Missionary Conquest

My family got a game called Missionary Conquest from my aunt for Christmas, so tonight we decided to try it out. At first it seemed like it was going to be a rather complicated game, but as we went along it turned out to be loads of fun!! I will try to explain it as best as I can. Bear with me, please!

It basically has the same set-up as Monopoly. However, instead of trying to buy properties, you are trying to successfully complete mission trips in different countries. If you look in the middle of our game board below, you will see the map of the world.

When we successfully completed a mission trip, we could place one of our colored markers on that country. The object of the game is to establish Missions in countries throughout the world, and to earn Blessing Points. There were 3 ways of winning the game:

1. Successfully make four mission trips in one color region of countries and earn a minimum of 700 Blessing points.

2. Successfully make six mission trips in any combination of color regions and earn a minimum of 500 Blessing points.

3. Successfully make one mission trip to each of the three countries - Iran, Iraq and Saudi Arabia with a minimum of 400 Blessing points. (Those are obviously harder countries to reach!)

Here's how you go about it....

Like Monopoly, we all started on the Start/Salary space. When it was your turn you would roll the dice. There are certain spaces you want to land on, and others you really want to avoid! If you landed on a Mission Trip space, you would then have the choice of which country you want to go on a mission's trip. Of course, all trips cost money, so you would have to pay the bank a certain amount to go on the trip. However, if you got other "fellow missionaries" to go along with you, they would help cut the cost down. They would also reap the benefits or the losses of the mission's trip, but only you were the one who could have the country in the end. Basically, their benefit was to gain Blessing points. For example, one of the countries I went to was Cuba. On the card there were 8 slots. You would take one of the dice, and put it on the bottom of the card as your marker. You would then roll the second dice. Whatever number you got, that is how many spaces you moved up on the card. You would then have to do whatever that space said. If, by chance, you moved all the way up the card without being expelled out of the country or being martyred (yikes!), you had a successful mission's trip and were able to put your marker on that country.

For example, here is what each space said on the card for the Cuba mission's trip:

1. You tell the crowds that communism does not work. For that, you are arrested and expelled from the country. Gain 75 Blessings.

2. You refuse to lend your Spanish Bible to a young believer without one. Lose 25 Blessings.

3. Boldly, you speak out against government corruption. Gain 25 Blessings.

4. The food is bad, and so is your attitude. Lose 25 Blessings.

5. You help smuggle Bibles into the country. Gain 25 Blessings.

6. Testifying to a waiter leads him to Christ. Gain 50 Blessings.

7. Roll again. :)

8. Your bad attitude offends the people. They demand you leave the country. Go to Bad Stewardship (which means you lose a turn, have to give back 25 blessings, and don't get your salary)

So it really can be challenging at times to have a successful mission's trip!

You have to gain a certain amount of Blessing points in order to win the game. Each little blessing point card counts for 25 blessings.

There are other ways to gain or lose blessing points. If you land on the space that says "Blessing" you can pick up a card from the "Blessing" stack.

Here is one I received tonight:

However, if you land on the space that says "Temptation", you must pick up a card from the "Temptation" stack and you can almost guarantee that you will be losing either blessing points or something else. This is one that my Dad received tonight, which we all found rather humorous!

However, since each Mission's trip costs money, you may eventually run out unless you invest in a Financial Opportunity! Each financial opportunity is risky, however, because your marker could land on the wrong space on the card! You could also have other team members invest with you, and they can either lose money or gain money depending on where your marker lands.

What really made the game fun was the fact that we had to watch out for the "Mission Board Hearing" space! (Forget the fact for a moment that we don't believe in Mission Boards, okay?! :))

If someone lands on that spot, they are at the mercy of the court basically. They have 30 seconds to prove what a good person they are, how they are faithful in their tithing, how they have done good deeds...yes, well, you get the general idea. :) Then, the rest of the players get to decide what the "fate" of that particular player should be. If they have ever had a negative attitude about something throughout the game, if they have cheated them out of their money through mission trip escapades or financial opportunities, etc., they could be in BIG trouble! They could lose a country, lose Blessing points, lose money, you name it! Soooo...although you could strategize throughout this game, you had to be REALLY careful how you went about it, or your fellow players could really get you when you landed on this spot! I had lots of fun trying to sound "spiritual" when things didn't go my way because I wanted to be "pardoned" if I ever landed on this spot!

So, yes, it was a bit complicated, and I hope I haven't totally confused you as I tried to explain it! I haven't even touched on some other factors of the game, but it was soooo much fun! We were laughing so much throughout the game. It was definitely a family fun night! :)

BTW, Andy was the first one to complete his Missionary Conquest. I almost had it if I had only known to shout "Missionary Conquest!" at the beginning of my turn. *Sigh* Oh well! Now I know for next time! :D