Stock Monarchy

Within Stock Monarchy you will play as the ruler of a small Kingdom listed on the stock market. The competition will be relentless. To win, players must bring their Kingdom to dominate the stock market with a savvy combination of warfare, technology and trade.

THE STOCK STATES The Stock States are a rich empire with a bizarre form of government: a stock monarchy. The Supreme Sovereign wields absolute power, but his election and term in office are determined by the satisfaction of the stockholders, the true masters of the Land.

CORONATION CHALLENGE The time has come to nominate a new Supreme Sovereign. As usual, the Coronation Challenge is issued so as to find the most talented contestant amongst the richest Houses of the Realm. The winner of the Challenge will be crowned Ruler of the Stock States. The Challenge will take place on one of the peripheral and uncivilized islands of the empire. The Island is inhabited by Mattoks, somewhat obtuse and naïve creatures with a very basic lifestyle. Mattoks can’t quite discern between good and evil and are therefore easy to manipulate or to corrupt. They are not to be entrusted with complex tasks, but they are excellent at following simple instructions and will comply with whatever command in exchange for a few shiny coins. At the beginning of the Challenge every participant will be assigned a starting region of equal dimension and three months’ time to showcase their strategic skills and – most important of all – to enrich the stockholders. The management of the Realms on the Island mirrors the stock monarchy of the Stock States: each scion will be free to act as an authentic absolute monarch, but his choices will be evaluated by the stock market. Dominating the market, however, will not be easy: all shareholders ultimately desire to grow richer and see the value of their shares rise, but some of them also have specific preferences on how this should be done. The two most prominent examples are definitely the conqueror and pioneer currents. The conquerors want a Ruler in power who pursues profit through military expansion, while the pioneers prefer one who will enrich them by investing in technological growth. Therefore, whoever wants to sit on the Throne of the Stock States will not only have to effectively administer his own Realm, but will also have to distribute copious dividends and support, at least in part, the interests of conquerors and pioneers. Ultimately, the winner of the Coronation Challenge will be the Ruler who is able to impose himself on the market and make the value of the shares of his Realm soar.

GAME-FLOW The Game-Flow has 3 stages: Setup, Round and End Game.

SETUP • Creating the island: the Island is created, depending on the number of Players (in a 2-Player game it is possible to create more than 2 billion different Map layouts, in a 4 Player game more than a trillion, and that's without counting Resources and Know-How Tokens). • Auctioning the Starting Territories: Players bid to seize the best possible starting Territory for their Realms. • Setting up the Realms: every Ruler autonomously chooses the initial Setup of their Realm.

ROUND • 3 Game Rounds: The 3 Game Rounds is where the real action takes place. The Kings have to plan and implement their strategies by issuing orders to the Spies and Mattoks of their own Realm. This is done through the 14 Command Cards, which let Players move their Spies and carry out Actions with the Mattoks.

END GAME • Distributing dividends to the shareholders: the Money, Ingots and revenue from the sale of White Whiskey are used to pay dividends, which drives up the value of the shares of the Realm. • Announcing the winner: the Player whose shares have reached the highest value is crowned as new Supreme Sovereign of the Stock States.

-description from designer