Balance of Power beta

Balance of Power beta

A turn-based game of economy & war for 2–4 nations. Grow your people's welfare, expand by conquest, and finish with the highest score.

Pick players, computers and a map size at the top, then begin. The map behind this card is just a preview.

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Goal

You lead one of 2–4 nations. Each round you score your people's welfare; these add up over the game (20 rounds) and a bonus rewards how strong you finish — the highest total score wins. Welfare for a tile is its scarcest civilian good ÷ its population, averaged across your populated tiles, so a balanced nation beats a lopsided one.

You can also win by being the last nation standing — but beating a single rival isn't enough on its own: with 3–4 players you must outlast every rival, or simply finish ahead on score.

Using the screen

Click a territory to select it; its details and the actions you can take appear in this right-hand panel. Click an action button, then — for attack, build road or move — click the target tile. Which actions show up depends on the current phase (shown at the top of the panel). When you're done in a phase, use the button at the bottom of the panel to advance.

Two piles on every tile

  • Civilian goods (left pile) feed your people — all welfare and growth come from these.
  • State purse (right pile) is your treasury — it pays for soldiers, roads, research and moving things around.

Civilian goods can't be spent directly — tax them into the state purse first. The four goods each do one job: food feeds soldiers, iron recruits them, stone builds roads, gold funds research.

Your ruler

Besides soldiers you command one ruler. It eats no food and is shielded — soldiers are always lost first, so it only fights when it's the last unit on a tile. It can attack, move and retreat like a soldier. Losing it is permanent, but it does not eliminate you; only losing your last territory does.

A turn: four phases

  1. Growth (automatic, at the start of your turn). In order: tiles grow or shrink in population (welfare above 1 → +1, below 1 → −1, kept between 1 and 4); each soldier eats 1 food (paid from state food first, then your other state goods, then civilian goods — a soldier that can't be fed is lost); tiles harvest goods (more when the tile is prosperous or you have higher tech); then road trade runs.
  2. Expansion. Each tile may attack one adjacent enemy or neutral tile, once per turn (attacks need adjacency — roads don't extend range). Only a single unit goes in — one soldier, or your ruler if the tile has no soldiers. An undefended tile is captured at once; a defended one lets the defender fight (a dice roll, ties favour the defender) or retreat. Every resolved battle costs each side 1 civilian good. A tile you just captured can't act again until your next turn.
  3. Build (spend from the state purse — as many actions as you can afford). Recruit a soldier: 1 state iron, and the tile's population drops by 1 (needs population 2+). Build road: 1 state stone on an edge to a neighbour (you need own only one end; roads are permanent and survive conquest). Research: spend 1 state gold to roll for technology — most attempts fail, so it's a slow, long-term investment, but higher tech lifts both your battle rolls and the harvest on every tile you own.
  4. Redistribute. Tax moves 1 good civilian → state; Subsidize moves 1 good state → civilian — do these as often as you like. Move sends a convoy (soldiers + state goods + optionally your ruler) to one of your own tiles, adjacent or along your roads; each tile may send only one convoy per turn.

Roads & trade

A road links two tiles' civilians, who automatically swap goods at the start of each turn — one good for one, and only when the trade leaves both sides more balanced. Trade runs a couple of sweeps, so goods can ripple several tiles along a chain of roads. It even works across borders (you need own just one end), so a road is often faster and cheaper than taxing one tile and subsidizing another to even out resources. Because each tile makes only one good, roads are the main way to balance — and balance is what welfare rewards.

Timing

Harvest and road trade happen at the start of your turn. A convoy leaves the moment you send it but only arrives at the start of your next turn. If its destination has been lost by then it returns to its origin (if you still hold it); if both ends are lost, it's destroyed.

Tip: welfare is capped by your scarcest good — keep all four balanced rather than hoarding one.

Map symbols

Farmland · food
Ironlands · iron
Quarry · stone
Goldfields · gold
Wastes — barren (no resource)
Sea — impassable
▲ Mountains — block travel between tiles
Road — links cities for movement & trade
⌂ City size = population (1–4)
♟ One figure = one soldier
Coloured outline = territory's owner
Banner = your ruler (tinted by owner)
◧ Resource pills: civilian goods left, state purse right (number = how many)

Each resource appears as a coloured land tile and a matching token in the pills — wheat = food, ore = iron, block = stone, coin = gold. A tile's owner is the coloured outline around it; the banner marks the tile holding your ruler. Tax moves civilian → state; subsidize moves state → civilian.