[INWO-list] Contest winner and DotW85: Cruel Britannia

[martin laerkes]

Hi all,
Stephen Harkleroad had the best of the 3 entries, and won the DotW 
challenge. Congrats Steve :)
(Other entries may show up in the DotW eventually).

***Cruel Britannia***
Sure, England's power is reduced *today*...but not necessarily *tomorrow*...

Cruel Britannia
Illuminati: Atlantis (http://www.sjgames.com/pyramid/sample.cgi?4373)
Cable TV
China
Congressional Wives
England (x2)
Israel
Local Police Departments
Madison Avenue
Multinational Oil Companies
NATO
Post Office
Republicans
Supreme Court
Templars

Big Prawn
Clipper Chip
Cyborg Soldiers
Lenin’s Body
Midas Mill
Power Satellite

Cover of Darkness
Dictatorship
Early Warning
Emergency Powers
Forgery
GOAL: Corporate Masters
GOAL: Power For Its Own Sake
Hat Trick
Hidden Influence
Hoax
March on Washington
Media Blitz
Media Connections
Monopoly
Murphy’s Law
New Blood
NWO: Bigger Business
NWO: Gun Control
Partition
Savings and Loan Scam
Secrets Man Was Not Meant To Know
Stars Are Right
Stealing the Plans
Weak Link

Playing the Deck

The Plan [Editors Note]
Stephens Atlantis deck relies on pumping up a single group, and giving it 
global power, (preferably with a resource to avoid the threat of 
cancelling). I consider creating a monster group and giving it global power 
one of the core plays of Atlantis, and a thing it does better than Bavaria. 
If your plan involves giving several groups global power, then it is often a 
better idea to play Bavaria and go for the raw power instead.
Stephens deck also uses Atlantis special ability, which is always a good 
idea.

Beginning
Lead England. All cards and everything you do from this point forward is to 
protect England. If you bounce, lead China. Your goal is to increase the 
power of England as high as possible, and eventually give it global power 
equal to its regular power.

Mid Game
Don’t be too aggressive with your growth. Link either Midas Mill, Media 
Connections, or Hidden Influence to England as soon as possible; if you try 
to do it later, when it’s pumped up high, you’ll get cancelled easily. (In 
fact, link it when their Power is still 2 just to confuse 'em.) Once you hit 
7-9 groups, hold back.
Bring out your Resources conservatively. Use The Stars Are Right with the 
Templars; you’ll have to get their power to 4 if you want to do this (try 
New World Order cards, or the Local Police Departments, to achieve this). 
The Templars won’t seem out of place with your special ability (which, by 
the way, you should use aggressively).
Israel is primarily in the game as a good global power Violent Government 
group…but it’s also there to take some of the brunt of the disasters that 
are sure to come up against England. Both the Republicans and the 
Congressional Wives are simply groups to permit the occasional attack to 
control a Government group from your hand.

Endgame
Your plans shouldn’t be that apparent, but astute players may pick up early. 
Don’t worry too much. Your plan is to pump England’s power up as high as 
possible, with Midas Mill or Hidden Influence making this power count as 
Global Power.

England itself is at 2 Power. Link Emergency Powers (or, if possible, New 
Blood) to bring it to 6. Make it a Dictatorship (+2). Link either the Big 
Prawn or the Cyborg Soldiers to double this to 12. Bring out a Clipper Chip 
(+2). Your final value of England is now 16. If you can’t link one of these 
cards, or if they are Backlashed or otherwise discarded, you can make up for 
it with New World Order cards (Gun Control, mostly). By this time, you 
should have the Midas Mill/Hidden Influence linked to it.  With Atlantis’s 
own Global power, this is 23 total Global power. Most of your other groups 
have some form of Global Power; it shouldn’t be too much of a stretch to 
bring it up to 35. Madison Avenue (+3), NATO (+2), Post Office (+3), Israel 
(+3), Multinational Oil Companies (+4), and Cable TV (+2) will all bring the 
total up to 40 Power, with some to spare.
Hidden Influence, Midas Mill, and Media Connections all make Global Power 
equal to the permanent power. You only need to use one of these on England, 
so what you don’t use on England you can use for your other groups.
If you’re feeling lucky, Partition England. You have enough cards to 
increase both Englands to 6, double it, and add global power…but just 
barely. If you want to try this, you may want to pack some extra cancellers 
in the deck in case your opponents wise up.

Once you achieve 35 Power, you can try for the basic goal, or since many of 
your groups are Corporate, you can (with the aid of the Local Police 
Departments and/or Bigger Business) go for the Corporate Masters. Or, if you 
can, pull out the Clipper Chip, and make a run with Power for its Own Sake, 
disregarding the basic goal altogether.
If all else fails…you have two action tokens worth 16+. Crush the people who 
stopped you.

The Great Switch to China
If your obvious ploy of pumping up England fails, switch to China. All the 
same ploys you use for England also work for China. In fact, if the going 
gets rough, just go with China in the first place. I prefer England because 
it has two tokens, but you may value the –20 penalty for China instead. The 
majestic abilities of Lenin’s Body also gives China Global Power. Then, 
through either the magic of a Dictatorship or the Big Prawn, you’ve got 
another powerhouse card that will be nigh impossible to destroy. If you can 
get both China and England to be 12+ global Power, more power to you.

Potential Problems
Only NATO specifically helps protect England. All of the other groups are 
simply there as easy targets to take control of fairly easily, or are there 
for their global power.
Once you get to a certain point, your ability to gain Global Power is 
limited without the help of Plot cards. Use the few cards that do enhance 
Global Power to their maximum benefit.
Dictatorship cannot be Backlashed, so once played you’re fine. Just watch 
for a Revolution! Media Connections also cannot be Backlashed, either. The 
Midas Mill, along with the Cyborg Soldiers and the Big Prawn, are Gadgets or 
Magic resources, and as such can be destroyed easily. Be prepared to use 
Cover of Darkness.

Variants and Substitutions
Again, most of the groups in this deck are primarily are easy-to-control 
groups. This is best done through Congressional Wives or the Republicans. If 
you want more Media groups or Corporate groups instead of Government groups, 
feel free.
Many of these cards are fairly popular groups, especially China and the 
Republicans. You can replace them if you wish, or just pack in a Payoff.

[Editors note: If you want to expand the coastal place theme, which is very 
fitting for Atlantis, then USA should definately be in the deck, if you have 
it. Philo Drummond + Al Amarja + 3 Fisted Tales of "Bob" could give you 
another coastal place with good global power.
If you want another angle on the "one big group" approach, then a all-church 
+ Messiah could also prove interesting.]

"A little luck and a little government are necessary in life, but only a 
fool trusts either of them." --P.J. O'Rourke

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