Crisis: 1914

Crisis: 1914 is a game of international brinkmanship - if you back down too soon, you lose. If you back down too late you lose. But you have hawks and doves in your cabinet and in your government, and out of these conflicting views you must somehow formulate a coherent response to the crisis to win the day and prevent war.

There are 3 interrelated concepts at the heart of Crisis: 1914: Prestige, Tension, and Diplomatic Pressure (DP). Diplomatic Pressure (DP) is how you score Prestige. Tension is how you lose. Every card has a DP value. You apply DP by playing cards. The player with the most Diplomatic Pressure at the end of a turn earns Prestige points. There are other ways of scoring Prestige points too, but this is the most important one.

Prestige is how you win. The player with the most Prestige at the end of the game is the winner.
Cards drive the game. Card types that affect the game are:

Assertion Cards- which uses your nation's power to increases your Prestige
Consensus and National Interests Cards- these allow your nation to play more cards
Diplomatic Back-Channel Cards - these let you increase DP without increasing Tension
Caution Cards - allow more cards to be drawn

In addition, some cards have recurring effects on Momentum, which stops players from performing certain actions and Reduce Tension which lets you lower Tension in your country.

Includes rules for solitaire play.

—description from the publisher