The Wargamer

1962 Goes Very Wrong

Not all science fiction transpires long ago in a galaxy far, far away. Some of it is right here at home, and some of it is right now… well, sort of right now… Consider, if you will Strategy First’s Cuban Missile Crisis: The Aftermath. As the title suggests, the game is set in an alternate mid-sixties history in which things didn’t turn out so well in the Cuba. Kennedy’s blockade didn’t work, the crisis erupted into a nuclear war, albeit a limited one, and in the aftermath the fractured city-states of planet Earth struggle for survival. 

In Cuban Missile Crisis: The Aftermath the struggle plays out through an overarching, turn-based, grand strategic campaign, and the real-time battles that it generates. 

Gamers lead one of four factions: the USSR, the Anglo-American Alliance, the Franco-German Alliance, and China, as they attempt to conquer the world. 

The turn-based strategic map is an iconic two-dimensional display in which gamers buy armies, order them to capture enemy territories, and plan grand strategy… a strategy that usually entails drives on key locations, such as armories, fuel storage facilities, and the like. These thrusts frequently put armies in opposition, and that opposition is gamed out in semi-typical real-time battles. Gamers control tanks, infantry, and artillery from an overhead view as they maneuver to capture enemy camps, and destroy the bad guy’s formations.

A strong multiplayer game ships on the CD, but it only includes the tactical maps (there’s no strategic layer) and can only be played on a LAN connection. On the plus side there are three different game types to choose from - Assault, Capture, Flags - and each provides a fast-paced tactical challenge.

Make no mistake, Cuban Missile Crisis: The Aftermath is solid, real-time strategy fun. The premise is unique, the two-tiered play is challenging, and the ambiance immersive. There’s a lot that the game does right, a lot that the game creates.