![\"Corruption\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/Ressourcen\/corrupt_t.jpg\")
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Publisher<\/b>: Eurogames\/Jeux Descartes<\/p>\n
Author<\/b>: Bruno Faidutti<\/p>\n
Tester<\/b>: Aaron Haag<\/p>\n
Game Tested<\/b>: 1st release 2000<\/p>\n
Scenario<\/b>: Money makes the world go round – especially in a world of bribery and
\ncorruption. Three to seven players try to win valuable contracts by cleverly bribing
\ngovernment bodies.<\/p>\n
The Game<\/b>: Three government bodies – the city hall, the county administration
\nand the capitol offer building contracts of values between $100.000 and $1.200.000.
\nPlayers each receive a deck of identical cards consisting of 6 bribe cards valued $1.000
\nto $10.000 and four character cards – two journalists, a hit man and a judge.<\/p>\n
The game plays over four rounds, each round beginning with randomly drawing two
\ncontracts per government body. These contracts are now on offer to the players, which try
\nto place the highest total bribe for the contracts they like – most probable the highest
\nvalued ones on the table. Players have a choice of either placing their bribe card
\ndirectly below a contract or putting it above the government body card, which represent
\nthe Swiss bank account of the respective body. After having played six cards each a round
\nis complete and the contract is awarded to the player with the highest bribe on that
\ncontract.<\/p>\n
This sounds pretty straight forward and far too simple for a Bruno Faidutti game. And,
\nof course, there are a few little things that make the game much more interesting. First
\nof all, depending on the round played some cards are placed face down, thereby not
\nreveiling their bribe value. In the first round only the first card played by a player is
\nface up with each round adding one more open card.<\/p>\n
Then there are the character cards which may be played instead of a bribe card but not
\nin the Swiss bank account. Once all players have placed their six cards hit men take
\ntheir turn in order of play by killing one other character played for the same contract.
\nThen any remaining judges act by voiding all bribes played on “their” contract
\nso that the contract is not awarded in this round. And finally the journalists step in
\nwho negate one bribe card each, chosen by the player who played the journalist. Money
\nplaced into the Swiss bank account of a government body is of course safe from
\njournalists but the big drawback is that this money is only counted half when finally
\ntallying the bribes.<\/p>\n
A new round starts with two new contracts for each of the government bodies and all
\nbribe cards are returned to the players. Character cards however act only once and are
\nnot returned. The player with the highest total contract value goes first in placing new
\nbribes.<\/p>\n
Playing Time<\/b>: The game can be explained in less than 10 minutes and played in
\nabout 30 to 45 minutes.<\/p>\n
Similar Games<\/b>: Banana Republic<\/a>, Dolce Vita<\/a>, Westpark Gamer’s Opinion<\/b>: The game very much reminds of “Banana With a small number of players the game may become a little dry due to very little Overall this is a nice little game which can be played as a starter or finisher of an Aaron’s Rating<\/b>: 5 (out of 10)<\/p>\n Westpark Gamers’ Rating<\/b>: 5.0<\/p>\n
\nEx&Hopp<\/a>, Raj<\/a><\/p>\n
\nRepublic” by Doris & Frank and Bruno gives due credit to this game in the rules
\nwhere he also describes that he has been inspired by stud poker. This is of course a game
\nof bluffing but here every player has the same 10 cards and there is no element of luck
\nby randomly dealing out cards. Hence the resemblance to stud poker is very low. The
\npsychology of the game is much more like Banana Republik or even Raj (Hol’s der
\nGeier) in that you exactly know which resources are available to each player and that you
\nare left with guessing and double guessing the other players’ tactics.<\/p>\n
\ndirect player interaction and depending on the group a lot of quiet thinking. With more
\nplayers the stack of bribe cards per contract is so large that it becomes almost
\nimpossible to guess on the tactics of other players and people tend to gang up on the
\nleader.<\/p>\n
\nevening of gaming. I personally prefer a quick game of Raj or Liar’s Dice,
\nthough.<\/p>\n