Top 7

In Top 7 each player owns a company and the goal is to hire people to work for you. A complete staff includes:

• 2 secretaries
• 2 salesmen
• 1 sales manager
• 1 vice president
• 1 president

Each player gets a playing piece (counter) and a company of the same color. The company is a paper board on which there are drawn 8 different offices of different standard and price. Below each office there are marked the salary for the employee who gets the particular office. The salaries range from 5.000 for the cheapest closet up to 200.000 for the most expensive, luxurious office with a leather chair and an expensive chandelier.

The player whos turn it is throws the dice and moves his counter around the board (like Monopoly). When passing START you receive 50.000 from the bank. If you land exactly on START you receive 100.000.

The staff you can hire is to be found on the staff cards. On each staff card there is a picture of the person and his job title (salesman, vice president, etc). Around the board there are squares that, when you land on them, let's you hire a certain type of staff, if there are any staff of this type left in the "bank". You decide what to pay for him/her, gives this amount to the bank and places the staff card on the office that matches his salary.

You must decide how much you pay for your staff. A president will never accept less payment than a vice president. The vice president will not accept less payment than the sales manager and so on. You might want to hire all of your staff on the cheapest salary, 5.000, since they might have the same salary, but this is not a smart move. Some squares and some event cards gives the player who lands on the square (or draws the card) the opportunity to "steal" one of the other players employee - as long as they give the employee a raise.

If you, on the other hand, plan to give all your employee top salary so that no one can give them a raise, then this is not a smart move either. Other squares and event cards demands you to pay salary to one or all of your employees. If you don't have that much money, your employee(s) will leave your company.

Event cards

Some squares on the game board gives you the opportunity to win or lose money. Other squares tells you to draw an event card. I find the event cards in Top 7 rather boring, actually. Examples of event cards:

• Move ahead 2 squares
• Advance to START, collect 100.000
• RAID, you may raid employee from player on your left

The probleme with these event cards is that they just don't add any mood or color to the game. I find this surprising, as the rest of the game is rich on humorous details and atmosphere.

Winning the game

The winner is the player who first passes START with a complete set of staff.

A fun game

I have just recently played a round of Top 7, for the first time in many years. It still was a fun game to play (in it's genre). Top 7 reminds a bit of Monopoly, with the board layout and basic gameplay, but there is a lighter mood in this game. It states on the box that it can be played with two to four players, but I wouldn't go for the two player game. But I guess that goes for all games of this type?

Ulcers

Top 7 is Jumbo's version of the Waddingtons game "Ulcers", which was published in 1973. The rules are identical, but the box, graphics e.a. are different.

Reader comments

Keiko Inatomi:

Hi, Colud you let me know where I can buy this game in Manhattan or web-site? Thakns.

Add your own comment

Name:

Email:

Comment: