Laughing at the Cold War ...
What's the best part about playing KREMLIN? Hard to
say...There's nothing quite like having the KGB chief purge half
of the Politburo, except maybe killing them by rolling low on
the health die. A trial that sends the Party Chief to Siberia
can give you a warm glow, too. It's all good.
KREMLIN is a tongue-in-cheek look at the old Soviet
Politburo. Each player controls a Communist party faction, and
has (secret) influence over 10 of the 26 current Politburo members
and up-and-coming politicians. Your goal is to get your people
into the office of Party Chief and keep them there long enough
to wave three times at the October Parade; failing this, you
must hold the top office when the curtain comes down at the end.
You will need to figure out which politicians your opponents
control and purge them when you can, play an Intrigue card or
two to protect your own people, let your opponents move your
secret supporters into position, and when all else fails, hope
for a handy epidemic to shake things up. This will require both
skill to get enough votes to win the Party Chief position and
luck on the purge and illness die rolls. However, your opponents
are all trying to do the same... and there's no guarantee that
the man you are guiding to the top is really under your control.
We will continue to have four heats to advance six players
to the Final, and will again use the Heats: Most Wins criterion.
This year I am adding a new GM tiebreaker in response to players
who, after winning the first game they played, felt that they
had to make a choice between playing again or a guaranteed advance
to the finals. Since the last thing I want is to discourage people
from playing the game, the new tiebreaker is:
Most heats played.
Since this GM tiebreaker takes precedence over the average
finish tiebreaker but still falls behind the five regarding number
of wins and number of heats played before a win, it should solve
the problem without affecting most players.
ADVANCEMENT TIE-BREAKERS: In Multiple Entry, Single
Elimination events for multi-player games, players possibly qualify
for Single Elimination play in the second round by winning any
of up to four preliminary Heats. Occasionally, players may advance
wihout winning a heat. Players can enter one or more Heats without
limit. All events for most multi-player games consist of three
rounds; an opening Round consisting of two to four Preliminary
Heats, a semi-final and a Final. The sem-ifinal round will advance
a predesignated optimum number of players to fill the second
round; i.e., 25 players for a five-player game, 16 players for
a four-player game, etc. but in all cases will advance no more
than half of all players which participated in the Preliminaries.
If insufficient players advance to warrant a semi-final round,
the scheduled semi-final will instead become the Final.
Heats: Most Wins (HMW) - Standard tiebreakers used
to trim the field or identify alternates to complete the field,
as listed below in the following order:
1. Most Wins (e.g., total in all heats entered);
2. Win in first Heat entered;
3. Win in second Heat entered;
4. Win in third Heat Entered;
5. Win in fourth Heat Entered;
6. GM specific tie-breaker, most heats played;
7. Average finish in all heats entered (e.g., a 2nd and two 3rds
= 2.67 and beats two 2nds and two 4ths = 3); and
8. High dice roll.
Kremlin has no rules for ranking players other than
the winner, but for the purposes of the average finish tiebreaker
in the Heats, I will assign ranks based on the number of successful
waves. In the Final round, the following chart will be used to
determine 2nd through 6th place.
Points are to be awarded to each player based on the following:
* Each successful wave: 4 points
* Each failed wave: 1 point
** if it would have been a 3rd wave: +1 point
* Each Parade Phase that your Party Chief is in the Cure: 1 point
If the game is not decided by waves:
* If at anytime on the last turn you control a Politician
that is:
** Party Chief: 10 points
** In the 1st level Politburo: 3 points each
Points are cumulative. In a Final decided on waves, ties will
be broken by counting the points for Politician control, or failing
that, randomly.
There will be a set of House Rules on the exact meanings of
the various intrigue cards. The GM will have several copies available
at the tournament, but anyone who is interested may request the
email of a .DOC file from the address below. In addition, the
following FAQ and errata will be in effect:
3/3.2 The Defense Minister may not call a Trial to
resolve a Spy Investigation against himself or investigate himself.
5. The Foreign Minister must (not may) nominate a Politician
from the 2nd Level if there are no other Politburo members on
the 1st level. A Foreign Minister in the Sanatorium can be nominated
to become the party chief. However, he will not become Party
Chief if two nominations fail ( it would be the nominating politician
).
D. Random Recipients - Delete the last sentence: "If
a random ... 1 to 6".
D. Q. If Intrigue card 17 results in a tie for most
influence on a politician, is it really fair to give control
to the player declaring first since the player with the card
has an advantage in knowing he should declare first? A. In a
case like this, resolve the matter by high dice roll as cited
in the rules for simultaneous declaration.
Declaring IP: IP declarations will be considered simultaneous
as long as there are no actions (die roll, a player adds influence,
another vote announced, etc.) taken in between. EXAMPLE: Green
starts Turn 4 in control of Industry Minister Nikotin with 4
IP. During a trial of the Defense Minister, Green directs Nikotin
to vote Guilty. Blue then declares 4 IP on Nikotin, but this
does not change control since Green placed the IP first. Blue
then declares 5 IP and changes Nikotin's vote to Not Guilty.
If, before the next politician votes, Green declares 5 IP on
Nikotin, this is considered a simultaneous declaration, and the
tie would be broken per the rules. Note that if a tie is broken
at a particular IP, it is too late for another player to tie
at that IP.
Cure Phase: A sick politician in his strength may be
sent to the Cure, even if he wouldn't age anyway.
Purge Phase: If two or more players attempt to play
1st Purge cards in the same turn, the player with the highest
die roll gets to play his card. Players must signify which 1st
Purge card they want to play, but do not have to show it face-up
until after the die roll.
Health Phase: Any flu cards must be played at the start
of this phase. In other words, the flu must affect all Politburo
members.
Replacement Phase: The Party Chief may perform any
side-to-side or up and down movement unless the rules state otherwise
(i.e., politicians may not move up or down more than one level
per sponsor).
Parade Phase: Attempting to wave is not optional.
Add Influence Phase: In order to prevent a number of
potential problems, you may not play Intrigue Cards, nor may
you declare already-recorded IP during this phase unless you
are declaring 10+ on a politician. In this phase, IP declarations
are sequential, not simultaneous.
HOW TO WIN:
1) The first player whose faction gets three waves at the October
Parade wins.
2) At the end of Phase 6 of any turn, if there are fewer than
eight Politburo members, the player controlling the highest active
Politburo member wins. (If this Politician is uncontrolled, no
player wins.)
3) At the end of the 5th phase of Turn 11, the player who controls
the Party Chief wins. (If the Party Chief is uncontrolled, no
player wins.)
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