How to Play

Die Macher

3-5 players 240-240 min 7.6 Board Game Geek Rating

Players lead German political parties through seven regional elections, managing resources strategically to maximize influence. Victory points are earned through election performance, media control, party membership growth, and aligning platforms with national opinion. The party accumulating the most points across all regions wins this political strategy game.

Published 1986

Get Ready

Setup the game with these step-by-step instructions before diving into your turn.

Put together the four federal state boards to form one game board; place the five other boards and money nearby

Sort federal state cards into "large" and "small" (marked with ★) stacks, shuffle separately, draw two from each, shuffle together, and place one on each of the four federal state boards

Place the ballot box marker on the smallest state (lowest victory points)

Place one popular opinion card (+ and -) for each of seven topics on the popular opinions board; shuffle remaining cards as draw stack

Draw four popular opinions per federal state, place face down, then reveal

all four in smallest state, three in second state, two in third, one in fourth (no duplicate topics allowed)

Shuffle 10 poll cards and place face down on poll board

Shuffle party program cards, place as draw stack, reveal display cards based on player count (3 players

spaces marked ⬤⬤⬤; 4 players: add ⬤⬤⬤⬤; 5 players: add ⬤⬤⬤⬤⬤)

Each player chooses a party and takes

5 shadow cabinet politicians (with ④ icon) and 3 donation cards face down; 5 tracking markers (one at "0" votes on each state board, one at 10 on party base scale); 4 tracking markers at "0" trend on each state board; 4 media markers; 20 party rally cubes; 30,000€

Draft party programs

draw 7 cards, select 1, pass rest left, repeat 3 times; from 7 cards choose 5 different topics as party program, keep 1 in hand, discard rest

Place double markers on marker board; shuffle party markers and place on start player spot

Each player selects one start position block on scoring sheet, assigning federal states to gain

+3 party rallies, +1 trend, +1 media marker, or +6 votes

On Your Turn

What you can do during your turn.

*Phase 1 - Determine Start Player

All players secretly bid money simultaneously; highest bidder pays bank and becomes start player

Ties resolved by open re-bidding among tied players

*Phase 2 - Changes to Party Programs

In turn order

either take one card from draw stack then one from display, OR discard all display cards, refill, and take one from new display

May swap up to two party program cards with hand cards; must discard down to one hand card

*Phase 3 - Secure Media Influence

In turn order, players may buy one media marker at a time (5,000€) and place on empty media spot in any federal state

Continue until all players pass consecutively; maximum 5 media markers per state

*Phase 4 - Organize Party Rallies

In turn order, each player may buy party rallies once in one or multiple states

Costs

1 rally = 1,000€; 2 = 2,000€; 3 = 3,000€; 4 = 5,000€; 5 = 7,000€; 6 = 10,000€; 7 = 15,000€; 8 = 20,000€

Maximum 8 rallies per player per state

*Phase 5 - Send Shadow Cabinet

In turn order, place up to one politician face down next to each federal state (single use; removed after action)

*Phase 6 - Actions of Shadow Cabinet

Starting with election state, reveal politicians, pay costs, execute main action plus one secondary action

Actions marked with **!** can only be performed once per state among all players

*Phase 7 - Media Influence

Player with majority media markers in a state may replace one popular opinion (not one with double marker) with one from display

*Phase 8 - Auctioning off Polls

For each state (starting with election state), auction top poll card; player with most votes is auctioneer

Winner either

raises party base by 3 (don't publish), OR publishes poll (only if their party's trend increases) adjusting all trends shown

*Phase 9 - Evaluation of Votes & Federal State Election

a) Relocate Votes:

Transform party rallies to votes using formula: (Party rallies + trend) × matching topics = votes

b) Election Effects:

Score victory points per federal state card; determine winner (50+ votes = 12 VP; multiple 50+ = 10 VP each; coalition = 7 VP each; no coalition possible = 5 VP); winners move media marker to media presence spot

c) Pay Money (not round 4):

Receive 1,000€ per VP from election + 1,000€ per party base point; choose to accept donation (10,000-30,000€, lose 1-3 party base) or reject (gain 1, 3, or 5 party base)

d) Prepare Next Round (not round 4):

Remove completed state board; reveal one more popular opinion in each remaining state; refresh party program display