The Manhattan Project Board Game - Strategic Nuclear Warfare Simulation for Adults & Teens - Perfect for Game Nights, Parties & Family Gatherings

The theme of The Manhattan Project should be obvious to most: you're tasked with building bombs, which gain you victory points toward the end of the game. Throughout, you'll be hiring/training new workers to be placed on various buildings (even opponent's buildings if you invest in the espionage track) which has a dual purpose. Each turn is basically broken down into two main actions: either you place worker(s), or you retrieve all your workers. By placing workers on specific buildings around the board, you get the product of that slot, whether that's training a specialty worker like a scientist or engineer, or receiving the various resources you need throughout the game. These resources range from planes/bombers, yellowcake (concentrated uranium powder), coins, enriched uranium, plutonium.. well, you get the idea. There's a lot going on here, but the board does a FANTASTIC job of visually representing everything in a very simple and easy to understand manner. Each slot shows what is needed to be put there at the top and what you get out of that action at the bottom. Simple.Earlier, I mentioned the dual purpose to placing workers.. You see, there's a catch to the placement: only one worker can go in each slot (with two exceptions, the construction action slot, in which any number can go thereby allowing you to purchase new buildings for yourself, and the design bomb action, which requires you to specifically put BOTH a scientist and an engineer on that slot during that one turn). Since only one worker can go in each slot, when you place a worker on a slot that, say, requires one of any type worker, but it then spits out an engineer for you, as long as you keep your worker there on that slot, nobody else can use it to get themselves an engineer. There's a lot of maneuvering and passive aggressive tactics in this game - it's awesome :p But what's to keep some jerk from holding all the good slots, you ask? Since you either have to place workers or retrieve workers each turn, eventually that jerk is going to run out of workers to place, whereas he will then HAVE to retrieve all his workers, opening up the spaces again. This adds an interesting layer of strategy in the timing of pulling your workers back, particularly since it returns all contractors to the general supply where you trained/hired them from.. but I won't get into that. Check out a review online!The game itself plays rather fast and loose coming out of the gates, with a lot of actions taking very little time to decide where to place or when to retrieve workers. But, as more buildings become purchased and each player's strategy starts to adapt to what they have available, the turns take longer and longer. Eventually, people start making Uranium and Plutonium, which, once they do (especially if you haven't been paying attention to other players' ramping up of infrastructure) it becomes a mad scramble to hinder the others' production while defending and creating your own bombs to score points. I haven't played a 4-5 player game yet, but in my mind, since the required victory points to win gets lowered as the player count increases, the middle of the game could change dramatically with a lot less reactionary actions needed, but instead requiring you to anticipate and block their moves before they amass all the materials needed.One thing to note is while the components ARE of a high quality - from the art-work right down to the rubbery enamel feel of the worker tokens; it's all really fantastic - though the cards are extremely small which make it pretty annoying to shuffle. This doesn't hinder the game much outside of the initial set up, of course, but it's something I should point out.My purchase didn't go without a hitch, however. What I received in my box wasn't a complete set of cards! Somehow, I received two packs of the same set of cards, when I should have gotten two different packs, giving me two of the same half of all the cards. In other words, I have double the amount of bomb cards I'm supposed to and a tiny fraction of the building cards. Gah! So, I haven't even been able to play my copy yet - lame! I've written Minion Games and have yet to hear back, but I will update this review when I know more about their policy and customer service.-First Update-Having contacted Minion Games around the 11th of December, I heard back a few days later, asking my address to send out replacement cards "right away." It took about a full business week to receive the cards, but brand-new and sealed cards were shipped first-class and sent right to my house. Can't complain about that customer service!First off, if you are a euro gamer, the game is incredibly simple to play and learn, but you need to read through the instructions thoroughly. They are clearly written compared to some euro game rules. It is a worker placement game similar to Stone Age or Tzolkin. The object is to build bombs to earn points. Building bombs requires earning different fission materials and these can be obtained my using your workers to gain education, money, and "yellow cake" to increase your stock of Uranium and Plutonium. Plutonium bombs are harder to build but potentially have a much higher payoff. The game can get interesting because there are limited spots on the game board to place your workers, so you will need to adapt quickly to changing resources. An interesting twist is also the ability to screw with the other players through espionage and bomber actions. The game moves pretty slow at first but really pics up once you have developed your country's capabilities. Board actions are limited to one per turn, but personal actions are only limited by worker availability. Once a player has crossed the point threshold for victory the game is over, so there really is a bit of an arms race. ;-) The game will make a great addition to your collection, I feel like its has great replay ability. I feel like it is more fun with 4 people but works with 2-5.This is a worker placement game that focuses on the development of resource generators like buildings and specialized workers to build bombs. There are two aggressive options: You can perform espionage to use another players buildings and you can damage them with bombers. Except for the revealing of bomb plans and buildings there is almost no randomness in this game. Manhattan Project is a very euro game but it doesn't have that passive aggressive feel. You really feel the pressure of your opponents air power and the race for the first test. Mechanically this is a very simple game. Strategically it is full of options. Even though the goals for winning the game are clear your path is ever changing. Minion Games have a real winner here. The game will last 2 to 3 hours and you will be glued to your seat. Victories can be spontaneous but like a good mystery you feel you should have seen it coming. There is a very inexpensive expansion called Nations that I recommend. It is EZ to add in and gives each player some character by giving them an edge in a section of the game. The components are very good and some of the atomic era humor hit home. Buy it.I purchased this for a friend of mine whose family loves board games. They have most of the popular board games such as Pandemic, Monopoly, Ticket to Ride. I saw this game online described as a worker placement game - a term that I was unfamiliar with. However, I purchased the game as it's theme seemed to fit my friend's interests. The game's directions are rather involved but once you get the hang of using the game piece (workers) instead of dice, it's a lot of fun. Plus there is enough variations to the game that makes it challenging and different each time it is played. I thought it might be a little too advanced for my friend's children who are 14 and 12 but they caught on to it relatively quickly and enjoyed it too. Even though I'm not much of a game player myself, I'm looking forward to our next game night with the Manhattan Project.Love this game. Each time I play it I find a new way of working towards winning (mainly by losing but hey ho) it's a simple mechanic but so elegantly done, place your available workers on the board and pull them back when you need to to gain the things they have made. There is making bombs, spying, Bombing (sort of) training geeks and no nuclear waste. What more could you want. Buy it.