Virtualia - the first and only fantasy insurance game - is back by popular demand.

The new game, starting on March 9 exclusively in Insurance Times, offers a case of champagne to help the winner's celebrations go with a swing.

And already, more than 900 insurers and brokers have signed up to play Virtualia II including some underwriters based in New York.

If you have not yet registered don't despair. Details are available on www.instimes.co.uk/virtualia.htm. Simply visit the site and complete your registration details.

Those who have not played the game before will find two colourful fantasy islands - inhabited by some even more colourful but nonetheless familiar-looking, people. Who could have inspired Phoney Flair and John Despot?

To play Virtualia II, you will be asked to place £250,000 worth of risks.

But this is no simple game of chance. The islands' geography and the lives of their residents are carefully detailed so that risks can be accurately assessed.

Each week a new set of calamities will befall the islands and their inhabitants, all drawn from the fertile

imagination of the game's creator and underwriter Graeme Green.

The last game concluded with a finale, sufficiently dramatic, to satisfy the most hardened thrill-seeker. A B52 bomber named Bertha, armed with bouncing bombs, missed an iceberg and struck an offshore oil rig.

Exactly like the real insurance world, the winner at the end of the eight weeks will be the player who has managed to hang on to most of their money.

Last year, Lloyd's product manager Peter Wright beat the rest of the 700-strong field to claim first prize.

Every week, Insurance Times will provide updates of what's happening on the island to help players refine their risk.

News stories will also be e-mailed to participants and be available through our web site.

Designed by World Archipelago, Virtualia II is open to the whole insurance industry.

Geography:
Two islands: Gran Virtualia (100 square miles) and Micro-Virtualia (15 square miles). Tropical location. Generally warm weather with little rainfall outside of rainy season (October-December).

The north of the island is dominated by the Old-Pikes Mountain range, known as Owetwet Ohno by the local Indians.

This name was thought to be derived from the mountain being the source of the River Bamboozle, but recent investigations have suggested that it is actually due to occasional, highly-destructive flash floods that come from the mountain.

The South West and Northern coasts are quite rocky with high cliffs, especially where the mountains meet the sea.

The coast around the Cape of Little Hope is particularly treacherous.

The South of the island is dominated by the flood plain of the lower Bamboozle and River Delta, originally known as Akk Akk Nogo (flat wet and floody place with nasty flies).

The island is divided in two by the River Bamboozle.

It has a small airfield, opened in the 1950s for small (fewer than 25-seat) passenger aircraft only.

Most travel/trade with the island is through the port of New Windermere. For a complete history of the island, turn to www.instimes.co.uk/virtualia.htm