The Manhattan Project: Energy Empire
World War 2 has become a memory, and global power is shifting as modernization changes the world. Nations scramble to upgrade their energy production to keep up with the rapid growth. The price of oil is going up, and nuclear energy is the wave of the future.
In Energy Empire, each player takes control of a nation vying for power in the second half of the 20th century. They build up their nation’s industry, commerce, and government by acquiring resources, building structures, and tapping new sources of energy.
The major threat in Energy Empire is not war, but uncertain global impacts that affect all nations. Your actions come with a cost. As nations become more industrious, they also increase the amount of pollution in the environment. Careful use of science can reduce the harmful effects of industry, and help avert a global crisis.
Manhattan Project: Energy Empire is a stand alone game in our "Manhattan Project" line of games. It shares many of the same mechanics from the original top 150 award winning game, but with less "take that" actions. Designed by established game designers Luke Laurie and Tom Jolly.
User Reviews (2)
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Ever play the original Manhattan Project and think “This ends too abruptly, and it needs dice”? Enter Manhattan Project Energy Empire
Gameplay/Replay
In a post WW2 era, producing energy so the world can move on is important. You play one of several countries trying to efficiently produce power and resources, rub elbows with the UN, and do so while keeping the pollution your efforts produce minimized.
Your turn consists of either taking a work action, where you pick one of 3 sections, government, industrial, and commerce to take an action on, if you do so you may activate buildings that you own that match the section you take an action from. Energy generated can activate your buildings as can your workers. When placing a worker, if nobody is in that space, it requires one worker, if someone got there first, you must add energy or workers till you have one more than whoever has the most in their stack there.
Your other option is to generate, where you can take an achievement if you have 2 of any combination of workers or energy left when you do, then you pull back all your workers, then roll your factory dice to generate energy and if your highest factory die has pollution on it, gain pollution. Each time pollution is gained, be it through the generate action, building a structure that creates pollution, or through an event, it is pulled from the event track, which acts as the games timer. When an event’s pollution runs out, that event happens and you score based off how unpolluted your nation’s air, land, or water (indicated on the event card) is.
After 6 events (the latter 3 events being much more harmful to everyone than the first 3 are) the game ends. Buildings, unpolluted squares on your board, factory dice, achievements, and your rating on the UN track are totaled to determine the winner.
The Bad
This doesn’t have much bad to be said about it. If I have to poopoo something I could say the power plant theme has been done almost as much in the world of euros as vikings has, but that’s not a valid critique, I just needed to put SOMETHING here
In Conclusion
This is a great game. It plays under 2 hours usually so it doesn’t wear out its welcome. The cardboard workers and energy tiles are thick and easy to work the way the mechanics of the game intend them to. Worth finding and playing.
For everyone’s information, ignore the that this is stated by bg.com as an expansion as it isn’t. It is not compatible with the game Manhattan Project.
The game is however amazing! It is better than the previous game in this line and has the same worker Placement but plays and feels very different. It is a medium to heavy euro and not a family game. This will be enjoyed by stategy gamers rather than family’s or some casual gamers.