Summary of Game Play: For this exercise, your group represents one of the six regions on The Isle of Frio—Anoka, Bemidji, Cokato, Dilworth, Eyota, or Faribault. You must somehow protect yourself from coastal raids by pirates. At the same time, you can increase your resources by building a system of roads throughout the island to be used for trade. Score will be kept for each region (each begins with 10 resource points). Regions can increase total points to a maximum of 20 and cannot go below 0. Points can be gained through trade. Regions lose points if they are successfully attacked. Regions can also use points to build a road network or to provide for defense.
Pirate Attacks: One to four raiding parties will randomly attack one of the four outside regions (Anoka, Bemidji, Eyota, or Faribault) each turn. To defeat the attack the island must have a defense strength equal to or greater than the number of raiding parties; therefore, you may want to negotiate with your neighbors for support (defense strength = resource points spent on defense). Each point spent on defense counts for the island as a whole—“One for all, and all for one!” Each raiding party will carry off one resource point from the country they attack unless they are defeated. (Example: If the Pirates attack Anoka with 3 raiding parties but the Island as a whole only spent a total of 2 resource points, Anoka loses 3 resource points.) Both the number of raiding parties and the region to be attacked will be determined at random. Cokato and Dilworth cannot be attacked unless a neighboring coastal region is attacked and is out of points.
Trade: Each turn that a road network exists on the Isle of Frio, regions gain points depending on their locations on the map. The road network covers the entire island. Points spent by each individual region go towards the construction of the network. Therefore, regions gain points whether or not they help build the road network. These are the additional points per turn each country gets when a road network is built:
Anoka: 2 resource points
Cokato: 1 resource point
Eyota: 2 resource points
Bemidji: 1 resource point
Dilworth: 1 resource point
Faribault: 1 resource point
The road network costs an initial 8 resource points to build and 1 resource point per turn thereafter to maintain. The cost of building a road may be shared among regions. Points spent on building the road network will carry over until a total of 8 points is reached. Any points spent in excess of 8 will be lost, and any points spent in excess of the one point necessary to maintain the roads each round will also be lost. If the road network is not maintained, a further 8 points will be necessary to rebuild the road network.
Notes: We will go through several turns. The first turn will consist of two minutes of negotiation within regions. No discussion between regions can take place during the first turn. Thereafter, negotiations between regions will be allowed during the two-minute period. At the end of all turn negotiations each region's choices must be handed in. Dr. DeSart (A.K.A. “God”) will reveal whether or not roads have been built or maintained and also the total points spent on defense. The results of the trade and pirate attacks can then be tallied. Hand in your decisions on the given sheet of paper. They will be kept secret. No one will know who contributed to the defense of the island or to the building of roads.