The first InsideGMT article for Prime Minister discussed the game’s use of numbers to simulate Britain’s political system. Now we’ll go beyond the numbers and look at how player roles and relationships evoke the struggle for political power.

In the game, you play one of ten British politicians from the Victorian era. Some of their names may be familiar, such as W.E. Gladstone and Benjamin Disraeli, while others like Lord Aberdeen have fallen into relative obscurity, but in their heyday all ten managed to become Prime Minister of the world’s most powerful nation. Each politician comes with a unique mix of abilities. Gladstone, for example, is great at debating bills, but he doesn’t know how to flatter the Queen. The politicians’ different abilities are loosely based on historical facts, with one major adjustment–for the sake of gameplay, all the politicians in the game are equally skilled overall. Each one has one strong point and one weak point. So while the real Disraeli was adept at just about everything he did, the Disraeli in this game is particularly skilled at only one thing–recruiting supporters.

Because of their different abilities, each politician favors a different strategy. The value of most abilities is situational–Gladstone is very effective at debating bills, but this ability doesn’t do much good when all the bills on the board are perfectly safe or hopeless. You have to maneuver your politician into situations at which they excel, while avoiding battles that favor your opponent’s abilities. Disraeli’s enhanced ability to recruit supporters is the one type of ability that’s well rounded and almost always useful, but it’s never particularly devastating. Through experience, you’ll learn how to make the best use of each politician’s unique abilities.

But your range of available actions is not determined by your politician card alone. You’ll use this card in combination with an exchangeable player mat that corresponds to your current role in the game: Prime Minister, Opposition Leader, or backbencher. Different mats unlock different actions, and the different roles entail different responsibilities during gameplay. The PM of course has the greatest degree of control in guiding legislation, responding to events, and deciding when to hold an election. Backbenchers start with the simplest player mats, but they can quickly expand their responsibilities by unlocking official appointments.

Having the PM’s player mat is not only the key to winning the game, but also the key to having the most fun. When you’re PM, you’ll jealously guard your player mat, while other players scheme to snatch it from you. It’s hard to hold on to power for long, especially in 3- or 4-player games. Prime Minister’s structure favors turnover. Backbenchers steadily become more powerful each round, while the PM’s standing in Parliament tends to falter in the wake of various crises and legislative failures. When they accumulate enough power in Parliament, backbenchers can directly challenge their party leaders, and the Opposition Leader can directly challenge the PM. Election results give players another path to the PM’s role. The PM’s player mat may change hands several times in the course of one game.

Prime Minister’s asymmetric, exchangeable mats are part of what makes this an unusual game. Another unusual feature is victory point (VP) pooling, which helps to structure and define the players’ relationships. At the outset of the game, all players are in a two-party pact. Only the PM’s player marker is placed on the game board’s VP tracker, where it represents VP for all players. As long as the opposition remains in the pact, it accumulates the same VP as the government, but it can’t attack the government’s bills. When the Opposition Leader decides to leave the pact, he places his own player marker on the VP tracker and the government and opposition begin tracking their VP separately. Now the gloves are off. The timing of this split is the key strategic decision in the game’s early stages.

In 3- or 4-player games, VP pooling continues for players who are in the same party. The PM pools VP with his government backbencher, while the Opposition Leader pools VP with his opposition backbencher. But players in the same party are merely frenemies, cooperating only when it suits them. Except for particular scenarios, Prime Minister doesn’t function as a true cooperative game since only one player can hold the PM’s player mat and win the game. Players have to skillfully navigate their relationships with other players, and learn when to cooperate and when to betray.

The opposition players remain locked together in a VP pool as long as they remain in opposition, but it’s up to them to decide how closely to coordinate their actions. The government side is more complex. If you’re a government backbencher, you have a choice–you can stay in government and earn the same VP as the PM, with the proviso that you can’t attack the government’s bills. Or you can forego VP and resign your official appointments in a gambit to weaken the PM and take the PM’s seat for yourself. As the game’s end point nears, a government resignation becomes more likely–and in the last round or two, the PM will often face off against the combined efforts of his turncoat backbencher and the opposition players.

In solitaire and 2-player mode, Prime Minister is a strategy game with some luck mixed in, but in 3- and 4-player games, player interactions also become an important factor. If players in the same party never cooperate with each other, they have little chance of winning the game. The PM needs to keep the government backbencher sufficiently placated (or perhaps sufficiently intimated), while at times reaching out to the opposition to make deals. In this way, Prime Minister tests not only your strategic skills, but also your talent as a leader who can manage real interpersonal relationships.

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