Exchequer!

This year’s Christmas game for tax enthusiasts is Exchequer!

Don’t worry: the rules are marginally shorter than Tolley’s yellow and orange handbooks.

This is a game for two to six players – if your tax department stretches to it.

You and your co-players represent the tax authority of a fictional country, which entirely coincidentally has similar taxes to the UK. That aside, any other resemblance to any tax authority living or dead is purely coincidental and unintended.

To improve the efficiency of the tax authority it has been divided into six business streams and each player will control one of these
teams, choosing from:

• Blue-sky thinkers.
• Cross-fertilisers.
• Income-streamers.
• Added-value deliverers.
• Low-hanging fruitpickers.
• Same hymn sheet singers.

Business stream members can be represented by counters, crumpled-up sweet wrappers (doesn’t everyone get a tin of sweets at this time of year), torn up coloured paper hats, perhaps paperclips bent into different shapes from the office stationery cupboard, or even the little discs punched out of some coloured paper with a hole-punch.

You’re intelligent people; you get the idea.

Then decide the colour or type of token that represents your team, a number of these are allocated to each player depending on the number of players, as follows.

• Two players:  40 tokens each.
• Three players:  35 tokens each.
• Four players:  30 tokens each.
• Five players:  25 tokens each.
• Six players:  20 tokens each.

In addition, there will need to be some reserve team tokens for each player.

The board

The game board should be downloaded here (right-click on the link and select 'Save link as') and then printed out.

It represents the Exchequer and 42 taxes, duties and other revenue-raising charges or payments administered by it.

Unfortunately, as is the way of things, each player (and their business stream) will have their own designs on how to administer the tax system.

Don’t worry exactly what those designs are for the moment; remember our illustrious leaders, what’s the point of policies if you haven’t got control? You can worry about those administrative policies later: maybe in next year’s game now we think of it.

Each player will try first to control individual departments (income tax, landfill tax, etc.) by placing a token representing one of their business stream members in that departmental area.

Taking it in turns, each player places one team member token on a departmental area.

Players should bear in mind that if they occupy all of the taxes, duties, etc. within any of the seven ‘pie-slice shaped’ sectors at the start of their turn, this will entitle them to three additional team members for each sector held.

The sectors are as follows.

• National Insurance.
• Capital taxes.
• ‘Sin’ taxes.
• Green taxes.
• Income taxes.
• Administration.
• VAT.

When placing tokens, you will therefore want to try to occupy these whole sectors, while your opponents will probably try to stop you when placing their own tokens.

Once all of the 42 tax areas have been occupied, players take it in turns to place their other tokens from the totals allocated as listed above on the areas already occupied by them.

Having additional team tokens on an area will enable an attempt to be made to take over an adjoining tax/duty area and, if successful, a team token(s) placed on it. Once placed, those team tokens cannot then be moved to another area at that stage.

Having decided who goes first (throw a die, have a fight: it's Christmas after all), that player is entitled to strengthen his team. This is done by taking team tokens equivalent to one-third of the number of departments controlled. This exercise is carried out at the start of each player’s turn.

For example, if there are four players, the player may control ten departments, so is entitled to another three team tokens.

If a whole tax sector (income taxes, VAT, etc.) is controlled, add another three tokens. These extra tokens can be placed on any tax area that he already controls.

Increasing influence

The player can now seek to obtain control of another adjoining tax area unless it is separated from it by a thick white line.

He must have at least two team tokens on the area that he already occupies because, if he is successful, at least one team token will be needed to occupy the new tax area and he must always maintain at least one team token on a controlled area.

Success is decided by the throw of a die.

Having decided which area he wishes to try to take control of, Player 1 can use one, two or three of the team tokens placed on the area that he already controls in his attempt to take control of the adjoining area.

This is on the basis that he has two, three or four (or more) team tokens on the area that he already controls. To do this he can use up to three dice. The number of dice thrown cannot exceed the number of tokens being used in the takeover attempt.

Player 1 rolls his die.

The defending player (Player 2) can roll two dice if they have at least three occupying team member tokens on their area, otherwise they must use one die.

The results on the highest dice thrown by Players 1 and 2 are then compared. The highest wins and the loser removes a token from their area.

The second highest dice (if any) of each are then similarly compared and a token removed from the area occupied by the loser.

In the event of both dice showing the same number, the ‘defending’ player, Player 2 here, wins.

As an example, Player 1 controls the inheritance tax area and has four tokens on it. He decides to try to move into the department next door (stamp duty) which is occupied by three of Player 2’s tokens.

(N.B. he could not try to move to Class 1B NIC due to the blocking white line, but could, alternatively, attempt to occupy – if he does not already do so –capital gains tax, stamp duty land tax, or pre-owned assets tax.)

Say, Player 1 throws three dice showing 6, 4 and 2 and Player 2 throws two dice both showing 5.

Here, both players lose one token from their respective tax areas; Player 1’s throw of a six beating Player 2’s throw of five and Player 2’s second throw of five beating Player 1’s second highest dice showing four.

If dice are not available, players can use a virtual dice thrower. This can be programmed to throw more than one die at a time.

Now play on

Player 1 can continue his attempt to occupy a neighbouring tax area until he succeeds or decides to stop. If he succeeds, he may then choose to try to occupy further departmental areas until he decides to stop.

Once Player 1 decides to stop further play during his turn he can then move any number of his tokens from one of his departments to any other adjoining one that he already occupies if he wishes to strengthen his business stream team in that ‘department’.

Remembering, of course, that at least one token must remain in any department.

Play continues until one player occupies the whole of the Exchequer.

If there are only two players, a third ‘neutral’ party should be played.

This neutral party does not seek to occupy departments, but when one of the main players receives additional team tokens at the start of their turn, the neutral party is allocated half of that number (disregard fractions) and these are distributed amongst the neutral departments by the second player, who will also throw the die on behalf of the neutral party if the other player seeks to occupy a neutral department.

Playing tips

You may have noticed a passing similarity to the game Risk!. Additional notes on the rules for that game that might be applied here can be found online.

Furthermore, if you find that the game is taking too long and you are likely to miss the office party as a result, the game might be speeded up by players agreeing to omit play from, say, either the inner or outer circles of tax departments.

Taxation hopes that you enjoy playing Exchequer! during the holiday and looks forward to seeing you in the New Year.

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