Illuminati: Deluxe Edition (1999 Edition)

Complexity Medium Cost £29 Duration Medium-Long Players 2-6 expands to 8 Producer Steve Jackson Games Size Medium

Premise

It's still not paranoia when they are out to get you

Review

This is the latest edition of the original Deluxe Edition and with a few small exceptions is exactly the same as the original. Gone are the Fifth International and Iranian Moderates groups, but they are replaced by Chinese Campaign Donors and Copy Shops.

The graphics on all of the cards have been redone in the colourful INWO style. Every group card has a unique background for example. Furthermore, the special cards now have graphics for the first time.

Minor gripes are that the rulebook is folded in two to make it fit in the smaller box. I think it would have been better to have made it half size to avoid this. On the plus side, the box interior is sturdy cardboard and has enough space to hold the expansion set (just) although there is no proper space for the money.

Expansions

Y2K

The Y2K expansion includes 109 new cards for the game. There are 72 group cards, 26 special cards and two new Illuminati: the Church of the SubGenius and Shangri-La. None of these cards were in the older Deluxe edition. Although in theory, you could use the extra Illuminati to increase the number of players, it isn't recommended to go beyond 6 players (there are rules for 8 in the basic game).

There are a few minor rule changes, but you may decide to not play them of course. I seem to recognise a few of the groups from the original Illuminati and its three expansions. Many of these also appeared in INWO, but with different abilities of course. At £12 the expansion is pretty good value for money (it has as many cards really as the basic set). The expansion set fits into the original box but you may decide to remove the cardboard insert to make access easier.

Brainwash

Brainwash is a revision of the third expansion for the original version of Illuminati. It does not add any new cards, but includes a paper board which is used to track the ascendancy (or not) of each alignment. As players alter the relative power of each alignment, this has a positive or negative affect on the bonuses available from groups with those alignment (Propaganda). Alternatively, players can attempt to change alignments on their own groups, or to build up the power of individual groups.

The set provides a set of cardboard tokens (which need cutting out) which allow you to indicate changes to the groups. There are also a few new optional rules, including two new Illuminati and rules for varying the turnorder. Note that the board is pretty flimsy and you will need to protect it in some way. Photocopying onto board would be ideal.

The expansion comes in a ziplock bag and also includes some additional cash tokens. At around £10 it is reasonable value for money and effectively completes the current edition. It's possible that additional cards may appear, but this should complete the ruleset.

Rating

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