Crisis? What crisis?

Sunday 18th November saw 14 players gathered in London, and a further 7 in South Yorkshire for John Bassett's game about the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.  The two-centre arrangement came about after I casually mentioned to John that I'd like to play the game but wouldn't be able to make it to London.  One thing led to another and I soon found myself hosting the 'Politburo' in my very own 'Kremlin'.  Meanwhile 'Washington' and 'Cuba' were in Alex's office in London.

Preparations consisted of a lot of tidying in the Toy Room and the hanging of a number of suitable flags (including a Soviet flag bought specially for the game) and the original signed photo of Castro above.  I'm sure it's genuine.

 Above: The Emergency Committee of the Politburo in full session.  From left: Gromyko (Foreign Minister), Marshal Zakharov (Chief of Staff), Marshal Malinovsky (Minister of Defence), Khruschev (Premier), General Semichastny (KGB) and Brezhnez (Head of Nuclear Industry).  The shadowy General Serov of the GRU (Military Intelligence) is behind the camera.  I assured Len, Steve, Lloyd, Jim, Rob and Jerry that I wouldn't reveal their real names...
Each player had a personal briefing which included some conflicting objectives.  Communications with Soviet forces on Cuba, Castro (and in some cases the CIA!) were by Skype (which didn't work at the London end), text message, 'phone and email.  Certain difficulties experienced with communications made the game a rather effective simulation of the real thing!  Maybe what's needed is some sort of 'hotline' between Washington and Moscow?

 Above: some of the tasteful decor.

 The Soviet DEFCON indicator.  We never went higher than '3', while the jittery capitalists quickly went to '1'  With a scale of 10 minutes to the day things moved very quickly and tensions soon rose.  Interesting developments included Raol Castro's 'car accident' (my money's on the KGB for that one), Cuban troops massing near Guantanamo Bay and a US 'training flight' crashing in the same area.  My personal favourite was when we (the Soviets) flew in a whole regiment of SA-2 AA missiles without US interference.  In fact the US had declined an invitation to inspect the transport aircraft... 
Eventually and happily sanity prevailed and a nuclear exchange was avoided.

 The Comrades were well catered for by er, 'Mrs Serov'.  The real power in this particular Kremlin.

 Gromyko neglects the tedium of averting a world crisis in favour of grabbing another bun.

 The authenticity of the game is clear from this comparison between a photos taken on my toy room (above) and an original 1962 photo (below) taken inside the actual Kremlin.  Really.

Well done to all involved, especially John for setting the whole thing up and Alex for facilitating the London end of things.