The Manhattan Project Strategy Game Overview

Disclosure

I am old enough (just barely) to remember performing bomb drills in grade school. They were usually coupled with the more frequent tornado drills, but it was obvious to this 5yr old that they were very different. At the time I didn’t really understand why someone would want to bomb us, but I did as told and got under my desk.

Then in high school I remember learning about The Manhattan Project. The name stuck in my mind because again, why would someone want to bomb New York? Yeah, history wasn’t my best subject. I did remember it had something to do with WWII and the atomic bombs, but that’s all that stuck. I didn’t remember there was actually a ‘race’ with other countries to be the first to develop the technology. Nor did I recall there were actually two types of bombs. And I certainly forgot there were more on order from Major General Leslie Groves to the tune of three per week! That is until a game from Minion Games brought all of those tucked-away facts back.

We learned a lot about The Manhattan Project by playing this title from Minion Games. Too bad this isn't used in the classroom - I would have gotten all A's! - SahmReviews.com

The Manhattan Project is a refreshingly accurate portrayal of the nuclear arms race during the latter part of World War II. Each player represents a country (with the highly-recommended Nations Expansion) trying to be the first to develop their own arsenal of either uranium or plutonium-based weapons. This is a true worker-placement game with a scoring twist. In most games of this type at the end of every round you do some intermediate scoring and then a final scoring after a pre-determined number of turns. Not so in this one!

We learned a lot about The Manhattan Project by playing this title from Minion Games. Too bad this isn't used in the classroom - I would have gotten all A's! - SahmReviews.com

You begin the game with four generic workers (manufactured on super-thick cardboard, making them VERY easy to handle) and place as many as you wish on your turn. The only placement rule is as follows – you may place one worker per turn on the main board and then as many as you’d like on your board (or your opponents’). When you run out of workers to place, you must spend the next turn calling them home.

We learned a lot about The Manhattan Project by playing this title from Minion Games. Too bad this isn't used in the classroom - I would have gotten all A's! - SahmReviews.com

With only four workers, you’ll find yourself running out of things to do rather quickly, so it becomes important to upgrade them to engineers or scientists. Remember, you’re building bombs and regular ‘Joe’ isn’t knowledgeable enough to do it on his own. So you send him to University to become one of the two professions.

We learned a lot about The Manhattan Project by playing this title from Minion Games. Too bad this isn't used in the classroom - I would have gotten all A's! - SahmReviews.com

There are a number of other things your workers (and chemists/engineers) can do on their turn. They can recruit more people onto your team, build buildings in your country, mine for uranium, transmute the uranium into plutonium and even spy on other countries! Everyone can choose a different path, but ultimately you all have to try to build bombs.

We learned a lot about The Manhattan Project by playing this title from Minion Games. Too bad this isn't used in the classroom - I would have gotten all A's! - SahmReviews.com

Back to the long-lost facts. If I asked you what yellowcake was, would you refer me to a recipe? Or did you remember that it is actually the nickname of a type of uranium powder obtained during one of the ore processing steps? Yeah, me either. Yellowcake is what you might consider the currency of The Manhattan Project. You’ll need to mine it to build your uranium bombs or convert it into plutonium to develop an even more powerful version.

We learned a lot about The Manhattan Project by playing this title from Minion Games. Too bad this isn't used in the classroom - I would have gotten all A's! - SahmReviews.com

Huge decks of cards guarantee that no two games will play the same. The randomness of the available buildings coupled with different types of bombs being available means the strategy you start the game with may not be the one that gets you to the end.

We learned a lot about The Manhattan Project by playing this title from Minion Games. Too bad this isn't used in the classroom - I would have gotten all A's! - SahmReviews.com

Of course, what is war without destruction?! You can take your fighters and bombers to another player in an attempt to temporarily destroy their buildings – a perfect solution for the person who looks like they’re running away with a win.

It would be next to impossible to lay out every rule and action you can take in The Manhattan Project – there are just too many! And that’s what makes the game so much fun! You can experiment with different strategies each time – send in your spies, cripple your opponents with bombs, spend all of your time building and recruiting – there’s a strategy for everyone (well, except maybe the pacifist in the family)!

Out of the box The Manhattan Project is a fantastic game that can be easily played by children as young as 8 years old, but enough deep strategy for adult of all ages. If you like worker-placement games, this one should be on your wishlist. The theme fits the mechanics so well, something that I’ve seen forced in other games.

We learned a lot about The Manhattan Project by playing this title from Minion Games. Too bad this isn't used in the classroom - I would have gotten all A's! - SahmReviews.com

I do have to say that after playing your first game, you should invest in the inexpensive Nations Expansion. Allowing each player to have a different ability makes the game that much more enjoyable (and really should have been part of the base game). There is also a new expansion called “Second Stage” that adds additional nations, rockets and even a hydrogen bomb which we hope to be able to show to you in the very near future!

You can pick up your own copy of The Manhattan Project on Amazon usually for around $35 shipped (maybe less during the holiday season). This is a solid game that will get many plays from your family and should be under your Christmas tree this year.

Find out what other great titles Minion Games is working on by following them on Twitter and Facebook. I hear rumors of an upcoming Kickstarter campaign in The Manhattan Project series, and we cannot wait to see what it is all about!

33 thoughts on “The Manhattan Project Strategy Game Overview

  1. The Cold War had us getting under desks as well–in case the Russian bombed us I think it was!! I didn’t start liking history until I hit college-nor did I pay much attention to it until then. This game does sound interesting!!

  2. This sounds like the perfect gift for my hubby! Thank you for the tip on buying the expansion- I usually never know what else to get to perfectly round out games (I’m more of a Candy Land- level). I know he will love adding this to game night with friends!

  3. I love learning about new games! The photos were spot on! I bet my son and hubs would enjoy this one! They are the game players in the family!

  4. This looks like a pretty cool game to enjoy with the family. I’d love to have my boys play board games with me once in a while. It is great bonding time if we are able to do that. Thanks for the review.

  5. I’m not good at history cause I think the classes were really boring. I really like that this game helps to learn more about history and at the same time have fun playing.

  6. I have never heard of this game. My dad is a military man I would if he would like this game, he is a huge game lover. Great review of this game. You always find the coolest games.

  7. Sounds like a challenging game. I love strategic games such as this and Monopoly. Maybe I’ll try to get one this year for me and my girls.

  8. This sounds like a fun game. I like that it has a history twist to it as well. Might as well make learning fun. Plus, board games are great for bonding with the family. My youngest already loves board games.

  9. Ok, being the total history nerd that I am, this game looks like a total blast! I’m going to have to check more into getting my hands on this!

  10. I really enjoy reading your reviews of games. My happiest memories when I was younger was sitting around the table with family or friends playing games….all gathered together laughing, being silly and competitive, snacking, talking and just having so much fun. So please keep the reviews coming.

  11. That looks and sounds like a pretty complex game….good and bad. Bad because it probably takes a long time to learn the rules and figure out strategies and good because no two games would ever be the same and it would keep you involved. I’d be interesting to see 8 years old play compared to adult play.

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