🏆 Object of the Game

Accumulate the greatest net wealth — cash plus the value of your share holdings, minus any outstanding loans. The game ends when players agree, or the host triggers End Game from the Settings menu for a final settlement.

🎯 Starting the Game

Each player starts with £60,000 cash. The host creates a room and shares the 4-letter code. Up to 12 players (human + AI combined). With 7 or more players, fewer tip cards are dealt per player (9 cards at 7 players, down to 5 at 12) to keep outcomes unpredictable. Up to 3 AI players (Claude, HAL, Deep Blue) can be added.

🔄 Structure of a Round

Each round consists of 3 Bargaining Periods. Players take turns in rotation — each player acts once per Bargaining Period, giving each player 3 turns per round. At the end of all 3 Bargaining Periods, prices are updated and a new round begins.

📈 Your Turn

On your turn you may do one of the following:

• Buy shares in one company (minimum 1,000 then in additional blocks of 500)
• Sell shares you own (minimum 500, in blocks of 500) — not permitted in bankrupt companies
• Sell All — instantly sells your entire holding in a selected company at current price (rounds down to nearest 500)
• Play a special card (Loan, Rights Issue, or Debenture) — uses your whole turn
• Repay a Loan — does not use your turn; you may still buy or sell
• Pass

Tip cards, Currency cards, and Share Suspend cards are applied automatically at end of round — no action needed during your turn.

📋 Tip Cards

At the start of each round each player receives 10 tip cards sorted by company. Each card shows a price change (e.g. Fujitsu +£1.50). These are private — other players cannot see them. At the end of the round all tip cards are totalled per company and prices updated accordingly.

⚡ Special Cards

• LOAN Take a £10,000 government loan added to your cash immediately. Uses your turn. Outstanding loans accrue 10% compound interest at end of every round. Repay voluntarily at any time without using a turn.
• RIGHTS ISSUE Buy 1 share for every 2 you already own in one company at £1 per share (rounded to blocks of 500). Uses your turn.
• DEBENTURE The only way to exit a bankrupt company. Sell all your shares in one bankrupt company at its original starting price at the beginning of the game. Uses your turn.
• SHARE SUSPEND Played after end-of-round price calculations. Reverts one company price to its value at the start of the round. You will be prompted after the round summary.
• CURRENCY Applied automatically at end of round — adjusts all players cash by a fixed amount. Multiple currency cards are totalled.

🌟 Director & Chairman

Director 50,000+ shares — At end of round your worst negative tip card for that company is automatically discarded before prices are calculated.

Chairman 100,000+ shares — At end of round the single worst negative tip card from any player for that company is discarded. Chairman overrides Director. Only negative cards are eligible.

When a player achieves Director or Chairman status a Boardroom News announcement is shown to all players — each must acknowledge it individually, including players who are offline and log in later.

🚫 Bankruptcy

If a company price drops to £0 it is bankrupt. Shares cannot be bought or sold in a bankrupt company except via a Debenture card. Price stays at £0 unless future tip cards bring it positive again.

📉 Leaderboard & Price History

The leaderboard is shown after every round ranked by net wealth (cash + shares minus outstanding loans). A price history heat-map shows how each company has moved across all rounds — green cells indicate a rise that round, red a fall.

🔴 Market Crash

A Market Crash can occur randomly at the start of a new round (approximately once every 10 rounds, never in round 1). All company prices drop 20–40% simultaneously. A dramatic warning is shown to all players before the round begins.

⚖ Windfall Tax

From round 5 onwards there is an 8% chance per round of a government windfall tax being triggered by a global crisis — a geopolitical conflict, energy emergency, or cost-of-living intervention. The windfall tax and a market crash can never occur in the same round.

When the board becomes heavily concentrated — 5 or more companies with a Chairman (any player holding 100,000+ shares) — the government takes a much closer interest and the chance rises to 90% until a tax is levied. After a windfall fires there is a one-round breather (0% chance), then two rounds at the normal 8%, before the escalation can apply again. This keeps real jeopardy in the late game when a dominant player would otherwise be untouchable.

Any player holding 150,000 or more shares in a single company whose price is £5 or above must pay a levy of 15% of the value of that holding. The tax applies per qualifying position — a player dominating two companies pays twice.

Payment order: cash is taken first; if cash is insufficient, shares in the qualifying company are sold at market price to cover the shortfall. Shares are always sold in blocks of 500 — the player may sell slightly more than the minimum required and keeps any surplus as cash. Sold shares return immediately to the available pool for other players to buy.

All players see a full announcement showing who was affected, which companies, the levy amount, and how it was paid. AI players are equally liable.

📰 Company Events

During Bargaining Periods 1 and 2, a random Company Event may fire (5% chance per turn, max once per round). Events — including product launches, scandals, partnership deals, profit warnings, strikes and awards — immediately move one company price up or down. All players must acknowledge before acting. The Settings menu lets you show or hide the exact percentage movement.

🕐 Turn Timer

Set in the Settings menu: Off, 5 minutes (auto-passes if no action), or 24 Hours for async play. In 24-hour mode players simply check in once a day — the game waits.

🎉 End Game & Final Settlement

Any player can trigger End Game from Settings. Outstanding loans are settled automatically — principal plus one final 10% interest charge deducted from cash. The final leaderboard is shown to all players with fireworks for the winner, followed by a Company Stories screen with background on each organisation.

🎲 Share Capital

Maximum 200,000 shares per company across all players combined.

📊 Investor Rating

After a game ends you can submit your Investor Rating to a public leaderboard. The rating rewards skilful play, not just final wealth:

• Base score — your final net wealth ÷ 1,000
• Opponent bonus — 500 points per human opponent (AI opponents give no bonus)
• Efficiency multiplier — your actual profit compared to the theoretical maximum, applied as a multiplier. Clever use of rights issues can push efficiency above 100%.
• Rights issue penalty — 250 points are deducted for each Rights Issue card you are dealt during the game (counted whether or not you play it), since the card is largely a luck factor. The leaderboard shows how many each player received in the "RI" column.

The theoretical maximum models perfect play each round: liquidating everything at round-start prices and buying the best one or two gaining companies. There are four separate leaderboards by number of human opponents (solo, 1, 2, and 3+), so you only compete against games of similar type.

Submission is optional and opt-in. Only your chosen player name and game statistics are stored — no personal data.