Junta

Junta
Company:  West End Games; Type: Ameristyle; Players: 2-7; Time: 4 hours; Genre: Treachery; Rating: 💥💥 Don't like it!

We used to play a lot of Junta back in the day. I enjoyed it a lot, mainly because of who and how we played the game. Players play in a "banana republic" -style country, where the goal is to secretly amass the most money in their bank account until the game ends. I have fond memories of Neil, as el presidente announcing each turn that "it's been a bad-f***ing year again. And then some of the in-game squabbling that resulted.

But actual gameplay was rather stereotypical and often just rather tedious. The president distributes the foreign aid budget to the interested parties. They then choose a location to go to -- from which we determine whether anyone is able to bank their money, whether they get assassinated or are able to participate in a coup. Since the president is el presidente for life, the only way to change who is president is to coup, after which the conspirators if successful choose one of their own to become the new president. Rinse and repeat.

Coups happen a lot! And this is what can make the game very tedious. A coup is a tactical war game in the middle of a game about political intrigue. The game can be anywhere from 2-4 hours in length. It all depends on how many coups there are in the game. There's not a ton of strategy to it either. We recognized this fact back in the day, and we tried to solve it by somehow simulating the coup without actually playing it out. (Didn't work so well.)

While your mileage may vary, I can't currently say that I would recommend playing it. OK in its time, but not so much now.