While communicating between continents is commonplace, even trivial now, laying the first telegraph cable across the Atlantic Ocean was not just an engineering feat, it was a triumph of financial management. Re-live the drama in this game, which takes the true historical events of wiring the globe and completely re-imagines them for entertainment purposes.

This game can be played by any number of players.

Materials needed:

• Take the four segments of board attached, print them out, and tape them together to form a single large map. This map was adapted from the one available at http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:1901_Eastern_Telegraph_cables.png.
• Each player will need a box of small tokens of their own color to represent cable ends.
• There should be an extra box of small tokens of another color to represent the cable management companies.
• Slightly larger tokens to represent population centers
• Some sort of token to represent money. All transactions are listed below in units of "Monets", in lieu of a real monetary unit. Each token represents 1 Monet.
• A third token used to represent an outstanding debt of one Monet

Each player is issued 4 Monets to start the game.
Select a player to go first. Play proceeds to each player in turn. Each turn has three phases:
1. The Income Phase. In this phase, the player collects 2 Monets from each population center which is connected to another population center by one of their completed cables. If a population center is connected to other population centers by cables of another player, that center's output is reduced proportionally. For example, if a player has a cable between population centers A & B, they collect 4 Monets. If that player additionally has a cable between centers B & C, they collect 6 Monets, one for each population center. However, if an opponent owned the cable between B & C instead, the player would receive only 3 Monets, since population center B would only provide them one Monet.
2. The Action Phase. In this phase, the player may make moves. They may perform as many of the following as they wish:

• Start a new cable - Place two of your colored tokens at the beginning of a cable link on the board. One marks the starting end of the cable, the other will be moved along the cable over time until it reaches the other end. This action costs 1 Monet. Once one player is constructing a cable link, that link may not be built on by another player.
• Extend a cable - For a cost of 1 Monet, the "cable end" marker may be moved one "notch" (to the next place where the cable route crosses a latitude or longitude line). Any given cable may be extended only once in a turn. The cable is considered "completed" once the "cable end" marker reaches the endpoint of that link on the map.
• Activate a population center - For a cost of 1 Monet, a population center token may be purchased and placed at one end of a completed cable owned by the player. This represents advertising to generate interest in the new-fangled telegraph.
• Sell a cable - A completed cable may be sold to a cable management company for a value of 1 monet for each population center it connects to (this clearly can't be more than two), and 1 monet for each completed cable it connects to, regardless of the owner of that cable (Cables are only worth something if they connect people in one way or another).
• Slow another player - For a cost of one Monet, an opponent may be stopped from advancing a cable under construction for one turn. Place the Monet token next to the cable being delayed as an indicator.
• Destroy an existing cable - For a cost of one Monet for each "notch" of cable length, an opponent's cable may be removed entirely. This cable route becomes available for constructions again.
• Borrow money - You may borrow from unseen investors an amount of your choosing up to the total number of completed cable links you own. This loan will come due in as many turns as the number of Monets borrowed.

3. The Collection Phase In this phase, any debts that have come due MUST be repaid. A player who does not have enough money to repay a debt must sell off cable links at the prices listed above in order to make the money. If this is not possible, the player must decare themselves bankrupt and out of the game.

Winning the Game
The first player to create a connection from mainland Europe to North America wins. They need not own all the links, or have enough money to pay off their outstanding debts in order to win - as soon as a player completes a cable link which makes it possible to trace a complete path from mainland europe to north america, they win.