The board is 58 x 120 cm or about 23 x 48 inches in four pieces. Designer David Stennett says that Moral Conflict 1941, the 5th Dimension starts in June 1941 and represents the Second World War played on a large board showing the whole world. It is a conflict carried out by two alliances: the Axis Powers of Germany, Italy, and Japan against the Allies, i.e. the USA and the Empires (British, French, Dutch, and Belgian). Through diplomacy or force the Soviet Union can be brought into the war on one side or the other. Two to six players either learn to work together effectively as a team or meet defeat at the hands of a superior alliance. The strength of the player’s interpersonal abilities dominates all areas of play.
Each player has land units (armies, strategic anti-aircraft units and armored groups), sea units (convoys, submarines, 
Your team can be strengthened or weakened by the acquisition of new allies or the loss of existing allies. New allies such as Spain, Portugal or Turkey can be won over under favorable conditions, coupled with the luck of the dice. Similarly you can lose allies such as Italy or the Soviet Union, since the latter can change sides. If your enemy attacks neutral nations, they join your alliance. This is diplomatic pressure — the second dimension.
The lack of special resources such as oil, iron ore and strategic metals without which the production of weapons would have been impossible, can quickly lead to defeat. Supplies can be secured by occupying the territories which produce them or through trade. A nation may try to keep out of the conflict and concentrate on growing its economy and acquiring vast wealth and achieving victory by economic means. Here the game operates at the economic level — the third dimension.
Nowhere else will you find a strategy game where moral decisions can be made. The consequences in all areas of play, such as the ability to co-operate more closely with allies, acquire new allies, engage in arms production and promote economic even technological development at home and in occupied territories quickly become clear to all concerned. The possibilities of military combat, from retreat options to the first use of weapons of mass destruction, depend on a nation’s moral conduct. This is the ideological or moral conflict — the fifth dimension.
The moral conflict of spending $300 on the game is up to you to resolve.
- A Dungeon Delve for Kids?: A Review of Dungeon! - Oct 24, 2022
- Better, Stronger, Faster | Descent: Journeys in the Dark Second Edition Reviewed - Oct 23, 2022
- Your Planet is Doomed!: Invasion from Outer Space Reviewed - Oct 22, 2022
4 Comments
As I mentioned on our last show, someone would have to be out of their mind to blow $300 bucks on a game that isn’t something long out of print and very rare. Looking at these photos of the components included with Moral Conflict makes me think the publisher would be hard pressed to charge a hundred bucks let alone three… And, no, that isn’t real gold in the photo below just gold plastic. Maybe it it were real gold we could talk about Playford’s pricing being realistic.
Hundred more and you could have had the War of the Ring collectors edition.
No way I’d put 300 on something like this
It must be all the dice… For some reason I think we might have another running bit on the show over this one.
$300 for surplus Euro cubes and disks? I imagine that there must be some “Raiders of the Lost Ark” type warehouse in Germany that is just filled with little cubes and disks of various colors. I suspect it has something to do with their European Socialism:) That’s why ever Euro uses abstract cubes and disks instead of minis or cardboard chits, they’re just trying to get rid of the stuff.