Lately I’ve been nostalgic for the games I played back in my college days. The recent Y2K hysteria gave me an excuse to get the club into one of these games: Nuclear Escalation. This card game brings back the Cold War feel of the early Reagan years. Each player in the game is his own country with a population of millions depending on him for survival. The game begins with the players engaging in a propaganda war. The goal is to steal of destroy your opponents population. Pretty soon someone decides to go nuclear and the missiles start to fly. Each lauch requires a roll of the dice with a 1/6 chance of a mishap. When a player is reduced to zero population he is out of the game but gets to fire back a retaliatory strike. After a player is knocked out the game goes back to the propaganda war until someone launches the next nuke. There are some interesting weapons to add to the nuclear mayhem, including the B1 bomber, cruise missiles, space platforms, killer satellites, and the Super Virus. The game goes quickly and is a fun way to end a long day of gaming or a long night of drinking. Sold by Flying Buffalo, the game is based on an older game called Nuclear War.