The Radium Battle on Mars (1947) – A Finnish First
Before introducing the first space-themed board game created in Finland, I have to say a few words about its Wunderkind creator, Mr. Kari Mannerla (1930-2006). Designing his first board game at the tender age of 14, by the age of 20 he had sold already at least four board games for publication.
Apparently these early attempts did not get much attention. However, that was all about to change a year later in 1951, when Afrikan Tähti (The Star of Africa) was published. Under its original name Kadonnut Afrikan Tähti (The Lost Star of Africa) and with the initial run of 10.000 copies, the game soon became a hit unparalleled by anything else.
Afrikan Tähti (The Star of Africa) was Mannerla's instant hit which, after almost seven decades, is still in production. Early editions repeated the game board graphics also on the box top.
Today, Afrikan Tähti has sold over four million copies, been published in many countries, and has been diversified in various ways for different platforms. It is widely considered as an unofficial national board game of Finland.
Amongst Mannerla's early board games such as Totalisaattoriravit (Totalizator Horse Racing) and Gangsterit kiinni (Catch the Gangsters), the only one set in outer space is Radiumtaistelu Marsissa (The Radium Battle on Mars). It was published in 1947 when Mannerla was only 17 years old.
Radiumtaistelu Marsissa is packaged in a generic blue cardboard box with label glued on, apparently manually one by one. It measures 34 x 17 x 2 cm.
The game is about a race of multiple competing expeditions, sent from the Earth, to locate a groundbreaking invention made by the engineers of an extinct Martian race – the radium weapon. (The front page of the instructions sheet recounts this back story leading up to the game.)
The task is, firstly, to reach the island city of Horz to find out the whereabouts of the weapon's blueprint, carved on a wall of an ancient temple. From there the race continues to the desert city of Kalat where the blueprint itself is hidden.
The game board measures 31 x 32 cm. The northern island city of Horz and the southern desert city of Kalat are important destinations. The map is printed on thin paper which is glued onto a cardboard base.
The expeditions can proceed by three different routes: by radium canals, submarine routes, or gas tracks. The game is played without a die with cards corresponding to those routes (radium, sukellus, kaasu). The rules are quite complex, and perhaps that is one reason the game never gained wider ground.
All three different passageways available - radium canals, submarine routes, and gas tracks - have corresponding cards (radium, sukellus, kaasu). Movement on the board is determined by the numbers and letters on each card. Tokens for players are very simple tiny cardboard squares.
What also makes Radiumtaistelu Marsissa interesting is the way it prefigures the board game that made Mannerla famous four years later, Afrikan Tähti. Both are played across a continent (even if on different planets), both use a set of maritime, terrain, and aerial routes, and both are based on a hidden treasure everyone is after.
The first page of the instructions sheet tells the back story for the game.
As with the other early Mannerla board games, only few copies of Radiumtaistelu Marsissa are known to exist. In an interview, Mannerla told he is especially proud of it among his early games, because at the time of its issue the 1950's space boom was still to come.
Arto
Helsinki Base
