Board game and method of playing

Abstract

A resource management board game where 3 or more players: gather materials to build nuclear weapons, amassing as many as possible while maintaining relationships with their allies, neutralities, and enemies; stave off nuclear attacks from the aforementioned, and complete their randomly chosen objectives. Players will have to make deals and deceive others to achieve their goals, bluffing their way into partnerships, making friends of enemies and vice versa, before a Doom Counter reaches Midnight. A method of playing the aforementioned game is also disclosed.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A board game in which a plurality of players: (i) gather materials to make their own pretend nuclear weapons, (ii) establish or maintain relationships with their allies, neutralities or enemies; (iii) stave off pretend nuclear attacks from other players; and (iv) complete their randomly chosen objectives before a counter reaches midnight signaling an end to the game, said board game comprising:
 a. a flat world map with a plurality of real or fictional countries, which each player adopting one of the plurality of countries for their game persona;   b. a playing card for each of the real or fictional countries on the world map, each playing card having: (i) a first side with information on at least: that country's number of pretend nuclear warheads at a start of the game; that county's hit points, called “will of the people”; and which other countries are allies and enemies of that country or neutral thereto; and having (ii) a second side showing how that country may continue playing after being rendered a wasteland during play by another country's pretend nuclear warhead;   c. a set of playing cards from which players may draw on their turn, said playing cards including at least one of: an action card, a resource card and an objective card; and   d. a counter for simulating a movable doomsday clock to encourage player negotiations around a nuclear war scenario or preventing such a war.   
     
     
         2 . The board game of  claim 1 , which further includes at least one of: an Assassination Action card and a Blight Action card. 
     
     
         3 . The board game of  claim 1  in which players take turns: (a) mining for pretend nuclear resources, (b) negotiating with other players or (c) launching pretend nuclear warheads at another player. 
     
     
         4 . The board game of  claim 3  wherein during negotiating step (b), a player may elect to trade with, create an alliance with or establish a treaty with another player. 
     
     
         5 . The board game of  claim 4  wherein the treaty with another player may be a defense treaty or an emergency treaty. 
     
     
         6 . The board game of  claim 3  wherein step (c) further includes another player's ability to launch a counterstrike. 
     
     
         7 . The board game of  claim 1 , which further includes a plurality of infantry, tank or warship military invasion miniatures. 
     
     
         8 . A board game in which three to seven players: (i) gather materials to make their own pretend nuclear weapons, (ii) establish or maintain relationships with their allies, neutralities or enemies; (iii) stave off pretend nuclear attacks from other players; and (iv) complete their randomly chosen objectives before a doom counter reaches midnight signaling an end to the game, said board game comprising:
 a. a flat world map with up to sixteen real or fictional countries, which each player adopting one of the up to sixteen real or fictional countries for their game persona;   b. a playing card for each of the real or fictional countries on the world map, each playing card having: (i) a first side with information on at least: that country's number of pretend nuclear warheads at a start of the game; that country's hit points, called “will of the people”; and which other countries are allies and enemies of that country or neutral thereto; and having (ii) a second side showing how that country may continue playing after being rendered a wasteland during play after being hit by another country's pretend nuclear warhead;   c. a set of playing cards from which players may draw on their turn, said playing cards including: an action card, a resource card or an objective card, each of said players electing to either: (i) mine for pretend nuclear resources, (ii) negotiate with other players or (iii) launch pretend nuclear warheads at another player;   d. a counter for simulating a movable doomsday clock to encourage player negotiations around a nuclear war scenario or preventing such a war; and   e. a plurality of infantry, tank or warship military invasion miniatures.   
     
     
         9 . The board game of  claim 8  wherein during negotiating step (c)(ii), a player may trade with, create an alliance with or establish a treaty with another player. 
     
     
         10 . The board game of  claim 9  wherein the treaty may be a defense treaty or an emergency treaty. 
     
     
         11 . The board game of  claim 8  wherein launch step (c)(iii) further includes another player's ability to launch a counterstrike. 
     
     
         12 . A method of playing a board game in which a plurality of players: (i) gather materials to make their own pretend nuclear warheads, (ii) establish or maintain relationships with their allies, neutralities or enemies; (iii) stave off pretend nuclear attacks from other players; and (iv) complete their randomly chosen objectives before a counter reaches midnight signaling an end to the game, said method of playing comprising:
 (a) providing a a flat world map with up to sixteen real or fictional countries, which each player adopting one of the up to sixteen real or fictional countries for their game persona;   (b) providing each player with a plurality of Nations Tokens (face down) from which to blindly select two Nations Tokens,   (c) letting each player see which two Nations Tokens they selected before allowing them to pick therefrom which real or fictional country they will be adopting as their game persona;   (d) providing each player with a two-sided card for the real or fictional county they have adopted, each playing card having: (i) a first side with information on at least: that country's number of pretend nuclear warheads at a start of the game; that country's hit points, called “will of the people”; and which other countries are allies and enemies of that country or neutral thereto; and having (ii) a second side showing how that country may continue playing after being rendered a wasteland during play after being hit by another country's pretend nuclear warhead;   (e) distributing to each player their starting GDP resources as set forth on their nation's two-sided card;   (f) shuffling a deck of Doomsday Dossier cards, placing the shuffled deck adjacent a Doomsday counter clock and setting the counter clock at 11:45 for the start of the game;   (g) shuffling a deck of objective cards, dealing four Objective cards to each player and placing a remainder of the objective cards, face down, on a designated objective card area on the flat world map; and   (h) shuffling a deck of action cards, allowing each player to draw two action cards which do not say “PLAY NOW”, and placing a remainder of the action cards, face down, on a designated action card area on the flat world map.   
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 12  wherein players take turns: (a) mining resources to build their pretend nuclear weapons; (b) negotiating with other players; or (c) launching their pretend nuclear warheads. 
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 12  wherein players earn points by completing objectives specified on their originally dealt or subsequently drawn objective cards, said player with the most earned points winning when the counter clock reaches midnight to end the game. 
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 12 , which further comprises:
 (i) each player taking a turn, each turn consisting of two actions selected from the group consisting of: (a) drawing one card from the objective card deck, the action card deck or the resource card deck on the flat world map; (b) playing an action card or a resource card; (c) playing a military invasion miniature to increase the player's resource production; (d) attempting diplomacy; (e) building a military or a nuclear warhead; (f) proliferating by launching or reprogramming a nuclear warhead; or (g) skipping one of the two actions per turn if instructed by a card to do so.   
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 15  wherein the military invasion miniature in step (c) is selected from the group consisting of: an infantry miniature, a tank miniature, an airship miniature and a warship miniature. 
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 15  wherein attempting diplomacy step (d) includes negotiating a trade with another player, creating an alliance or establishing a defense treaty or an emergency treaty. 
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 15 , which further includes a player's ability to launch a counterstrike. 
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 12  wherein the action cards further includes at least one of: an Assassination card and a Blight card. 
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 12  wherein a player may continue playing after being rendered a wasteland after being hit by another player's pretend nuclear warhead.