Subsections
The game turn
The game is played in turns, each consisting of the following phases
in order:
- Draw Action cards
- Place VPs
- Events
- War
- Business
The players may discard any unwanted cards. After that, each of them
draws cards until the number of cards he holds equals the number of
VPs he controls. If he has more cards than VPs at the beginning of
this phase, he need not discard any.
A player who wants to draw more cards can do so with extra effort,
adding the bonus to the number of VPs he has. This decision has to be
announced before cards are drawn.
Place VPs
All players take those VPs from the game board which they want to
place somewhere else. Beginning with the starting player and going
clockwise around the table, each player has to place one VP on the
board if able. The last player places all of his VPs and the other
players follow counterclockwise. No VP may be held back, but it is
legal to send VPs straight to the VIP Lounge.
To place a VP in a region, the player announces whether he uses
Corruption or Crime to do so. His company's score has to be at least
as high as that of the region in question. For the Media circus, the
same rule applies w.r.t. the Media score.
Players may not remove their VPs from any region with a war counter on
it, nor can they send more VPs there.
Battle of Goodwill
If a player wants to place a VP into a region or Media square that is
already occupied by VPs of other players, each of them has to decide
if he wants to keep the newcomer out. All players who decide to do so
pay an amount (even 0) of Goodwill to the bank.
The challenged player can now choose to place his VP in the VIP Lounge
or to pay more Goodwill then the other players combined. In the latter
case, all opposing VPs are sent to the VIP Lounge and the newcomer
enters the desired square. VPs of players who did not participate in
the battle of Goodwill are not affected.
Note: The loser of a battle of Goodwill has no VPs left in the region
(or Media square) in question. In particular, if a player is
prevented from entering a region (or Media square) the VPs he placed
there previously are sent to the VIP Lounge, too
The holder of the Peace Nobel Prize may freely send or remove VPs to
resp. from a region at war. Additionally, he needs neither Crime nor
Corruption to enter a region and can not be kept from entering by a
battle of Goodwill. However, if he tries to keep somebody else out,
his VPs still have to leave if he loses.
The Peace Nobel Prize grants no advantage in the Media Circus.
The starting player turns over the topmost Event card and carries out
the instructions. If a new war breaks out, he places a war counter in
the respective region. If the One $uperpower attacks the Rogue State,
mark only the latter one.
If all Event cards have been used, the starting player reshuffles the
deck before revealing the new event.
The starting player decides the order in which any ongoing wars are
resolved. He rolls a die for each region with a war counter and adds
the Stuff score of the respective region. Look the result up on the
war table on the game board.
In most cases, the region at war loses Stuff and may be subject to an
intervention (see p.![[*]](crossref.png)
). A war in the Rogue State
also causes the One $uperpower to lose the indicated amount of Stuff.
Nuclear Apocalypse ends the game and all players lose (except if
someone has a bunker).
If a 1 or 6 is rolled for the war outcome, remove the war counter
after resolving the effects. For now, this war is over.
All Business Opportunity cards on the table become available again. To
show this, the relevant cards are turned upright. Now, one player
after the other performs one action each. The starting player begins
and the others follow clockwise. This phase lasts until all players
pass for one round. After that, the player to the left of the starting
player becomes the new starting player, and the next game turn begins
with drawing cards.
The following actions can be taken during the business phase:
- Play an Action card
- Use a Business Opportunity
- Launder money
- Sell Stuff
- Media campaign
- Buy a VP
- Buy the Peace Nobel Prize
- Pass
VPs in a war region may not undertake actions that require them to
leave the region - except if their owner has a Peace Nobel Prize!
An Action card that says ``Play as an action during business phase''
can be played now.
To use a Business Opportunity, you have to play a card from your hand
or use a card already played by you. Each Business Opportunity
requires a minimum score in an appropriate attribute and one or two
VPs in certain regions. If you meet these requirements, place the
given Income on all involved VPs. Turn the card sideways to show that
it has been used and may not be used again before the next game
turn.
A business that requires two VPs can be done as a joint venture by two
players. The owner of the Business Opportunity card has to provide one
VP and meet all other requirements. His partner only provides the
second VP (regardless of other requirements) and gets his share of the
profit.
Collect the black money from one of your VPs and add it to your
reserve. The VP goes to the VIP Lounge. Money laundering is not easy:
you need to beat the region's Corruption or Crime value to succeed.
To sell Stuff in a region, your company has to have a Tech value equal
to or greater than the printed requirement. Place your VP in the VIP
Lounge and collect the given Income. Increase the Stuff level of the
region by one.
If a region has a Stuff level of 6, you cannot sell them any more
Stuff. As soon as the Stuff marker enters the gray area, selling Stuff
is illegal and can be prevented by investigative journalism
(see p.).
You can use a VP committed to the Media circus to earn 1 Goodwill. If
there is a war, natural disaster or famine somewhere in the world, a
VP on ``Charity Scam'' is worth 2 of Goodwill. In any case, place the
VP in the VIP Lounge.
A new VP costs 12 Billions and begins play in the VIP Lounge.
The Peace Nobel Prize costs 10 Goodwill. Put that halo on your head.
If you pass, you can still take actions later in the phase. However,
if all players pass in turn, the business phase is over.
