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Tantalus - Threat Window

Tantalus

Organization:

Sandia National Laboratories

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Release Year:

Tantalus is a three-player, turn-based strategy game in which you play as the leader of a country and win through the development of key, national-strategic capabilities: Mining, Infrastructure, and Manufacturing. These capabilities are called “Metrics” in the game, and their value translates into Victory Points (VPs), which determine who wins. By the end of the game – which varies between 12-18 rounds and is randomly decided – players must earn at least 3 Victory Points to be victorious… which means that there can be multiple winners in Tantalus – or no winners at all!

Game Overview

Tantalus is a three-player, turn-based strategy game in which you play as the leader of a country and win through the development of key, national-strategic capabilities: Mining, Infrastructure, and Manufacturing. These capabilities are called “Metrics” in the game, and their value translates into Victory Points (VPs), which determine who wins. By the end of the game – which varies between 12-18 rounds and is randomly decided – players must earn at least 3 Victory Points to be victorious… which means that there can be multiple winners in Tantalus – or no winners at all!

The goal of Tantalus is to have at least 3 Victory Points by the end of the game, which are earned by satisfying the requirements of the four Strategic Goals. Each Strategic Goal can be achieved by increasing your own Metrics and decreasing Metrics from other players. You can increase your Metrics by Investing, and you can decrease other players Metrics by Attacking them or Stealing State Secrets from them.

Tantalus was constructed for people with familiarity and interest in strategic wargames. Tantalus was originally designed as an experimental wargame for testing hypotheses on the existence and impact of cyber deterrence. We believe Tantalus has utility beyond our studies, especially for national security professionals and university students with an interest in public policy. Tantalus is currently being utilized as part of a research experiment that requires players/participants to be at least 18 years of age to play.

In Tantalus, we enable players to explore concepts of deterrence theory in ways not typically available in classrooms. We have structured Tantalus so games can potentially have multiple winners or no winners. If players repeatedly attack each other, none will have Metric scores high enough to qualify for Victory Points. However, players who can use deterrence effectively to prevent conflict from escalating will have a higher likelihood of winning. We encourage players to discuss their gameplay outside of Tantalus to challenge or support the current notions of deterrence theory.

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Game Video

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Tantalus - Threat Window
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