John Fite
The Long Telegram key art: Truman and Stalin face each other across a divided map of Europe, with American and Soviet flags behind them.

The Long Telegram

Turn-based Cold War strategy, in development. Balance of Terror, Chapter I

Spring, 1946. The war is over. The peace is already in trouble.

A turn-based Cold War strategy game about gaining influence abroad while keeping enough power at home to act. Lead Washington or Moscow from a desk full of cables, competing advice and decisions you cannot postpone.

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Coming soon for Windows and macOS. There’s no demo or download yet.

You cannot do everything

An ally wants aid. A strike threatens reconstruction. Your advisers have different answers, and your intelligence leaves room for doubt. You have enough power to do something. You cannot do everything.

Every move abroad has a cost. Every promise at home has someone waiting to collect.

Commit your orders, read the dispatches and face the political consequences.

Official trailer

Fifty-two seconds from Washington and Moscow, 1946.

Announcement trailer (0:52). Watch on YouTube · Wishlist on Steam

At the desk

Screenshots from the current development build.

Washington in Winter 1946–47: an Asia influence map beside cabinet portraits and an Indochina cable with mediation and material-support options. View full size
Indochina, Winter 1946–47: weigh a cable against the political map.

In the current development build

Truman’s or Stalin’s chair
Play through the four seasons of 1946, confronting foreign crises and domestic dilemmas while protecting your position.
Two different home fronts
In Washington, face Congress, organized labor, business and public opinion. In Moscow, navigate the party, the army, rival power centers and ministries whose reports may conceal as much as they reveal.
Eight advisers, eight visions
The broader campaign features historical advisers with different doctrines, priorities and definitions of success. Decide whose judgment deserves your confidence.
Intelligence you have to judge
Weigh uncertain reports before committing scarce resources. Watch the political map change and read the dispatches explaining what your decisions set in motion.

Two capitals. Different pressures.

Moscow’s Fall 1946 home board connects Stalin to the organs, party apparatus, army, ministries, regional bosses, peasantry and workers. View full size
Moscow’s home board, Fall 1946.
Washington’s Spring 1946 home front beside a miners’ strike decision, showing political effects and advice from Julius A. Krug. View full size
Washington: a home-front decision and competing advice.
Washington’s Summer 1946 home board shows Congress, labor peace, price stability, public approval and political constituencies around the White House. View full size
Washington’s home board, Summer 1946.
Moscow’s Fall 1946 European map beside an invented top-secret letter from the Soviet security ministry naming Beria. View full size
Moscow: a cable from the organs, Fall 1946.
A lamp-lit desk with cables, a fountain pen and a divided map of Europe.
A desk full of cables. Atmospheric artwork.

Work ahead

The expanded leader, cabinet and home-front experience currently covers 1946. Extending those systems through the later campaign years until 1952 is part of development.

A deeper intelligence and advice contest
Uncover the rival’s aims through estimates and intercepts, and hear advisers argue their case across foreign policy, budgets, defense and trade.
More ways to govern
Truman’s legislative program, Stalin’s plans and appointments, and cabinet pressures and domestic dilemmas carried into later years.
Expanded warfare
Limited war and World War III, with continuing play through their military and political consequences.

This is the Godot rebuild of the original browser edition. Release timing and the final feature set are still to be announced.

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