İttihat
İttihat Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Box Contents
- Game board
- 10 character cards
- 8 province cards
- 90 player tokens
- 10 military tokens
- 79 coin tokens
- 2 pouches
How to Win the Game
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If at the end of the game, The Unionists are holding 4 provinces, they win the game.
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If at the end of the game, the Unionists, Abdulhamid and the Spies, cannot control 4 provinces, or, the Separatists control 4 provinces, the Separatists wins the game.
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If none of these conditions are met at the end of the game, Abdulhamid and the Spies win the game.
Distributing Roles
Before starting the game, a number of role cards equal to number of players is picked, shuffled and distributed to the players face down. See the table below for the number of role cards to be used for each player group size (Chart 1).
The player with the Abdulhamid card reveals it and, plays the entire game with his/her role card face up. All other players keep their role cards hidden.
Player Tokens
In the game, each player has a character token. Whenever player wins a province, he/she places one of his'her character tokens on that province's token nests.
Sultan Abdulhamid II
Abdulhamid II is the 34th sultan of the Ottoman Empire and his reign is the longest after the Suleiman I (the Magnificient), and that makes him an important figure in the dynasty. Both his ascension to the throne and downfall are preceded by coup d'états, and during his reign, he consolidated his authority and today his rule is remembered as "The Era of Oppression"
When his Uncle AbdulAziz I was toppled down by a coup led by Young Ottomans (Predecessors of Young Turks), his elder brother Murat V couldn't stay in power because of his mental incapabilities, and Prince Abdulhamid ascended to the throne in 1876 by giving the revoluionaries the promise that the constitution will be declared. But the Young Ottoman intellectuals were deceived by the new sultan; when The Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78 broke out at the dawn of the new regime, Abdulhamid II made use of it and dismissed the parliament and suspended the constitutional law. Thus The Era of Oppression has started by the sultan who consolidated his power and silenced all opposition.
As a consequence of this oppression and censorship, Abdulhamid II had to cope with many mutinies and rebellions, and the latest of them, The Young Turk Revolution, forced him to reassemble the parliament in 1908 at first, and then led his downfall in 1909.
During his 33 year reign, Abdulhamid II managed to create a very delicate foreign policy with the western powers, prioritised the development of infrastructure of the empire, made reforms in the army. Nevertheless, the economical collapse could not be prevented and in his time the empire have ceded more territories than ever. It is quite ironical that the Young Turks who made a succesful coup against him (and later formed the founding cadre of Republic of Turkey) are trained in the schools that Abdulhamid II founded and organised thanks to railroad and telegraph networks that he built.
Provinces
There are 7 provinces in the game: Selânik, İzmir, Edirne, Manastır, Üsküp, Bursa and Filibe. Filibe province is only included in the game for group sizes 7 and up.
There cannot be more tokens than the token nests printed on any province.
Additionally, there are garrisons in Selânik and Edirne provinces which provides military tokens to the players.
Players gain a military token as well every time they win the bid for Selânik and Edirne.
During a bid, players may use their military tokens as well. Military tokens break ties: If there is a tie, the player with most military tokens in the bid wins the province.
How to Play The Game
At the beginning of each turn, players take coins according to the table (Chart 2).
Each turn, Abdulhamid takes the province cards and removes one from the deck, face down. The player cannot remove the same province from the deck in two consecutive turns.
Abdulhamid sorts the remaining provinces as he/she likes and starts to draw them one by one.
For each province card drawn, players enter to a closed bid: the player who bids most wins that province for 1 turn a places a control token in one of the empty spaces of the province. If all spaces are full, then Abdülhamit replaces his/her token with another player's token already occupying a province space. If the bid is a tie, Abdulhamid decides who wins the province. Coins bid by players are spent regardless of the outcome of a provincial bid. (Look Pg. 11-12 for samples)
At the end of each provincial bid, Abdulhamid challenges one of the players to force that player out of a province. ; 2 bags (Black and White) are circulated among the players. The White Bag is in favor of the Challenged Player, the Black Bag is against. Beginning with Abdulhamid, each player puts any number of coins in either of the bags secretly in order to reinforce or mitigate Abdulhamid's challange. If the number of coins in the Black Bag is more than those in the White Bag, Abdulhamid wins the challenge and may remove one control token of the Challenged Player from any of the provinces on the map. If there a tie or the White Bag has more coins, nothing happens.
Game End
At the end of the turn in which all the token spaces on the map are full, the game ends. Each player reveals their roles and victory conditions are checked. (Look Pg. 13-14 for samples)
At the end of this final turn, Abdulhamid may challenge no one.
Once a game, at any time, A unionist player may reveal his/her card and declare coup; when he/she does so, other players reveal their cards as well, and count their military tokens. If every unionist has at least 1 military token, then the coup happens; the faction that holds most provinces wins the game. In case of a tie, Abdulhamid and spies win the game. When the coup is attempted, if every unionist doesn't have a military token, then it's a failed coup attempt, Abdulhamid and spies win the game.
Committee of Union & Progress
In the summer of 1889, 4 military medical school students gathered in their campus' court and founded a secret society in order to save the country from the current situation: Ittihad-ı Osmanî (The Union of Ottomans). The society's popularity is spread among the university students in Istanbul in short time. But, only when they contacted with Ahmed Riza, a Turkish intellectual who lived in Paris in that time, they became a revolutionary organisation. Since Ahmed Riza was a positivist, by adding the two pillars of this philosophical theory, the order and progress, the society was renamed as The Committee of Ottoman Union and Progress, in 1895.
This committee managed to unite the opposition against Abdulhamid II, in several European capitols and assembled the 1st Young Turk Congress in Paris in 1902 by the attendance of 47 delegates. At he beginning the participants were divided in 3 groups: the Committee of Union and Progress led by Ahmed Riza, Prince Sabahaddin and decentralizationists who support him, and the Armenian Revolutionary Federation, Dashnaksutyun. Especially, Ahmed Riza's strict opinions on a centralized state and opposition to any foreign intervention caused a separation with the Prince Sabahaddin's faction.
In the following years, the committee continued to organize as The Committe of Union and Progress, especially in Rumelia (Ottoman Europe), found many supporters among the military officers and civil servants who has been trained in modern schools and in this period their headquarters moved to Thessalonica (Selânik). İn 1907, a young officer commissioned in the 5th Army in Damascus (sent because of his political opinions), Mustafa Kemal (Atatürk) joined this committee in 29 October as its 322th member and the organization that he founded "Society of Motherland and Liberty" unified with the Union and Progress as well. Same year, 2nd Young Turk Congress has been assembled and the committee decided to a throughly struggle until the constitutional law is restored.
By the uprising of Captain Niyazi of Resen in June 1908 in Macedonia, rebellion has started in Rumelia Province. The rebellion growed with the supports of Unionist officers and finally in 24 June, sultan gave in to their demands and declared the restoration of constitutional monarchy. But the regime change did not happen very peacefully: a fundamentalist uprising against the Young Turk Revolution broke out in Istanbul in 13 April 1909 and quickly turned to a chase of Unionists. Thus, "The Army of Action", formed by the troops sent from 3rd Army in Thessalonica and 2nd Army in Edirne, marched to Istanbul and this force crushed the uprising in 23 April.
In the following period, committee has become a political party as "Party of Union and Progress" and played an important role in the imperial politics until its dissolution in 1919. Beside the founder of Modern Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, republican era's famous political figures as İsmet İnönü, and Celal Bayar were the committee's members. Committee of Union and Progress' influence in the Turkish politics lasted very long during the republican era and its traces can be seen even today.
Samples
Sample 1: Bidding for a Province
Abdulhamid reveals a province card (e.g. Selanik).
The other players bids for the province (e.g. green 2, blue 3, orange 4, brown 4). If it is a tie, Abdulhamid decides the winner (e.g. orange).
Orange player places one of his/her tokens to Selanik and since th there is a garrison in this province he/she earns a military token as well.
Sample 2: Breaking a Tie with Military Tokens
Abdulhamid reveals a province card (e.g. Manastır).
The other players bids for the province (e.g. yellow 3, red 5, blue 0, brown 5). If it is a tie, players may break the tie by spending any number of military tokens that they have. (e.g. brown) decides the winner (e.g. orange).
The player who speneds most military tokens (e.g. brown) wins the province. Note that if the tie is still not broken Abdulhamid decides the winner as normal.
If all the token nests in a province are full, then the winner may kick any rival token to make room for his/her token.
Note: the printed English reads "(e.g. brown) decides the winner (e.g. orange)". The Turkish text of the same sample says the player who spends the most military tokens, brown, wins the province.
Sample 3: Game End, Separatist Victory
Blue and yellow players are Spies while yellow, orange and brown players are Unionists. Purple player is Separatist.
Unionists have 2 provinces (Edirne and Selanik) while Spies have only 1 province (Bursa). Separatist has Filibe. İzmir, Manastır and Üsküp are tied.
Since in 4 provinces (in total) are either tied (İzmir, Manastır and Üsküp) or hold by the Separatist, Abdulhamid, Spies and Unionists lose, the Separatist win the game.
Note: the printed English reads "Blue and yellow players are Spies while yellow, orange and brown players are Unionists". Yellow cannot be both Spy and Unionist; the board and the Turkish text of this sample show blue and green as the Spies, and yellow, orange and brown as the Unionists.
Sample 4: Game End, Abdulhamid and Spies Victory
Blue and yellow players are Spies while purple, orange and brown players are Unionists.
Unionists have 3 provinces (Üsküp, Manastır and Selanik) while Spies have only 1 province (Bursa). İzmir and Edirne are tied.
Since Unionists could not hold 4 provinces at the end of the game, Abdulhamid and spies win.
Sample 5: Failed or Successful Coup
When a Unionist player attempts for Coup (e.g. brown) the game ends immediately and character cards are revealed. Military tokens of all factions are counted (e.g. the Spies 1, the Separatist 1 and the Unionists 6 in total). If all Unionist players have at least 1 military token, then coup happens; the faction that holds most provinces wins the game.
Designer's Note
Our second game İttihat, as our first game İhtilâl, based on an era full of turmoil of Turkish political history. Even though both games are thematically and for visual design purposes, are similar, by game mechanics and rules, they are totally different. That's why we cannot say that İttihat is an "expansion pack" of İhtilâl. İttihat is designed on sense of paranoia to make gamers feel the political atmosphere of the era.
This game is designed for both regular gamers who like to count every token, every card and every coin in a game and party gamers who don't get competitive at all. We recommend that at the end of each game, players might write down their guesses about other players, before roles are revealed, and then compare it to game results, it will make more fun. In addition, we added blank cards that gamers may create their own province and character cards. Have fun.
Chart 1: Character Cards According to Player Number
Printed as "Tablo 1" (Turkish) and "Chart 1" (English). Number of each character card in the deck, by number of players:
| Character | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sultan Abdulhamid II | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Spy (Hafiye) | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 3 |
| Unionist (İttihatçı) | 2 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 4 |
| Separatist (Komitacı) | - | - |
Chart 2: Coins Earned by Players Each Round
Printed as "Tablo 2" (Turkish) and "Chart 2" (English). Coins earned by Abdulhamid and by the other players each round, by number of players:
| Player | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sultan Abdulhamid II | x2 | - | x2 | x2 | - | x3 |
| Each other player | x5 | x10 | x10 | x10 | x10 | x10 |