With 11 people showing, the GM decided to drop out to allow 10 people to play one game using the 10-player expansion rules (by Alan Emrich, published in The Space Gamer in 1982-83). After a few minutes of explanation of the three new offices (Foreign Minister, War Minister, Farm and Labor Secretary), two players decided to drop out. The GM re-entered the game, now at nine players (with a mixture of inexperienced and experienced players--only one complete novice). This turned out to be an excellent number, as it gave the Presidente the power to allocate two positions to his most trusted confidant.

In general the Foreign Minister and Farm and Labor Secretary engineered bountiful budgets, which kept many people happy (averting unnecessary coups)--and shortened the playing time. The large number of players provided a rapid recycling of assassins. The presidents largely tried to keep people happy rather than getting greedy. Rookie Chris Palermo, the Minister of Internal Security under three different presidents, found himself at the wrong end of the gun enough to be barely stopped from winning. Meanwhile, Bruce Bernard managed to hold down two offices at a time for a good portion of the game--his loyalty to the presidency having been bought for handy sums. The game was fairly tight in the final score except for the necessary shunning of disloyal citizens. The special weapons handed out by the War Minister played an unexpected role in the first coup of the game, when the bribe cards suddenly whisked the toys over to the other side--and the superpower declined to participate.

In the end, secret political donations (also recycled quite quickly) had a significant impact on the final score. However, it was the final turn's coup phase (with the bank closed for lunch, awaiting to re-open for the spoils of the victors) that kept everybody on the edge of their seat wondering who would have the most money in his Swiss bank account at the end. We tip our hats to the former champion, David Weinstein, who managed to instill some sense into the coup-phase military maneuvers throughout the game. In the end, experienced players managed to take most of the podium positions, including top honors to Bruce Bernard (23 million pesos). Palermo bank 19, Weinstein 18, Richard Curtin 18, Stuart Tucker 15, James Tyne 14, with the rest having 11 or less.