of you to remind everyone
that
your population is immune. Once it goes into effect, it cannot ever be
canceled. Secondly, disinformation says right on the card it is to be
played
to cancel a secret
"played on you". And the Guardian Angel is only for
a secret "that you draw or is played on you". Neither could be used on
a secret that someone else plays on himself.
2) Can asguard keep the ozone hole secret open indefinitely?
This combination seems so lethal when it comes up, or as in question
1 can someone destroy it? A player actually has to play the ozone hole
on himself, thus neither Guardian Angel nor disinformation can stop it.
If this combination comes up, I guess Asguard better be everyone else's
main target, yes?
3) If the secret time warp is drawn immediately after the last
player
was wiped out and had final retaliation, would play go to the player
before
the one who got wiped out?
It says right on the time warp card "If the last player was doing final
retaliation, ignore this card". Generally we mean exactly what it says
on the card or the rules.
4) Why does mars colony has spaces for submarine at sea and at port
if it can't use them? just curious..
Just laziness - we used the same template for everyone.
5) Can population cards be "changed" at the "bank" dead pile?
Reason:
say you
have only two population cards left and one is a 25 million and you
are afraid someone will draw an exchange student secret. Can a person
make
change without losing any population. (We have been playing that change
can only be made when a player loses people.)
Well, last time this situation came up for ME, I assumed I had to wait
until I lost people, so I guess you have to also!
6) If a player announces their target and the delivery system can't
reach the target (e.g. player forgets bomber can't reach mars colony)
must
that bomber or whatever, target another country?
(I know this is an odd question but it's happened, I say that it must
hit a target) If we let a guy get away with this, he could do it on
purpose,
and you do have to hit a target once you have put a viable bird in the
air. (Unless Mars colony is the only other player left in the game.
Then
it becomes a discard as a player does not have to target himself.)
7) Time travel give a player only TWO turns in a row right? Not
their
regular turn plus two more turns = 3 turns .
Correct.
8) If i have a salvage card can I sabotage my own launch and take
the
delivery system back into my hand?
Sort of a poor mans foolja.. The sabotage card says right on it "launch
of an ENEMY weapons system." You're still not reading the cards...
9) Clarification on world blows up solar system blows up and mars
colony.
A roll of 12 on a single 100 meg warhead causes the world to blow up
right?
Same as an 11 or 12 on a 200 meg. Wouldn't Mars colony be immune to
this
outcome?
Solar system blows up only happens when you misfunction on a 100 or
200 meg and get triple yield right? Then mars colony would blow up. I'm
not quite sure I understand your question. A roll of 12 on a single
100-megaton
warhead causes the solar system to blow up, not the world. EVERYBODY
dies.
We intended (in 4 words) to imply that the whole solar system
blows up for the 200 megaton card on both double yield and triple
yield.
There is no situation where the "world" blows up but the "solar system"
does not.
10) Can a mole card be used to examine and steal one card from a
players
hand after they have stolen a secret card? Can that mole then steal
that
secret card that was just stolen and not yet played?
Sure, why not?
11) When more than one secret card is stolen are they both placed in
the players hand or face down on the table so the other players can see
where each one is and which was stolen first so they will have a chance
to steal what they think to be the better secret.
They are both placed face down so the player who lost each secret can
know which one to steal back if he wants to. For that matter, if you
have
two or more secrets in your hand you have to take one out and hold it
up
when you announce "I have a secret". You are not allowed to announce a
secret, and then wait to choose which one after
you find out whether anyone is going to steal it.
Thank you for all your time. This game is THE cure for the internet
and computer games and (GULP) I hate to
say this but in its own way brings the family closer together.... Thank
YOU for the kind words.
Now for old questions:
The Mole is a spy, and can be "counterspied".
The UFO technology can be used on a missile, but not on a bomber.
Any anti-missile that can shoot down any bomber, can shoot down the
Delta Clipper.
If you have the Doomsday Device, during final retaliation, when it
says to discard secrets and specials, you don't draw more to replace
them.
All face-down cards (on submarines or space platforms) and all
"Deterrent
force" cards are "in your hand" or "unplayed cards" for purposes of
being
examined,
stolen, or lost via secret ("lose one warhead"). A cruise missile can
count as the "one warhead" you lose. If you are supposed to lose both a
missile and a warhead,
the cruise missile counts for both.
When you launch a cruise missile, you roll a die to see if it
successfully
launches. You don't roll again for "extra damage" when it strikes your
enemy.
Scud missiles can be used to launch a killer satellite.
In Nuclear Proliferation, Little BittyLand has the power to use three
propaganda cards to make "Peace" break out. He doesn't get to collect
propaganda
for these
cards - he is discarding them in order to end the war.
On the "Marshall Plan" card, when you hand someone a card, he
immediately
gives you one back, before you give one to the next player. Thus you
can
give the card
you just got, to the next person.
Only one "Super fallout shelter" can be played per warhead dropped
on you. Yes, the "faulty fallout shelters" can be used to cancel the
"ultimate
leadership bomb
shelter".
You cannot use an antimissile to shoot down a missile aimed at someone
else.
If you get wiped out by a secret card you drew yourself, you DO get
final retaliation. ("anything other than propaganda").
If you draw a secret card that says "You miss your turn" that is
immediately
the end of your turn and you do not draw another card to replace it.
If there is any question not answered here, the official answer is
"The
Owner Of the Game gets to Decide the Answer." But feel free to send us
any questions that
you feel ought to be clarified.
When adding the new booster cards to your game, some combinations of
cards work better than others for a fun game. The original game was
just
about perfect. It
has 34% megatons, 27% weapons, 4% antimissiles, 20% propaganda, and
15% secrets. (Thus in a game with 6 players, each with 9 cards to
start,
in the original
"secret" round, there should be about 8 secret cards played). The
"Proliferation"
game has a few more cards than "War", and it has 31% megatons, 20%
weapons,
3
1/2% antimissiles, 18 1/2% propaganda, 14% secrets, and 12% "specials".
(Not 100% due to fractions). So if you put together your deck with your
favorite secret
cards, I would recommend that you keep approximately 30% warheads,
20% weapons & carriers, 20% propaganda, 4% ABMs, and about 26%
secrets
and
specials. (And you probably should not duplicate any secret cards.)
When people see the new 200 megaton warhead card, the first question
is of course, '"What can carry it?" Escalation has two cards that can:
the MX Missile, and
the Space Platform. (The MX carries warheads 'bigger than 10 megatons'
and the space platform carries 'warheads'). If you only have Nuclear
War,
the Saturn
missile can carry the 200 megaton card if you also have the new card
"UFO Technology". If you only have the Proliferation game,
unfortunately
there is no card that
can carry the 200 megaton card, so you'd better go out and buy the
other two games!
(1) if you shoot up a 100 megaton in an MX missile, then you roll a
12 on the dice, (or spin 'triple yield') do you still blow up the solar
system?
If you put a 100-megaton warhead on an MX missile, it is no longer a
100-megaton warhead. It is now ten 10-megaton warheads. Thus the
"blowing
up the solar
system" rule no longer applies.
(1a) When an MX missile carries an "odd-megaton" warhead (i.e. 15
and
75) is the extra 5 lost?
No. Consider it a 5 megaton warhead that kills one million people,
to
be rolled for after all the tens are done.
(2) if you are playing bananaland, is there a limit to how many
people
you can send away per turn? for example, if you have an enormous
population,
or a bunch of
propaganda cards, you could in effect keep anyone from ever going.
You could play a "steal 25 million" propaganda, then distribute 12
million
to keep the 6 other
players from playing, then play another. You could keep this up almost
the entire game.
Bananaland's power is intended to be "once per turn". I realize we
didn't
specifically say that, but it is implied when we say that you can't
send
the people to the same
other player "twice in a row". Actually I believe most of the powers
are "once per turn".
(3) if you are playing asgard, and in final retaliation you kill off
others, do you get the 1 million population that you kill? logic would
say no, but there is nothing from
what i have seen that would dictate otherwise.
No, Asgard cannot come back to life during final retaliation.
(4) if you are playing hinja, and you both have a 10 megaton warhead
for example and you demand foreign aid, it is physically a different
card,
but is the same
description. Which definition of different do you follow?
"Different" as in "something other than a 10 megaton card". We
should
have added "if possible" in case someone is stuck with all 10-megaton
cards
in his hand.
(5) What do you do if you have no cards you can play face down?
(i.e.
a hand of all special and anti-missile cards)
You can always play any card face down. But if it is inappropriate
(such
as an anti-missile, a warhead without a carrier, a propaganda during
war,
etc) it becomes
just a discard and is thrown away when it is turned up.
(6) Can the Submarine launch the new 15 megaton warhead? Can you
double
the yield of a 15 megaton warhead with the Smart Bomb card?
Yes to both. What we intended for both the submarine and the smart
bomb
was "up to 20 megatons" and we should have said it that way.
(7) Is the Delta Clipper a missile or a bomber? Can it hit the "Mars
Colony", which "cannot be targeted by bombers"?
No, the Delta Clipper is considered a bomber, therefor it cannot
target
or be used by the Mars Colony.
(8) When you are playing the country Radonia,and a ten megaton
warhead
is played by you, but when you spin the spinner and it lands on ' Bomb
shelter saves 2
million ', does the radonias ability of using ' Dirty Bombs ' still
cause one million people to die?
Yes. The reference to a "successful hit" means that it was not a dud
warhead or bomber runs out of fuel or shot down by an abm or saboteur.
(9) In the Nuclear War Booster packs, the Secret Arms sale states
that
you give a player a warhead or launch system if you have one. Now, in
some
cases this
brings a players hand to ten cards. So, is the card meant to say that
you give a card to a player and he must give you one back?
No, actually I had in mind that the recipient would not draw a card
on his next turn but instead would assume that the card you gave him
would
be his "draw".
Generally if you start your turn with more than 9 cards, you don't
draw. And if you start your turn with less than 9 cards, you draw as
many
as necessary to fill your
hand.
What is the distribution of the population cards?
Each game and expansion has the same number of population cards:
ten 1 million
ten 2 million
ten 5 million
six 10 million
four 25 million