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Brexit - "I'd rather be dead in a ditch"

Originally posted by Prime Minister Boris Johnson, 05/09/2019, when asked if her would extend Brexit:

I'd rather be dead in a ditch !

June 23rd, 2016. The results are in. June 2017, the Prime Minister submits the official letter launching the Article 50 procedures. Brexit is on its way ! But in 2018, the Westminster Parliament decided it had a binding say in what the Brexit Deal would look like. We are now in 2019 and you are the leaders of the main political parties of the United Kingdom. Negotiatie, spend your time campaigning and vote in order to push for your vision of what Brexit means. Because if Brexit means Brexit, who's writing the definition ?

To download the rules: Brexit - dead in a ditch RULES English[www.dropbox.com]

To download the reference booklet: Brexit - dead in a ditch REFERENCE BOOKLET English[www.dropbox.com]


This game has been designed after extensive research on the Brexit process for my PhD. It aims at simulating as closely as possible while remaining a rather simple (yet big) boardgame the various power shifts that we saw in 2019. (A playtest held a few days before the 2019 general elections saw the Tories win an absolute majority and getting rid of their coalition with the DUP... just sayin')

This is a political game focused on player interactions with half the game revolving around card play inspired by the Sun Tzu boardgame and the other half centered on players negotiating between them how they will vote on the Draft Bills proposed to the floor. It is a long and difficult game that requires a minimum of role playing as players take on specific parties' leadership with specific objectives. It is an asymetrical game where each player has a specific way of winning in order to show the various strategies deployed during 2019 by the real life parties.

If you wish to get more information on Brexit and get in the mood for this game, I highly recommend the TLDR News channel on youtube that has a playlist dedicated to covering Brexit from the start. TLDR News' Brexit playlist


Players compete on three different levels.

The first one is the campaign map. Players compete each turn to gain popularity in 21 constituencies by playing cards and comparing their values. (Similar to the Sun Tzu game's mechanic.) Having more popularity than others gives players a chance to increase their number of Members of Parliament once an election is held. But only the Prime Minister can call for an election, with a little push from the opposition if needed...

The second battleground is parliament. Players propose Draft Bills to vote into the Brexit Deal. Those bills are policies that tackle Brexit-specific issues. Depending on how the issue is tackled and who proposed the bill, the Brexit Deal gets filled up with policies that grant Victory Points to players, or removes some. For that phase, players vote with all the might of their MPs in Parliament. This is why having an election at the right time can completely change the balance of power in the Westminster House of Commons, and change the face of Brexit as a whole !

The final competition takes place around those two phases as players get to play Spin Cards, showing how their political teams spin events and control the political landscape.

But be sure to keep the general interest of the country in mind as time is running out... or will you give in to pushing your party forward, blaming the others for the collective lack of responsability ?


The Labour and the Conservative (Tories) parties are the two leading parties in British politics as well as in this game. With their political might, they are in the best position to get acces to 10 Downing Street. While the Tories start in power, they have to fight to stay in power. On the other side of the aisle, Labour has to compete with other smaller forces to remain leader of the opposition with a foot in the 10 Downing Street door !

The LibDems and the Brexit Party are here to impose themselves on the political landscape and bring their extreme positions on Brexit (either completely against, or completely in favour) to the Brexit Deal. They will nibble away the big parties popularity and can collapse the political balance, to the point of becoming a key player in the Westminster House of Commons. The Brexit Party is the only player who can win if the game ends on a No Deal Brexit. Will that be an incentive for the others or will the Brexit Party drive a wedge in the House of Commons ?

The DUP and Sinn Fein are also in the fight ! While they only compete against each other for control over Northern Irish politics, their success or failure might be critical in the Brexit negotiations ! Can the Tories count on their DUP partners ? Can Sinn Fein bring Irish reunification ? With special rules in order to give them more leverage, those two parties show how important Northern Ireland has been in the whole process of finding a good Brexit Deal.


This game is for seasoned players looking for the thrill of a gritty, tense and harrowing political experience of Brexit from the inside. It is a long game (over 4 hours) of doubt, betrayal and political calculations. I recognize it isn't a game for everyone and the topic might be a bit too sensitive to some. I did not create this game to comment on Brexit, nor to criticize or defend any position held by the political parties. This game simply aims at recreating the political power balance and how it can (or indeed did) shift throughout this complicated process.

The names and imagery used are there to simulate the reality of Brexit and not to infringe on any copyright. The views expressed by the ingame parties are inspired by their real life counterpart. In no way does this game express the views and opinions of the British Labour Party, the Conservative and Unionists Party, the Brexit Party, the Liberal Democrats, Sinn Féin or the Democratic Unionist Party.


If you wish to contact me direclty, please do so on this address : twelvestars.games@orange.fr .

I hope you enjoy !

While this mod contains the Expansion "Independence Day", you can find here another mod with the expansion in place as a starting setup :
https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2088229151