The Green Earth

A Game of Global Strategy For Up To Eight Players
Designed by Peter Tan
Published by Green Earth Games (1994)


I may be wrong, but I have a strong suspicion that the designer of The Green Earth has more than a passing acquaintance with the family classic, Monopoly. The similarities are striking. Some changes have been made but the family resemblance is strong. If you enjoy Monopoly you will almost certainly enjoy The Green Earth.

TGE is described as a game for 2-8 players, although the rules do specify that you can actually have more than 8 players if you provide playing pieces for them. Naturally, the more players involved, the longer will be the down-time between each players turn.


How Do We Play The Game

TGE is played on a square board with a movement track around the outside edge of the board. On each of the four sides there are nine spaces and there are four corner spaces on the board. Each side has six country spaces (one side represents Europe, another the Americas, the third Africa and the fourth side represents the Pacific), an island-nation space and two Nature’s Evens/Business Times spaces – the properties on each side of the board have the same potential value. Each turn each player will roll two dice and move the appropriate number of spaces around the edge of the board. If you land on a country space you may buy it from the bank. If it is already owned, you will pay a tax to the player who owns the country. At the end of the game, the person with the most money shall be declared the winner.

Each side of the board represents a continental area. As soon as three countries in an area have infrastructure improvements the rate of exchange for that regional currency will increase. The improvements include roads, mass transit, airports and environmental improvements. The more countries you control in a region the higher you can tax visitors. Also, the more improvements made to your countries in the same region, the higher you can tax visitors. For example your tax rate will be $100 times the number of countries you control in the region – if you control all six you can tax $100 x 6 = $600. If a country has roads its tax rate will be $200. If you have, for example, 5 countries in a region and 3 of them have roads, if someone lands on a country without roads they will be taxed $100 x 5 = $500. If someone lands on a nation with roads you can choose to tax at the higher of the two rates – either $500 as previously indicated OR $200 x 3 = $600.


Two of the corner spaces represent Antarctica and the Sahara Desert. If you land there you will be stuck until you miss two turns, or throw a double number or throw exactly ‘7’ on the dice. While in these two spaces you may not collect tax from any of your countries.

One corner is a tax penalty unless your countries are members of the United Federation of Nations. The fourth corner is the starting space – each time you pass it you will gain $300.

If you land on Natures Events or Business Times you draw an appropriate card and save it or follow the instructions as best suits the card. These provide an element of randomness to the game.

One interesting feature of the game is that there are five currencies. There is one for each continental area and a fifth, international currency, which can be used globally. When in each area you have the choice of taking payment in the local currency or in the global currency. As areas become developed the exchange rate between currencies will change.

Another innovation is that each player may deposit money into the bank and then earn interest on the deposit each time they pass the start square.


Observations

The game is no better and no worse than Monopoly – it is just different.

It almost certainly has been designed as an educational game for the 21st century. It looks at environmental issues via the development mechanisms and makes a statement that looking after the environment is as important as improving infrastructure. The changing exchange rates is a nice, and interesting, feature that certainly adds to the strategy of the game.

The physical quality of the game is a touch on the flimsy side, but is certainly adequate. The board is colourful and looks professional, but it is thinner than most boardgames. There is a lot of currency included in the game – again, it is thin and smaller than I would like. There are several plastic trays included in the game to help you sort all of the pieces. The nation cards and Natures Events/Business Times cards are thick and colourful – the nation cards each show the flag of that particular nation.

I don’t, personally, enjoy the Monopoly style of boardgame and would be quite willing to play this instead of Monopoly if forced into this sort of situation. While acknowledging that Monopoly-style games are not totally devoid of strategy, my personal feeling is that strategy in this game is minimal and the roll of the dice will have significant impact on the outcome of the game.


“Dead Men Tell No Tales!”