Escalation is a very easy push your luck type of game, except that you are really pushing the luck of the player to your right. The game has 56 playing cards, mostly numbered from 1 to 13, with some wild cards that you can declare as any number from 1 to 7 when you play them, and 2 neighbourhood watch cards, while the rules are simple enough to fit on a single rule card.

On your turn you lay a card into the centre of the table, for example a 3, and then the next player clockwise must try to lay a card of a higher value. If he cannot do so he takes the cards that have been played in the current set and places them face down in front of him to show that they are out of play, and then lays the first card of the next set. At the end of the game, the player with the least cards in front of him wins.

You can play two cards of the same value to get a higher value, for example two 4’s would give you an 8, which is why the wild cards are so valuable, as they give you flexibility. When you play a neighbourhood watch card it counts the same value as the current card. Thematically it brings a pause to the conflict, and then the next player has to lay a higher value card or cards as normal.

At its core Escalation is just a numbers game, playable with a deck of regular cards. Escalation has the theme of violent warfare in the quiet leafy suburbs however, and the artwork to go with it, so it is a lot more fun than whist for example. Cards include a granny with a rocket launcher for 13, a little girl with an assault rifle for 8, a bloke with a lawn strimmer for 5 and a crazy cat lady for 10.

Low cards are difficult to get rid of unless you are playing the first card of a set, and high cards are good to hold on to for when the other players raise the stakes. Ideally you need pairs of cards, but that is down to the luck of the draw unless you are good at card counting and hold on to the right cards. If you start the game with a couple of wild cards and a neighbourhood watch card you are on to a good start.

The build up of the score from cards played is usually fairly haphazard as players just try to avoid a pickup, but there is a small amount of strategy. If players co-operate you can manipulate the cards so that a player with no cards in front of him is confronted with a pair of 10’s for example, which is difficult to beat. Quite often whoever is to the right of a player with a consistently good hand gets hammered though.

Escalation plays very quickly even with a higher player count, and has the same kind of ‘oh no’ quality as a +4 pickup in Uno when you realise you are going to collect ten or twelve cards from the pot. The artwork is high quality and entertaining, and the game play simple. Escalation is ideal for casual gamers and even for family gaming, especially if you want to take a break from playing Phase 10 or Super 5.