A mining/transport strategy game

Publisher's Description:

This is a business game in which each player owns a mining company. The aim is to mine ore and transport it to the coast and then overseas where it is sold as exports. It is by the effective use of three types of transport:- lorries, barges and ships, that players maximise profits. The struggle to expand business and achieve maximum exports but keep ahead of rivals, produces one of the most compelling business games ever invented.

Box info:

Designer : ??

Published : 1965

Publisher : Waddingtons

Players : 2 to 6

Ages : "adults and older children"

Trev says:

Another popular game of years gone by.  I'm not sure of the history of the name.  It is known as both 'Business Game' and as 'Mine a Million' and both names have featured promonently on the box in various re-issues of the game.  My copy says 'Business Game' on the box and in the rules and the only mention of 'Mine a Million is as a subtitle in the rules.  I had thought that Mine a Million was the older name, but one reader sent in a message telling me that was not so and that his very old set was called Business Game - so I have to confess to being in the dark.

I am not generally a great fan of business games, many of them suffering from the problem that they are quite dry during the long period in which it is difficult to tell how things are going (but see Tycoon - the best business game I have played).  This is also a game that goes on too long for what it is in comparison to modern European games and would benefit form being half the length.   But the mechanism is quite simple, it is strongly themed and it is a game that I don't object to playing - perhaps largely because the play flows along and you aren't waiting all day for other players to complete their turns.  Something to dust off and play and reminisce about now and again, then, rather than something to get over-enthusiastic about.