the-manhattan-project

Prototype Rules Overview

v2.0

The following is a general rules overview for the prototype. I will be making changes, improvements and corrections frequently as I continue to test. I do not intend to preserve the history of these changes.

These rules are not meant to be 100% complete, nor are they necessarily a work-in-progress for the final rules. I'm posting them for my own testing purposes and so other users may develop an early understanding of the game.

Objective

Be the first player to achieve the target number of points:

2 Players: 60
3 Players: 55
4 Players: 50
5 Players: 45

Points are obtained in the following ways:

1. Constructing Bombs (Points printed on bomb cards)
2. Testing Bombs (Points printed on test cards)
3. Installing Bombs to Bombers (5 Points per installation)

Preparation

For now, please refer to the images.

On Your Turn

(Clockwise turn order, random start player, no rounds or phases.)

On your turn, you must choose 1 of 2 options:

1. Place Workers
2. Retrieve Workers

If all of your workers are in your supply, you must choose to place workers. If you cannot or do not wish to place any workers, you must choose to retrieve workers.

1. Place Workers

Perform the following steps in order. Both steps are optional (but you must place at least one worker).

1a. Place a worker on the main board.

- Resolve the action associated with the space immediately. (See The Main Board, below.)

- Some spaces have special placement requirements (personnel, money, uranium). You cannot place a worker in these spaces unless you fulfill the requirement.

- You may use any space except the assembly lab to "block" by placing a worker without taking the action. Spaces that give a benefit to other players still give this benefit even if used to block.

- You may place multiple workers at a time into the assembly lab. Usually this is required (see "The Main Board: Assembly Lab," below).

1b. Place a worker (or workers) on your buildings.

- You must meet a building's complete personnel requirement.

- You may use permanent workers or contractors or a combination on the same building.

- You may "block" a building.

- You may repeat step 1b. as many times as you wish, placing workers and activating as many of your buildings as you wish.

2. Retrieve Workers

Perform the following steps in order.

2a. Return all contractors in the following locations to the general supply:

- The main board
- Your personal supply
- Your buildings

2b. Return all of your permanent workers from the main board and [i]all[/i] buildings to your personal supply.

2c. Restore your workforce (very rare)

If the number of workers in your supply is now less than 4, take permanent laborers from the general supply until your supply totals 4 workers. (This would only happen after an invasion.)

The Buildings

- Produce natural uranium
- Move your cubes from the reserve to the natural supply

- If you do not have enough cubes in the reserve to match the mine's full capacity, you may still move the cubes that are there.

- You may move cubes at any time from the reactor supply or the enrichment supply to the reserve if you wish, allowing you to operate a mine at full capacity.

Factory

- Produce money and/or vehicles as indicated on the card.

University

- Produce workers
- Move your permanent workers or contractors from the general supply to your personal supply

Reactor

- Produce plutonium
- You must move your cubes from the reactor supply to the reserve
- Adjust plutonium track

Enrichment Plant

- Produce enriched uranium
- Require payment to place workers
- You must move your cubes from the enrichment supply to the reserve
- Adjust enriched uranium track

The Main Board

The Enriched Uranium and Plutonium Tracks lie vertically near the center.

On the left, from top-to-bottom are:

The Building Market:
Prices range from $2 to $10. The rightmost building is a preview and is not yet available for sale. When the engineer is used to build, the cheapest 2 buildings can be taken for free.

Design Bomb:
This space holds any number of workers. Draw a bomb design card. If you place a scientist, draw an additional card. You may hold a maximum of 3 bomb design cards. If you draw a fourth, you must discard any card from your hand to the discard pile.

Construction:
This space holds any number of workers. The player must pay the cost of the building, unless he/she gets it for free by using an engineer. You may keep a maximum of 10 buildings. If you buy an 11th building, you must discard one that you already have. If the discarded building contains your permanent workers, they are returned to your supply. If it contains someone else's permanent workers (from the espionage action), return them to the owner's supply. If it contains contractors, return them to the general supply.

After Taking the building from the market, slide all more expensive buildings to the left 1 space to fill the empty space. Then draw a new building from the deck and place it into the rightmost space.

If you build the cheapest building, you may also take the incentive cash next to it. The incentive cash may not be used as payment for the building. (You must have $2 in order to buy the building or use an engineer to build it for free even if there is $2 or more in incentive money next to the building.)

Invasion:
Costs $3. Perform any number of invasion actions. There are 2 types of actions:

1. Spend a fighter to destroy an opponent's fighter or bomber. You may choose this action any number of times. You may choose the same opponent or different opponents each time.

2. Spend bombers to destroy a building. You may choose this action only once. The number of bombers you must spend is 1 greater than the number of fighters owned by the defender.

Return spent and destroyed aircraft to the general supply. Place a destroyed building [i]face-down on top of the building deck[/i] (so that it will reemerge into the market after a couple of uses of the construction space).

When workers occupy a building when it is destroyed, the owner selects one of the them to return to the general supply. Then, any remaining contractors are returned to the general supply and any remaining permanent workers are returned to their player supplies.

Espionage:
Costs $3. Place your workers on an opponent's building and activate it for yourself. You cannot activate a building that already has workers on it.

Personnel Spaces:
Buy a laborer, engineer or scientist. The rightmost space costs $3 to use. You must take personnel from the general supply. You may choose a permanent employee or a contractor (both subject to availability).

Mining Spaces:
Produce natural uranium. One of the spaces also gives 1 uranium each to the other players.

Reactor:
Requires scientist and 2 uranium for placement (reactor supply to reserve). Generates 1 plutonium.

Vehicle Spaces:
Build a fighter, bomber or truck. The rightmost space costs $3 to use. For all spaces, optionally spend an additional $3 for double buy.

Money Spaces:
Produce money. One of the spaces also gives $2 each to the other players. When you choose either space, place $1 from the supply onto the incentive pile next to the cheapest building in the building market.

Enrichment Plant:
Requires scientist, $3 and 3 uranium for placement (enrichment supply to reserve). Generates 1 enriched uranium.

Transport:
Use all of your truck points to transport uranium. Everyone else may also transport at a penalty of -1 point per truck. 1 truck point moves 1 uranium from the Natural Supply to the Reactor Supply or the Enrichment Supply.

The option at the top of the pipeline consumes 1 truck point and 1 enriched uranium. In exchange, you may move 4 cubes from the reserve to the reactor supply.

Assembly Lab:

Testing a Bomb

You may test a bomb that you have built at any time during your turn, even on the same turn that you build it. You may test any number of bombs per turn. You may not test a bomb that has been installed to a bomber (see below).

To test a bomb, put the bomb card in the discard pile. (It has been detonated so it no longer exists!) Then take the highest value plutonium or enriched uranium test card depending on the type of bomb you tested.

Your first plutonium test is a "proof of concept." Before it, all plutonium bombs in your stockpile are worth the smaller amount of points shown on their cards. After your first plutonium test, all plutonium bombs in your stockpile and any you build in the future are instantly worth the larger amount of points.

Installing a Bomb

You may install a bomb to a bomber at any time during your turn. This prepares the bomb for immediate deployment and instantly earns you 5 points. You may install any number of bombs per turn.

To install a bomb, place an available bomber counter from your supply onto the bomb card. Besides the 5 points it gives you, the bomber is now considered to be removed from the game. It cannot be attacked and you cannot use it to attack.

End of Game

The game ends immediately when one player scores the target number of points indicated in the Objective section (top of page). This player is the winner.