This game is published in Canada by House of Games, publishers of 4000 A.D., which was reviewed here is issue #84. It comes in an 11 3/4" x 19 3/4" x 1 1/2" box, which contains two 14" x 22 1/2" mounted mapboard sections which together form one playing surface; numerous plastic playing pieces (red, white, blue, green and yellow); a 5 3/8" x 8 1/4", 16-page rules booklet, in both English and French; a stack of play money in two denominations (1 million and 5 million), four 2"-diameter, 1"-deep plastic containers for storing the playing pieces; a deck of espionage cards; and a deck of international incident cards.

This is an abstract, four-player game of a struggle for control of the oil resources of eight imaginary nations on the continent of Kark. Two of these nations have ports on the north coast, two have ports on the south coast, there are landlocked, and one has a port on a canal that is the only connection between the two coasts. Each country has printed on it a circle with eight points marked around it. One of these is the capital city, the others are merely places to move. Some of them connect with points on the circles of neighboring countries. At the beginning of the game each player, in turn, places a leader counter at the capital of one of these eight countries to indicate his control of it. There are four possible types of leaders, with differing costs for placement: King or politician cost 2 million; dictator or guerrilla cost 1 million each (each player starts with 10 million).

When you control a country you control its oil production. The four coastal nations each have two derricks, the three landlocked nations each have four and the nation with the canal has one. The controlling player gets revenue by moving a tanker from his coastal country's capital to his own port at one corner of the board. One tanker transports the oil of one derrick, the value of which depends on the type of leader ruling that country; 2 million per derrick/tanker if a king or politician; 1 million if a dictator or guerrilla. To get revenues from a landlocked country a given player must control both it and an adjacent coastal country and pay 3 million for a pipeline to connect the two.

Leader units which are not the rulers of countries can be moved around the circle of the owning player's country, and/or over to the circle of another country via the connections, for the purpose of gaining control over uncontrolled nations, wresting control of nations from other players, or for defending nations from attack by other players. Leaders can only displace other leader of lesser rank (king outranks politician which outranks dictator which outranks guerrilla). Traveling (non-ruling) leaders can move as many spaces as desired but each space costs money, until blocked by another leader, except it cannot pass through a space with a "?" (one in each country). Each time a leader lands on a "?" the player draws an international incident card. These indicate various good or bad things that happen to you.

Each player also has one secret agent piece. He can be moved up to seven spaces a turn, passing over a "?" if desired. A secret agent which stops on a "?" allows you to pick up an espionage card. These give you certain capabilities, such as being able to assassinate a rival's leader, or bribe an opponent's ruler to switch allegiance to you. These cards add a great deal of uncertainty, suspense and action to the game.

The game is won by the last surviving player or the first player who gains control of any six countries. This is a simple game, of about the same complexity as Monopoly. It sells for $12.00 and should be available from your favorite games dealer.

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