Tesla vs Edison: War of Currents

BECOME THE GREATEST ELECTRICITY INVENTOR!

• 
  
• Control
  a famous inventor and other 19th century luminaries
• 
  
• Claim
  electric projects across the United States
• 
  
• Invent,
  commercialize, and patent key technologies
• 
  
• Wage
  a PR battle against your opponents
• 
  
• Buy
  and sell shares to manipulate a dynamic stock market
• 
  

FOR:

gamers who love any of science, business, or history and
want to make crunchy decisions but in a system that is easy-to-learn and
accessible to casual and serious gamers alike.

Tesla vs. Edison lovingly presents the War of Currents
theme. In running your electric company you are both a starry-eyed inventor and
a ruthless businessman. You feel pride in bringing electricity to the masses
and developing miraculous new technologies, even as you file patents, engage in
a propaganda war, and roll up your sleeves in the stock market. Balancing both
sides of an inventor’s enterprise is required to achieve your victory.

GAME PLAY:

You control a start-up company in the early days of the U.S.
electric industry. In the beginning you only have your lead inventor, some
shares of preferred stock, and some money. Over the course of the game you will
be hiring other famous technicians and business people to work for you. Each
luminary in the game has their own unique ratings, and the inventors also have
their own special abilities.

The actions that you allocate this team of exceptional
historical figures to take will determine the fate of your company. There are
four focuses in the game: claiming electric projects on the map, advancing up a
tech tree, investing in public relations to improve public opinion of your
company or the technologies it uses, and buying and selling stock on a dynamic
market. You will need to pay attention to all of them but can win the game by
specializing in just a specific one or two of your choice, or trying to build a
more balanced company. The path you take is up to you.

A game of Tesla vs. Edison takes six turns, broken into
three phases of two turns each. At the start of each phase you reveal
luminaries that will be available to be hired via an auction, along with the
propaganda opportunities that you will have for the phase ahead. After the
luminary auction is over the turn begins.

Proceeding in order from the most famous company to the
least, players choose one of their luminaries to take one of the four available
actions. This process continues until each player has exhausted all of their
luminaries and taken the corresponding actions. Each action takes less than a
minute. Then, at the end of the turn, profits are distributed to players based
on their current stock price. This will fluctuate during each turn and is
impacted at different times and in different ways by each of the four core
actions: claiming projects, discovering and, if available, patenting new
technologies, engaging in public relations, and buying and selling stock.

After the sixth turn is over the player with the most
valuable stock portfolio, including holdings in your and your opponent’s
companies, wins the game.

COMPONENTS:

• 
  
• 1
  board, depicting the United States, ca. 1890
• 
  
• 5
  inventors: Tesla, Edison, Brush, Maxim, Thomson
• 
  
• 35
  Stock certificates
• 
  
• 102
  Wooden markers in 6 colors
• 
  
• 36
  Luminary & Propaganda cards
• 
  
• 1.64
  Million dollars in luxurious bills
• 
  
• 12-page
  rule book
• 
  

Players: 2 - 5 from age 14

Playing Time: 90 minutes

BGG page: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/132544/tesla-vs-edison-war-currents