NATO: The Cold War Goes Hot – Designer Signature Edition

About this board game

NATO: The Cold War Goes Hot – Designer Signature Edition is a division- and brigade-level wargame for 1–4 players, with games lasting up to 480 minutes. It simulates a Warsaw Pact invasion of Western Europe during the 1980s, across a map stretching from Denmark to the Swiss Alps and from France to Poland.

Each turn represents 24 hours, while every hex covers 15 miles. Players command infantry, armor, airborne, airmobile, and marine forces, using combined-arms operations to seize the initiative. The combat system supports artillery, tactical and operational air strikes, flank and concentric attacks, reserves, counterattacks, and deep exploitation.

This is not simply a game of one side attacking and the other defending. Both players must attack relentlessly to overcome their opponent, while managing the fluid, fast-paced, and deadly conditions of modern warfare. Helicopters, chemical weapons, and nuclear weapons provide additional options as the conflict escalates.

• Scenarios covering surprise attacks, concealed preparation, extended buildup, and the invasion of Denmark
• 1983 and 1988 Orders of Battle, showing the impact of NATO’s rearmament and reorganization
• Updated maps based on satellite photography, with larger hexes and 9/16-inch counters
• Reworked rules with illustrations, examples, Designer’s Notes, and graphical player aids

Winner of the Charles S. Roberts Award for the best modern wargame of 2021, NATO: The Cold War Goes Hot is a remastered edition of Bruce Maxwell’s 1983 classic. Its expanded components, updated historical information, and redesigned presentation provide a detailed look at a conflict that could have reshaped Europe.