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PLAYERS

3-7

PLAYING TIME

30-90 minutes

CREDITS

Game design: Kasper Lapp

Visual design: Mads Fløe,

Peter Svendsen and

Kasper Lapp

As everybody knows, democracy is pure evil. Luckily it has never gained a

foothold in Bahumas – a beautiful island with rich resources of diamonds

and opium fields.

Instead the country functions as a serial dictatorship. One dictator

replacing the other almost on schedule.

You represent a family who has a habit of getting involved in the politics

of Bahumas. There’s always someone from your family sitting in the

general staff of the current dictator. Playing these, you must bluff your

way to become the next dictator, or make sure that your swiss bank

account is filled up before going into exile.

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COMPONENTS

7 General cards

65 playing cards

1 board

10 victory point markers

21 favor-markers

1 turn marker

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OBJECTIVE (HOW TO WIN)

The objective of the game is to get the most victory points (VP) via the VP-

markers ( ) and via the colored favor-markers ( ). You gain VP-

markers by making one of your family members the next dictator or by

collecting the biggest Swiss bank account. Favor-markers are gained by

effectively spying or counter-spying on other players and revealing their

misconducts.

Each round up to two generals gain a VP-marker.

The general who has collected the highest value of power ( ) becomes

the next dictator and gains a VP-marker.

The general who has collected the highest value of money ( ) goes into

exile with the biggest Swiss bank account and gains a VP-marker.

There are basically three ways to gather and :

1. Play safe GREEN cards.

2. Play unsafe YELLOW and RED cards, which may be stolen by other

generals if revealed (which may force you underground or get you

executed).

3. Play SPIES which allow you to reveal other players cards and steal

them if they are YELLOW or RED.

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SETUP

Here’s how a setup for four players look:

Place all the VP-markers ( ) on the matching spots on the board.

1. Place the turn marker ( ) on the first turn of the first round.

2. Give each player one General card:

3. Give each player 3 favor-markers ( ).

4. Give each player 7 cards on their hand.

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TURN ORDER

The game is split into 5 rounds, and each round is split into 5 turns

followed by a resolution.

Each turn goes as follows:

A. Play cards. Each general still alive and not underground

(explained later) plays one card from his hand face down in front of

him.

B. Spy phase. All generals who have played a SPY card (any BLUE

card) reveal their cards. If more than one general has played a SPY,

they spy in order of their card numbers ( ) – the card with the

lowest number first. The spying general chooses another general

with an unrevealed card to spy on (if possible). This general now

reveals his card (to everybody).

If he has played a GREEN card, he hasn’t done anything wrong

and nothing happens.

If he has played a YELLOW card, he has done something of

which the dictator does not approve and he has to go

underground for one turn (unless he pays with cards or favors

to get out – explained later).

The general who spied on him, receives his card as a reward

and places it next to his spy card in front of himself.

If he has played a RED card, he has done something of which

the dictator does not approve at all and is immediately

executed (unless he uses favors – explained later).

As with YELLOW cards, the general who spied on him receives

his card as a reward and places it next to his spy card in front

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of himself.

C. Action phase. During this phase, any player who have played a

card with a -symbol may reveal the card in order to play the

action. If more than one player has an action, they are performed in

order of their card numbers ( ) – the card with the lowest number

first.

Notice: If you want to execute your action, you must reveal you card

as soon as the phase begins.

Also notice: You cannot use the action on a card you just gained by

SPYING or by another action.

D. ’Draw cards’ phase. During this phase, any player who have

played a card with a -symbol may reveal the card in order to

draw some extra cards to his hand (as many cards as the number

below the symbol). If the pile is running low, draw cards in order of

your card numbers ( ) – lowest number first.

Notice: You cannot use the -effect on a card, you just gained by

SPYING or by an action.

E. ‘Add to pile’ phase. In this phase, all players add all cards in

front of them to their pile (the one they’ve played and/or the ones

they’ve gained – even the ones they’ve “used” for actions and card

drawing).

Place the cards under your general card. If a card has been revealed,

you must add it face up and visible. If a card has not been revealed,

you may add it face down.

Notice: You are always allowed to look at the phase down cards in

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your own pile.

Also notice: Only during the ‘add to pile’ phase – or if a card

specifically tells you so – may you add cards to your pile.

SPECIAL SPYING-EFFECTS

If you are spied upon, and your card has a -symbol in the text (“If :

…”) do what the cards says.

Example: General A spies on General B,

who reveals a Double Agent. This means

that General A is executed.

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RESOLUTION

After 5 turns, the time of the current dictator has run out, and it’s time

for a new one to step up. All generals still alive and not underground,

discard their hands and instead pick up the cards from their pile (the ones

placed under their general card). Each general may now choose up to 3 of

these cards to play face down in front of him. When everybody is ready,

the played cards are revealed.

The one who has collected the most power (the numbers in the boxes

added together) will become the next dictator and takes the VP-

marker ( ).

The one has collected the most money (the numbers in these boxes

added together) takes the VP-marker ( ).

Example: In round one, the next dictator takes a VP-marker

worth 4 VP and the one with the biggest bank account takes a

VP-marker worth 3 VP.

The two VP-markers may be given to the same general. If only one

general is alive and not underground, he’ll automatically gain both VP-

markers (no matter what cards he has).

If more than one player has the most or , no one gets the

corresponding VP-marker.

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Example: General A has played these cards:

General B has played these cards:

General A has collected the most -value (8) and gets the

VP-marker. General B has collected the most (7) and gets

the VP-marker.

After the resolution collect all cards, shuffle the deck, give each player 7

cards and move on to the next round.

All dead players are now alive again, and no players are underground.

JOKERS

If anybody played cards with a -box, they may choose if they want it to

count as or . If more than one general has such a choice, they’ll

choose in order of their card numbers ( ) – lowest card number first.

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FAVORS

Dying is not all that funny. Luckily you’ve got many powerful friends and

personal favors to draw on.

Each player starts with three favor-markers of their color. They can be

used for two things:

1. SURVIVING: When you die, you must give one of your favor-markers

to the player responsible for your death (the one spying on you or

assassinating you), if you’ve got any left. This means that you

survive and goes underground instead. If you don’t have any left,

you must wait out for the rest of the round.

2. GETTING BACK FROM ‘UNDERGROUND’. When you’ve gone

underground (because of being caught with a YELLOW card or after

using a favor-marker to survive), you may use a favor-marker to get

back in the game immediately instead of sitting over one turn. This

favor-marker is given to the player responsible for your going

underground.

Using cards instead: To get back from ‘underground’, you may

discard 3 cards from your hand instead of a favor-marker. You

choose the first two of these cards yourself, but after you’ve

removed the two and discarded them, the third will be picked at

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random from your remaining hand by the player to your right and

discarded.

Notice: If you’ve been forced underground in turn 5, you cannot

participate in the resolution, unless you pay a favor-marker or cards

to get out.

Also notice: You cannot pay with cards to ‘survive’, only to get back

from underground.

Example: General A spies on General B, who has a RED card.

General B gives one of his favor-markers to General A in order to

survive. He may now chose to give one more favor-marker to

General A or discard 3 cards (two chosen and one random) in order

to get directly back in the game. Or he may pay nothing and sit over

one turn.

FAVOR COLORS

Whenever you use favors, if you have any favors of your own color left,

you must use this. If not, you chose which one to give.

You gain extra VP’s for collecting as many favor colors as possible

(explained later).

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WINNER

After the fifth resolution, count the victory points of each player. You

primarily gain VP’s from the VP-markers (just add them together), but

also from the favor-markers you’ve collected:

VP’S FROM FAVOR-MARKERS

Count how many different colors of favor-markers, you’ve collected – not

counting your own.

Each color gives you 1 VP.

COLLECTORS BONUS

On top of this, if you’ve collected all the other player’s colors, you get a

bonus of 4 VP. If you’ve collected all but one of the other players colors,

you get a bonus of 1 VP.

Example: In a game of five players, green player has the

following favor-markers in front of him: 1 green, 1 blue, 2

yellow and 2 red. He has therefore collected 3 different other

colors, which gives him 3 VP. He has also collected all but one of

the possible colors (4 is max in a 5-player game), which gives

him 1 bonus VP.

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Favor-marker VP Guide:

Collected colors:

3 players 4 players 5 players 6 players 7 players

1 color 2 VP 1 VP 1 VP 1 VP 1 VP

2 colors 6 VP 3 VP 2 VP 2 VP 2 VP

3 colors 7 VP 4 VP 3 VP 3 VP

4 colors 8 VP 5 VP 4 VP

5 colors 9 VP 6 VP

6 colors 10 VP

Another way of looking at it: Every new color gives 1 VP, but the second

last possible color gives 2 VP, and the last possible color gives 4 VP.

TIE BREAKERS

The winner is the player with most victory points. If two players have

collected the same amount, use these tie breakers:

1. The player who has the most favor-markers of the other players

color, win.

2. The player who have most VP’s from his VP-markers win.

3. The player with the most VP-markers wins.

4. The player with the single highest value VP-marker wins.

If it’s still a tie, well, it’s a tie.

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FINAL NOTES

ACTIVE PLAYERS

Only players alive and not underground, may be targets of actions.

Also dead or underground players do not count as ‘neighbors’, when a

card talks about such.

Use the ‘underground’ and ‘dead’ cards as markers.

DISCARD PILE

The discard pile is face up to make it easy to distinguish from the draw

pile, but you are not allowed to look in it.

TIP

It is a good idea to assign one player the task of organizing the phases:

“Everybody ready?”, “Any spies?”, “Any actions?”, “Any draw cards?”,

“Add your cards to you pile.”

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VARIANTS

MULLIGAN

To remove some of the luck from the game, you can play with the

“Mulligan” rule: Each player has the option of switching their starting

hand with 6 new cards. This hand may be exchanged with 5 new cards

and so on.

HARDCORE

If you are hardcore – or want to simplify the game – you may play the

game without favor-markers. No mercy.

CARDS ONLY

You may play the game without the board and tokens. Use pen and paper

instead (or a good memory) to keep track of VP’s and favors. Each player

has 3 colorless favors (so no VP’s given from favor colors). To simplify

further, the dictator always gets 3 VP and the one with most money

always gets 2 VP.

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REFERENCE GUIDE

- ‘Add to pile’ phase. This is where you add your played card to

your pile. Only during the ‘add to pile’ phase – or if a card specifically

tells you so – may you add cards to your pile.

- Action phase. During the action phase, all players with -symbols

on their cards may reveal them and perform their actions.

- ‘Draw cards’ phase. During the ‘draw cards’ phase, all players

with -symbols on their cards, may draw extra cards.

- Favor-markers. Each player starts with three favor-markers of his

color( ). They are used to prevent execution/assassination or

prevent having to go underground. They also give you VP’s at the end

of the game (one for each of the other players colors, you’ve collected,

plus bonuses if you collect all (+3 VP) or all but one (+1 VP) colors).

- General card. Your general card is used to signify your color and

your pile (all cards under your general card are in your pile).

- Green cards. GREEN cards are legal, which means that nothing

happens when another general SPIES on you.

- Joker. Cards with -boxes counts as jokers. During the resolution,

you decide if it should count as or .

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- Money. Some cards have a -box. This means money on your Swiss

bank account. Collect the most money to get the VP-marker ( ) of

the round.

- Phase. There are five phases of each turn:

A. Play cards

B. Spy

C. Action

D. Draw cards

E. Add to pile

- Power. Some cards have a -box. They give power. Collect the most

power to become the next dictator and get the VP-marker ( ) of

the round.

- Red cards. RED cards are very illegal, which means that you are

executed, when another general SPIES on you. He gets your RED card,

and you must give him a favor-marker to survive.

- Resolution. At the end each round – following the five turns – there

is a resolution. This is where the next dictator and the one with most

money is found, and VP-markers are given ( ). Only players alive and

not underground can participate in the resolution.

- Round. One round equals five cards played and a resolution. The

game consists of five rounds.

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- Spy. All BLUE cards are spy cards. They are revealed in the spy phase

and allow you to spy on the cards that the other generals have played.

- Spy phase. During the spy phase all generals who have played BLUE

cards reveal their cards and spy on other generals.

- Spy symbol. The -symbol tells you what happens, if another

general spies on your card.

- Turn. One turn equals one card played – including the subsequent

‘spy’, ‘action’, ‘draw cards’ and ‘add to pile’ phases.

- Underground. If you are caught with a YELLOW card, you have to

go underground for one turn (unless you pay one favor-marker or

three cards – two chosen by you, and one picked at random by the

player on your right). If you are caught with a RED card, you have to

pay a favor-marker to survive and then go underground.

- Yellow cards. YELLOW cards are illegal, which means that you have

to go underground, when another general SPIES on you (and the

general gets your YELLOW card). Wait one turn or pay a favor-marker

or three cards to get out (you pick two, and the player to your right

picks one at random).

- Victory points (VP). You win the game by collecting the most

victory points via the VP-markers ( ) and the other players favor-

markers.