Description

While Minitar has an ostensible political theme (the 1968 US presidential election), in fact it is a completely abstract game.

Each player has a deck of cards depicting the 50 states and Washington DC, plus a wild card. On a turn a player draws a card and places it on the 8x8 board. If it is the first card played in one of the rows in the player's half of the board, it can go anywhere in that row, otherwise it must be adjacent to one of his or her already-placed cards. In addition, a card can be played on top of the opponent's card showing the same state (and the wild card can be played on top of any card).

The object is to connect the two ends of the board with a chain of cards in your color. Whoever manages this gets points equal to the number of electoral votes for the states in the chain. A match is won by the first player to reach 538 points. It is also possible to win a game by making it impossible for the other player to move.

As the rules are quite simple, most of the 28-page rulebook is taken up by background information - on the US as it was in the 1960 census, politicians holding office in the states and the federal government, the 1956, 1960, and 1964 elections, etc.