I first learned what a “DEFCON” was by watching “WarGames” starring Matthew Broderick. While I would often prefer to play a nice of “Chess”, there’s something to be said for games involving global thermal nuclear war. Yes, the theme is both morbid and gruesome, but you can play such games without the risk of your hair falling out or your skin melting off the bone. “ELEVEN FIFTY NINE”, a quick two-player micro dice game that is due to launch in early April 2019, will task players with surviving an arsenal full of nasty nuclear bombs. Before we begin it’s important to stress that I received a prototype for press coverage purposes. Prototypes are not often reflective of the finished product, making everything you read about and see here subject to change. I am also required by FCC regulations to disclose that I was paid to cover this game, however my thoughts and opinions are my own.
My prototype copy of “ELEVEN FIFTY NINE” came with two yellow meeples, two black meeples, one yellow rocket, one black rocket, two yellow dice, two black dice, three yellow chevron bunker tokens, three black chevron bunker tokens, seven white diplomacy gems, and an instructions card. To set up the game, each player receives the pieces of one color. Players take one of their chevron tokens and places it in the center of the table along with the diplomacy gems. The players’ nukes start on their side, indicated that they are unloaded.
“ELEVEN FIFTY NINE” is a simultaneous dice rolling game, meaning that there are no player turns. Everything happens in real-time, so you’ll have to be quick! The goal is to kill both of your opponent’s meeples or to gain five diplomacy gems, whichever comes first.
If a player rolls a “7”: They earn either a diplomacy gem by taking it from the center of the table OR they can replace a chevron of their color from the center of the table with one of their diplomacy gems.
If a player rolls doubles: They may load their nuke (place it upright), fire their nuke (place it on its side), or send an enemy diplomacy token to the center of the table. Firing a nuke allows the player to move an enemies chevron bunker token to the center of the table or if they are out of chevrons, kill an enemy meeple by removing it from play permanently.
While you can play one game and be done, there is a campaign mode that you can observe that earns you points across multiple games. A victory via destruction is worth three points and a diplomacy victory is worth two points. First to seven points wins the campaign.
The game does include a player mat (pictured below), but only if you pledge at the DEFCON 1 or 2 levels ($35/$19 respectively).
“ELEVEN FIFTY NINE” is very similar to “Brace For Impact”, a two-player kill or be killed submarine mint tin game that launched on Kickstarter in March 2017. Instead of intelligence gems as found in “Brace For Impact” you have diplomacy gems. Instead of the black and blue colored meeples/rockets you have black and yellow colored meeples/rockets, and so on. The instruction card is nearly identical, save for the colors. Long story short: If you’ve played “Brace for Impact” then you’ll be able to jump into this title without any trouble.
Real-time, quick and dirty dice battlers aren’t for everyone, though with enough imagination one can modify the rules to make the game turn-based instead. In fact I recommend doing this for your first playthrough, just so you can get a feel for the rules and how everything ties together. It’s not a deep game, rather it’s a filler for use on game nights where other, longer games are the primary focus. It’s portable and travel friendly so you can easily take it with you when you’re on the go.
In addition to “Brace For Impact“, Rampage Games also developed “Iron Horses” and “Elements“, both of which I enjoyed. To that end, I recommend giving “”ELEVEN FIFTY NINE” a look.