Dual Powers - Revolution 1917 Game for 1-2 Players to Direct Political Action, Social maneuvering, and Military Conflict

An absolute top two player game for me! Seems complex at first but apart from working out scoring the rest is super easy - and the scoring is okay too after a few play throughs. Love the theme and the mechanics are cool, too. Area control, done well.

Dual Powers: Revolution 1917, from Thunderworks Games, is a two-player area control game in which players take on the role of the Petrograd Soviet or the Provisional Government during the turbulent year of 1917. The game board is a map of St. Petersburg (or Petrograd) divided into six distinct sections with their own unique colors and symbols. There is also a space for unrest and blockade tiles, a calendar track, a hidden objective space for each players, and a score track. Each player also receives a number of strength tokens, and three leader tokens each.Each round, players get a hand a of cards which contain different sorts of information on them. Players randomly determine which sections will be put into unrest, and which line between sections will be blockaded for the round. Each card indicates which section of the board it deals with. Players select a card with its section and put it in their hidden objective section face down. This is the section of the board that they are trying to score. Then, players take turns playing cards from their hands. When a card is played, it triggers the card’s day effect. Essentially, the calendar must be moved forward that number of days (if the calendar marker lands on the 15th or 29th, 30th, or 31st, of the month, the player gets a special bonus action). Players then can take one of the card’s indicated actions on the section it specifies. Players can place their strength tokens in the section, they can move strength tokens around the board, the can refresh exhausted strength tokens, and more. Players take turns playing four cards each, then move on to score the round. Players place scoring markers in the unrest section of the board, as well as the two hidden objective sections. Players add up each other strength in each of the sections, and whoever has the most strength in a section gains a certain amount of points depending on which month it is. (Each section also starts with neutral strength markers, and whoever his leading in scoring has the Will of the People token, which grants them control of neutral tokens). After players have scored there is some cleanup, including flipping all strength tokens in scored sections to their exhausted, less powerful side (if that region is scored again without the tokens be refreshed, they are removed from the game).There are other mechanics going on as well. Each player has three leader tokens that have high strength values and special abilities. For instance, one leader can steal the Will of the People token, one can look at his opponents hidden objective, etc… Also, Leon Trotsky’s strength token comes into the game initially as a neutral, but later in the year he becomes a Bolshevik. The scoring is a tug of war, so that the marker goes back and forth across the board. To win, at the end of a set number of rounds a player simply has to have the marker on their side of the track. Alternatively, if a player ever gets the score marker all the way to the end of his side of the track he wins instantly.Dual Powers: Revolution 1917 is a very quick and engaging two player area control game. Each round, players will try to bluff and counter where their hidden objective sections are. While players are trying to outguess each other, they are also trying to get the bonus that will come with landing on the right day of the month. The game really reminds me of two other historical area control games. First of all, this game is very reminiscent of Twilight Struggle in the way players are trying to move their strength into a certain section without tipping their hand that that is what they are trying to score – while at the same time trying to figure out where their opponent is trying score and moving strength there. Also, the tug of war scoring mechanism is very much like Twilight Struggle. It also plays very similarly to Fort Sumter, which also came out in 2018. Like Dual Powers, Fort Sumter sees players select hidden objective cards and try to score areas on the board through card play. Like those two other games, Dual Powers is a heck of a lot of fun. It’s an intense struggle and players will really sweat over the decisions they are presented with in this game. The only criticism I have is that I wish the game managed to be a little more thematic. Each of the cards have a little flavor text on them, but unlike Twilight Struggle, Dual Powers does not employ actual historic events to represent card play. Such a touch would have been very welcome, but not every game can be as rich and thematic as Twilight Struggle. If you are a fan of the Twilight Struggle, but looking for a game that plays in about an hour, I think you will really get a kick out of Dual Powers: Revolution 1917.The Discriminating Gamer

Love this strategy game. Fairly quick. Can play in an hour.

El juego vale mucho la pena es sencillo en reglas pero con mucha estrategia, la mecánica se basa en cartas y control de territorios...Sin duda un buen juego a considerar, los componentes son de muy buena calidad.