Kremlin (board game)
Game of the Year 1987: shortlist The Golden Pawns 1987: No. 1, 1988: 2nd place Origins Award 1988
Kremlin (named after the Moscow Kremlin ) is a satirical play by the Swiss artist Urs Hostettler, which caricatured the political situation in the Soviet Union. Players must take fictional members of the nomenklatura who fight for the office of state and party leaders. The game was published in 1986 in the Swiss game publisher mirage and in 1988 marketed by Avalon Hill in the U.S.. The playing time may vary greatly and is about 30 to 180 minutes.
Rules and Terms
Age
A central concept of the Kremlin is the "age" of the game characters, under which the actual age is not to be understood, but her health. The pieces start with an age between 50 and 80 years. During the game, they get "stress points " that allow them to age by one year. During a game round, which represents a year, the characters have several years - age - or not at all. The older now is a character, the greater the likelihood that they will suffer or even die. Deceased politicians solemnly buried in the Kremlin wall.
Game play
Although the Kremlin rather of the Brezhnev era (1964-1982) seems inspired in the average age of the Politburo on 70 lay, and from 1982 to 1985, when in quick succession the partial sick already when he took office Secretaries General Brezhnev, Andropov and Chernenko in the Official died, it plays in the decade 1951 until 1960.
At the beginning occupied a part of the game characters the posts in the Politburo and the candidate ranks. The remaining figures are the people, where everyone waits patiently if he one day due to vacant posts in the Politburo, the career ladder can not climb up. Now select each player and each player any ten game pieces that are under his or her influence, and enters them in a secret list. The strength of the secret influence of 1-10 corresponds to the position on the list. Will someone now actively intervene into the game - for example, to accuse a competitor of espionage and to promote him from office to Siberia to the labor camp - he or she must take control of a game character. For the affected politicians must be " out " on the open list of the player, ie it must impact will be disclosed in a certain strength. The position of a politician on the open list may it never be higher than its position on the secret list of the player. In the battle for control of a character, the male and female players may at any time (!) On offer. Where, as in some other game situations, the principle of " gerontocracy ", which means that younger players a politician can not take on the same list position, but always have to go at least one position higher.
Now begins with the year 1951, the first round. At the beginning of each year the Politburo members and candidates can go to treatment, which increases their chances to escape stress and diseases, but excluding them from political decision-making process. If they stay in Moscow, they can transport their colleagues, degrade, denounce, banish to Siberia and retrieve exiles. Here it comes to the aforementioned struggles for the control of game characters that change their opinion of course abruptly and can take action from a distance among the players and the players. In the course of the game arises gradually out which player has bet on which politicians and it is considered by skillful actions, the key positions with his own people to occupy, but not relinquishing little as possible about the composition of own secret list of candidates.
Actions are usually associated with stress and let the perpetrator and victim age and ill. Therefore, each year the health of the Politburo members is determined, depending on age, medical history and luck of the dice. Often has fatal consequences, and the vacant posts must be filled, leading to further stress.
Additionally, players still have event cards, which can be used either at any time or only at certain stages of the game. These events can, for example, individual politicians deliberately attacked ( attack ) or protected ( Bodyguard, misdiagnosis ) are. Other events affect the entire Politburo, eg a sudden wave of influenza.
Aim of the game
The highlight of each year is the parade in October, in which the often heavily damaged state and party leader must roll again if it is " the stress of hours of Winkens with the heavy cap " holds out. Only then will the October parade is successfully removed and the politicians come to the goal of the game a little closer.
If it is possible a character three times during the game to decrease the October parade, this at the end of the played Period ( 1960) to do or middle of 1961 to hold the office of the state and party bosses, the game is over. The winner is then the player or the player with the highest secret influence on this figure. It is obvious that this can be theoretically also a politician, on which no one has been listed at the beginning of influence. Then no one has won. According to the rulebook drink the player in this case, a vodka together.
Game material
Kremlin defies classification according to the classical game material because it does not contain a game board ( board game) or playing cards ( card game ). The rules encourage the players and players even to put themselves in the role of game characters whose actions they determine precisely, and to keep short speeches for them ( role playing game). The politicians are represented by cards on which her name, her age and her portrait is printed - in his undershirt! They are stuck on the type of dress-up dolls in Papptaschen that symbolize the offices, this is how state and party chief in a suit, the Secretary of State 's Diplomatic Dress, the defense minister in uniform and the Sports Minister in the jersey. Pre-cut tabs allow you to apply markers and platelet numbers on the cards to hold diseases and relentlessly progressive age.
Prizes and awards
Kremlin appeared on the list for game of the year in 1987 and also received the
- Golden Pawns in 1987 and a
- Origins Award 1988.
Extension
For the U.S. version called Kremlin Avalon Hill brought in 1989, the expansion Kremlin - out revolution. It led, among other things, 32 new event cards and 26 historical figures such as Leon Trotsky and Felix Dzerzhinsky one.