
- BGG rank
- BGG #6,188
- BGG rating
- 7.5
National Economy
- 1–4 players
- 30–45 min
- Complexity 2.3/5
- 2025

2015
Rules assistance for National Economy
Plain-language explanations of turns, card effects and disputed situations, with official source references and saved question history.
For 1 player

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Answers come from the official rulebook, with the page to check.
National Economy is a board game released in 2015 for 1–4 players, 30–45 minutes per game, and ages 12 and up. It was designed by 西村裕 (Hiroshi Nishimura) and its main mechanics are Hand Management, Open Drafting, and Worker Placement.
Is population a power or a burden? if the economy is doing well the population will increase, as the population increase, does it necessary mean that the productivity will also increase? In most worker placement games like Agricola, Stone Age that seems to be the case. This game plays like a typical worker placement game. At the first round each player has 2 workers and they take turn placing their workers one by one onto the basic tiles. The basic tiles consisted of quarry(get a card and take first player),mining(get a card), construction(build a building), Education(increase a worker). At the end of each round you'd have to pay your worker salaries. If you don't have enough money to pay for the workers this round, you'd have to sell some of your private properties and it'd become public to cover the cost. Here is the most interesting aspect about this game, unlike most other worker placement games, as long as you place workers in the farming/gathering tile the resource for feeding your people is unlimited, they can create enough food for themselves. In this game, the cash flow is limited even if you place the worker in the market tile you can only receive money up to the amount that is available in the pool. The only way to increase the money in the pool is when players cannot pay for their worker and sell their property to bring cash flow into the game, otherwise, there is no way to add more money. At the end of the game, the sum total of the selling prices of all the assets is the victory point. in this game, If you want to increase population, you can increase it as you like, but unlike other games, population will not score at all except for the effects of some buildings. On the contrary, if the workers cannot produce they will become a huge burden and consume the economy, making accumulation of wealth absolutely impossible. Essentially, this players have to learn to balance between development of population and the economy. Too few people can not maximize profits. However, if there are too many people they will eat up the profit. Initially, increased workers to increase productivity seems to be very attractive, but when the workers begin to be a burden in the latter half of the game. there is no way to reduce the workers. There is no family planning nor natural disasters, major famine, massacre and cultural revolution in this game. Once the population have increased and if the economic development does not catch up, you will quickly understand what it means to be debt.
National Economy supports 1–4 players according to the catalogue. This range comes from the publisher’s listed player count, so the game can be set up for any group size within it. Some setups, rules and scoring details may still vary by player count, so check your edition’s rulebook for the exact configuration.
The listed playing time for National Economy is 30–45 minutes. This is the publisher’s estimate for a full game. The actual duration depends on the group, the player count and familiarity with the rules: first sessions usually run longer, while experienced groups often finish faster. Setup and teaching time are not included in this estimate.
The catalogue lists National Economy for ages 12 and up. This is the publisher’s recommendation and reflects reading demands, rule complexity and small components rather than theme alone. Younger players can often join with help from an adult, so check the age guidance on your edition and consider your group’s experience with board games.
National Economy has a complexity rating of 2.3 out of 5 from BoardGameGeek players, which makes it a medium-light game. The rating reflects how much rules knowledge, planning and decision-making a typical game demands. Expect a longer first teach for heavier games, and use a preparation guide before game night.
National Economy belongs to these categories: Card Game, Economic, and City Building. Its main mechanics are Hand Management, Open Drafting, and Worker Placement. Categories describe the theme and setting of a game, while mechanics describe what players actually do on their turns. Each mechanic links to a catalogue hub with similar games, which helps when you want something comparable.
The credited designers of National Economy are: 西村裕 (Hiroshi Nishimura). These credits come from the published game data and name the people responsible for the game’s design, not its illustrators or publishers. Designer pages on MeepleRules collect other titles by the same designers, which helps when you enjoy a game and want to find similar ones.
The catalogue lists National Economy as a base game. It can be played on its own with the components in the box and does not require any other title. Expansions, if any exist, add new content or rules on top of it and are listed separately in the catalogue with a link back to this base game.