Manfred's Board Game Page

Contents

• Description of my Top Rated Board Games
  • 1830
  • 1835
  • Advanced Civilization
  • Kremlin
  • Junta

Description of my Top Rated Board Games

• 1830: A Game of Railroad and Robber Barons - Each player is a railroad baron, who buys, holds and sells shares of American railroad corporations. But only the President of the railroad, that is the player holding the most shares of that railroad, determines the actions of that corporation: He lays tiles for the rail track to connect some other cities with his railway stations, builds railway stations in other big cities, buys trains, determines the routes of the trains and decides, if the corporation is paying a dividend to all shareholders or saving the money for future investments. But the President has also duties: If the railroad does not have a train, maybe because the old ones have to be replaced with trains of newer technology, and the railroad does not have enough money to buy a train, the President has to pay the rest of the money. The objective of the game is to have the most private money at the end of the game - regardless how many corporations have been ruined.
  Players: 2-6 (optimal: 4-5), Time: 5-8 hours
• 1835: Very similar to 1830, but this game is settled in Germany and has some different rules. 1829 (England) and 1853 (India) are some other similar railroad games, but 1830 and 1835 are my favourites because of the better rules for stock quotation.
  Players: 3-7 (optimal: 4-5), Time: 5-8 hours
• Advanced Civilization: Each player leads a tribe through the Civilization. He controlls the settlement, the war with neighbouring tribes, the building of big cities, and the corn production. The objective of the game is to advance the civilization of the own tribe, which can only be achieved with maintenance of many cities and effective trade of goods with other players. The trade is played with trade cards. But these trade cards do not only contain goods, but also catastrophes. Two player can exchange three or more trade cards, but the cards must only show up two goods mentioned in the trade. Therefore if one offers four trade cards with two timber, one gold and one diamond, you may get two timber and two catastrophes. Any additional information made during the trading may also be wrong. But despite of the danger of getting catastrophes cards, the trade is essential to get more money for the civilization cards, which improve some abilities of the tribe and guarantee the progress of civilization.
  The game ends after one tribe has reached the final entry in the timetable.
  Players: 3-7 (optimal: 7), Time: 8-12 hours
• Kremlin: We write the year 1950. The USSR is reigned by Nestor Aparatschik, but he is 80 years old and has an illness too. So the great question is who will be the leader of the Communist Imperium in the next years? There are 23 healthy young (aging from 50 to 75) persons waiting for their opportunity. Some of them have already some powerfull positions in the Kremlin like Chief of the KGB, Minister of Defence, or Minister of the Exterior.
  Every player writes down a secret list of 10 of the 23 persons with varying influence points from 1 to 10. To gain control over a person a player must have this person on his secret list and show some influence points up to the value on the list, but allways more than the recent controling player.
  The gameplay is driven by the actions of persons holding powerfull positions: The Head of Government holds the October Review, The Chief of the KGB can try to send people in the politburo to Sibiria, the Minister of the Exterior can search for imperialistic spies and make a trial, the Minister of Defence has the right of proposal of the new head of government, if the former has died or works currently in Sibiria. But most of the actions cost stress points, especially the ones which fail. The stress points age the persons and the probability to get an illness or even to die increases. Of course the persons can go to a sanatorium, but this weakens the political influence of the person in this year - many of them were sent to Sibiria while they wanted to cure their diseases.
  The game ends, if the current Head of Government holds the October Review three times or the year 1961 is reached. The player with the most influence points on the Head of Government wins the game. There is a special rule, for the case, nobody has influence on the Head of Government: It says, all players have to drink a glass of vodka.
  Players: 3-6 (optimal: 3-6), Time: 3-4 hours
• Junta: Each player represents a powerfull family, who control the Republic al Bananas. The objective of the game is to have the most money on a Swiss bank account at the end of the game. The President, who is of course a head of one of these families, is elected by the others and he remains President, until he is killed or a putsch had success. The President has to give at least one position to every family. These positions include the Minister of Interior, three Generals, the Admiral and the Commander of the Air Force. The President also determines the distribution of the budget among the families. But only the President knows how high the budget currently is, which could range from 8-24 millions. Of course the families who did not get much money will try to get rid of the current President, maybe via a putsch, maybe via a killer. But not only the President is in danger of being killed, but all heads of the families with much cash - only the money on the Swiss bank account is save from the other players. But to get the money there, the head of the family has to go to the bank, which is usually the most dangerous place in the game.
  Players: 3-7 (optimal: 7), Time: 5-6 hours