Illuminati

Illuminati is a card game from Steve Jackson games. I played it for the first time Saturday night, and it was really fun.

You control a secret society bent on world domination. Very little stands in your way... except for the other secret societies bent on the same thing. You don't fight each other directly, but you're all trying to take over the same power blocks - ranging from the Mafia to the US Post Office to the Trekkies.

I played the Bavarian Illuminati in the first game, going against the Servants of Cthulhu (SoC), the Bermuda Triangle, and the Society of Assassins. My early control of the Mafia and the Loan Sharks, along with the Phone Company, gave me an edge, and halfway through I almost won; but I failed to use my special ability in an attack and wound up loosing control of the Mafia on the rebound. I slunk off into the shadows as the other three battled for first place. As all four groups closed in on their victory conditions, I grabbed the Democrats and used their power to snatch the Orbital Mind Control Lasers for the win.

In the second game my performance was... less impressive. I drew the Bavarians again on the initial deal, and the player who'd been the SoC got THEM again, so we did a re-deal and I got the SoC. Sigh. One of the first groups out was the Federal Reserve, and everyone made a play for it including me, but the Network managed to hang onto it. the UFOs made good use of their mystery, and the Assassins (also in play again) built up slowly but steadily. Sadly by turn three I had failed to grab any groups and was thus eliminated. Even watching the game was amusing - the UFOs had a rough time (their groups kept getting taken away by the Network), but the Assassins managed to pull off the win, despite a close call from the UFO - their victory was foiled by a special card.

http://www.sjgames.com/illuminati/