Junta: Las Cartas
Junta: Las Cartas Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Game Idea
The card game of power, intrigue, money and revolution for 3-6 players, ages 12 and up.
Components
120 cards, including:
- 57 Political cards (29 yellow Influence cards, 8 red Building cards, and 20 blue Intervention cards)
- 43 Money cards worth 1-4 Million Pesos (18x 1 Million, 13x 2 Million, 11x 3 Million, 1x 4 Million — these are the Victory Point cards of the game)
- 1 "President" card (double-sided)
- 1 "First Rebel" card (double-sided)
- 6 Rebellion cards in 6 different colors
- 6 Middleman cards (double-sided)
- 6 Overview cards
Game Objective
You are members of the eponymous Junta of the "República de las Bananas". The government is supported by a global superpower that asks no questions and delivers large checks of foreign aid money each round. The player who most efficiently fills up his pockets with that money, i.e. who deposits the most in his Swiss bank account, wins the game. In the meantime, you are plotting against each other, buying votes, hiring assassins, blowing up buildings—and, from time to time, starting a coup against the current President to hopefully become the new President.
Setup
Shuffle the Political cards. Then deal each player:
- 4 Political cards, putting them into your hand, hidden from the other players;
- 1 Rebellion card and 1 Middleman card of the same color, putting the Rebellion card into your hand, hidden from the other players, and placing the Middleman card face up in front of you;
- 1 Money card worth 1 Million Pesos, placing it face down (with the suitcase facing up) and sideways on top of your Middleman card;
- 1 Overview card.
Now shuffle the remaining Money cards. Place the remaining Political and Money cards as separate draw piles face down in the middle of the table, so that all players can easily access them. Leave some space for the (face-up) discard piles.
Then determine the first President: on the count of three, each player points at another player (or himself) to vote for that player. The player with the most votes becomes the first President.
Alternative Voting Procedure: If the above method does not succeed, you can repeat it over and over again until it does. Alternatively, you can determine the first President randomly by using the differently colored Middleman cards.
The newly elected President receives the President card and places it in front of him, sliding his Rebellion card beneath it.
The Middleman
Each player receives 1 Middleman card, placing Money cards on top and below it as the game progresses. Money cards below your Middleman are considered deposited in your Swiss Bank Account and are thus safe. Money cards on top of your Middleman are considered still "in the country" and can be taken away from you (unsafe).
Game Overview
Each round can have up to 5 phases, which are played in the following order:
- Receiving Foreign Aid Money
- Proposing a Budget
- Voting on the Budget (Playing and Drawing Political Cards)
- Coup (only if the Budget has been defeated that round)
- Drawing Political Cards
There are 3 acting factions in Junta: Las Cartas, each represented by a distinct symbol. Texts on cards and in this rule book that refer to only one of these factions are marked with the respective symbol. The symbols are:
- President
- First Rebel
- Non-President
There are 3 types of Political cards:
Influence Cards (Yellow)
Influence cards feature a number of votes and a battle value. Some of them also feature an action (see their card texts) that usually takes effect in phase 3.
When you play an Influence card, place it in front of you and immediately decide whether you vote for or against the current Budget: to vote for the Budget, place the card upright; to vote against the Budget, place the card sideways. (The battle value does not matter in phase 3.)
After that, you may take the action of the Influence card in full, but you do not have to. If you do not take the action now, you cannot take it later.
At the end of phase 3, take any Influence cards in front of you back into your hand.
Building Cards (Red)
Building cards stay in play permanently and keep their effects even in subsequent rounds, as long as they are in front of you. If a Building card you played face-up has an action, you can use that action each round. Building cards can be removed from play by other Political cards.
Building cards with a number of votes: as with Influence cards, you have to decide whether the votes count for or against the Budget. You may make this decision anew every round. You do so the first time it is your turn in phase 3. (The battle value does not matter in phase 3.)
Intervention Cards (Blue)
Each Intervention card provides a one-time action (see card text) that you must carry out immediately.
Intervention cards with a number of votes: as with Influence cards, you must decide whether the votes count for or against the Budget.
If you play an Intervention card, place it in front of you. At the end of phase 3, place any Intervention cards you have in play on the discard pile.
Golden rule: if a card text contradicts any rules in the rule book, the card text takes precedence.
Phase 1: Receiving Foreign Aid Money
The President draws a number of Money cards from the Money draw pile equal to the number of players plus 1. Only the President may look at the drawn cards.
Phase 2: Proposing a Budget
The President uses these Money cards to propose a Budget for the current round. This Budget will be voted on in phase 3.
The President declares to the other members of the Junta, i.e. the other players, how he intends to distribute the Foreign Aid Money among them by forming face-down stacks of money and announcing how much money is in the stack and which player the stack is for. He then hands out the stacks to the respective players who may look at their stacks. (They will only get to keep this money if the President remains in office at the end of phase 3.)
Important: Of course, you may assign a stack to yourself.
You may lie about the amount of money in each stack. (You are even supposed to; this is a key element of Junta: Las Cartas!) You may announce less, but not more money than you drew from the Money pile that round. You do not have to assign money to all or even any other player. If you like making enemies …
You may not make change: if you want to but physically cannot assign a lower amount, you have to assign a higher one. If there is not enough money in the Budget to do so, you will have to add money from your Middleman or your Swiss Bank Account.
Now each player who received a stack puts that stack aside (not on his Middleman, at least not yet). You may look at your stack at any time.
As the President, you may look at all stacks you handed out that round, as long as they are not on the other players' Middleman cards.
Phase 3: Voting on the Budget (Playing and Drawing Political Cards)
In this phase, you may play Political cards to vote on the current Budget and to gain advantages. Each player receives 2 turns in which they may play or draw a Political card.
Playing and Drawing Political Cards
Beginning with the President and in clockwise order, each player may play 1 Political card (i.e. an Influence, Building, or Intervention card) from his hand face up in front of him. If you cannot or do not want to play a card instead, draw 1 Political card from the draw pile and put it into your hand.
Beginning with the President again, but this time in counter-clockwise order, each player may play another one Political card from his hand face up in front of him. (The previously played card remains in play until the end of that phase.) If you cannot or do not want to play a card instead, draw 1 Political card from the draw pile.
If you want to, you may play one Political card in favor of the Budget and the other against it.
Bribing: as the President, you may bribe the other players during this phase by giving them more money.
- You may use Money cards that you assigned to yourself in phase 2;
- you may not take Money cards back that you already assigned to other players, but
- you can admit that the Budget was bigger than initially declared. ("I must have miscounted …")
So to bribe another player, take Money cards from your stack and place them on the bribed player's stack.
Counting Votes
After that, count how many votes are in favor and how many are against the Budget (i.e. total the number of votes on upright and sideways cards, respectively):
- Majority for the Budget or tied: the Budget is approved.
- Majority against the Budget: the Budget is defeated.
Budget Approved
If the Budget is approved, each player performs the following steps in that order:
a) The Middlemen are making deposits: move the Money cards on top of your Middleman card below it. b) Then place your stack of Budget money on top of your Middleman. c) The current President stays in office and will be President next round. Skip phase 4 and proceed with phase 5.
Budget Defeated
There is a Coup. Proceed with phase 4.
End of Phase
Regardless of whether or not there is a Coup, take the Influence cards you played back into your hands and discard any Intervention cards you played. Building cards remain in play.
Phase 4: Coup
If the Budget is defeated, there is a Coup.
First Rebel
The player with the most votes against the Budget becomes First Rebel. (In 3-player games, there is no First Rebel—see the 3-Player Game section below.) In case of a tie, the player closest to the President in clockwise order among the tied players becomes First Rebel.
As First Rebel, place your Rebellion card from your hand face up in front of you. Then take the First Rebel card and place it on top of your Rebellion card—you are challenging the current President. You will not receive any money from the President: return the stack of Money cards you received that round to the President.
As the President, you can redistribute the returned money among the other players to gain allies for the impending battle.
The Battle
Choosing Sides:
- The President must always take the President's side.
- The First Rebel must always take the Rebels' side.
- Each other player must decide whether he wants to join the President or the Rebels. Your decision does not depend on whether you voted for or against the Budget.
Fighting against the President: place your Rebellion card face down in front of you together with any Political cards that you want to play in favor of the Coup (see below). You are fighting on the Rebels' side.
Fighting for the President: keep your Rebellion card in hand. You are fighting on the President's side.
Beginning with the First Rebel and in clockwise order, play any number of cards from your hand face down in front of you. The number of cards you play must be visible to all players. These cards contribute to the Coup. You cannot play more cards later, e.g. to react to another player. Not playing any cards means you join the President's side. If you only play your Rebellion card, you become a Rebel, but you do not contribute to the battle.
Building and Intervention cards played in this phase do not matter. (Votes do not matter either.) You can still play them as a bluff though! Card texts (actions) also do not matter during this phase.
The only exceptions are the Martyrs and Marxists Influence cards: their actions can only be played during a Coup. (See their card texts.)
Totaling the Battle Values
Once all players have had a chance to play cards, turn the played cards face up simultaneously. Then determine the total battle values for and against the President:
Total the battle values of the played Influence cards as well as any Building cards that have been in play prior to the Coup.
In case of a tie, the President and his Loyalists win.
President Wins
Life is about being on the winning side! The same is true for Junta: Las Cartas: all Rebels are punished severely by losing all their Money cards on top of their Middlemen. Place these cards face up on the discard pile. Conversely, the President and his Loyalists may deposit their money: the President and each loyal player may move the cards on top of his Middleman card below it. Also, Rebels will not receive any Budget money: first, the President and his Loyalists may place their Budget stacks on top of their Middlemen. Then each Rebel must return his Budget stack to the President.
Beginning with yourself and in clockwise order, give each Loyalist a random hidden Money card from those returned by the Rebels until you run out of those Money cards.
Immediately place these Money cards on top of your Middlemen. The Rebels must take their Rebellion cards back into their hands. Then discard all the cards played during this Coup (including the useless ones).
The Martyrs Influence card allows you to take Influence cards played during a Coup back into your hand.
Rebels Win
The President and his Loyalists are punished severely by losing all their Money cards on top of their Middlemen. Place these cards face up on the discard pile. Conversely, each Rebel may deposit his money by moving the Money cards on top of his Middleman card below it.
As the First Rebel, take all stacks of Money cards from the current Budget, including those from your fellow Rebels, and redistribute the Budget: beginning with yourself and in clockwise order, give each Rebel a random hidden Money card until you run out of Money cards. The President and his Loyalists do not receive any money.
Immediately place these Money cards on top of your Middlemen. The First Rebel becomes new President, placing the President card on top of his Rebellion card. The other Rebels must return their Rebellion cards to their hands. (The old President who just lost his office must also take his Rebellion card back into his hand.) Then discard all the cards played during this Coup (including the useless ones).
The Martyrs Influence card allows you to take Influence cards played during a Coup back into your hand.
Phase 5: Drawing Political Cards
Beginning with the President and in clockwise order, each player with less than 6 cards in his hand (including the Rebellion card) must draw 2 Political cards from the draw pile, putting them into his hand.
The President is the only player who does not have his Rebellion card in hand; consequently, he may be drawing cards more frequently.
Game End
The game ends immediately when the President cannot draw enough cards for the Budget during phase 1. When that happens, each player must total his Money cards below and on top of his Middleman to determine his score.
The player with the most money wins. In case of a tie, the number of Money cards breaks the tie. If still tied, play again to determine the winner!
3-Player Game
In 3-player games, there is no First Rebel when the Budget is defeated. (So it is possible that actually all players in the Coup will fight for the President.) If the Coup succeeds, the Rebel player who contributed the highest total battle value against the President redistributes the Budget money (beginning with himself) and becomes new President. In case of a tie, the old President decides which player that is.
Details on Some Cards
- The UN Condemns Torture of Prisoners of Conscience / Vote of No Confidence: If the President plays this card, he immediately transfers his office to a player of his choice who cannot decline. The new President does not draw a new Budget. He must continue where the old President left off, but he may redistribute the Budget. If a non-President player plays this card, immediately proceed with phase 4 (Coup) with that player becoming First Rebel.
- Police Precinct: If another player uses the Explosion Intervention card to destroy your Police Precinct, immediately draw 1 hand card from that player.
- Bodyguard (2x): The Bodyguard is an Influence card, but you can play it (also from your hand) at any time to counter the Thief and Assassin Intervention cards—during your turn or even outside of it.