Board game Project Manhattan. Board game "Project Manhattan Project Manhattan game Desktop

The ambassador of the invention of nuclear weapons The world was on the verge of disaster. The superiority in the sphere of weapons is one of the countries automatically means the defeat of all others. The only way out in this situation is the rapid weapons of its own nuclear weapons and the destruction of the arms and infrastructure of the enemy. The arms race turns out to be the only means to preserve the world.

Your state and states of opponents turn out to be at the same conditions at the start of the nuclear weapons race. And then you will need not only all the strength and money, but the whole of your mind to correctly build a development strategy and defense in order to correctly solve the tactical tasks of providing weapons and intellectually. The game takes all your attention and captures you from the very first course.

Who is this game for?

The game "Project Manhattan" (The Manhattan Project) It has a medium level of complexity and is intended for children from 12 years and for adults of any age. It can be safely argued that it will be interesting for both adolescents and for those who have already consisted of people, both for workers and for academicians. As for the number of players, it can be from 2 to 5 people.

Purpose of the game

The goal of the game, as in most similar games - to score as many points as possible. In the Manhattan project, they can only be obtained for the quantity and quality of nuclear bombs. Bombs - the main and only goal of the game. Everything else is only entourage and the necessary related elements. You need to remember this by planning your strategy. At the same time, the better the bomb has been developed and the more tests, the more points it will bring. That's just every action on improving the nuclear arsenal takes time and resources.

Rules of the game

At your disposal will be a playing field on which your buildings and workers will be located. On the general field there will be 9 sites where you can place your scientists and workers, as well as plant your combat aviation there. And you will definitely need to take advantage of mines for the extraction of uranium ore, universities to provide production by qualified engineers, reactors and uranium enrichment factories. You will need plants that bring money and workers. And you still need aircraft. You ask, why do you need aircraft? They do not help create bombs. They will help you if your rival starts to overtake you. In this case, it is enough to apply a bomb blow by destroying its plants. As a result, it will spend time and resources to restore its power.

An important part of the game is unions. As a rule, these are short-term unions. For example, you want to stop a strong opponent. In this case, you can cooperate with other players and apply to him a joint blow, from which he will not be able to recover even until the end of the game. Collaborate, but remember that in this game, as in life, everything is observed only by our own interests and your yesterday's ally, without blinking the eye in 5 minutes will cause a bombing blow to your enterprises.

The game is well developing strategic thinking and ability, complex multifactor tasks.

Today's review is devoted to one of the new products from the publishing house "Magellan" - the Strategic Desktop game "Project Manhattan". She was developed in 2011 by American Brandon Tibbets. The game turned out to be quite successful and to date, withstand two publications only in their native language and acquired two additions.

The Russian version of the Novoye Bestseller released the company Magellan. In principle, the game for the most part is Little-Dependent, with the exception of few inscriptions on the playing field and the game rules.

The Code name "Project Manhattan" or "Manhattan Project" was named an American program for the development of nuclear weapons, which gave the name of this desktop game.

Each of the players should implement their nuclear program, gaining a certain number of points before rivals, which, with a different number of players (from two to five) differ. Glasses are given for the development, testing and loading on the bombers of atomic bombs.

With this means to achieve a lot of goals. From the creation of a military-industrial complex and effective personnel management to fragile industrial espionage and applying air strikes on opponents enterprises.

The first thing we see, opening the box with the game - the rules, the cover of which is stylized under the first bandwidth of the newspaper dated August 12, 1945, reporting on the beginning of the nuclear race. Rules are printed on good glossy paper and generously equipped with colored illustrations.

And finally, we got to the cards. They are two species: maps of buildings and bombs.


The building map contains an artistic image and a building name. At the very top, the type and number of workers necessary to activate the effect of the enterprise are indicated. In the lower part, the effect is displayed using it when it is activated.

Among the enterprises there are mines, which produces Keks, factory, which makes profit in the form of aviation and money, universities in which specialists are trained, as well as processing plants and reactors producing raw materials for nuclear weapons.


Maps Bombs contain an image and the name of each particular bomb, the number and category of personnel and the resources necessary for its construction, the cost of bringing the bomb in combat readiness and, of course, the number of points awarded for its creation. At the same time, plutonium bombs have two indicators: before testing and after them.

Personal playing field player is divided into two parts, one of which occupies an aviation scale, which I have already mentioned above.


The second part is placed at ten rectangles, to which the player puts the card built by the buildings. Buildings can be more than ten. In this case, the cards simply laid out next to the field.

The overall game field is a more busy thing. His upper part presents the construction market, which in the open posts of buildings that can be built. Please note that there is no cost of building on the maps. It is indicated on the game field above each of the sections of the building market, and the cheapest building is located on the left, and expensive on the right.


When buying a player removes a map of the building from the field and puts it on its personal field, and the maps of all buildings on the market, reaching after purchased, shifted to the left. This leads to the fact that any real estate must benefit with time. So the players often have dilemmas, wait until the "tasty" building falls in the price or buy it for a high price until competitors have intercepted it.

By the way, the moment of initial deployment of cards in the rules is described in a curved, due to which it can be concluded that only a card placed on the field worth twenty dollars is laid out. Nevertheless, the face is put on all the cards, as unambiguously referred to in the original English-language rules.

The left of the construction market is drawn as an ashtray, in which, from a common warehouse in some play situations, bribes are put in the amount of one dollar. The accumulated money receives a player who buys the cheapest venture on the playing field, after which the ashtray is filled again.

Under the buildings under construction, there are fields "Stroyak", "Aviam", "Repair", "Plants", "Rudniks", "Universities", "Bomb Development" and "Reactor and the Processing Plant". For each of these fields, you can post your workers and get some advantages for it, by analogy with enterprises on your personal playing field. But first, only one worker can be put on a common field into its common field, while on your field they can be installed as much as possible, if only there were free working and places for from the installation. Secondly, for the installation of an employee, the field often has to be paid to either money or a kekk.


The left part of the field is the scale of spying. Here you can hire spies, which allows you to post your employees at the enemy enterprises and use the products manufactured. As experience shows, you should not ignore this opportunity, since a player with a developed spy network can be done well, even with the minimum number of own enterprises, throwing its agents how to crush in other people's nests.

In addition, if it comes to the air strike, some enterprises can be paralyzed (the building cannot function if he has at least one damage), while its enterprises with your spies inside the enemy will not attack.

As you can see, if you look at the root, the whole game is reduced to competent personnel management, which you need to place on the right places in time. In this way, we produce resources and strengthen the defense, since the rules "Want to Peace are to get ready for war" yet no one has canceled. Even if you yourself do not plan to attack anyone, you still have to develop your Air Forces hard to develop, because otherwise the enemy will attack you.

Well, of course, along with all this, it is necessary to produce raw materials for bombs and kilga themselves, otherwise you will not be able to defeat the chance. The number of rich uranium and plutonium is marked on the scale located on the right side of the common field.

Excellent impressions. Most often we play this game in four or in the fisty, which and you wish.

Together, in my opinion, it is not particularly interesting to play. A direct confrontation of two players is a duel nature, where everything often solves the power of weapons and an open conflict is usually not possible to avoid, since the player who built more fighters is usually obligatory to apply them, since it is the most obvious and simple opportunity to put pressure on the opponent.

Meanwhile, the accession of the third party contributes to the game of substantial adjustments, since the players weak in the war can enter into a military union and from the soul to felted well-fragrant, but a gloomy comrade.

But the most fully, all the nuances of the game are revealed precisely at four or five participants, when the applicants for each place of the common field becomes more and have to think very well, what sector to occupy.

The desktop game "Project Manhattan" is replete with so many opportunities and has such a depth that lovers of good resource strategies simply must try it. I am very glad that she appeared in my collection and probably I will play it more than once.

Thanks to the Stavropol store "Mosigra" for the set for review.

Board game "Project Manhattan" gives you the opportunity to experience power and power to every person. It will imagine that you have a huge territory, local economy, factories and workers. Immediately feel tremendous power. The principle of strategy is built on the development of its own nuclear power. Such a delicate topic is gaining increasing popularity in our world, but do not forget that this is just a game.

It will become an excellent birthday gift, Defender Day of the Fatherland or New Year.

Difficulty level: Above average

Number of players: 2-5

Develops skills: Sophistication, communicability, budget planning

Overview of the desktop game Project Manhattan

Project Manhattan - New Masterpiece Brandon Tibetsa, a rather complicated board game, can participate in it 2-5 Players. Recommended age players - more than 12 years, not every adult dared to manage nuclear weapons. Typically, the party lasts about two hours, but newcomers will need more time to understand all the rules and subtleties. You can win, typing as much of the victory points and destroying the enemy country.

Your aim

The victory comes to one of the players, but it must be remembered that for each number of participants there are certain conditions specified at the beginning of the game:

  • 2 players - 70 points
  • 3 players - 60 points
  • 4 players - 50 points
  • 5 players - 45 points

You have to participate in the development of nuclear weapons and creating an atomic bomb. One way to win - espionage. Observation of enemies by exhibiting spies on its field. You give one chance, use it correctly when choosing a strategy and tactics.

In the economic game, the project Manhattan has 50 buildings cards, you can be removed, enemy destroy. To create new buildings, you need to move a certain number of workers in the cell " Construction" Then you choose from the seven available buildings, which you want to build, cheap are built for free, for expensive worth sending one coin to the category " Bribes».

Project Manhattan - European-type strategic board game created in 2012 by Brandon Tibbets (MINION GAMES). Devoted to the history of the creation of a nuclear bomb (see Manhattan project About the historical project). This game can play from 2 to 5 people. Players, conventionally speaking for different countries, create nuclear bombs to preserve the nuclear balance in the world. Their task is the competent management of the resources of different types in order to recruit the required number of victorious glasses, building and immersing some nuclear bombs on the bombarders. The player defeats the player who has accumulated a greater nuclear potential by the end of the game.

The publication of the game was partially funded through the Kickstarter crowdsourcing platform. Before starting the collection of funds to Kickstarter, the author for 4 months has been intensively worked out the balance using a virtual platform for creating Zuntzu board games. After creating a prototype of a year and a half left for testing and running, and only after that was Kickstarter, 3 editions of the English version, as well as the publication of this game in Russian, Hungarian, French and German. The illustrations for this board game made an artist from Spain Sergi Marcet Rovira, who also previously made the desktop games Dungeon Run, Target Earth and Stalag 17.

In August 2014, digital versions of the board game "Project Manhattan" for Android and for iOS appeared. In electronic versions of this game, there is a single mode against artificial intelligence, as well as multiplayer mode (after a single device or over the network). The cost of the game "The Manhattan Project" is about 7 US dollars.

Game mechanics

The main resource in the game - working 3 types: chernobyvy, engineers and scientists. In addition, workers are divided into permanent (4 laborers, scientists and engineers for each player, color corresponds to the color of the selected tablet) and contractors (4 scientists, 4 engineers and 4 blue-workers gray).

The whole game for each of the players is built on the placement of workers and return to their warehouse (and contractors - on the overall warehouse). During his stroke, the player or places the workers on the game field and on its tablet, or withdraws at once all his workers on the warehouse (while the contractors from the game field, the tablet of this player, as well as contractors with mixed combinations of workers who have used the player for espionage on other people's tablets, returned to the overall warehouse).

The initial placement of workers on the playing field is made at the request of the players, while they are engaged in any of the cells free on the field (an arbitrary number of workers are placed in the construction site), then in free buildings on the player's tablet. For the course of the player can take only one (free) cell on the playing field, and only after that you can take free buildings on the tablet, not exceeding the number of workers.

When the worker is placed on the game field, one of the cells free from other workers is selected, the requirements required for activation them are specified on some cells (a certain type of worker, availability yellow Keka or money).

For each cell, one of the following options is available:

When working with a tablet on each map of the building from above, the appropriate type of work (question mark is suitable for working any type) and the number of workers that are necessary to activate the building and one-time receipt of "income" from the building, which is indicated by the bottom of the card. Reactors and processor plants, in addition to the placement of one and several scientists, to withdraw "income" in the form of uranium or plutonium, also require the cost of yellow cake or uranium (for reactors) or the cost of money and yellow cake (for processing plants).

The resource, with the introduction of workers in the building, it turns out instantly and one. In order to re-remove the "income" from the same building, the player will need to then withdraw the workers (the move is lost) and place them once again in this building.

For some buildings, two alternative types of resources are marked, which are required to use the building (if more specifically, 4 plutonium reactors, where 2 types of alternative fuel are available - yellow kope and uranium, the options are separated by "slash"). Also in the game there are 3 universities and 4 factories from which you can get 2 options for "income" at the output.

Resources in the game

In the Desktop game "Project Manhattan" part of the resources is not limited to a package of the game. When the chips of such resources end in a common warehouse, we can report other items there, for example, chips from another game or matches, and they will play the role of the same resource. Endless resources include cubes of yellow cakes, coins, damage markers and loading markers bombs.

The number of buildings in the game is limited, all of their 50 (10 factories, 10 universities, 10 mines, 10 reactors and 10 processing plants), also worth noting that 6 of these buildings (which differ in red shirts) are laid out in the construction queue first.

The number of drawings of the bombs is also limited - 15 uranium and 15 plutonium. 5 pieces of the test explosion for plutonium bombs just corresponds to the maximum number of players (in case each of the players will develop into plutonium bombs or bombs of two types).

Spying is limited to the maximum level of 6, the free units of nuclear fuel (uranium or plutonium) in the players can not be greater than 8, and military airfields are at the same time no longer than 10 aircraft of each type.

One of the most important resources of the game is people. The player may have no more than 12 (4 each type). The total number of contractors is also 12, but for them constantly there is a struggle between players (rarely, when all contractors are on hand in one person).

Human resources:

  • Black worker Can produce resources from most cells of the playing field, as well as with a large number of buildings built on tablets (by the way, the number of buildings built is not limited to the player's tablet cells). What a chernobody cannot, so it is to produce uranium and plutonium, as well as use advanced universities, factories and mines.
  • Scientists - Can all the same as a chernobody, plus to this, they are involved in uranium and plutonium mining (at reactors and processable plants, as well as on the game field), and also participate in the development and construction of bombs.
  • Engineers Also able to solve the tasks of chern workers, but, in addition, they still know how to build any of the two cheapest buildings for free, to produce money and aircraft on advanced factories, to extract more yellow brackets on advanced mines, as well as train people in several advanced universities. Engineers, together with scientists, participate in the development and construction of bombs, however, uranium and plutonium they cannot be extracted.

Other resources in the game:

Building and loading bombs

The game has 30 drawings of bombs - 15 plutonium, 15 uranium. On each map of the bomb, the number of uranium or plutonium units needed to build a bomb (depends on the type of bomb), the cost of loading bombs on a bomber (except for money is also needed 1 bomber, loading gives +5 winning glasses), as well as the number of victory points (for plutonium Bombs 2 digits, first - glasses to test, second - after).

The number of points you want to dial for victory is determined by the number of players: 2 players - 70 points, 3 players - 60 points, 4 players - 50 points, 5 players - 45 points.

When building a bomb, the working player in the required quantity is placed on the drawing of the bomb, then the player reduces the amount of its uranium or plutonium to the number that is indicated on the bomb. With the subsequent withdrawal of the workers of this player, workers from bombs return to the player's warehouse, similar to how they return from ordinary buildings.

On plutonium bombs, two numbers of victorious glasses are displayed below. Points are considered on the second (greater) number of all plutonium bombs built by a player in case the player has already experienced a plutonium bomb, sacrificing her.

You can experience any plutonium bomb that a player built before that. If there were workers on the bomb, they move to the test explosion chip so that during the next output of the workers again return to the player's warehouse. A donated bomb goes down the stacks of bombs (face down).

Extra glasses can be earned by immersing one or more bombs on the bombers (also during their turn). For loading one bomb required money (in the amount specified in the bomb drawing), as well as 1 bomber on your tablet.

Supplement: "The Manhattan Project: Nations Expansion"

In March 2012, a small addition to the game was published, which was called "Nations Expansion". This supplement included 7 cards corresponding to different countries (in this complement, UK cards, China, France, Germany, Japan, Soviet Union and the USA are available. Each player chooses a country for which will play. Each cards of this supplement acts in the same way as the buildings that players build on the tablet in the basic version of the game. However, these cards, unlike ordinary buildings, are active immediately after the start of the game and possess immunity to the air strike and espionage.
Each country map gives its own unique resource at the output when placing workers.

Supplement: "The Manhattan Project: Second Stage"

In 2012, the Kickstarter crowdsourcing platform was announced a collection of funds for a comprehensive addition to the game. Harvesting funds successfully ended on September 1, 2012, and in 2013, an addition to the game was released - The Manhattan Project: Second Stage. In addition, 4 small expansions were included, which can be added to the main game, both individually and in different combinations:

In Russian, at the beginning of 2017, this supplement was not yet localized.