The Medfly Game
1981
BGG Average Rating
5.0
community average
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Players
2-2
Weight
N/A
🎨 Artists
🏢 Publishers
📖 About This Game
This satirical roll and move game for two players pits then and current California Governor Jerry Brown against the Mediterranean fruit fly, which first was seen in the state in 1975, and became a scourge to the state's agricultural industry in subsequent years. The spread of the Medfly created a political crisis in 1981 for Gov. Brown, and led to the start of aerial spraying in the state. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1989_California_medfly_attack).
Most squares on the game track are either California counties or products, with their populations and annual agricultural production value listed. Players who land on a crop space take a card with a joke event that boosts one player and penalizes the other. The Brown player deploys four Malathion tokens and the Medfly player four larva tokens, which act as landmines sending the other player back four spaces.
If the Jerry Brown player wins, he makes it to the U.S. Senate and becomes a potential presidential candidate for 1984. If not, his political ambitions are crushed.