Conversation · Suzerainty: The Board Game

After double- and then triple-checking your maths, you have your final score...

Negative five victory points. You'll be lucky if the suzerain doesn't have your whole family executed for such a pitiful performance.

The lieutenant looks up from his tabulations. "I've got 15 points," he says with a slight smirk on his face...

"Don't look too glum, detective. There's always next time. Figuratively, I mean. There's no way we have time to play this game again..."

"Yeah, never get involved in a trade war in Insulinde."

"I'm bored with this. Let's finish the game later."

"C'mon, detective. This is the endgame! Let's just finish up quickly."

"Okay, let's finish up."

The endgame is upon you. What will be your crowning achievement as the suzerain's territorial administrator?

You could attempt to build the mighty victory column structure, or launch a trade war against the lieutenant, or spend everything to build a public education system for your worker tokens...

"Nope, I'm done." (Start putting the pieces away.)

Build a public education system for your workers.

Your commitment to doing right by your workers pays off and you manage to construct the rarely attempted public education system. You truly have the best-educated worker tokens in the entire world...

Unfortunately, you were sent to the territories to produce raw resources, not overly educated second-class citizens. If anything, this might negatively impact your final score.

"See? I warned you investing in your workers wasn't going to pay off."

"My worker tokens have a right to an education, Kim."

"Noble as that sentiment may be, it's not exactly a winning strategy in a game that revolves around resource extraction and exploitation..."

"Now, let's tally up the scores, shall we?"

Computing the final scores is almost a game unto itself. You each spend an inordinate amount of time making stacks of coins, consulting tables, and struggling with basic addition and multiplication...

After double- and then triple-checking your maths, you have your final score...

Two points. Though you're beloved by your well-educated worker tokens, the suzerain is immensely displeased, and recalls you from your post.

The lieutenant looks up from his tabulations. "I've got 20 points," he says with measured pride...

"Hey, at least you went out playing the game how you wanted. There's something to be said for that."

"Can I go back and do my turn over?"

"A little late for that, I think..."

"You taught me that points are arbitrary. I decided to play the game how I wanted instead."

The lieutenant opens his mouth as if to issue a blistering retort, then hesitates...

"You know, detective, there's... something admirable about that, in its own way..."

There's a reason very few players ever attempt to built a public education system for their worker tokens: It's extremely expensive and never pays off, by design...

Your boondoggle nearly bankrupts the suzerain's treasury and you suffer a significant penalty to your final score...

"Ouch," the lieutenant says, cringing at your spectacular failure.

"Huh, maybe I should have pursued a different strategy."

"That might have been a good idea, yes..."

"Now, let's tally up the scores, shall we?"

Computing the final scores is almost a game unto itself. You each spend an inordinate amount of time making stacks of coins, consulting tables, and struggling with basic addition and multiplication...

After double- and then triple-checking your maths, you have your final score...

Negative five victory points. You'll be lucky if the suzerain doesn't have your whole family executed for such a pitiful performance.

The lieutenant looks up from his tabulations. "I've got 20 points," he says, slightly embarrassed at the point differential...

"Well, there's always next time. Figuratively, I mean. There's no way we have time to play this game again..."

"You taught me that points are arbitrary. I decided to play the game how I wanted instead."

The lieutenant opens his mouth as if to issue a blistering retort, then hesitates...

"You know, detective, there's... something admirable about that, in its own way..."

"This stupid game is rigged."

"Come on, detective, you knew the rules of the game going in..."

"As I recall, it was your turn, detective."

Glancing over the board, you see several possible strategies: Pressing more workers into service would increase your economic output and help you survive a possible conflict with the lieutenant, or you could ignore your labour supply and focus on fulfilling contracts for points and resources...

Those aren't your only options.

You could also show your workers how much you appreciate them by investing some of that wealth in them. After all, they're the ones producing wealth for the suzerain.

Well, sure, you can do that. It's just not a terribly effective strategy. But then, it's up to you...

Focus on fulfilling contracts.

Who cares about workers and territories when the real action is in Revachol? You spend your turns fulfilling contracts for sweet coins and one-time bonuses.

After several turns you have a neat pile of cardboard coins and several units of archaeological treasure, which you trade in to build... a museum...

You place a cylindrical piece of wood on the Revachol section in the middle of the board. It's meant to stand in for a beautifully adorned edifice filled with ancient wonders.

Interestingly, this is more or less what happened in real life as well. To this day, if Iilmaraans want to see their nation's priceless treasures they have to visit Revachol or Gottwald or Sur-la-Clef.

"Well played, detective. That museum is worth three victory points..."

Now it's the lieutenant's turn to respond. He moves aggressively onto the Safre territory. Soon his workers are producing a steady supply of extremely valuable apricots...

How can you let the lieutenant dominate you like that? You need to hit back, and hard!

For several turns you struggle to respond to the lieutenant's burgeoning apricot empire. Eventually you relocate the majority of your workers to Supramundi and Saramiriza, where they begin producing a bumper crop of cocaine tokens...

You draw a new contract card. According to the text, there's an aristocrat willing to trade a large supply of cocaine for a number of coins and access to a rare bonus: amplified music, worth seven victory points...

Oh, yeah, baby. Cocaine and rock music go together like... cocaine and rock music.