WO1987002263A1

WO1987002263A1 - Board game

Info

Publication number: WO1987002263A1
Application number: PCT/GB1986/000616
Authority: WO
Inventors: Malcolm Aw
Original assignee: Malcolm Aw
Priority date: 1985-10-11
Filing date: 1986-10-13
Publication date: 1987-04-23
Also published as: AU6476886A; GB8525137D0

Abstract

A board game comprising a board (1) bearing a sequence of spaces, at least some of the spaces (2) bearing indicia representing a nation, a group of nations, or an international activity, at least one die, a plurality of playing pieces for place marking on the board, wealth tokens, a supply of money, command cards bearing commands to players, and means for providing the players with choice which will affect their future in the game and/or that of the other players, wherein the choice is concerned with national and international considerations. In known board games the players all compete against one another solely at a monetary level and have no opportunity for taking decisions based on other considerations. In this invention, the board game may be used to provide an interesting, educational and entertaining game about the world balance of power and economy since the players can influence their own fate and that of the other players by exercising choice as to the international relationships between the countries governed by the different players.

Description

_ i ...

Board g-ame .

The present invention relates to board games to be played by two or more persons using a board bearing representative indicia, at least one die, a plurality of playing pieces and at least one pack of command cards.

In a known treasure-collection game pirate ships are moved to and from different ports over a board bearing a regular array of marked- out spaces in accordance with the number thrown on at least one die. Treasure is collected by each player and the winner is the player who collects the most treasure.

The well-known "Monopoly" (TM) board comprises a sequence of contiguous spaces around the whole perimeter. Adjacent spaces in each quarter of the perimeter representing a London street, road, square or similar property belong to the same group. Another property group com¬ prises four London railway stations and another property group comprises four services. Each player has a playing piece, which is moved successively round the sequence of spaces dep¬ ending on the score thrown by the player on his turn. The player can purchase the property on which his playing piece lands and after purchasing a whole property group, can purchase further property comprising houses and hotels.

Each player starts off with a given amount of money and the aim of the game is to accumulate more money than the or each other player.

Each player can acquire money by, for instance,

SUBSTITUTE SHEET •landing on one of certain spaces, passing the starting space termed "Go" in one of the corners or by obtaining fines from his fellow player or players. A fine should be paid whenever a player lands on someone else's property and the amount of fine depends on the value of the property owned. Command cards are picked up when the playing piece lands on certain spaces to add variety to the game.

This known game depends for its interest on which properties are bought by which players and in particular, often the winner is that player who bought a group of the two most expen¬ sive properties, namely Park Lane and Mayfair. Thus, the nature of the game is usually determined in the first few circuits of the board and often the game follows the same predictable pattern.

Furthermore, the players all compete against one another solely at a monetary level and have no opportunity for taking decisions based on other considerations.

It is therefore an object of this invention to provide an improved board game in which the abovementioned disadvantages are overcome.

Further objects of this invention are to provoke international awareness and to encourage in the players an understanding that international trading relationships depend on other consid- erations besides immediate monetary gain.

SUBSTITUTESHEET According to the invention, I provide a board game comprising a board bearing a sequence of spaces, at least some of the spaces bearing indicia representing a nation, a group of nations, or an international activity, at least one die, a plurality erf^" playing pieces for place marking on the board, wealth tokens, a supply of money, command cards bearing commands to players, and means for providing the players with choice which will affect their future in the game and/or that of the other play- ers , wherein the choice is concerned with national and international considerations.

These may be elected from economic, military, political/diplomatic, trade, food supply and conservation considerations. The term nation herein includes single nations, countries and states, or groupings thereof. The groups may be economically bound. The board may be substantially planar .

The playing pieces may comprise tokens, which may be self-supporting, each bearing an astrological sign. The national spaces may each bear information selected from information as to economic worth, for example gross national product, national monetary product or national domestic product, the amount of money (trading currency) and the military strength (the armed, regular or mobil- isable forces) available to the nation or group of nations .

The wealth tokens may be selected from a group of military elements and/or a group of food elements. The means for providing the players with choice may comprise the command cards and/or a group of choice elements, which a player can selectively apply to any one or more of his nations or nation groups, for example in order to affect or determine the way in which one or more commands may be applied to the respective space representing the nation or nation group concerned. The choice elements may be in the form of stickers and may present conservation symbols representing for example

SUBSTITUTESHEET silviculture, international peace, energy conservation, and disarmament. Application of a choice element may render the respective space oblivious to certain of the commands on the command cards. At least some of the"^{' '} command cards may bear instructions selected from instructions concerned with economic, military, political/diplomatic, trade, food supply and conservation considerations. Some may bear instructions which require a decision to be made by the player and the exercise of his choice. The command cards will influence the progress of the game in that they will affect the wealth, status and inter-relation¬ ships between the country spaces and hence between the players. The cards are preferably of three types, namely multilateral commands concerning more than two players or nations, bilateral cards concerning two players or nations and United Nation cards, which are mainly con¬ cerned with issuing instructions concerning world-wide factors to one or more players or countries. These factors may be selected from conservation, financial loans, governance, aid to a poor nation, disarmament and rearmament. Many of the multi-lateral and bilateral commands involve transfer of money or wealth tokens to one or more other players or to a World Bank. The board has spaces marked corresponding to the different types of cards and when a player lands on one of these spaces he must pick up the top card from the respective pack. These components may be used to provide an inter¬ esting, educational and entertaining game about the world balance of power and economy since the players can influence their own fate and that of the other players by exercising choice as to the international relationships between the countries governed by the different players. A preferred embodiment will be described by way of example, with reference to the Figure, which is a plan view of a game board according to the invention.

SUBSTITUTE SHEET A board game according to this invention comprises a rectangular, substantially planar board 1 bearing forty contiguous, equi-sized spaces 2 around the peri¬ meter with a square space 3 at each corner. The remain¬ ing area in the middle of the board is occupied by a map 4 of the world (not shown in detail) and six command card location areas 5. The command cards will be dis¬ cussed later.

The board 1 has twelve spaces down each of the long sides and eight spaces down each of the shorter sides. On each long side, eleven of the spaces 6 bear indicia representing a nation or a group of nations usually having an economic agreement. On one of the shorter sides there are six such national spaces and seven on the other shorter side. The remaining spaces 7 are "non-country" spaces denoting world-wide factors, which will be described later.

The indicia employed in this preferred embodiment comprise the name of the country or countries and an appropriate national flag, with details of the number of forces available to the country or country grouping, its gross national product (GNP), national monetary product (NMP) or national domestic product (NDP) and its trading currency, the amount of money available for trading, which is a tenth of the respective GNP/NMP/NDP here. The monetary values are all given in one currency, here US Dollars, for ease of playing the game but more than one currency could be used. The information is realistic, pertaining to current relative national wealth and size.

The arrangement of the board in the preferred embodiment is shown in the figure and the information provided on the spaces is given in the Table on pages

SUBSTITUTE SHEET 14/15. Other countries could be added or substituted or these countries could be arranged in another order on the. board. It is thought that this particular arrangement of thirty-five countries and country groups, in which countries in the same part of the world or the same political grouping or power structure are in general located near one another, will provide a game of.^'

interest and entertainment.

T3r.e game may employ two dice and twelve playing pieces, which are to each represent a player and mark his place on the board. The playing pieces are self- standing tokens bearing an astrological sign. As far as possible each player should play under his own birth sign. It is thought that the players' styles of play will be characteristic of their birth signs. Artificial money and a pouch for each country are also provided.

The remaining components of the game consist of wealth tokens comprising military and* food elements, and choice elements. The military elements are models comprising: 15 blue Combat Aircraft; 15 red Combat Aircraft; 30 blue Tanks; 30 red Tanks; 15 blue Tacti¬ cal Nuclear Weapons; 15 red Tactical Nuclear Weapons; 5 red Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles; 5 blue Inter¬ continental Ballistic Missiles. Other combinations of conventional and nuclear weapons could be employed. The food elements are models comprising 35 Bushels of Cereal. The wealth tokens and optionally the choice elements may be purchased from the World Banker. This game is known as Geopoliticonomy (RTM).

SUBSTITUTE SHEET - 7 -

•The military elements and the food^' elements, have certain trading values, namely in this embodiment:

1 Bushel of Cereal 2 Tanks 1 Tank 250,000 Armed Personnel

4 Tanks 1 TNW (Tactical Nuclear

Weapon)

1 TNW 1,000,000 Armed Personnel

5 TNWs 1 ICBM (Intercontinental -

Ballistic Missile)

Cost of 1 Tank $1 Bn

Cost of 1 Bushel of Cereal $2 Bn

Cost of 1 Combat Aircraft $3 Bn

Cost of 1 TNW $4 Bn

Cost of 1 ICBM $20 Bn

The choice elements, mainly concerning conservation, comprise re-usable self-adhesive stickers representing for example silviculture, peace, energy conservation, disarmament. The respective symbols in the preferred embodiment are: two trees, a dove with an olive branch, the CND (Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament) sign, and the sun (for solar energy) .

The cards already referred to comprise cards representing the United Nations (UN), a World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), multilateral trade and bilateral trade. The central area of the board has card-location markings for the UN and trade cards. The remaining non- country spaces 7 referred to earlier as denoting world¬ wide factors here represent the UN (2 spaces) , the World Bank (1 space), the International Trust for Nature Conservation Fund (ITNC Fund) and the IMF. When a player

SUBSTITUTESHEET landed on one of these spaces he must pick a card from the respective ^' pack. There may be about 50 Multilateral cards, in which commands concerning more than two players or more than two countries or groups of countries are involved, about 50-75 Bilateral cards, in which commands concerning two players or groups of countries are involved and about 30 UN cards, which are mainly concerned with issuing instruct- ions concerning world-wide factors to one or more players or countries. These factors may include conservation, financial loans, governance aid to a poor nation, disarmament and rearmament. With some of the cards the player or players affected have the choice about whether or not to apply the instruction and to whom the instruct¬ ion should be applied. The instruction can be conditional upon the approval of more than one player • .

Many of the Multilateral and Bilateral commands involve the transfer of money or wealth tokens to one or more other players or to the World Bank. A number of these cards involve factors governing international relationships, such _as raw materials and natural resources, trade balance^'s, the sale of goods and services.

Some of the cards are retainable for use later and some of the cards may be transferred to another player if desired. The Bilateral cards are to be picked up when players land on countries belonging to another player.

These components may be used to provide a game about the world balance of power and economy. The object of the game is to govern more country

SUBSTITUTESHEET spaces than any other player.

Before the start of the game a World Banker is appointed, who . distributes the same amount of money to each player. The World Banker also has jthe following functions: to provide Economic Aid, to grant Loans, to receive Contributions to the UN, Subscriptions and Repayments to the IMF, to supply Cereals and Military Equipment traded between players. Once the Bank's stocks have been exhausted, players must trade directly with each other but under the supervision of the World Banker.

Also, depending on the circumstances, the World Banker must maintain the balance in the world's political situation, such as by organising players to sanction economic embargoes or co-ordinating a UN peace-keeping force for Military Intervention during times of conflict between players. The World Banker may not unilaterally take punitive action against a player or players.

The World Banker should form a caretaker Government when a player loses governance of a country or countries. The World Banker retains governance while he has the mandate of the players. Alternatively, the World Banker may place the country or countries in his care for auction at any stage of the game and players able to supply the stipulated trading currency may gain or re- gain Governance.

Before play starts, any player may opt to act as World Banker, Auctioneer and Arbitrator in a combined role and he will not participate in the game by throwing the dice and moving round the board. A banking arbitrator may also be appointed or it may be agreed that all the remaining of the players will act together in arbitration.

SUBSTITUTE SHEET Each . player selects one of the astrological tokens as his board-marking, playing piece and is given a number of choice elements by the World Banker. Alternatively, these could be purchased or obtained when required. Each player throws a die or- dice when it is his (or her) turn and moves his astrological token a number of spaces round the board in accordance with the score of the die or dice ) thrown. All the players move in the same direction round the board.

The players may acquire governance of the country or country group of the space landed on after throwing the die (or dice.) This is signified by being given the pouch belonging to that country by the World Banker. The player puts the stipulated trading currency which he must provide in order to acquire the governance of that country into the pouch. Once twenty-five countries have been acquired, the remaining ten are auctioned in the order of increasing trading currency. At this point the trading currencies of a player's countries may be put together.

The players carry on throwing the die or dice and moving round the board in accordance with the score thrown. Each player may chose to move military or food symbols from one of his countries to another when it is his turn and before throwing the die (or dice). He may also apply a selected choice sticker to any selected country or countries .

As the players move round the board they will land on their own and other players' spaces and on the inter- national activity spaces, including spaces denoting card packs. When a player lands on a country, he will take the top card from either of the Bilateral Packs and after following the instructions on the card, he will return the card face down to the bottom of the pack. When a player lands on a country he governs, he may opt

SUBSTITUTF ftWPFT not .to .draw the Bilateral card but to conduct a trans¬ action, such as buying, selling or trading wealth tokens e.g. bushels of wheat or tanks with the World Bank or one ■ or more of the other players. If this player chooses to draw a card he ' eed not implement the instruc¬ tions on the card. Furthermore, he is not required to implement any transaction between countries under his governance .

When a. player lands on any of the UN, the World Bank or the IMF spaces, he will take the top card from the respective pack. Some cards are to be retained if the cards say so and these cards may be auctioned later to the other players. If a player decides to do this, he must hand the card to the Auctioneer when it is his turn to throw the die or dice. The Auctioneer will then auction the card.

When a player lands on any of the multilateral card spaces, he must take a multilateral card. If instruc¬ tions on the card involve any of the countries he governs he must obey those instructions. He may at his discretion for political or diplomatic reasons, opt to pass the card to any relevant party •-Otherwise he must return the card to the bottom of the pack but before doing so he must show the card to all the other players. The player may also negotiate commission for giving a card to another player.

When a player lands on the international Nature Conserv¬ ation Fund space, he must pay the World Bank a predeter¬ mined sum of money e.g. $15Bn.

Some command cards give a player an opportunity to acquire by force other countries. The players must have the Military strength stipulated on the pouch of the country concerned.

SUBSTITUTE SHEET The player is given a pouch from the player losing his country and places this in front of him face up, together with all. the wealth tokens and choice elements on that country.^' If strategic nuclear force has been used, the card being played must .b e placed face down and the country may then only carry out export transactions. ICBMs used in nuclear exchanges must be given to the World Banker after use.

When any country under a player's governance cannot meet the payments stipulated on a command card for imports other than military elements from the allocated trading currency in the pouch of the country concerned the player has four options. These are to draw on the resources of other countries under his governance, which constitutes an irrevocable decision to establish a Joint Monetary System between the countries concerned; to auction the country's Military Hardware to pay for the goods; to auction the country's stock of Cereal to pay for the goods; to declare the country Bankrupt and return it to the World Bank together with all its assets, including its Trading Currency, all Credit Cards and Military Hardware.

The winner is the player who governs the largest number of countries through the use of economic power, military strength and political strategy.

A shortened version of the game can be played in which the players agree before starting the game a maximum length for the game e.g. two hours or two hours and thirty minutes. At the end of the game the player with the highest combined monetary resources (Trading Currency is declared the Winner. The player with the largest combined total Armed Forces is the Runner-up provided that each of his countries has at least one bushel of Cereal .

SUBSTITUTE SHEET However, if a state of war exists between all the players at the end of the game, the player with the largest combined total Armed Forces is the winner. Countries acquired by the "Use of Strategic Weapons need not be included in establishing the winner's total Mone¬ tary or Military resources.

It will therefore be appreciated that the game according to the invention provides great interest for the players who are able to influence their own fate and that of the other players in accordance with national and inter¬ national factors. The game will therefore have educational as well as entertainment value.

SUBSTITUTE SHEET GNP (US Billion Trading Currency Total Armed For Dollars ) (US Billion Dollars) (x 10³ )

France 427.5 42.75 500

Spain 155 15.5 500

Great Britain 312.5 31.25 500

The United States of America 2137.5 213.75 2500

Mexico 110 11 250

CAS^'(Commonwealth of Ame-rri.can. States) 75 7.5 500

Venezueias 45 4.5 100

Argentina 95 9.5 250

Brazil 222.5 22.25 250

Cuba * (NMP) 15 1.5 1000

Nigeria (GDP) 40 4 250

AEF (African Economic Front) 60 6 500

South Africa 50 5 250

Israel * 17.5 1.75 500

Egypt 17.5 1.75 500

AEC (Arab Economic Community) 145 14.5 1000

Saudi Arabia * 77.5 . 7.75 50

Iran 67.5 6.75 500

India 110 11 1250

Indonesia 50 5 250

ANZ (Australia, New Zealand) 115 11.5 250

ASEAN (Association of

South East Asian

Nations) 132.5 13.25 1500

EC0MAS (Economic (GDP) Community of Asian

States) 70 7 2250

Canada . 227.5 22.75 81.5

Japan 777.5 77.75 500

China ** 437.5 43.75 5000

The Soviet Union (NMP) 980 98 4000

Comecon ** (NMP) 382.5 38.25 1500

Yugoslavia (NMP) 42.5 4.25 500

ANAEN (Association of

Non Aligned European

Nations) 197.5 19.75 1000

SUBSTITUTESHEET GNP (US Billion Trading Currency Total Armed Dollars) (US Billion Dollars) (x 10³ )

Italy 217.5 21.75 500

Switzerland * - 72.5 7.25 750

Scandinavia * 190 19 1000

Germany 570 57 50o

Benelux (Belgium,

Netherlands and

Luxembourg) 207.5 20.75 250

* Mobilizable Forces (Not Armed) ** Regular Forces (Not Armed)

SUBSTITUTE SHEET

Claims

CL'AIMSj_

1. -A board game comprising a. board bearing a sequence of spaces, at least some of the spaces bearing indicia representing a nation, a group of nations, or an inter- national activity, at least one die, a plurality of playing pieces for place marking on the board, wealth ■ tokens , a supply of money, command cards bearing commands to: players, and means for providing the players with choice which will affect their future in the game and/or that of the other players, wherein the choice is con¬ cerned with national and international considerations.

2. A board game according to claim 1, wherein the national and international considerations are selected from economic, military, political/diplomatic, trade, food supply and conservation considerations.

3. A board game according to claim 1 or claim 2, wherein the playing pieces comprise tokens, each token bearing an astr-ological sign.

4. A board game according to claim 1, 2 or 3, wherein the national spaces each bear information selected from information as to national economic worth, national monetary product or national domestic product, the amount of money (trading currency) and the military strength (the armed, regular or mobilisable forces) available to the nation or group of nations.

5. A board game according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the wealth tokens are selected from a group of military elements and/or a group of food elements.

SUBSTITUTESHEET ^• 6. A board game according to any preceding claim, wherein the means for providing the players with choice may comprise the command cards and/or a group of choice elements .

7. A board game according to claim 6, wherein the choice elements are to be selectively applied by a player to the respective space representing any one or more of his nations or nation groups.

8. A board game according to claim 7, wherein the application of a choice element affects or determines the way in which one or more commands are to be applied to the nation or nation group concerned.

9. A board game according to claim 6, 7 or 8, in which the choice elements include conservation symbols.

10. A board game according to claim 9, in which the conservation symbols comprise silviculture, international peace, energy conservation, and disarmament.

11. A board game according to claim 9 or 10, wherein application of a choice element renders a respective space oblivious to a specified command or commands.

12. A board game according to any preceding claim, wherein at least some of the command cards bear instruc¬ tions selected from instructions concerned with economic, military, political/diplomatic, trade, food supply and conservation considerations.

SUBSTITUTE SHEET

13. A board game according to any one of claims 1 to 12, wherein at least some of the command cards bear a decision to be made by the player and the exercise of his choice.

14. A board game according to any preceding claim, wherein the command cards influence the progress of the game in that they will affect the wealth, status and inter-relationships between the country spaces and hence between the players.

15. A board game according to any preceding claim, wherein the command cards include cards bearing instruc¬ tions concerning two or more than two players or more than two nations.

16. A board game according to any preceding claim, wherein the command cards include cards bearing instruc¬ tions concerned with world-wide factors.

17. A board game according to claim 16, wherein the world-wide factors may be selected from conservation, financial loans, governance, aid to a poor nation, dis- armament and rearmament.

18. A board game according to claim 17 or 18, wherein the board bears differently marked spaces corresponding to the different types of cards.

SUBSTITUTE SHEET