Territory acquisition: Corporation Exploitation

Lets talk about territory acquisition games. The core mechanic revolves around taking over some form of territory and then holding onto it until the end of the game when a variety of winning conditions determine the winner.

Our games theme is that you are a corporation moving into a resource rich but economically poor region of earth and your goal is to control as much territory as possible and control it. It is a tile based game which enhances the replay value because the pseudo board you play on each game will be different.

With our territory acquisition game we keep the essence of controlling territory but a add few helping mechanics in order to spice up the game.

We make certain territories worth more than others, creating a conflict over the higher value territories.
We also impress upon players that owning the territory alone will not be enough, taking care of your territories through various mechanics is important, much like in the real world. Due to the game relying on more than just owning territories we had to develop a point system to create a definite winner which reflects how many territories you have and how well you look after them.

Inspiration:

The inspiration for this game comes from a series of articles in the Global & Mail about corporations in Africa that deals with how they are coming in and buying up land and dealing with the locals in both good and bad ways.

Goal:

In this game you play a corporation moving into a new land, and your goal is to control as much territory as possible, but the catch is that owning territory isn't enough to win you the game alone. You need to take care of territories as well.

Rules:

Corporation Exploitation

Game Setup:

The tiles will shuffled be laid out in an 8x8 grid face down for randomness and then flipped over revealing the tiles.

The last player to purchase a consumer goods item worth over a $100 will go first.

Each player starts with $1000, and can purchase territory, the first territory they purchase must be on the edge of the board, and all future territories must be connected.

Game Pieces:
64 * 3 Tokens of one color for industrial buildings.
64 * 3 Tokens of another color civil buildings.
64 Tokens of another color for the happiness meter.
64 tokens each of 4 colors, one for each player.
2 D8 dice and 2 D10 dice.

Turn Steps:

1. Collect Income
2. Roll Disease Dice
3. Purchase Improvements
4. Trigger events
5. Purchase territory 
6. Economically Conquer Territory

Income:

Each tile generates a different amount of money each turn; happiness will increase or decrease this value by 33% times the happiness value of the tile eg.-3 happiness results in 100% less income and +3 happiness results in %100 more income. Income is rounded to the nearest $50 increment.

Disease Dice:

Every turn the player rolls the 2 d8 dice, first die rolled is the rows and the second die rolled is the columns on the tile board. This tile becomes affected by disease reducing the happiness by 2.

Purchase Improvements:

Players may purchase improvements from the improvement table for their listed cost and place them on their territory that they choose. They then apply any effects to the territory. You must purchase industry improvements in order from top to bottom of the tile, civil improvements can be purchased in any order.

Trigger Events:

Players may purchase events from the event table and then pick a territory to affect.

Purchase Territory:

Players may purchase territory that is currently un-owned as long as it is connected to their territories.

Economically Conquer Territory:

Players may attempt to economically conquer a territory from another player; you may only attempt one of these per turn. The territory must be connected to their territories.

In order to take over other players tiles the two players involved roll a d10, a negative happiness will affect the conquest players roll by reducing it by that amount and a positive one will affect the conquers roll by reducing it. In addition players can throw money at the territory, for each $100 dollars a player spends they increase their roll by 1. Highest roll gets the territory.

Game Length:

The game will last for 24 turns, at the end of the game the player with the most points which are used as a scoring system rather than a territory direct count because in this case it isn’t size that matter but how you take care of what you control.

Trading:

Players can trade territories in several ways, either in a direct swap or buy offering a cash value, or a combination of the two. You cannot trade for territories that do not touch your territories or would not touch your territories after the trade.

Strategic Alliances:

Players can form these in order to strengthen their position on the board; there is no in game benefit other than not having to worry about being attacked by that player. There is no formal policy for these set in place, which therefore means there is no penalty for breaking them or when such a break can occur.

Winning the Game:

After the 24 turns are over, players tally up all the points for their controlled territories and buildings on the territories. You also tally up your happiness values and then add them to the territories and buildings score. The player with the most points wins.

Happiness:

The happiness meter on a territory unaffected by anything starts at the higher of the two yellow markers. For each civil improvement on a territory it generates 1 happiness per turn.

Tiles:

Icon	Name	Cost	Points	Income
	Grain	$200	3	$+100
	Metal	$400	5	$+200
	Rubber	$600	7	$+300
	Oil	$800	10	$+400
	Gems	$1000	15	$+500

Events:

Name	Cost	Happiness
Propaganda	$250	+/- 1
Industrial Sabotage	$450	-2
Entertainment Event	$500	+2
Tax Rebate	$750	+3
Hire Rebels	$650	-3
Disease	N/A	-3

Improvements:

Icon	Name	Cost	Points	Happiness	Income
	School	$250	1	+1/turn	$-50
	Sanitation System	$500	2	+1/turn	$-100
	Hospital	$750	3	+1/turn	$-150
	Ore/Gem Mine	$200	1	-1	$+100
	Oil Well	$200	1	-1	$+100
	Grain/Rubber Farm	$200	1	-1	$+100
	Refinery	$400	2	-2	$+200
	Smelter	$400	2	-2	$+200
	Irrigation System	$400	2	-2	$+200
	Jewelers Workshop	$400	2	-2	$+200
	Factory	$600	3	-3	$+300

Lets look at tiles that comprise the game.

The Gem tile is the most valuable, and there are the fewest of them in the game.

 The Grain tile is the cheapest and is the most plentiful in the game.

The Metal tile is a medium-low priced tile and is not as plentiful as the Grain tile but there are still a fair number of them.

The Oil tile is a medium-high priced tile and is not as rare as the Gem tile. 

The Rubber tile is a medium priced tile and is not as plentiful as the Metal tile but there are still a fair number of them.