The demos and events in Egypt have reminded me a lot of a diplomacy type game I used to play a lot, named “Junta” (Junta (game) - Wikipedia ).
Anyone here has played that game, or still plays it?
Oh yeah:
allways first rebel,
never El Presidente
someone should make version you could play by mail (or by message board)
Funny, I often won, but usually because I managed to stay Prez a long time and was quite generous with the budget. On the long run, you make more money that any of your “favourites”, and most will defend your regime as any other new one would not end up being as generous.
Problem with the game, as with any diplomacy like game, is that it always ended up being too long, and had to be shortened (I’m talking shortening after six or seven hours of play).
All in all it is my fav diplo game, because unlike diplo, even when stuck in a bad position or with not much prospect of winning, you’re still in the game, and still have a lot of fun. I also think the random elements (like cards) made the game more interesting than any other diplo game (and God knows Dune is a great contender in that category).
the trouble I had with Junta is that it is the most fun when played with seven players, and finding 7 players for a 4 to 6 hour game was hard
Shell the Presidential Palace!
I haven’t played this game for years. 
Oh yes! I liked it a lot, but didn’t play it in many, many years. It was one of the funniest board games, IMO.
The greatest difficulty, I think was to pick the right time to deposit money on one’s swiss account.
Played it a lot in college.
It sounds like a fascinating board game, but I can’t imagine seven of my friends wanting to play a six-hour long game with me.
Fortunately I can play Tropico 3 on my computer instead. 
I own it but haven’t played in a year or so. I have a large mixed gaming group and they liked the core concept, but I think there are some major flaws that keep it from coming back to the table. That game could really use a reprint and/or expansion.
I have to say it really made me laugh when I discovered Tropico, as they can be quite similar in mood, cool game, but Junta was awesomerer. You’d be lucky to end a game in six hours, the few times we completed it it was easily in the eight hours. Ha college time, when you really had enough time to play games.
“Shell the Presidential Palace!”, lol, the battle cry of many Admirals, after getting shoved on the budget redistribution, again.
Well, Mubarak probably beat Ben Ali (actually the events in Egypt in Tunisia is what reminded me of Junta).
Have seen many coups started just to get a hand on the President’s pocket money (as he was too scared to go deposit it).
Really? Have played quite a few diplo games, and always thought Junta was the best (the best feature for me being that you’re never out of the game, no matter what). The only problem is the time consumed by playing the coups.
Could you develop on what you see as flaws in the game?
I only played Junta a couple times, and years and years ago, so any recollection I have of flaws would be suspect. But going off this thread:
- Way too long
- Best with way too many players
Capitaine, ever play Kremlin? I liked that one and found it (relatively) easy to get players, but again, quite an old game. I expect that some eurogame company or other has a nice line of diplo games.
I haven’t played in ten years or more, but I remember one moment where I held the deciding vote, betrayed everybody, declared myself president, got massacred on the next turn.
Good times.
-The excessive time spent with the coup miniature battles is one. I like that you can fight, it just really seems like some kind of card tactical phase or chess like move and capture could really bring it some flavor and really speed up the game over the I-go-you-go dice combat.*
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There should be more opportunities for black stabbing intrigue and political maneuvering. That’s what this game is really about and yeah this game is what you make it (Diplomacy, as mentioned, has exactly this without ever having to tell players to do it) but It’d be nice if there was some way for those cast out of a regime to hurt the ruling autocracy or those in it to sabotage it for political gain.
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Stashing the most amount of cash in your Swiss Bank account is the only way to win, I’d be fun if players were scored on other factors like political repression, how much they limited the press, guerrilla movement support, religious support. Forcing ruling regimes to make hard choices about who they back and by how much would make a far more interesting game than simply flooding your two buddies with cash and privilege to suppress two others.
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More flavor could be added if the players took on different historical characters, each with different benefits and problems (I really liked this about Tropico)
With the right group much of this is unnecessary as they’ll bring their own fun, but the game could do more to bring the right attitude to the table.
*I love plenty of wargames like this, but Junta is not a wargame and should focus more on what is fun about it’s own unique play.
Never played it at all, so I don’t have any advantages and y’all should go easy on me. Hey, can I be the bank ? 
Only if you’re Swiss.
Junta is very difficult to get started with, IMO, but once everybody is going it can’t be beat for backstabbing and diplomacy. I have a friend who still resents the time I shot him in the back at the bank moments before he could deposit his money, more than 10 years ago. He had controlled a faction for hours that was too strong to revolt against and took all the American money, so he had amassed a fortune. In one move I got the money and touched of months of civil war. The chaos was more profitable to me than the peace had been.
A couple of time we’ve played massive games where there were so many people that you lost your seat at the table when you were killed. Much beer was involved so I have no idea if anyone won. Good times - until the next day.
Must be a question of numbers and having crooked friends. I never had any shortages of backstabbing and betrayal when playing this game with 6 of my usual buddies (actually we had to put a time limit on negociations, otherwise they went on forever, especially during coups).
I disagree for the character thing, the “family” idea is, in my opinion, the best feature of the game.
As for having different victoriy conditions, I dont know, Dune kind of went that way of adding layer upon layer of cool optional rules, but in the end it overwhelmed the players.
My older bro was the wargame/boardgame/rpg buff. And I was his guinea pig.
He had Kremlin and as he was very interested in the USSR back in the days, so he played it quite often. Sadly, it is one of the rare games I wasnt subjected to.
The diplo games I used to play with him or my friends were:
-Junta
-Dune
-Diplomacy
-Civilization
And I hate both Diplo and Civ.
There was a really cool wargame/diplo game called Montjoie about the Hundred Years War, I definitely recomend it (apparently there’s also a video game version of it). It stays within a reasonable time limit, and it is not so complex that you can read and understand the rules in less than twenty minutes yet offers a serious depth in play.
That’s why the game needs the full seven players to work properly. If you pay off two buddies, the other four will kill you; if you pay off three you’re still only one event or assassination away from losing a coup; if you pay off four there’s not so much cash to go round and it’s hard to build a winning lead before the backstabbing starts. With fewer players, the President is too powerful and it’s too easy to set up an unbeatable coalition.
The coups can get tedious though, especially since they usually consist of the armies seizing a location each and then the generals deciding which side they’re on.