Profiteers

About this board game

Profiteers is a strategic speculation game for 3–5 players that takes about 45 minutes, set during the 1861 American Civil War. Playing as British arms manufacturers, you care less about the war’s causes than about making money from the armies and financial markets it creates.

Your goal is to finish with more cash than your rivals. Invest in arms factories to increase production, gain bonds, and build influence over the conflict; speculate directly in Union and Confederate bonds; or purchase businesses such as coffin makers, hoping the war becomes longer and bloodier.

• Invest and produce: Make decisions that shape your access to bonds and your influence.
• Speculate: Accumulate Union and Confederate bonds whose value changes with the war’s progress.
• Influence battles: Contribute troops to one of the major battles and affect which side gains ground.
• Read the table: Anticipate and influence the strategies of your opponents through bluff and negotiation.

Each turn begins with investment and production decisions. Players then contribute troops to a selected battle in reverse order, and the battle is resolved simply rather than as a detailed tactical simulation. The result changes the balance of the war and can affect the value of the bonds that players hold.

The conflict lasts between three and seven turns. A finely balanced war may continue for the full seven turns and take up to 45 minutes, while shorter conflicts can end in under half an hour. Fast-paced and highly interactive, Profiteers rewards careful speculation, timing, negotiation, and the ability to anticipate what everyone else is planning.