Confusion: Espionage and Deception in the Cold War

Confusion: Espionage and Deception in the Cold War is a great 2-player board game full of deduction. So if you’re looking for a head-to-head game that keeps your mind ticking, then we recommend you take a look at Confusion.

While at first glance Confusion may look like a game of Stratego, Confusion is a whole lot more. Take a closer look and you’ll see that it has a unique twist. Rather than trying to guess your opponent’s pieces, you’re left having to guess about your own pieces!

Players have to first figure out how their spy pieces can move before they’ll be able to use them to accomplish their objective.

Before you get too confused, check out dad’s video review of Confusion to see what it’s all about.

Can the whole family enjoy Confusion?

As the name suggests, Confusion may be a bit confusing for some players. But we’ve found that the only tricky part is getting familiar with what the symbols on the movement pieces mean and how to mark them on your tracking dossier. Once players have that settled, the rest is just using them to work in their favor.

While we wouldn’t recommend youngsters play Confusion, we do think it’s a great way for kids to develop their mental capacities. We found that by having Caleb and Brooke sit with us and mark our notes for us, they’ve picked on the game rather nicely.

And for the older kids and adults, Confusion is a great game for a fun, 2-player board game for working your brain.

The mix of strategy and luck

Even though Confusion is a deduction board game, luck plays a role in the game as well. Perhaps the deduction game most families are familiar with is Clue. In Clue the luck of the die rolls will affect the outcome. If you can’t get a high enough roll to get to the room you want to be in, tough luck. You’ll have to deal with it and adjust your strategy.

Similar elements are alive in Confusion. While there aren’t any dice to roll, the game starts out with the random placement of movement tiles into the spy pieces. The whole point of the game is to first figure out how your pieces can move and then get them moving in coordination to carry the top secret case across the board. And if you get lucky with your first few guesses and pieces, then you’ll have the advantage.

As mentioned in the video, we have come across a downside in a number of our games. Sometimes the games have lasted less than 5 minutes because of the lucky, random placement of the movement tiles and initial guesses on movement. So those games have been a let-down. But when those elements don’t fall into place that way, then it’s a great game of deduction and strategy.

When we think of strategy, we think of planning general movements in advance and then working to accomplish the goal step by step on each turn. And in Confusion, once you’ve figured out the movement of some of your pieces, then you can figure out a strategy and get it rolling. Of course, you can also plan some strategy from the beginning in which pieces you want to attempt to move first. Just be willing to adjust as you learn more about your spies.

Fabulous game components!

We can’t end our review without talking about the game components in Confusion. Stronghold Games did a great job with this board game remake. The spy components are fantastic!

We love how easy the movement sections fit into the spy pieces and stay put during game play. The sturdy and durable pieces look great and feel great!

There are also a few other items not shown in our video review – markers that are used with some of the variants mentioned in the rule book. We like that the rules include some additional ways to add twists to the game depending on what you’re in the mood for.

How does Confusion score on the “Let’s Play Again” game meter?
Confusion scores high on our “let’s play again” game meter mostly for repeated plays. Since it’s a deduction game, the first game seems to get our minds warmed up and then we want to have a number of rematches in a row once the juices are flowing. Games don’t seem to last too long, so it’s easy to set up and go again.

So if you’re looking for a good 2-player game with deduction at it’s core, then we suggest you consider Confusion: Espionage and Deception in the Cold War.

Thanks for another great remake Stronghold Games!