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Banditos In late 1982, the
Mexican government responded to their country’s financial crisis by
centralizing their banks and devaluing the Peso, creating the Nuevo Peso in
the process. (This much is at least true.) And now for game
world… The Mexican people
responded poorly to these changes, resulting in apathetic security and
creative accounting at the new Banco de Mexico. Once news of this
spread to the US, some of the alternatively principled people in the Land of
Opportunity looked south of the border for their ventures. Object of the game Players send their
characters into Mexico with the intent of robbing the Banco
de Mexico. They will need to acquire vehicles, seed money, weapons and
perhaps some inside information to get the job done. Your bank at home
would ask too many questions about exchanging so many Nuevo Pesos and the
authorities are looking for stolen serial numbers, but you know a guy who
will launder your Nuevo Pesos. He’ll only do it once with a minimum amount
though, so you can’t use your stolen booty for seed money. Multiple heists will
be necessary to complete the target of 100,000,000 Nuevo Pesos. (Rough
equivalent – one million US dollars.) Setting up the game Deal a character card
(blue backs) to each player. Place them face-up in front of you. Give a gas tank card
(blue backs) to each player, also face-up. Each player has 2
colored pawns. One goes to mark their place on the board and can be placed in
their starting city as marked on their character card. The other pawn is for
their gas tank and should be placed on empty for now. Give players their
“Starting stuff” (blue backs) if applicable to their characters and put them face-up in play immediately. Shuffle and set the
Nuevo Peso deck (green backs) aside. Shuffle and deal 7 cards
from the Banditos action card deck (red backs) to each player. Seed money
should always be placed face-up in front of you when drawn. Deal out a 4-card
discard pile. Place the red “heat”
tokens aside for now. Card: Seed Money Seed money is spent on
vehicles, gas, weapons, and inside information. Paying for two or more things
at once is allowed. (E.g. $30 for a weapon and $20 for gas with a $50 seed
money card.) Change is never given for seed money. The change is always spent
on beer and burritos. Card: Vehicle You may buy a vehicle
from your hand at any time on your turn. Just pay its cost to the discard
pile and place it face-up in front of you. If your character card
has two people on it, your vehicle must be able to accommodate two people.
Motorcycles must have a sidecar to accommodate two people. Newly acquired
vehicles start with one quarter of a tank of gas (including starting stuff
vehicles.) You may trade in your
vehicle for another in your hand. The trade-in value is listed on each
vehicle card. Use this amount towards the cost of the new vehicle. You must
pay the difference. Any time you acquire a
new vehicle, the old vehicle goes to the discard pile. Stolen vehicles start
with one heat token. (See Heat) A player may put a
motorcycle in the back of the ‘67 Chevy panel van. If you have the panel van
in play and acquire a motorcycle without a sidecar, place it under the panel
van. At any time you may discard the panel van and use the motorcycle. The
motorcycle is considered to have a full tank of gas. Card: Weapon You may play a weapon
from your hand at any time on your turn. Just pay its cost to the discard
pile and place it face-up in front of you. You may only have 1 weapon per
character card. Any time you acquire a
new weapon, the old one goes to the discard pile. If you are on a
motorcycle, you must use weapons that can be concealed. You may not bring a
weapon into the US. (Discard at any time.) Card: Inside
Information You may play inside
information from your hand at any time on your turn. Just pay its cost to the
discard pile and place it face-up in front of you. Inside information is only
useful if used during a heist in the city listed on the card. If the inside
information requires a weapon, you must have one to gain the benefits of the
card. (Unless you are Mucho Carne.) Only one inside
information card may be used per heist. Inside information is
discarded to the discard pile once a heist is attempted. Cards: Unfortunate and
Fortunate Events You may play these
cards on yourself or another player at a time appropriate to each card. For unfortunate events
that involve a car, the affected player’s full move is taken, followed by the
event. For unfortunate events
that happen during heists, any diversions played are not lost. Regarding the “Knight Rider” event, the $250 must be
spent on one vehicle card from your hand before you take any more movement. Card: Diversion You may use a
diversion when you declare a heist. (One card maximum per heist.) Regarding Madame M., she may declare upon
leaving Brownsville that she has brought along one of her girls (if her
vehicle allows.) She may use that girl as a diversion in one heist and gains
the advantage of minus one heat for that heist. After that heist, Madame M. is considered to be alone. Card: Escape a Mexican
Jail If you fail an
attempted heist, you may play one of these cards and escape on your next
turn. You must immediately speed away. (See part 3 of Turn Overview.) Movement You may move along the
highways the number of spaces that your vehicle allows. If your movement
includes a border crossing, you must include two movement spaces for the
border crossing (unless you are Yum Yum.)
Every move (no matter how many spaces) requires one quarter of a tank of gas.
Move the pawn on your gas tank card to keep track. You may move less than
your full move if you wish. If you interrupt your movement for any action,
your movement is finished. If you choose, you may instead move at the
speeding rate as your vehicle allows. (See Speeding.) You may hop a train
from any US city to any other US city. You may not take a vehicle or an
unconcealed weapon with you. The cost is $20 for beer and burritos. (It’s a
long trip.) You may hitchhike one
highway space per turn if you have no vehicle. You may not cross a border
while hitchhiking. Speeding If you choose to
speed, you must roll the die. If you roll a 1 you are caught for speeding.
Move only three spaces. You may not cross a border if caught. If you are caught for
speeding, you must pay a fine of $50.00 to the discard pile immediately. You
go nowhere until you pay. (Misty, if
Guido is in the trunk of a car,
gets pulled over and only moves her three spaces but doesn’t pay.) If you are caught for
speeding, you must also make a second roll to see if a cursory search of your
vehicle is done. On a roll equal to or less than the amount of heat tokens on
your vehicle, a search is done. (You may have no heat tokens and therefore do
not have to roll.) Lose all weapons and Nuevo Pesos. (If you are Misty and Guido and Guido is in the trunk, you are fined
$100.00 and you spend your next turn at the police station. Lose all weapons
and Nuevo Pesos.) Heat The amount of police
attention in the area or “heat” will affect your odds of doing illegal
actions. Heat can be in the form of the red tokens or as symbols on some
cards. Each red circle symbol or token
denotes an increase in heat. The symbols and tokens are cumulative and each
one increases the roll needed to do an illegal
action by one. The red circle symbols are found on
Unfortunate event cards. Each time you attempt to steal
something from the discard pile, immediately place one heat token on your
character card. Each time you attempt
a heist, place one heat token in the appropriate Mexican city, one on the
vehicle used in the attempted heist and one on the character attempting the
heist. Each time you attempt
to steal gas, place a heat token on the vehicle used. The symbol of a red circle with an ‘X’
through it denotes a reduction in heat. These symbols are cumulative and each
one reduces the roll needed to successfully do an illegal action by one. They
offset any heat markers. They are found on inside information cards, Double
character cards and Diversion cards. Turn Overview Part 1 Part 1 of any turn is
comprised of illegal actions. Players may rob the discard pile or pull a bank
heist. In addition to either a heist or robbing the discard pile, players may
rob a gas station (for gas only.) Players may steal gas before going into a
heist. Players may opt to
skip part 1 and go directly to part 2 of a turn. Robbing the discard
pile: The top card on the
discard pile may be stolen on a roll greater than 1. You may ignore the top
card and steal a card farther down, but the roll increases by 1 for every
card on top of the target card. The roll is also increased by every heat
token on their character card. (Example – if you have no personal heat, the
third card from the top of the deck can be stolen on a roll higher than 3.
Additionally, if you have 2 personal heat tokens, the theft is successful on
a roll higher than 5.) You may attempt to steal as many cards on your turn as
you wish, rolling for each one separately. (The target roll should be
calculated for each individual robbery.) Only vehicles, seed
money, weapons and inside information may be stolen from the discard pile. If you fail in
stealing any card, your turn ends immediately. If successful in all
of your rolls, you may continue to part 2 of a turn. Each time a player attempts
a robbery, add one heat marker to their character card. (This will count
towards a second robbery on the same turn.) Pulling a bank heist: To attempt a heist, a
player must: 1)
Have a vehicle with a full gas tank. 2) Be
in a Mexican town. 3) Have
a weapon unless otherwise stated on an applicable Inside Information card. Add the total heat
markers on your character card, your vehicle and in the Mexican town you are
in. Roll the die. On a roll higher than your heat total, the heist is
successful. Heat modifiers (like diversions) may alter the target roll. If successful, take a
payout of 2 Nuevo Peso cards (or more if using applicable Inside Information)
and immediately speed away. This ends your turn. If unsuccessful, you
do not get the payout and go to a Mexican jail. Lose all weapons and Nuevo
Pesos. This ends your turn. Robbing a gas station
(for gas only): You must have a
vehicle to do this. Roll the die. On a
roll higher than the total heat on your vehicle you immediately get a full
tank of gas. If unsuccessful, you do not get the gas and this ends your turn. No matter the illegal action in part 1 of a turn that you
attempt, a roll of 1 is always a failure. Turn Overview Part 2 You may do any of the
following things in any order: - Draw 2 cards. - Movement. - Play cards from your
hand. There is no limit to the number of cards you can play on a turn if you
have enough seed money. - Buy gas. (Example -
$20/3 indicates that $20 will buy three quarters of a tank of gas. In this
case, spending $40 will fill your tank.) Move the pawn on your gas tank card
to keep track. - Buy a card from
another player’s hand. The players involved negotiate the price in seed money
only. If you buy a card, you may pay its cost to the discard pile (if any)
and play it immediately, or you may add it to your hand. (Face-up cards may
only be bought and sold if players are in the same place on the map.) - Sell a card from
your hand to another player. The player whose turn it isn’t may pay any cost
involved and immediately put the card into play or put it into their hand. - Stash Nuevo Pesos at
home. (Put your Nuevo Peso cards under your character card to signify this.)
Once stashed at home, they can never be lost. Turn Overview Part 3 If you now have more
than five cards in your hand, discard until you have only five cards.
(Face-up cards in play are not counted in your hand.) This ends your turn. ***If you are in a
Mexican prison at the start of your turn, ignore turn parts 1, 2 and 3. You
may only: - Use an “Escape a Mexican Jail” card. You
must immediately speed away. (Your vehicle is where you left it.) Or - Get deported. Go
immediately to your starting city. You may not take your vehicle. It is
impounded to the discard pile. Or - Stay in jail, draw 2
cards and hope to either find or buy an “Escape a Mexican Jail” card from
another player. You may then play it on this turn and speed away. Any of these actions
ends your turn. Winning the Game The first player to
get a total of 100,000,000 Nuevo Pesos back to their home city is the winner. You may have noticed
that you have a little black pawn that has no apparent use in this game.
That’s because you’ll need it for the expansion. It’s called “Hippies and an
Armored Truck.” Coming soon from Baksha Games. Questions? Comments?
See us at www.bakshagames.com Banditos board game
copyright 2011 by Sean Garrity. Game design: Sean
Garrity. Thanks much to all of
my playtesters and helpers: Gary P., Mr. Niknuk, Trev G., Rob A., Leela G., James V., Ian C., Matt C., Chloe R., Ed V., Ash
R., Megan K., Tommy V., Patrick W., Scott T., Jim B., Jason S., and I guess
Jeff S. My apologies for those who helped out but are not on this list. |