Stocks & Bombs

As of 2006, China owns a majority of the US’s debt. At any time China could choose to cash in this debt and bankrupt the United States. But that in turn would cause China to collapse due to losing all the import/export business. Among the major superpowers, battles are not fought with weapons, but with economics. In this game, you destroy your enemies by buying up pieces of their economy without them owning pieces of yours.

An Icehouse Game for 4-6 Players
Time: 15 minutes
Requires: One small, one medium, and one large of one color for each player. Each player must have a different color. (A Treehouse set works well for this for up to 5 players.) Two cards for each player that match that player’s color. Some way to keep score.

Setup:Each player chooses a color, and takes one of the cards with his color on it and puts it face up in front of him. The remaining card is put into a pile with all the other leftover cards, and shuffled. Deal each player a card. This is your Target and should be kept secret from other players.

Play: Once everyone has a card, play begins. Play is turnless. At any time you may propose a trade with another player: one of your three pieces for one of theirs. If they accept, swap pieces. Play continues until someone declares STOP! at which point all trading ceases.

Scoring: IF YOUR TARGET IS SOMEONE ELSE’S COLOR, you score for the total number of pips you have of their color minus the total number of pips they have of your color. (Smalls are 1 pip, Mediums 2 pips, and Larges 3 pips. You can lose points in a round, but your score can never go negative.) Record this score for each player.

Example: If your target is Yellow and you are Blue, and you have the Yellow Small, the Yellow Medium, and the Green Large, and Yellow has the Red Small, Blue Medium, and Red Large, you score 1 point (1 for small + 2 for medium – 2 for the medium they have of yours = 1)

IF YOUR TARGET IS YOURSELF, evey color of piece you have in front of you at the end of the game is considered to be your target and scored as above.

Example: You are Blue, and have the Blue target card. You have the Yellow small, Yellow Medium, and Green Large. As you have yellow pieces, you look at yellow as a Target. Yellow has no blue pieces, so you score 3 points from the Yellows (1+2-0=3). You also look at the Green player since you have Green pieces. Green has a Small Blue, a Red Medium, and a White large. You score 2 points (3-1=2) for a total of 5 points this round.

After scoring, you must look at the player who called STOP in the round. If that player did not score the most points in this round, or tie for scoring the most points, that player loses a point.

GAME END: Continue the Setup, Play, and Scoring phases until someone reaches 12 points. Highest point total then wins.