DEFCON 1 is an historical and political wargame, set during the Cold War from 1950 to 1990, played on a beautiful 90 x 60 cm game board.

This strategic board game is characterized by a gameplay that changes according to the number of players, ranging from a Frontal Shock Game game at 2 players to a semi-cooperative version with 4 players, ending with a secret objective game in the 5 player game version. The game is played in five different phases: Initialization, R&D, Political, Production, Atomic, and Warfare.

The players control five different blocs: three major blocs (the Atlantic Alliance, the Warsaw Pact, the Non-Aligned Movement) and two minor blocs (France and China).

DEFCON 1 is fully asymmetrical: each bloc has its strengths and weaknesses, using its own technological tree, its mission and objective cards, and even scalable pool of units.

As the title suggests, the Defcon level degrades during the game from 5 to 1, and the level degrades depending on the actions of the players, opening new strategical options that will become available, such as building nuclear bombs.