The great powers of eary modern Europe strive for asendency. Playing country, action, and number cards into various types of melds allows control of a nation, and a chance to industrialize it, through such occurences as war, marriage, alliances. Victory points are awarded for taking control through various means, whoever gets the most points wins. In addition to a board with spaces for each of 15 countries, there is a custom card deck, and you'll need tokens/markers/chips: unique color for each player to show control, common set for victory points, common set of industry markers.