How to Play

The Manhattan Project: Energy Empire

1-5 players 60-120 min 7.7 Board Game Geek Rating

Players control 20th-century nations developing industry, commerce, and government through resource acquisition and structure building. This worker placement game features tableau-building and resource management as nations balance industrial growth with environmental consequences. Players alternate between work turns (placing workers, activating cards) and generate turns (rolling energy dice for power). Victory requires strategic energy management while mitigating pollution's global impact.

Published 2016

Get Ready

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

Sort and shuffle decks

Organize the 6 decks of cards and Achievement tiles, then place them face-down

Prepare Global Impact cards

Draw 3 Early and 3 Late Global Impact cards, place face-down in a row by the bottom of the board

Place pollution tokens

Put the number of Pollution tokens on the Global Impact track spots according to player count

Fill Structure markets

Draw the top 3 cards from each matching Structure card deck and place face-up in the 3 Structure market areas

Display Achievements

Draw 3 Achievement tiles and place face-up on Achievement spaces

Position player markers

Put player markers on the 0 space of the Score track and the leftmost space of the UN track

Two-player adjustment

Place 3 Workers of an unused color on each of the 3 Structure market locations (Government, Industry, Commerce) where they remain for the entire game

Distribute player components

Each player receives a player mat in their chosen color, 1 Pollution token (placed in top-left Environment spot), 3 Workers, and 2 Energy in their player color

Deal Nation and Achievement cards

Deal 2 Nation cards and 2 Achievement tiles face-down to each player; each keeps 1 of each, then reveals their Nation

Collect starting resources

Take starting resources, money, dice, and/or Workers shown on your Nation card and place on your player mat

Determine turn order

Pick a start player and proceed clockwise; other players receive extra money based on turn order position

On Your Turn

What you can do during your turn.

Choose your action type

Either take a Work turn OR a Generate turn (if you have no workers you must Generate; if you Generated last turn, you must Work)

Place a worker

Place 1 worker from your player mat to a board location, placing it on top of energy from your mat to create the tallest stack at that location

Perform the location action

Complete the action associated with the chosen location

Activate matching Structures

Optionally activate 1 or more of your own unoccupied Structures of the same type/color as the board location used by paying 1 worker or 1 energy per Structure

Activate Nation Card

Optionally activate your unoccupied Nation Card on any Work turn to advance on the United Nations track

Scientific Research

Gain 1 Science from supply and peek at any 1 face-down Global Impact card

Education

Spend $3 to gain 1 worker (available immediately) and 1 pollution

Clean Up

Spend 1 Science to perform 2 Cleanup actions (remove pollution, remove oil well, or flip Nuclear to just Pollution)

Mine

Gain 1 steel from supply

Oil Drilling

Take 1 Oil Well from supply, place in Environment (either side up), and gain 3 Oil barrels

Chemistry

Spend 1 Oil to gain 2 Plastic, 1 Science, and 1 Pollution

Power Plant

Pay resources to gain 1 energy die (maximum 5 dice, not counting Petroleum; only 1 blue Hydro-geo allowed)

Finance

Choose to gain $2, OR gain $3 and opponents gain $1, OR gain $4 and opponents gain $2

Buy/Sell Oil

Make 1 exchange at current price: either buy 3 Oil barrels or sell 3 Oil barrels

Trade

Make any number of transactions where $2 = Steel or Plastic = Science

Purchase Structures

Place a worker in a market location to buy a Structure using money OR resources (not combined); place in tableau for immediate use and gain any Structure pollution

Claim Achievement

If you have unused workers plus energy totaling 2 or more remaining, you may claim 1 Achievement and place it face-down on your player mat (5 maximum per player)

Collect workers

Retrieve all your workers from the board

Discard energy

Return all your energy to supply, including unused energy from your player mat

Convert oil to dice

Discard up to 4 oil barrels from your mat and gain 1 brown Petroleum energy die for each (use on this turn only)

Roll energy dice

Roll all your Energy dice at once and take the indicated energy based on dice results

Determine pollution

The die showing the highest number determines pollution; if tied, you choose which die

Return Petroleum dice

Return brown Petroleum dice to supply; keep other dice on player mat