Junta

Classic game from the 1980s.  

The state of the board tells you nothing.

What you need to see is the final tallies of the player's Swiss bank accounts.

And that's in millions of pesos!

What can I remember of the game?

Richard started as President, and I was the Minister of Security.  All was going well till Stefan launched a coup and became the new President.  I remained Minister of Security and in a dastardly deed tricked Russell into going to the bank when he thought it was safe.  It wasn't.  However my success was short lived and another coup, that President Stefan survived, saw me executed.

But I bounced back and a subsequent coup gave me the Presidency.  But it was a bit of a token office as I had no influence except in distributing the foreign aid money.

More coups followed and there might have been a President Jeff, but the last President was Simon.  

Again I skillfully assassinated Russell on his way to the bank only to be shot again and see Richard make off with both my and Russell's cash in hand, which was substantial, and can be seen in his final tally.

The following were provided by Richard.  There was even a song.

The Junta meets...

Last played 40 years ago, the cult game Junta finally made a fun packed

re-appearance.

A game like no other. Junta is a roller coaster ride of opportunism

which can be morally internally conflicting in terms decisions that

need to be taken.

Richard was elected as the inaugural President and after assigning

cabinet positions a statistically unlikely horror budget was drawn

consisting of 7 1s and a 3. (He swears that's what it was...)

The budget was waived through the chamber and there were no

assassinations attempted, with Mark as Minister of Internal Security

holding off taking a crack at anyone at the bank. Everyone with money

chose bank as their location and their funds were promptly deposited.

The second and third budgets followed a similar pattern. The fourth

budget was also passed, but there was a coup excuse and Stefan was the

First Rebel. A closely fought coup with the Minister (Mark) undeclared

until the final moment siding with the rebels. Stefan's Bank guards

fought off waves of Loyalist forces ably supported by air strikes.

Richard was sent to the firing squad.

This brought Stefan to the Presidency and a string of abortive coups

being launched by Richard, the first of which was bombed out of

existence by the air force held by Stefan under the "President's Brother

in law rule". The other coups failed to gain any traction. Mark was

(un)fortunate to be sitting on a pile of cash after successfully

assassinating Russell (thus giving control of the air force to Stefan)

and was sent to the firing squad despite siding with the loyalists. The

stress of dealing with the threat of constant coups brought on a

presidential resignation and Jeff took the helm as President for a brief

moment before being assassinated, Mark also briefly took on the

Presidential mantle and proposed the most generous budget ever seen

handing out 9 million (How much did he draw to be able to afford that

largesse?)

As assassination attempts started to catch on and fly thick and fast

(the misses were as important as the hits) some people ended up sitting

on very big piles of cash and became big targets.

This series of short Presidential terms coincided with the string of

successful assassinations. Richard managed to be on the end of a chain

of assassination attempts in a couple of turns, including the last which

involved the use of the Psychotic assassin which has a risk to the

person playing it.

Poor Mark was successfully assassinated twice and dodged a bullet along

the way as well as being sent to the firing squad. Despite being killed

so many times, if he'd just managed to dodge that Psychotic Assassin on

the last turn he would have won.

All in all, it was a very close game with everyone managing to squirrel

away funds by one means or another. The main difference coming down to

being on the right end of a chain of assassinations as people lined up

at the bank.

A hugely entertaining game. Thanks to everyone for participating.