The Politburo itself is represented by a heirarchy of offices on the gameboard, into which cards are placed showing the head and shoulders of different politicians. Players secretly assign from 1 to 10 points onto these cards and these are the ones that you have an interest in getting into offices of power.

This is where the fun of the game comes in as certain offices have special powers, for example, The Party Chief has the power to move people from post to post in any way he chooses. The KGB Head can purge people to Siberia, leaving their post vacant. The Foreign Minister can appoint a successor to the Party Chief after he dies or is purged. The Defense Minister can investigate and try people for crimes against the Party.

However, to use these abilities, you have to declare that the person in that office is one of yours, and thats where your troubles start as the other players then try to get your people out of office and their people into office!

The goal is to control the Party Chief when he waves at the end of the year. Do this for 3 years to win!

The game is a lot of fun to play as players vie for control of the offices and its worth playing even though some of the game mechanics are a little dated compared to games of today, but all that backstabbing and fun of the game is what has made this game a bit of a classic over the years.

Review by Brian