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Spotlight on Games > Military Games > Summaries
Lords of the Sierra Madre
Sequence of Play
Wed Feb 13 23:25:54 UTC 2008
  1. Reveal Quarterly Card and Resolve Event.
    1. Turn over the next quarterly card on the mapsheet.
    2. If the card is an Event (labeled with an "E" in the upper left, resolve its effects immediately.
    3. If the card has 1 or 2 gold bars depicted, the players receive investment capital.
    4. Banks owned by players earn investment capital also.
  2. Receive Profits.
  3. Capitalize.
    1. Each player pays 1 gold to the game (if a W card, to an operating Store if any exists) for each card on the seasonal track of his calendar.
    2. Each player pays 1 gold for each IOU marker in the box of the current turn.
    3. All governors may subsidize one RR card within their territory to be paid for by the game.
    4. All presidents may subsidize any enterprises within their territory to be paid for by the game.
  4. Auction Quarterly Card.
    1. The revealed card is auctioned to the players.
    2. The purchased card is placed on the seasonal track.
  5. Auction Common Cards.
    1. Begins with the player who has the most money with his hacendado.
    2. Players take turns in clockwise order.
  6. Purchase Rifles from Stores.
    1. Begins with the player who has the most cards on his calendar, whether mature or immature. Radio and spy cards count 10.
    2. Players in clockwise order each have one chance to purchase rifles from operating stores, which is where they appear. Rifles cost 2 gold which is paid to the store owner.
    3. Rifles may not be purchased by a hacendado from his own store.
    4. If no store exists, they are purchased from the game. The rifles appear on any store icon on the map. They may be moved during Tactical Rounds.
    5. Another way to "buy" rifles is to have US forces drop their rifles near the border and have a hacendado pick them up. The troops can restore their rifles during Refurbishment. [Historically this was known as "surplusing".]
  7. Recapitalize Destroyed C cards.
    1. Any previously-existing hacienda, plantation, store, casino, store or smelter which was forced below zero profit due to Event or Burning must be rebuilt. The card must be re-capitalized. The player pays 1 to start this process. The card is placed on the seasonal track to correspond to a number of turns in the future that capitalization on the card requires. (When mature it will be placed at the profit level printed on the card.)
    2. If a C card is at zero at the present time, the owner spends 1 gold to bring it up to profit level 1.
    3. If a player has a smelter with reduced profit level, he may spend 2 gold to raise the level by 1.
    4. If the player declines to recapitalize, the card is moved to the common cards area and may be put up for auction by any player during the next Auction Common Cards phase.
  8. Mature Completed Cards..
    1. Place any face up cards which are under the turn marker onto the profits track according to its profit rating in the lower left hand corner of the card.
    2. Place either the corresponding counter if it has one, or one of the player's markers on its corresponding location on the map.
    3. Any immature cards affected by Strike are moved one further turn away from completion.
    4. Any face up cards on the seasonal track under the turn marker are now flipped face up.
  9. Play Mordida Cards and Official Actions.
    M cards and Strikes (R cards which are treated like M cards) are played during this phase and then discarded from the game unless labeled "can be re-used." Card reading "Veto" may be cancelled by the president of the nation whose flag is shown. Cards come in several varieties:
    1. Spy: Spy cards may be used to nullify the play of any other Mordida card. A re-usable Mordida card is only suppressed for one quarter however. Alternatively, they may be used to assassinate a president. Roll 1 die. A result of "1" kills the president causing an immediate presidential election (see Auction Common Cards Phase) with an incumbent of one less stature than usual.
    2. Strike: This card is played against any C or RR card owned by another player, mature or otherwise.
    3. Newspaper: Upon discarding a newspaper, the player may raise the leadership of any counter other than a hacendado's for the rest of the quarter.
    4. Subornation: The M4 card places another player's owned puppet (usually a troop card) in the common cards area where it may be auctioned with other common cards. Note that this card may only be played against a puppet whose leadership is greater than that of the owning hacendado. After use, M4 is returned to the common cards area where it may be purchased again and later used.
    5. Lawsuit: This card is played against any C or RR card owned by another player. The target is put up for immediate auction. This auction differs from others in that all money spent by winners and losers is returned to the game. After all bidding is completed, each participating bidder also rolls two dice and adds his hacendado's leadership to the value of his bid (the money coming from the game). The player of the lawsuit card may use the leadership of the card instead of his personal leadership if he prefers. The winner of the auction seizes the card and property.
    6. Rebellion: Declarable by Governor of Sonora, Governor of Chihuahua or anyone who holds a Red Flag card.
    7. Official Actions:
      1. A president may appoint new governors
      2. All Presidents/Governors may nullify lawsuits and warrants, also pardon anyone in jail, and issue warrants for arrest of any white or red counter in his territory.
      3. Presidents may declare a Boycott against the following products from the other country. This means there is no investor's capital in the game and also has the effect of lowering the profits of the related enterprises by 1:
        1. copper (copper mines)
        2. gold/silver (gold/silver mines)
        3. beef (haciendas)
        4. lumber (lumber railroads)
        5. store goods (stores)
      4. A president may Declare War.
  10. Tactical Rounds.
    Skip during Winter turns. The player order is determined by counting cards on each player's calendar, mature and immature. Radio and Spy cards count 10. Highest is first, second highest second, etc. Roll dice if tied. The start player moves his counters, then has combat or other activities with any of these counters. Then the second most cards player moves, combats and has activities, etc. When all players have had a chance, one round is complete. Tactical rounds continue until 45 rounds have passed or an entire round passes with no player doing anything.
    1. Movement:
      During movement, all of the players counters may move, except that police, strikers and jailed/enslaved counters never move.
    2. Combat and Other Activities: Combat is always optional. A counter may only perform one combat activity per round, one of Combat, Night Raid, Taxation or Burning. Note that if counters perform one of the latter three activities in a police block, the police may take the chance to simultaneously counterattack.
      1. Combat:
      2. Night Raids (Robbery, Arrests, Rescue, Confiscations): All Night Raids succeed if a "1" or "2" is rolled on one die.
      3. Taxation:
      4. Burning:
      5. Recovery:
  11. Rebase, Refurbishment, Money Transfers, Enlistment, Game End Check.
    1. Rebase:
      1. Orange and blue counters are placed on a fort of HQ in the district of their choice in their home territory. Blue cavalry are permitted to split up to different locations.
      2. Hacendadoes move to the enterprise marker of their choice.
      3. Gold may now automatically be transferred between a player's enterprises. (Usually players will want to transfer all gold to the hacendado's location.)
    2. Refurbishment:
      1. Depleted troop counters may be restored to full strength by paying 1 gold.
      2. Depleted rifles, trucks, machine guns, artillery and aeroplanes are restored by paying 1 gold to a store owner.
      3. Eliminated troop counters from a card a player still holds are restored by paying 2 gold to the store if equipment or to the hospital if troops. The hospital owner is allowed to set the price at will.
      4. Burned bridges are repaired by paying 1 gold to a store owner. Store owners may not pay their own store.
      5. Burned towns are rebuilt by replacing the police counter and its rifle, i.e. 2 gold per counter. Burned cities and capital cost 8 gold total.
      6. Destroyed or depleted Gunboats may not be refurbished.
      7. A Store which was robbed of rifles must have 1 gold paid to refurbish it. If the robber was an Orange or Blue card, this is paid by the card or its hacendado to the store. If it was a red card, the store owner must pay the game.
      8. Any eliminated and discarded troop cards may be brought back free by their governor or president if this office is controlled. The governor/president must pay for the refurbishment of the counters however.
      9. Refusal to completely refurbish means that any other player may demand that the card is immediately auctioned. The purchasing player must still pay for the refurbishment. Hacendado governors/presidents are exempt however.
    3. Money Transfers to/from New York:
      1. A hacendado may transfer gold to or from New York for safekeeping by simply announcing the fact. This gold should be kept segregated from cash on hand.
      2. Cash in New York is unavailable until transferred back.
    4. Enlistment:
      1. Event cards E6, E9 and E19 are foreign wars. If a hacendado wants to fight in the war, the counter is removed from the map now and placed on the war card, which is placed on the calendar four quarters in the future.
      2. The hacendado may take his money with him. (It could also have been deposited in New York in the previous phase.)
      3. The hacendado may not bid on cards during this time.
      4. After four quarters, the hacendado returns by rolling a die. On a "1", that hacendado is killed. A killed player may leave the game and stand on his current score, in which case all of his W, C, R and RR cards put up for immediate auctions. Any gold earned from them is added to the player's final score. Blue and Orange cards are put in the common cards area.
      5. Alternatively, a killed player may return to the game as an heir, beginning with leadership 0, the family gold, C and RR cards. All other cards are discarded. IOU's are maintained.
      6. If the hacendado survives, he is placed on whichever one of his enterprises he prefers and his leadership is increased by 2.
    5. Ending the Game:
      1. Beginning with the first quarter of 1907, roll two dice at the end of every Rebase and Refurbishment Phase to see whether there has been a general revolution in Mexico.
      2. If any of the cards E1, E2, E4, E10 or E12 (they are labeled to indicate this) have appeared in the game, one is added to the roll for each.
      3. The game ends if the result is "13" or more.

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