Peak Oil Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components Overview
• Setup
  • Notes & Clarifications
• 2-3 Player Game
• Additional Stuff
• Gameplay
  • Turn Order
    • Notes & Clarifications
  • Reassign an Agent
    • Notes & Clarifications
  • Take an Action
    • Notes & Clarifications
    • Majority Examples
  • Barrels in a Bag
    • Notes & Clarifications
  • PR Crisis
    • Notes & Clarifications
  • Black Market
    • Notes & Clarifications
• Action Spots
  • • Notes & Clarifications
  • Expand Action Spot
    • Notes & Clarifications
  • Develop Action Spot
    • Notes & Clarifications
  • Invest Action Spot
    • Notes & Clarifications
  • Grey Ops Action Spot
    • Notes & Clarifications
  • Region Spots — Shipping
    • Notes & Clarifications
• Peak Oil — Endgame
  • • Notes & Clarifications
• Scoring
  • • Scoring Example
• Crude Rules (Advanced Variant)
• Action Summary
• Very Short Rules
• Credits

Components Overview

Congratulations! You have bought a quality product! Before the first use, carefully remove the markers from the punch board. If your copy is missing any components, let us know: [email protected].

Note that we can't be held responsible for any differences or similarities between this game and real life. In fact, Peak Oil is a phantom menace created by right-wing anti-capitalists. Or fear-mongering, tree-hugging environmentalists. Or not. And yes, we realize that Peak Oil doesn't actually mean that "the oil runs out."

• 50 wooden Barrels — 40 black, 5 red, and 5 yellow. The black Barrels move around a bit in this game and represent different things depending on where they are:
  • Barrels in the bag and on Oil Fields represent crude oil. Each Barrel is roughly equivalent to 1 trillion tons of oil.
  • Barrels in your HQ represent roughly 1 trillion Euros each.
  • Barrels placed on the Technology Track indicate the perceived value of that technology in the public view. Each Barrel represents roughly 1 trillion euros in market value for that technology.
  • Sometimes Barrels are discarded from the game. Just return them to the box — you won't need them anymore in the current game.
• 1 cloth bag — this will hold a number of Barrels depending on your player count. The black Barrels in the bag represent earth's remaining oil supply until Peak Oil is reached.
• 5 HQ cards
• 20 wooden Agents — 4 in each of the 5 player colours.
• 7 Private Portfolio / player aid cards
• 18 PR Crisis cards
• 1 board
  • The black and white lines represent the available shipping routes, on the sea and via pipelines. Both kinds work the same.
  • Risk Spots mark the dangers that await your tankers on their way from the oil Regions to the Refineries. Pirates, stormy seas, and transfer fees compete in trying to make your life miserable.
  • The three Refineries — Singapore, Rotterdam, and Philadelphia — will buy your oil.
  • The five Regions — Venezuela, Libya, Nigeria, Gulf Region, and Russia — are also Action Spots. You may ship oil from these Regions to Refineries, converting it into money, see Action Spots, below.
  • You can place Agents on Action Spots to assign them to the corresponding tasks, see Action Spots, below.
  • The Technology Track shows which technology public opinion currently considers most important in overcoming peak oil problems. The value of a technology when investing in it and at game end is decided solely by the number of Barrels on it. To add Barrels to a Technology, the Invest and Grey Ops actions are used.
  • Note! Do not use this game board to navigate the real world. The strait of Malacca, for example, is not quite where it is marked on the board. Some other geography has also been severely warped to accommodate for the usability needs of this game. Our "scale" is pretty much off.
• 11 Risk chips and 3 Refinery Chips — these are placed on the board and represent dangers on the shipping routes and demand at the Refineries.
• 5 Security chips — these allow you to influence the safety of shipping routes and the demand at Refineries.

The Action Spots printed on the board are, briefly:

• Develop — Drill in a Region, adding crude oil Barrels from the bag to its oil fields, or Whitewash to get rid of those pesky PR Crises.
• Invest — Buy a Start-Up from the open display or inflate the perceived value of a Technology.
• Grey Ops — Close a deal with one of the Consultants who give you special abilities and access the Black Market.
• Expand — Recruit additional Agents and dispatch Agents for surprise maneuvers.

Setup

• Randomly distribute the large round Refinery chips with a random side up on the three Refineries.
• Randomly distribute 8 of the small round Risk chips with a random side up on the Risk spots. Make sure that the chip with the "closed" icon has that side face down. We recommend not using the double-sided "closed" chip on your first games.
• Shuffle the Oil Field cards and reveal one per player: for each card revealed, place two black Barrels on the shown region. Return those Oil Field cards face down to the bottom of the deck. Then reveal three new Oil Field cards and place them face up into the open display close to the Develop Action Spot. Place the face down Oil Field deck close by.
• Shuffle the Start-up cards. Reveal three and place them face up into the open display close to the Invest Action Spot. Place the face down Start-Up deck close by.
• Each player picks the HQ card they like best.
• Shuffle the Private Portfolio cards face down and deal one to each player.
• Allocate some area close to the board as the general reserve.
• Each player places two Agents of their color in their HQ and the remaining two in the general reserve.
• Each player places one black Barrel in their HQ.
• Place the five Security chips in the general reserve.
• Put a number of red, yellow and black Barrels corresponding to your player count into the bag. Use the table below. The table is also printed onto the board.
• Separate the Consultant cards into three stacks by level: shuffle and reveal Consultant cards face up into the open display in the quantities corresponding to your player count, using the table below.
• Separate the PR Crisis cards into three stacks by level. Shuffle each of these stacks face down and place them close to the board. For a more challenging game, each player draws one card from the level 1 stack and keeps it face down.
• Return all leftover components to the box, they will not be needed this game.

Player count	Red Barrels	Yellow Barrels	Black Barrels	Consultants L.1	Consultants L.2	Consultants L.3
2	2	2	18	2	2	1
3	3	3	20	3	2	2
4	4	4	22	4	3	2
5	5	5	25	5	4	3

Notes & Clarifications

The play area of a player is called their HQ and holds their black Barrels used as money, their cards, and available Agents during the game. Part of each player's HQ is the HQ card in the player's colour, and the Private Portfolio card, which must be kept secret until Scoring.

The general reserve will contain unrecruited Agents and Security chips not owned by players. Whenever a player recruits a new Agent or receives a Security chip out of the general reserve, those will go to their HQ.

2-3 Player Game

In a 2-3p game, remove all cards marked along the right edge from the game. (All Hydrogen Cells Start-Ups, all Venezuela Oil Fields, some other Oil Fields, and two Private Portfolios.)

There will only be four spaces in the Black Market, and Venezuela is completely closed. Place one of the Hydrogen Cells Start-Up cards face down on the Hydrogen Technology, and one Venezuela Oil Field card face down on the Venezuela Region Spot to remind yourself of that fact during the game.

All other rules remain unchanged.

Additional Stuff

There are 10 Oil Fields that show two Technology symbols each. We recommend removing these for the first few games. Add them later at your own discretion.

If you are a Kickstarter supporter, you will also have additional Barrels. Use these to adjust game length and risk to your likening in later games.

Gameplay

The player who last drove a car starts, then players take turns clockwise. When the bag runs out of black Barrels, Peak Oil is reached, and a last round is played. At the end of the game, the player with the most Victory Points (VPs) wins.

Turn Order

Players take turns clockwise. Each turn consists of two steps; on your turn, you must take both, in this order:

• Step 1 — Reassign an Agent or Take an action.
• Step 2 — Reassign an Agent. You may not do anything else optionally.
• Step 3 (OPTIONAL) — You may pay two Barrels from your HQ to reassign an additional Agent.

Notes & Clarifications

This means that you may never reassign Agents and later in the same turn take an action. You have to plan ahead this turn what action you would like to take at the start of your next turn.

Note that there are no "rounds." The starting player starts, and then players take turns clockwise until Peak Oil is triggered. Also note that being the start player is not really an advantage in this game.

If you pay Barrels to reassign an Agent on Step 3, those Barrels are discarded from the game. Place them back into the box.

Reassign an Agent

You don't really have a lot of trustworthy Agents, so you should make sure to have them where you need them when you need them. Hint: You don't really want them to hang out at your tropical island HQ, doing nothing.

If you are not able to or don't want to take an action on your Step 1, you must reassign instead.

You must reassign on your Step 2.

You may reassign an additional Agent on Step 3.

To reassign, take one Agent from your HQ and move it to any Action Spot, or take one Agent from any Action Spot and move it to your HQ or to any other Action Spot. However, you can't reassign:

• Back to an Action Spot where you removed one or more Agents earlier the same turn (by reassigning or by taking an action).
• To an Action Spot where there are already five Agents.
• Back to the same place it was removed from (the Agent must move).
• The same Agent twice on the same turn.

Notes & Clarifications

Remember that Regions are Action Spots too, and you can reassign Agents there.

Even if you are able to take an Action on your Step 1, you may choose to reassign instead.

Note that these restrictions make it impossible to have the same number of Agents in the same Action Spots at the beginning and at the end of your turn.

Example: At the start of the game, Olja (orange) has two Agents in her HQ. During the two steps of her first turn, she reassigns both to the Action Spot "Develop." Alba (white) takes her turn next and reassigns both of her Agents to the same Action Spot "Develop" as well, because she really feels like blocking Olja there. Karen (purple) takes her turn next. She also reassigns the first Agent from her HQ to the same Action Spot, but has to reassign her second Agent to a different Action Spot, since there may never be more than five Agents total on any single Action Spot.

Take an Action

The Agents on the Action Spots are trying to bribe authorities, haggle for the best price, hinder other player's Agents and so forth. Once they are in the majority, they can succeed in what they are trying to do, and you may take the corresponding Action.

On your Step 1, you may take an action on one Action Spot where you already have Agents present from a previous round. Count the Agents on the Action Spot:

• If you have the (relative) majority on an Action Spot, that means you have more Agents on that Action Spot than any other single player, you may take an action there. You may use both options of that Action Spot in any order you like.
• If you are tied for majority with one or more other players on an Action Spot, you may still take an action there, but first you have to pull one Barrel from the bag and resolve its effect (see Barrels in a Bag, below). Then, pick one of the options on that Action Spot and use it.
• If you neither have the majority, nor are tied for majority, you may not take an action on that Action Spot.

After taking an action on any Action Spot, return all your Agents from that Action Spot to your HQ.

Notes & Clarifications

It does not matter how many Agents you have on an Action Spot: you may take the action only once, and then you must return all your Agents from that spot to your HQ.

When pulling a Barrel to resolve a tie, you may take the action regardless of what you pulled, and you only have to pull once, regardless of how many other players are tied with you. When tied on an Action Spot, you may never take an action there without pulling.

You may only take an action on one Action Spot in Step 1, and instead of reassigning an Agent. You may never take an action in Step 2.

You may only use both options on an Action Spot if your Agents are in the majority. When you are tied and pull, you may only use one of the options.

You may "take an Action" without doing anything (basically wasting it), and return your Agents to your HQ. Note that this is not a great idea in this game.

All actions are detailed in Action Spots, below.

Majority Examples

Example 1: Olja (orange) has 2, Alba (white) has 2, and Karen (purple) has 1 Agent on the Action Spot "Develop." None of them may take the action "Develop" without risk, since none has more Agents assigned to it than any other player. However, Olja or Alba could pull one Barrel and check for PR Crisis to break the tie and use one of the options of that Action Spot. Karen may not take the action "Develop."

Example 2: Alba has only 1 Agent on the Action Spot "Develop." Olja may take the Action "Develop," since she has more Agents assigned to it than Alba and she has more Agents assigned to it than Karen. She does not need to pull a Barrel to do so, and may use both options. Neither Karen nor Alba may take the action "Develop."

Barrels in a Bag

The black Barrels in the bag represent earth's remaining oil supply until Peak Oil hits. Each time you remove a black Barrel from the bag, more of these supplies are being used up. The bag also serves as a randomizer each time you do something "cost-efficient," in which case the draw of a red Barrel signifies a PR Crisis.

The closer you get to Peak Oil, the more closely the general public watches large oil companies (you!) and the more likely you are caught with your hands dirty. It's not an easy job.

You may look at the contents of the bag at any time, except when pulling Barrels.

Whenever you're required to pull Barrels from the bag, always pull one Barrel at a time and without looking at the bag's contents. Resolve the effect of each Barrel before drawing the next:

• Black Barrel — When you pull at least one black Barrel from the bag for any reason except Drilling, place the first one you pull on a turn onto an empty Black Market slot of your choice (see Black Market, below). Return the rest to the bag at the end of your turn.
• Red Barrel — For each red Barrel you pull, you suffer a PR Crisis (see PR Crisis, below), and may pull one additional Barrel. At the end of your turn, return all red Barrels you pulled to the bag.
• Yellow Barrel — These work exactly as the red Barrels above. The only difference is that you discard all yellow Barrels instead of returning them to the bag.

Notes & Clarifications

Only black Barrels can end up on the game board and the player's HQs. Red Barrels always go back to the bag, while yellow Barrels always leave the game.

Only the first black Barrel you pull on a turn goes to the Black Market. If you pull black Barrels later, even in different pulls, all of them will go back to the bag.

Note that due to the gradual removal of black Barrels from the bag, the later it is in the game, the higher the ratio of red/yellow to black Barrels will be and the more likely it will be that you will draw a red/yellow one.

PR Crisis

PR Crises represent how "evil," relatively speaking, your oil company is perceived in the public awareness. The general public, it seems, has no idea how hard it is to make a honest trillion or two in this industry...

Whenever you pull a red or yellow Barrel from the bag, you immediately suffer a PR Crisis and must do the following two things:

• If this is your first PR Crisis this turn, discard half of the black Barrels (rounded down) from your HQ out of the game.
• PR Crisis card: Do the first of the following that applies.
  • A — If you have a face down PR Crisis card in your HQ, flip it face up; its effect and VP penalty now apply.
  • B — If you don't have a face down Crisis card in your HQ, draw one of the next higher level you do not yet have and place it face down in your HQ.

Notes & Clarifications

If you have no PR Crisis card, the next higher level is 1. If you only have a level 1 card, the next higher level is 2. If you have a level 2 card, the next higher level is 3. If you have at least one level 3 card, the next higher level is level 3 again.

You may look at a face-down PR Crisis card in your HQ, but can't show it to other players.

To get rid of PR Crisis cards use the action Develop: Whitewash, below.

You may still perform your chosen action after suffering a PR Crisis, although it may change what you wanted to do.

Any components placed on or under PR Crisis cards count as out of the game for all purposes until you retrieve them.

Example — a PR Crisis card: a face down level 2 PR Crisis card, once flipped, becomes the same card, face up, showing its effect and its VP penalty. For example, "Strained Resources" (-3 VP): When taking any action, you may only take one option of that Action Spot — the card also shows its effect and the cost to Whitewash it away.

Black Market

The worldwide black market for oil is mostly run by pirates and unofficial oil traders. You, a respectable oil company, do not want to be associated with this scum. Of course, that is not what you call your valued business partners in face-to-face meetings.

The Black Market consists of five slots, and each slot corresponds to one Technology on the Tech track.

You fill up these slots when you pull a black Barrel from the bag, as explained in Barrels in a Bag, above, and by using the Shipping and Grey Ops actions, below.

You may only place one Barrel on each of these slots. Whenever you must place a black Barrel on one of the Black Market slots, pick one of the empty slots to do so.

Whenever you place a Barrel on the last empty Black Market slot, immediately distribute all Barrels from the Black Market evenly onto the Regions, placing one on each.

Notes & Clarifications

In a 2-3 player game, since you do not use the Hydrogen Cells technology, the Black Market consists of only four slots. Likewise, do not place a Barrel on Venezuela when distributing the Barrels onto the Regions.

Using the Grey Ops: Black Market option, below, allows you to move Barrels from the Black Market onto their corresponding Technologies.

Example: On her Step 1, Sandra wants to take an action on an Action Spot where she is tied for majority. To break the tie, Sandra has to pull a Barrel from the bag. She pulls a black one. She does not suffer a PR Crisis, but has to place the Barrel on the Black Market. There is only one empty slot left. Sandra places the black Barrel on the last empty Black Market slot. Immediately after placing the Barrel on the last slot, she has to distribute all Barrels from the now-full Black Market to the regions. She places one each on Venezuela, Libya, Nigeria, the Gulf Region, and Russia. Then, she takes the action as planned. If she pulled another black Barrel later on during the same turn, she would have to return it to the bag, as only the first black Barrel you pull each turn goes to the Black Market.

Action Spots

Action Spots include Expand, Develop, Invest, and Grey Ops, as well as all of the Regions. Each is detailed below.

Each Action Spot has two options, except for the Regions, which only offer a single option, Shipping. When taking an action on a non-Region Action Spot, if you have the majority, you may use both of its two options in any order you like, or if you were tied, you have to pick one or the other.

Notes & Clarifications

Reminder: If you have the majority on an Action Spot, you may use both of its two options, in any order you like. If you are tied, you may break the tie by pulling one Barrel from the bag first, and then you may use one of the two options of that Action Spot.

Regions only have one option: Shipping. No matter whether you have the majority or break a tie, you may only choose this option on Region Action Spots.

Reminder: After taking an action on any Action Spot, return all your Agents from that Action Spot to your HQ. It does not matter how many Agents you have on an Action Spot: you may only take the action once (but possibly use both of its options) and then you have to return all your Agents from that spot to your HQ.

Expand Action Spot

Option 1 "Recruit" — Take one of your Agents from the general reserve and place it in your HQ.

Option 2 "Dispatch" — Move all of your Agents from the Expand Action Spot to another Action Spot of your choice. Then, you may either immediately take an action there as per the usual rules, or leave them there for later use.

Notes & Clarifications

Dispatched Agents must follow all the rules for Reassigning Agents and Taking Actions. For example, Dispatched Agents may not break the "only five Agents per Action Spot" rule, and must be in the majority to take both Actions on their new Action Spot.

You may obviously not reassign Agents on the same turn either to the Expand Action Spot or to the Spot you Dispatched to (if you took an action there) on the same turn, since you already removed Agents from both of those spots.

Agents you Recruit are used in the exact same way as your two starting Agents from the moment on you place them in your HQ.

You can not have more than four Agents in total.

Develop Action Spot

Option 1 "Drill" — You may take one of the three Oil Field cards from the open display and place it face up into your HQ.

If you picked an Oil Field card with a Security symbol, immediately take one Security Chip from the general reserve, if there is one left, and place it into your HQ (see Shipping, below).

Then, for each full Barrel pictured on the card, search and take one black Barrel from the bag and place it on the indicated Region. This does not count as pulling. Then, for each question-mark Barrel pictured on the card, you may pull one Barrel from the bag. Place all black Barrels you pulled on the indicated Region and resolve possible PR Crises.

Lastly, reveal a new Oil Field card from the deck and place it face up into the open display.

Option 2 "Whitewash" — You may discard one face up PR Crisis card from your HQ. To do so, you must pay Barrels from your HQ, removing them from the game. Level 1 is free, Level 2 costs one Barrel, Level 3 costs two Barrels.

Notes & Clarifications

At the start of any Drill action, you may discard the three open Oil Field cards to the bottom of the corresponding deck and reveal three new ones from that deck.

Keep Oil Field cards until the end of the game in your HQ, they grant a bonus scoring (see Scoring, below).

To Drill, you do not need any Agents on the indicated Region, as your Agents on the Develop Action Spot do all the work.

The total number of Security Chips is limited. If there are none left in the general reserve, you simply may not take any. You may hold as many as you like.

When Whitewashing, you may only discard a face up PR Crisis card. If you can not pay to do so, you may not discard a face down one instead. Return discarded PR Crisis cards face down to the bottom of the corresponding deck.

Invest Action Spot

Buying these Start-ups that are dabbling in new technologies is the key to your future. Also, carefully releasing research results and scientific evidence into the public is key to making sure that everybody understands the importance of certain technologies in the unlikely event of Peak Oil. It is of course also your duty to warn the public of potentially dangerous technologies. Because science.

Option 1 "Start-Ups" — You may buy one of the three Start-up cards from the open display. Each costs as many Barrels from your HQ as there are currently Barrels on the corresponding Technology on the Technology Track. Discard the Barrels from your HQ out of the game and, after showing the chosen Start-up card to all players, place it face down into your HQ. Then, reveal a new Start-Up card from the deck and place it face up into the open display.

Option 2 "Technologies" — You may place one Barrel from your HQ onto one of the Technology spaces on the Technology Track.

Notes & Clarifications

At the start of any Start-Ups action, you may discard the three open Start-Up cards to the bottom of the corresponding deck and reveal three new ones from that deck.

You may freely pick which one of the three Start-Ups from the open display you buy, provided you can pay for it.

Note that at the beginning of the game, all Start-Up cards are free, as the Tech track does not yet contain any Barrels. (Technically, they cost some money, but so little that it is considered peanuts for a big oil company.) As the game progresses, and the Tech track fills up, acquiring Start-Ups becomes gradually more expensive.

Note that the Barrels on the Tech track not only set the price to buy corresponding Start-Up cards at any given moment: they also represent the VP value of these cards at game end. A free Start-Up does not cost you anything, but is also not yet worth anything. You should consider investing on the Technologies that are being developed by the Start-Ups you acquired.

Whenever you place Barrels on Technology spaces on the Tech track, you effectively increase the price and the value of all corresponding Start-Up cards (see Scoring, below).

Start-Ups Example: Karen takes the Start-Ups action. The open Start-Up cards display and the Tech track currently contain the following. There are no Barrels on the Ethanol Technology, so the card above is free. There are two Barrels on the SPMR Technology, so the card below costs two. There is one Barrel on the Agropolymers Technology, so the card above costs one. Karen decides to place the Agropolymers card into her HQ, and discards one Barrel from her HQ out of the game.

Grey Ops Action Spot

First, and regardless of whether you use only one or both options, you must place one Barrel from your HQ onto an empty Black Market slot of your choice.

Option 1 "Black Market" — You may move all Barrels currently on the Black Market from their slots onto the corresponding Technology spaces on the Tech track.

Option 2 "Consultants" — You may take one Consultant Card from the open display and place it into your HQ. You must take a Level 1 card first, Level 2 second, and Level 3 third. You may have only one card of each level.

Notes & Clarifications

If you can not place a Barrel from your HQ into the Black market, you may not take this action at all.

All effects on Consultant cards are active from the moment you place them into your HQ. The Consultant cards in each game are limited (see Setup, above). It is possible that there are no remaining cards of a level available, in which case you may not take a card.

Region Spots — Shipping

This Action is taken when Agents are placed on a Region on the map; there is no separate Action Spot.

Choose a shipping route directly connecting your shipping Region with a target Refinery.

You may not pick a shipping route containing the "closed" Risk chip; this route is closed for shipping.

For each question mark Barrel shown on a Risk chip on your shipping route, pull one Barrel and apply the results (see Barrels in a Bag, above).

Then, take into your hand as many Barrels from your shipping Region as demanded by the target Refinery's Demand chip.

For each skull symbol shown on a Risk chip on your shipping route, place one of these Barrels into the Black Market (see Black Market, above).

Place the remaining Barrels from your hand into your HQ.

After shipping is completed, flip all Risk chips on your shipping route, and the target Refinery's chip.

At any time during your turn, you may return Security chips from your HQ to the general reserve. For each chip you return, either swap two Refinery chips or two Risk chips, or flip one Refinery or Risk chip, anywhere on the board.

Notes & Clarifications

These Action Spots have only one option, and the usual majority rules apply.

The Region you take this action in is called the shipping Region.

The white lines on the sea and the black lines on the ground are the available shipping routes. Some have a little arrow pointing one way; you may not ship along these in the other direction.

You can never collect more Barrels from one Shipping action than the shipping Region currently holds, even if the Demand at your target Refinery is higher. If you ship fewer Barrels than the Region currently holds, the remaining Barrels remain on the Region.

The Pirates steal from the Barrels you ship, not from your shipping Region. This means that the maximum number of Barrels you receive from any Shipping action is the Demand at your target Refinery minus the number of skull symbols on your shipping route.

All Barrels you add to the Black Market due to Pirates are in addition to the single Barrel per turn you might add due to pulling Barrels from the bag.

Empty, or white, Risk chips have no effect. All Risk chips show a little icon in the lower area that serves as a reminder of what they have on their back sides.

Shipping Example: Karen takes a Shipping action in the Gulf Region and decides to ship to Rotterdam. The Demand in Rotterdam is currently four. First, Karen discards her single Security marker to swap the Risk chips in Belarus and the Suez Canal. Then, for the Risk chip on the Suez Canal, she pulls two Barrels from the bag. Both are black, she adds the first to the Black Market and returns the second to the bag. Then, she takes four Barrels from the Gulf Region, places one on the Black Market for the Risk marker on the Gulf of Aden and the remaining three into her HQ. Lastly, she flips the chips on the Gulf of Aden, the Suez Canal and Rotterdam and returns her two purple Agents from the Gulf Region to her HQ. One Barrel and Sandra's yellow Agent remain on the Gulf Region.

Peak Oil — Endgame

As everybody is deeply surprised that the oil indeed has suddenly run out, regular rules do not apply any more. Countries start closing down their shipping contracts to keep their last reserves, oil replacement technologies become too important to be left to small Start-Ups and there is general chaos. Big mayhem ensues. The end is nigh.

Peak Oil is triggered when the last black Barrel is removed from the bag.

The player who triggers Peak Oil flips their HQ card to its back side. It now serves as the Peak Oil marker. They finish their turn as usual, including reassigning an Agent in their Step 2.

Then, in turn order, each other player may reassign one of their Agents.

The Peak Oil phase begins. Check all Action Spots in this order:

1. Expand
2. Develop
3. All five Regions
4. Invest
5. Grey Ops

On each Action Spot, each player with at least one Agent will be allowed to use one option of that action:

• If one player has the majority on an Action Spot, that player is the first to use one of its options. Then, they remove their Agents from that Action Spot.
• Thereafter, or if no player has the majority, starting with the player with the Peak Oil marker and going clockwise, each (other) player with Agents on that Action spot may use one of its options as well, removing their Agents afterwards.

Do not replenish the available Oil Field and Start-up cards during Peak Oil.

Once you have checked all Action Spots, and removed all Agents from the board, the game ends. Proceed to Scoring, below.

Notes & Clarifications

During the Peak Oil phase, everything else is as usual, including bag pulls, PR Crises and any payments required.

Note that during Peak Oil, you may only use an option first if you alone have the majority on an Action Spot. In all other cases, seating order in relation to the Peak Oil marker decides player order.

If you use the option Dispatch on the Expand Action Spot, leave the dispatched Agents on the destination Action Spot for now. Resolve the outcome of that Spot when that Action Spot is checked.

Note that the order in which you check all Action Spots is from left to right, which is also noted on the board. The Regions are checked in the same order (Venezuela, Libya, Nigeria, Gulf Region and Russia).

Instead of taking an action, you may decide to do nothing and just remove your Agents from the Action Spot.

Scoring

Calculate your final score by adding up the following:

Start-Up Score

Each of your Start-Up cards is worth:

• 1 VP (victory point) per Barrel placed on the space of the corresponding Technology on the Tech Track,
• plus an additional 1 VP per matching symbol on your Oil Field cards.

Therefore, Start-Up cards may have different values for different players, since not all players have the same Oil Field cards.

Score this value once for each of your Start-Up cards, including the three ones in your Private Portfolio.

Consultant Score

Each Consultant card in your HQ gives you the printed VPs.

• Level 1 cards give 1 VP.
• Level 2 cards give 1 VP.
• Level 3 cards give 2 VPs.

PR Score

Each face up PR Crisis card in your HQ costs you the printed VP value.

• Level 1 cards cost 1 VP.
• Level 2 cards cost 3 VPs.
• Level 3 cards cost 5 VPs.

The player with the highest total score wins.

In case of a tie, the player who lost fewer points to PR Crises wins. If still tied, higher Start-Up score, then higher Consultant score wins. If still tied, play again.

Scoring Example

At game end, Alba has these cards in her HQ. Alba holds three Hydrogen Cells Start-Up cards (two regular ones plus one in her Private Portfolio,) one Ethanol, two SPMR, and one Agropolymers. Alba holds these four Oil Field cards.

Consulting the Technology Track, Alba's Start-up score is:

Technology	Barrels on track	VP each	Total
3 Hydrogen Cells	3	3 VP	9 VP
1 Ethanol	0	0 VP	0 VP
2 SPMR	2	2 VP	4 VP
1 Agropolymers	—	2 VP	2 VP

Total Start-Up score: 15 VP

There are two Barrels on the Hydrogen Cells Technology, and Alba holds one Oil Field with a Hydrogen Cells symbol, so each Hydrogen Cells Start-Up card is worth 3 VPs for Alba. There are zero Barrels on the Ethanol Technology and Alba holds no Oil Field cards with an Ethanol symbol, so each Ethanol Start-Up card is worth 0 VPs. Each SPMR Start-Up is worth 2 VPs, since there are two Barrels on the SPMR Technology and Alba holds no Oil Field cards with a SPMR symbol. Since Alba holds one matching Oil Field card and there is one Barrel on the Technology, each Tidal Power Start-Up card (if she had any) would be worth 2 VPs to her. Alba holds two matching Oil Fields, so even with no Barrels on the Technology, each Agropolymers Start-Up card is worth 2 VPs to her.

Alba has only a Level 1 Consultant card, yielding 1 additional VP.

Her face up Level 1 PR Crisis card costs her -1 VP. The face down Level 2 PR Crisis card does not cost any VP.

Alba's final score is:

• Start-Up score: 15 VP
• Consultant score: +1 VP
• PR score: -1 VP
• Total: 15 VP

Crude Rules (Advanced Variant)

Now that you have become a master in the dark arts of international oil trade, you might want to try this advanced variant. Beware, it can be quite a bit more cut-throat than the regular game, but hey, that's how we roll.

The advanced rules work mostly like the regular ones, with the exceptions below. Anything not mentioned here remains unchanged.

Setup — Remove the PR Crisis and Consultant cards from the game; you will not use them. Instead, place the PR Crisis track near the board.

Place the alternative Action Spot boards onto the board, covering the Action Spots that are changed.

Irrespective of player count, always put exactly two red Barrels into the bag. Remove the remaining three from the game.

Take an Action — You may use only one option on any Action Spot, regardless of whether you have the majority or pulled a barrel to break the tie. You may still freely pick which option you use.

PR Crisis — In case of a PR Crisis, do not discard barrels or draw a PR Crisis card. Instead, place one of your Agents on the leftmost spot of the PR Crisis track.

This track is a bump track. Any time an Agent is placed on a non-empty spot, first move the Agent currently occupying this spot to the next spot, possibly bumping the Agent there, etc. If an Agent is placed or moved onto an empty spot, no further bumping happens. If an Agent is moved off the last, rightmost spot, remove it from the track and immediately return it to the owner's HQ.

Example: Olja (orange) has to place one of her Agents onto the PR Crisis track. The first spot is occupied by Karen's purple Agent. Olja moves that Agent to the second spot and places hers on the first. Later on the same turn, Olja suffers a second PR Crisis. She places a second Agent on the PR Crisis track, bumping all Agents already there. Sandra's yellow Agent is bumped off the track and returned to her HQ.

Agents on the track are stuck coping with the PR Crisis and may not be used for anything else.

If, at the start of your turn, all of your Agents (excluding the ones still in the general supply) are stuck on the PR Crisis track, take all of them back to your HQ. The public has finally lost interest in your continuous Crises.

In a two- or three-player game, the first spot on the PR Crisis track is not used. Skip it when placing Agents on the track.

Action Spot Develop — You may not replace the Oil Field cards in the open display before taking a Drill action.

The Whitewash option is replaced with the action Research: You may replace the three open Oil Field cards and the three Start-Up cards with new ones from their respective decks, returning the old ones to the bottom of these decks.

Action Spot Invest — You may not replace the Start-Up cards before taking a Start-Ups action.

The Marketing option is replaced with the action Whitewash: You may take all your Agents from the PR Crisis track and place them back into your HQ.

Action Spot Grey Ops — When taking a Grey Ops action here, you do not have to, and even may not, place a Barrel onto the Black Market first.

The Consultants action is replaced with the option Marketing: You may place one Barrel from your HQ onto one of the Technology spaces on the Tech track. Alternatively, you may move one of the Barrels already on the Tech track to a different Technology space. If you use the latter alternative, you must pay as many Barrels from your HQ out of the game as the target Technology space holds Barrels after the action. If you can not pay, you may not use this alternative.

Scoring — Do not score Consultant cards or PR Crisis cards. Instead, lose 2 VPs for each of your Agents still on the PR Crisis track at game end.

Action Summary

Expand

• Recruit: Take 1 Agent of your color and put it in your HQ.
• Dispatch: Move all your Agents from this Spot to another Spot, then you may activate that Spot.

Develop

• Drill: May replace Oil Field cards. Take an Oil Field card, possibly take Security marker, put black Barrels from the bag on Region, may pull question-mark Barrels and put on Region.
• Whitewash: Discard face up PR Crisis card. Possibly pay for this (0/1/2).

Invest

• Start-Ups: May replace Start-Up cards. Acquire a Start-Up card, spending Barrels from your HQ. Price equals number of Barrels on corresponding Technology.
• Technologies: Place 1 Barrel from your HQ on a Technology on the Tech track.

Grey Ops

• Place one Barrel onto the Black Market.
• Black Market: Move all Barrels from the Black Market onto the corresponding Technologies.
• Consultants: Take a Consultant card.

Shipping

• Pay Security markers to flip or swap Risk or Demand chips.
• Pull 1 Barrel for each question mark on your route.
• Take the number of barrels shown on your target Refinery's Demand chip from the Region, place 1 on the Black Market for each skull on your route, and the rest into your HQ.

Very Short Rules

On your turn, take these steps in this order:

1. Reassign one Agent or take an action.
2. Reassign one Agent.
3. Optional: pay 2 to reassign one Agent.

Remember: Max. 5 Agents per Action Spot.

Take an Action — If you have the majority, use both options. If you are tied, pull 1 Barrel and use 1 option. After the action, return all your Agents from this Action Spot to your HQ.

Pulling Barrels — Black: Place the first on an empty Black Market slot of your choice. Other: For each, suffer a PR Crisis. You may pull again. Discard yellow.

PR Crisis — Discard half the Barrels from your HQ (rounded down) and flip one PR Crisis card face up. If impossible, take one of the next higher level, face down.

Peak Oil — When you remove the last black Barrel from the bag, finish your turn and flip your HQ card as the Peak Oil marker. Each other player may reassign 1 Agent.

Peak Oil Phase — For each Action Spot, the majority player uses one option first, then (or if tied), starting with the Peak Oil marker, all (other) players present use one option.

Scoring — Each Start-Up (including Private Portfolio): 1 VP per Barrel on its Technology, plus 1 VP per Oil Field card with matching symbol you hold. Subtract VPs for PR Crisis cards and add VPs for consultant cards.

Credits

Game Design — Tobias Gohrbandt & Heiko Günther

Game Development — Gil Hova, Álvaro Lerma Rodrigo & Jordi Rodríguez Samaniego

Art and Graphic Design — Heiko Günther

Thanks — Sergio Navarro, Alberto Cano, Victor Samitier, Chris Halaska, Arne Kjell Vikhagen, Patrick Surdez, Christie Woodruff

Special Thanks — Alba, Karen, Olja, Sandra

© 2017 2tomatoes — visit www.2tomatoesgames.com for further information