The BEER! War
An economic simulation



© 1998 M.-A. Seekamp

What it is about:

BEER! is a game about a small country with ten towns. After someone invented a new drink called beer, breweries arise all over the country.
Now it is your task to take over one of these companies and get the monopoly of beer production.
To win the game, you need a market share of at least 60%. It is based on the total demand of all towns in the country.You can display it using the statistics menu.
You should try to get rid of as many opponents as possible: a company is liquidated if the value of its facilities cannot cover its debt .

The scenarios

You can choose between three scenarios: The scenarios are different in size of the towns, transport charges and wages. If you play for the first time you should choose the peninsula, which is the easiest map.

What all the data means:

The demand of a town is the maximum consumption of beer in one turn. Its value is constant.

The wages in a town are a factor for the costs of buildings and production of beer. The inhabitants prefer a beer corresponding to their wages. This value varies a bit each turn .

The quality of a beer is important for its sales. If the wages differ too much from the quality, people do not buy the beer. The more wages and quality are corresponding, the more you can sell. The normal price for a litre of beer is its triple quality.

The cost factor of a beer multiplied by the wages come to the production costs for one litre.

Start a new game

Select new from the game menu. Now you can enter your name and choose between three scenarios .

If you are looking for a real challenge you can try playing the expert mode by checking the expert box. Or you can play against a friend by selecting the two-player box.

If you do not like events, you can turn them off. If you choose building times, it will take three month to build or extend a brewery. The computer-players ignore this rule, so if you think it is unfair, you can turn it off.

Your first brewery has a capacity of 1.000 litre. Every player starts with 20.000 Dollar, except in expert mode, where your opponents have much more cash.

You can change some more options when selecting 'advanced options'. The market share to win the game can be changed from the standard (60%) to somewhere between 50% and 100%. And you can choose to be allowed to reduce the capacities of your breweries.

Now you can use the buttons and the map .

Using the map

The map shows the ten towns of the country and its transport connections. Next to the towns are little symbols to show your properties. At the beginning of the game you only got one brewery, but later on you can have three breweries (one for each brand ) and a depot in each town.

To change the town you are working in, press the left mousebutton on the town you want to go to. Your current position is displayed in the title bar.

When you press the right mousebutton, the information for the town is displayed in the tool area below the map. All the data you need to know is shown here. In addition to that another window can be opened to show you the sales of the last turn .


The buttons

Build brewery
Extend brewery
Build depot
Transport beer
Transfer money
Change prices
New brand
Next turn


Standing orders

If you want to tranfer money or transport beer every turn, you can use standing orders. You can have up to ten standing orders. The orders are executed before your next turn, but after the calculation of the sales.

To view, create or delete your orders, use the standing orders menu.

If an order cannot be executed, you get a message with the number of the order. Normally you do not have enough money in town. For example, when transporting beer you need to have enough money for the transport charges .

Statistics

In this menu you can view the market shares of all companies. In addition to that the sales and the value of all companies are displayed here.

After each turn a comparison with your best opponent is shown. If you do not want to see it, you can disable it here.

To enter the highscore, you must win the game. Your points depend on the value of your company and the number of turns it took you to defeat your opponents.

Build brewery

You can build a brewery of each of your three brands in each town. A new brewery costs about 18000 Dollar, depending on the wages . You must have the money in the town you want to build the brewery in, so normally you have to transfer money first.
A new brewery has a capacity of 1000 litre. You can expand a brewery using the expand brewery button.

Warning: In a standard game, you cannot reduce the capacity of a brewery!

Expand brewery

If you already have a brewery in town, you can expand it to increase your production. It costs about 1100 Dollar per 100 litre, depending on the wages in the town.

If you selected 'Reduce capacities ' when starting the new game, you can reduce the capacity by entering a neative number in the input field. The reduction will be made immediately, and you will not get any money back.

Warning: In a standard game, you cannot reduce the capacity of a brewery!

Build depot

You can build a depot in each town. All the beer that has not been sold will be automatically stored there. There is no limitation in the capacity, and all three brands can be stored in the same building.

A depot costs about 5000 Dollar, depending on the wages in the town.

Transport beer

You can transport beer between the towns. The charges depend on the length of the route. When you press the transport button, the charges are shown beside the names of the towns. You have to pay where the transport starts, so you must have enough money in town.

If you want to transport a certain amount each turn, you can use a standing order .

Transfer money

Each player has an account in each town. If you want to build something, you need enough money in that town. You can transfer money between the towns using this button. The bank keeps 5% of the amount of every transfer, but on the other hand you never get robbed!

If you are in debt in a town, you have to pay 15% interest each turn .

If you want to transfer a certain amount every turn, you can use a standing order .

Change prices

The normal price for a litre of beer is its triple quality . But you can change the prices for every town to raise your sales (and to lower your opponents sales). The people love good beer, but they love it even more if it’s cheap.

New brand

Every player can own up to three brands, but you start with only one. Later on, you can develop the other two. This is quite expensive (~ 80.000$), but it enables you to sell your products in towns with different taste.

The quality of the new brand depends on the wages in the town. If you want a specific quality, just look for a town with appropriate wages.

Next turn

The game is based on turns. You need to press the next turn button to sell your production. The sales can be viewed in the information window .