Revolution!

Revolution Details:
No. of Players: 3 – 4
Time to play: 1 Hour
Age: 10+
Set-up: 5 Minutes

Overview
“Secretly bid against your opponents to gain the support of the people, win territory . . . and gather more Gold, Blackmail, and Force for the next round of bidding! Will you try to control the tavern or the fortress? The harbor or the plantation? Knowing where to push for support – and where to back away and let your opponents fight – is the key to victory. It’s a game of bluff, counter-bluff, and surprise.”

Revolution!, by Steve Jackson Games, is comprised of 1 game board that represents the town in which the players will vie for power, 100 Influence cubes (in 4 different colors, 25 per player), 4 Score tokens, 4 Bid boards, 4 Player Screens, and 56 bid resource tokens (12 Force, 12 Blackmail, and 32 Gold). The game components are made of thick and very durable cardboard along with the cubes which are made of wood. The components of the game are of excellent quality.

The Currency of Coups
Before the game beings, it is important for all players to understand what resources they have at their disposal and what they are attempting to gain. The object of the game is to have the most support by the town elders and other influential persons at games end. To gain support, you must use the resources in your possession. These are threats (Force), having access to compromising material (Blackmail), and wealth for bribes (Gold).

Game Play
Using their resources, the players will influence key town officials. Each official, in turn, influences a specific part of the town. By buying the official, the player temporarily gets to use that official’s influence. The officials are briefly described here:
• General (immune to Force): provides Support, Force, and helps influence the town fortress
• Captain (immune to Force): provides support, Force, and helps influence the town harbor
• Innkeeper (immune to Blackmail): provides support, Blackmail material, and helps influence the patrons of the town tavern
• Magistrate (immune to Blackmail): provides support, Blackmail material, and helps influence the town hall
• Priest: provides support and helps influence the patrons of the cathedral
• Aristocrat: provides support, Gold, and helps influence the workers at the plantation
• Merchant: provides support, Gold, and helps influence the town market
• Printer: provides support
• Rogue (immune to Force and Blackmail): provides Blackmail material
• Spy (immune to Blackmail): provides the ability to replace Influence cubes
• Apothecary (immune to Force): provides the ability to swap Influence cubes already on the board
• Mercenary (immune to Force and Blackmail): provides support and Force

Influence
The game is played out with all players taking the same actions at the same time during 4 different phases. As a group, the players will complete the following phases in sequential order.
Phase 1: Espionage
Every Player is aware of what resources each player has available at the beginning of each round.
Phase 2: Bidding
Each player now places their bids behind their player screen.
Each on may place as much or as little of their resources as they like on the officials but can bid on no more than 6 at a time.
Phase 3: Resolution
Once all players have placed all their currently available resources, the Player Screens are removed. Now all the Bid boards beginning with the upper left most official (the General) and moving to the right, the top row are determined. .A player influences and gains support of that official and it’s rewards. All used resources on the Bid Board are returned to the resource piles. Any gained resource are kept and set aside for the next round.
Phase 4: Patronage
At the end of the round, the secret and silent backer of each player will provide enough gold to ensure that each player has at least 5 resources to start the next round.

Victory Goes to…
The game ends when all the Influence spots on the game board have been filled at the end of Phase 3: Resolution. The players now count up their points and adjust their Score tokens as needed on the outside Support track. Once all the counting has been completed and the Score tokens have finished being adjusted, the player with the most Support points wins the game and the town.

Conclusion
Revolution! has become a family favorite in our house. The relatively easy learning curve and fast pace keeps everyone interested. The short playing time is also a plus for younger/newer players. The difficulty of game play and strategy is totally determined by the experience level of the players involved. While this is certainly a “light” game is does have several elements that even avid gamers will find intriguing.

One of my good friends says that this is Steven Jackson’s best game and although I have not played that many of his I would tend to agree. It’s a very simple but fustrating game to play. The rules are simple. Fill the board with your people/cubes and who ever has the most points at the end of the game is the winner. The hard part is getting your cubes on the board cause you’re all bribing/blackmailing/using force to get your cubes on and if 2 people tie no one gets it. The game works like this: you have a board with certain people who can be influenced by using force, blackmail or money which allow you to place your cube on the board but if two people tie neither gets is and force is stronger than blackmail which is stronger that money. Some people can only be influence by 2 of the 3 methods (ex blackmail can’t be used). Some spaces let you move cubes around and others just give you points. No 2 games will be the same so you can play the game over and over and never get bored. Good game and I suggest you try it and you’ll see it’s a good time.