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Let’s start this review by just establishing something. Whatever your politics, Richard Nixon was the baddy when it came to the Watergate scandal, right.
It’s important to be on the same page on this fact, because Watergate is a two-player game where one of you has to be Nixon. And if you want your game to be worthwhile, whoever is stuck being Tricky Dicky has to really want to triumph as Nixon and quash the press.
Some folk might have no idea what Watergate is or who Nixon is. If you want to learn, this game will help you to educate yourself. The instructions are not only really well written and easy to follow, they also come with loads of additional context if you want to delve into the history, the facts and learn more about all the major players.
But if you don’t know, and you’re playing as Nixon, you might find it’s a lot more palatable to just ignore all the facts, remain ignorant of the past and crack on and play. Far fewer moral quandaries that way.
Here’s the basic gist. It’s the 70s. There was a break-in at a HQ for the Democrats, linked to the Republican President Nixon’s re-election campaign. There were investigations - led by the Washington Post - loads of bad stuff came out, and Nixon resigned. The end.
Oh, but you probably want to know about the game, right?
So, Watergate. It’s a two-player tug of war. One of you is Nixon (boo, hiss) one of you is a journalist for the Washington Post (hooray, huzzah). You’re competing for four things - informants, initiative, momentum and evidence.
If you’re the President you’re seeking to remove informants from the game, block evidence and gain initiative and momentum. If you’re the journalist you’re seeking to gain informants, reveal evidence and gain initiative and momentum (because everyone always wants initiative and momentum, right?).
Watergate is deliberately asymmetrical, designed to favour the player with the initiative and force you into duels over counters and cards. Each player has their unique deck of cards which they can use in one of two ways. The first way (the simplest way) is by using its value. You have a number and you get to pull either a piece of evidence or a momentum or initiative token your way. If it ends up at your side of the board at the end of a round it’s yours.
Or, you can use an action. Some of the actions allow you to tug multiple pieces towards you, others allow you to claim informants, discard opponent’s cards or counter an opponent’s move.
I’ve written the words evidence, momentum and initiative a lot. You probably want to know what they mean (in the context of Watergate, that is).
Evidence is a little coloured token you put on the board. If the journalists get evidence they use it to create a path between their informants and Nixon. If they get two sources connected to the Pres, they win. If Nixon gets the evidence, they play it face down, blocking a path.
Momentum is a red token. If Nixon gets five of ‘em, he wins. If the journalists get some they unlock some tasty bonuses.
Initiative is a white token. The player with initiative is - as a rule - less miserable, because they get more cards, and therefore more goes, and the final move each round to make the tug of war go their way. You really want initiative in Watergate - but get too focused on that extra card, and you quickly get quashed by your opponent getting the more meaningful evidence and momentum.
And that’s the game. Find evidence or suppress evidence, gain momentum or connect sources. It’s a clever game - simple to learn and expertly explained and brought to life through the manual (and how many games can you truly say that about?). The way the game differs depending on which side you play adds an intriguing event, but - and now we’re tying up with the intro again - how much you can enjoy the game as Nixon really hangs on and how much satisfaction you can get from acting out the role of a real life dastardly bad ‘un.
