BoardGamer

The first thing I should do is explain why I have chosen this little known game that was produced in 1985 for my first posted review.  The truth is that some of my fondest gaming memories are of my family (father, 2 brothers, brother-in-law and myself) playing Ultimatum late into the night during the Christmas holidays many years ago.  Having played it many times over the years I can honestly say that this is a fun game that has been unjustly forgotten about.  It is my hope that this review might peak the interest of even a few people.

Ultimatum contains a mounted map, currency denominations of 1,5 and 10 billion dollars, 4 unique dice, 72 action cards.  The game uses small circular disks for armies along with battleship and submarine miniatures for each player (3-6 players).  The rules are presented in an easy to read pamphlet that is basically 10 pages long.  All the pieces were well produced with the focus being more on function than on appearance (although everything looks good).

Ultimatum is set in a future where the world has been divided into three major alliances which are listed as Communist, Western and Peace.  In addition a number of oil producing states are listed that are very important in terms of geo-politics.  In order to win the game you must control one of the major alliances along with all the oil producing states (in the three player game you must control 2 alliances + the oil).  At your disposal is a military made up of army, navy and air force units (later in the game you can also buy lasers space stations). 

Ultimatum is definitely a dice rolling game.  Different dice are used depending on the type of combat but in almost every battle heavy casualties are taken.  In order to succeed in the game you need to make sure that you are able to bring in enough money through conquest and control that you can continue to finance your military expansion.  While the movement and dice rolling mechanics of the game are rather simple these rules are augmented with a deck of cards.  These cards provide players with many creative attack and defense options and it should really be pointed out that this game was ahead of its time in terms of card usage.

In the end Ultimatum can basically be described as a hardcore version of Risk.  The benefit of this is that you don't need a hardened group of war gamers to play it but it will definitely satisfy those who can't handle another game of Risk or Monopoly.  You will need to set aside a good 3 to 4 hours to complete this game and it can last longer.  The strength of this game is that when it is played with a close group of friends you will find lots of opportunity for negotiation and table banter.  The real reason I love this game that it is a perfect fit for the "take over the World" game genre that I love so much.  This is a game where you will feel in control of your strategy and in charge of your destiny

Overall 9/10

P.S. I'd love to hear your thoughts on the game or ideas on how to improve my review.