The Manhattan Project 2: Minutes to Midnight

20 years after the end of The Manhattan Project, the superpowers of the world are embroiled in another vicious arms race. Manufacturing nukes is no longer an obstacle; all nations are now capable of churning them out at a rapid pace. The challenge of this era lies in the development of various delivery systems called the “Nuclear Triad:” strategic bombers, ballistic subs, and land-based ballistic missiles. Each player represents one of the superpowers in the arms race. At staged intervals, scoring is conducted in one of 4 categories:

  • Strategic Bombers
  • Ballistic Submarines
  • ICBMs
  • Short-range missiles deployed to third world nations

In addition to earning points for deploying nukes during the scoring rounds, players can also earn defensive bonuses for mitigating the risks imposed against them. The game ends after all of the scoring events have been completed. The player with the most points is the winner. To help along the way, you will recruit 4 different kinds of workers:

  • Laborers, which operate your buildings
  • Spies, which operate your opponents’ buildings for your gain
  • Politicians, which produce tax revenue and gain control over third world nations
  • Generals, which deploy your bombers, subs, and overseas missiles

You will also construct and operate 6 different kinds of buildings:

  • Factories, which produce submarines and aircraft
  • Research Facilities, which allow you to improve your position in 5 different technology tracks
  • Reactors, which produce nukes
  • Silos, which are armed with ICBMs
  • Test Sites, which allow you to detonate nukes in your own territory for points
  • ABM Launchers, which earn defensive bonuses against various threats

Minutes to Midnight is a standalone game. It is part of The Manhattan Project line from Minion Games.

Sub Terra

A 1-6 player cooperative game of terrifying cave escape. Players take the role of amateur cavers attempting to escape an unexplored network of subterranean tunnels, before the lights flicker out or the darker things beneath the Earth catch up to them…

In Sub Terra players spend their turn exploring and revealing the tunnel system around them, attempting to survive the various perils of the cave, from floods and cave ins to gas leaks and scree. Players each have a role which gives them specialist abilities, such as an Engineer with dynamite to blast a new route or a Scout to find a route more easily. New tiles are placed from a randomized stack of cave features, which determines whether you’ll be hit with a dead end or a range of new options. At the end of each turn, players face the reality of their situation, with a hazard card drawn to determine what danger causes them damage or cuts off their way out of the horror below. These cards are finite, and when they run out, your torches flicker and the air feels tight, and your chance of survival diminishes quickly.

Pelican Bay

Welcome to Pelican Bay, an exotic island world grows turn by turn under the warm sun – with water, beaches and tropical forests. By placing tiles players enlarge the exotic paradise step by step. Whoever enlarges areas skillfully and is able to close as many areas as possible to attract blue pelicans has the best chances of winning. But watch out for sun discs, which offer interesting blocking possibilities.

Cockroach Poker Royal

As in its parent game Cockroach Poker, Cockroach Poker Royal has nothing to do with poker – except that the game is all about bluffing, but with cards showing cockroaches, rats and stink bugs instead of queens, 10s and aces. To set up the game, shuffle the deck and deal the cards out to players. On a turn, a player takes one card from his hand, lays it face down on the table, slides it to a player of his choice, and declares a type of critter, e.g., “Stink bug”. The player receiving the card either:

  • Accepts the card, says either “true” or “false”, then reveals the card. If this player is wrong in her claim, she keeps the card on the table in front of her face up; if she is right, the player who gave her the card places it face up before him.
  • Passes the card to another player, peeking at it first, then keeping it face-down and either saying the original type of critter or saying a new type. This new player again has the choice of accepting the card or passing it, unless the card has already been seen by all other players in which case the player must accept it and make a true/false claim.

The game ends when a player has no cards to pass on his turn or when a player has four cards of the same critter on the table in front of him. In either case, this player loses and everyone else wins.

To this, Cockroach Poker Royal adds new rules and new nasty “royal” critters to create more options for players during the game.