Escalation: Nuclear War in Europe is a comic-book-styled game of espionage, warfare, and nuclear exchange. It is a game for 1-2 players, which begins its story at the height of the Cold War. You take the role of NATO or Warsaw Pact commander-in-chief.
Each turn, you start with a set of action cards, which you use to perform actions and trigger events. Your successes bring you closer to victory but escalate the crisis at the same time. The initial Cold War stage allows you to use agents to perform intelligence operations. But when the game escalates to the next (Conventional War) stage, the full force of the army and airforce is brought to bear.
Now you conduct military offensives by advancing your armies across the enemy land, supported by your bombers and agents. If you gain a lot of ground quickly, the enemy falls apart, and you are victorious. But if you fail to sustain the advance, another escalation becomes imminent, crossing the threshold into a nuclear war.
The game comes with a Tutorial designed to teach you the game quickly and easily. You can play the full or the short version of the game, giving 2-4 hours of average gameplay time. It also features a Solo Bot system specially developed for this game. This is the first in a series of games that are quick to learn, easy to play, and exciting to experience. Special attention has been given to the system's user-friendliness and visual style.
—description from the designer