Cartel

About this board game

Cartel is a board game for 2–4 players that takes about 90 minutes to play. Over ten rounds, representing ten years, players build an international collection of companies and compete to finish with the most valuable cartel.

Each player begins with a single company valued at 10 million dollars. During the game, you can acquire one or more new companies each year, increasing your profits and the value of your unsold stock. As your holdings grow, you can pursue larger companies and work toward a final value that may approach or surpass one billion dollars.

Growth depends on carefully managing the resources available to you. Companies can be acquired using cash, by selling stock, or by borrowing money with bonds. Every decision helps shape how quickly your cartel expands and how much value it can accumulate before the ten-year game concludes.

Purchasing companies in the right locations can provide an additional advantage. Special bonus profits are awarded when you buy companies situated adjacent to one another on the board, creating an incentive to develop connected holdings while increasing your rate of growth.

• Ten rounds of play: Build your cartel over ten years.
• Company acquisitions: Add new companies and pursue increasingly valuable opportunities.
• Flexible financing: Use cash, sell stock, and borrow with bonds.
• Adjoining-company bonuses: Earn special profits by acquiring adjacent companies.

In Cartel, success comes from buying the right companies while balancing expansion, financing, and the value of unsold stock. At the end of the game, the player whose cartel has the greatest value wins.