It’s Nixon versus journalism in the Watergate game, out this summer

One of the most famous political scandals of the 21st century, Watergate, has inspired a tabletop game for the first time since it happened.

Watergate is a two-player-only game based on the notorious 1972 burglary of the Democratic National Committee headquarters and the web of connections that would eventually lead to then-US president Richard Nixon, who – faced with impeachment – ultimately resigned in 1974.

Designer Matthias Cramer’s card-driven game appears to be the first major board game directly based on Watergate since a slew of hastily-reskinned card games and Monopoly-a-likes were released in 1973 and 1974 during the highly publicised scandal.

In Watergate, one player takes on the role of the Nixon Administration attempting to cover up the crime and see out the president’s term, while the other represents the journalists such as The Washington Post’s Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein investigating the burglary and its ties to the president.

Both players have an individual set of cards at their disposal; the Nixon player must suppress evidence and build up momentum to make it through the years, while the forces of journalism seek out the evidence before it vanishes to connect two informants directly to Nixon himself.

Watergate comes with detail on the real-life events depicted in the game, with illustrators Klemens Franz and Alfred Vicktor Schulz responsible for its visuals. Play time is said to be between 30 minutes and an hour.

After a launch at Gen Con, Watergate will be released worldwide on August 14th – almost 45 years to the day that Richard Nixon became the only US president (so far) to resign, August 14th 1974. The game will cost $35 (£28).