Disclosure: Meeple Mountain received a free copy of this product in exchange for an honest, unbiased review. This review is not intended to be an endorsement.
An unpopular war. Protests in the streets. An authoritarian US leader sending troops to a major American city, employing violence against its own citizens. Obviously, I’m talking about the events of 1968 in Chicago during the Democratic National Convention, which happens to be the theme of Chicago ’68, a game from designer Yoni Goldstein and published by The Dietz Foundation.
Running south on Lake Shore Drive, Heading into town
I hope you’ll spare some time for a little personal context before I get into my review. When I moved to Chicago in the summer of 1998 to attend film school, the only thing I knew about the city was that the Bulls had just won their 6th NBA Championship in the last 8 years (side note: they haven’t been to finals in the 28 years since). It was in one of my classes that we watched Haskell Wexler’s Medium Cool, a movie that takes place (and was partly shot) during the 1968 DNC riots. The film had an enormous impact on me and, along with the book Boss by legendary columnist Mike Royko, was my introduction to the modern history of the city I have called home for nearly 30 years.
Boss is the unauthorized biography of the late Richard J. Daley, the mayor of Chicago from 1955 until his death in 1976. He ran Chicago with an iron fist, and corruption was rampant during his tenure. Despite his controversial time running things, his shadow still loomed large when I moved to the city. His name is on everything. In fact, his son, Richard M. Daly, was the mayor for much of my time here. This backstory is integral to appreciate the board game Chicago ’68 and for my own excitement about playing it.
I Ain’t Marching Anymore
Chicago ’68 is a battle: on the one side you have the “Establishment” –the aforementioned Mayor Daley and the Chicago Police Department (CPD); on the other, the “Demonstrators”–the Youth International Party, or Yippies, and the National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam (MOBE), with each of the four factions having their own unique actions and roles to play. The winner is determined at the end of the game by who has the most national exposure, counted on the Exposure track, and whose side the delegates at the convention are on. To put more simply: who is winning the hearts and minds of both the public and the politicians?
Compared to many other faction-based war games (such as the COIN series) the gameplay in Chicago ’68 is much more straightforward. Each faction has the same 5 cards to play for the entire game, with 3 actions to choose from (two sets for 2 of the actions and a single card for the third action) but there are still lots of decisions to make within each action. Each round, a faction will play three cards, so when and how to use them becomes the key. This is where turn order heavily factors in because, in the standard game, it never changes. What the game calls the “Leadership” phase, first the Mayor and then the Yippies, will play a card, setting the table for their counterparts, the “Rank-and-File” phase, where the MOBE and then the CPD will perform their own actions. This is also where my overall game experience based on player count really began to contrast.
Everybody’s at Disadvantage
In the 2-player game, you control all the actions for both factions of your side and there’s enough strategic depth to feel in control. The Mayor can pass the bills needed to unlock more tear gas for the CPD to use on protestors at the end of the round in specific areas that you want. In a 4-player game, you can still make the same decision as the Mayor, but your Establishment partner will be the one executing the CPD order. It makes each player feel like just a cog in the system rather than controlling the entire machine. Conceptually, this makes perfect sense and is a really clever way of showing how each faction in the real-life Chicago riots was limited or hindered in their own individual actions. In practice, it is just not a lot of fun to be merely a cog. It’s why I would probably only play this game again at 2 players, even though, thematically, I appreciate the idea behind playing at 4.
There are also the actions themselves. This is fundamentally an area-control game but, with limited areas on the map, most actions come down to a game of whack-a-mole. Yippies send “Agitators” to gather large crowds of MOBE protestors into an area and the Mayor sends the CPD to move them out of the area or to jail. The cards allow different actions to achieve this, but the goal is essentially the same: have more guys on your side in each scoring area before the round is over and the Exposure level is tallied. This is broken up by the “Mob Chaos” event cards, which are triggered when five or more units are in conflict, and usually give one side an extra advantage, depending on what turn it is. Having only three different actions makes it an easy game to learn but also limits the overall strategic depth found in similar area-control conflict games.
Sweet Home Chicago
One thing that I cannot fault Chicago ’68 for is its dedication to the theme. The designers and developers really know their source material. From the locations, events, and personalities to the artwork and font usage on the map and cards, everything in this production evokes Chicago in the late 60s. It’s clearly a labor of love (and a ton of research) and that’s one thing that many historical games either get wrong or treat as an afterthought. Here, the theme is front and center. As I mentioned at the top, this era and location are near and dear to me, so I welcome seeing it handled so carefully and intentionally.
They’ve also included several different variants to shake up the standard gameplay, which is great for those wanting something more after a few plays. You can shuffle up the standard turn order and add incendiary event cards that heighten the complexity. Designer Yoni Goldstein is clearly trying to make a historical conflict game that is accessible to a wide audience but with some room to grow, if you enjoy the core gameplay.
Tell me, is it worth it all?
So, how do I rate a game like Chicago ’68? After several plays, I’m still not sure. At 4 players, I would happily watch other people play, simply to see their reactions to both the original theme and the interesting (if frustrating) team-play mechanics. It was clearly designed as a two-player game; at two it feels much smoother, you have more control over the outcomes. However, there are many other, more strategically complex, card-driven conflict games that I’d recommend at that player count.
On the other hand, I’m one who believes the world of wargaming needs to reach beyond World War II and other “traditional” wars or types of conflicts. Perhaps I’m geographically biased, but I think Chicago ‘68 is important because of the historical significance. There are certainly not enough games that cover these kinds of consequential events in US history, especially with everything going on in the world right now. The actual Chicago ’68 DNC riots gave us the iconic phrase, “the whole world is watching”, which was still being chanted in 2024 during the last DNC in Chicago, by Gaza war protestors. Yes, it’s just a board game, and board games should be fun to play, but sometimes it’s just as crucial to think beyond fun (or star ratings) and endorse the diverse subjects, content, and perspectives that the medium of board games can convey.
Chicago '68 details
- Designer: Yoni Goldstein
- Artists: John Biggs (II)
- Publishers: The Dietz Foundation
- Release Date: 2025
- Player count : 1 - 4
- Age range : 14+
- Time range : 90 - 180 minutes
- Mechanism(s): Action/Event, Area Majority / Influence, Deck, Bag, and Pool Building, Events, Simulation
- BGG Geek Rating: 8.3 - converted to Meeple Mountain scale: 4.0.
- More articles about Chicago '68.
