Ballistic Missile (1975)

One of the 70s-era "Micro-Warfare" games published by Heritage Models, Inc, under its "Tabletop Games" subsidiary. The Cold War heats up on your kitchen table, as Red launches it's nuclear arsenal of ICBM's, IRBM's, and Strategic Bombers against Blue's air defense command. Blue occupies two thirds of the table with his cities, missile silos, radar sites, and surface-to-air missiles, while Red lurks menacingly behind his Fail-Safe Line, awaiting the go-codes to unleash Armageddon. Supplied components are a rulebook, the cardboard pieces that you must cut out, and a pad of "Missile Attack/Defense Order" sheets. Players must supply two different colored dice and a meter stick. (A sharp pencil and a calculator are recommended as well.) Despite involving a somewhat greater-than-usual amount of record-keeping, both players quickly find themselves in a tense battle of nuclear bluff and counter-bluff. Are those incoming blips merely a Red ruse, or is that "The Real Thing" building up behind Red's Fail Safe Line? Should Blue strip the air defenses of his cities to assure his getting off a retaliatory ICBM strike against Red, or protect his populace and risk obliteration of his missile silos? Overall, a tight, well-balanced table-topper It never plays the same way twice.