Arms & Influence is a political strategy card game that puts you and 3 others in a contest to build the world’s most dominant power. Players build a social pyramid and attempt to advance their society to prominence by achieving 7 Victory Points.
On their turn, players choose a total of 2 cards from the Society or Action deck. The Society deck consists of Leaders and Populations; the Action deck has everything else: Advancements, Competitions and Actions.
Once they select their cards, they must take 2 actions. Using a card consists of a turn. If they cannot make a move, they must discard as an action.
With populations, players build their social pyramid in an attempt to have 5 populations. Once achieved they can elect a leader.
Each population gives players one of 4 resources: Military Strength, Equality, Espionage, and Production.
They then use these resources to obtain Advancements such as "Man on Mars", "Nuclear Submarine" etc. (worth one Victory Point). Each which require a combination of 4 resources shown on the card.
Players strategically modify their pyramid, elect new leaders, to obtain new Advancements.
In addition to Advancements, players can earn victory points by winning a Competition. When a competition is played, players compete to have the most resource of a given type by the end of the turn.
The road to victory will not be easy, as players will use Action cards to disrupt each other's rise to power.
The first player to 7 Victory Points wins the game.
-description from designer