In these difficult economic times, we hear a lot about people ‘gaming the system.’ Fear not. This isn’t going to be a conservative diatribe on the need to eliminate entitlement programs. It is, in fact, a combination review/session report on Eagle Games’ Bootleggers, which is dependent, in many ways, on an individual player’s ability to ‘game the system.’
The ‘system’ is all about luck; the luck of drawing the right combination of what are known as Muscle Cards, the luck of rolling dice to produce whiskey at your personal ‘still,’ the luck of rolling dice to determine how much of that whiskey you’ll be able to sell at any given ‘speak easy.’ Gaming the system is all about ways to offset the luck, which entails deliberately and forcefully being ruthless.
So your opponent’s all set to collect a big payoff by backing his/her truck up to a ‘speak easy’ and selling a ton of booze, and you have a ‘thug card’ in your hand that will close the place down. You say to your opponent, “Give me 10 grand, and I won’t close it down.” Your opponent looks at the potential for 20 grand that he/she will collect if the place stays open, says “OK” and forks over the cash. And then, you close the place anyway.
Or you lay in wait with a truck until your opponent shows up at a joint, and then flat out steal his booze.
There’s no simple way to describe the process, without duplicating the rule book. There are six phases to the game, called Muscle, Send in the Boys, Fire Up the Still, Run the Whiskey, “What’s the Password,” and The Heat, each of which involves a set of tasks that determine, from round to round, who ends up making money and who doesn’t.
You have Influence Markers, which are the “Boys” in Step Two; plastic, gun-toting Mob figures in your personally chosen color, who are positioned in the ‘speak easies’ and ultimately determine who can and cannot sell booze at any given joint, and how much everybody makes. You start out with $10,000 and a single, four-crate capacity truck. During the game, you can buy more and larger capacity trucks (up to 9) to increase your hauling capacity. You play until one player has amassed $100,000 (the winner) or through 12 rounds of play, whichever comes first. If you make it through the 12 rounds (this will take at least three hours), the Mobster with the most money wins.
And, of course, there are the dice. Lots of them. You roll dice to determine how many crates of whiskey your ‘still’ produces (improvements in the form of added dice are possible during game play), and you roll dice at each ‘speak easy’ (from one to five, depending on the ‘speak easy’) to determine the demand at the place; one crate per number on the die (improvements are possible here, as well).
Then, there are the ‘thug cards,’ which create havoc for your opponents. These are chosen from an available display of seven “Men of Action” cards at the start of each round. Some of these cards will be ‘still’ or ‘speak easy’ improvement cards, while others will earn you extra Influence (more “Boys”), but 35 of the 80-card “Men of Action” deck consists of these ‘thug cards,’ which makes your personal selection of a Muscle Card critical. You have 12 of these Muscle Cards at the beginning, dealt out from four separate decks with cards numbered from 1-18, 19-36, 37-54, and 55-72. You are dealt three from each of these decks, and at the start of each round, you’ll secretly select one of your 12 to compete against your opponents, who are selecting cards of their own. All are revealed, and turn order proceeds from highest number to lowest. You see a ‘thug card’ you really want, you’re going to want to play the highest numbered Muscle Card in your hand to increase your chances of first pick, which, at that, will be no guarantee, because an opponent may have a higher numbered card than your best (unless you have the card numbered 72).
As noted at the outset, the rules and the process of game play are just a part of the story, and most of that is about luck. What makes this game fun is the private negotiation part of the story. The deals, and counter-deals. The promises and betrayals. The trash talk between players, often, with the right group, spoken in gangster lingo, out of the side of the mouth, like Edward G. Robinson (“I’m gonna close your place down, see? And then I’m going to steal your booze, see?”).
Inevitably, someone will suggest, in a breathy tone of voice that you “make him an offer he can’t refuse,” or in a Spanish accent, “introduce you to his little friend.” Without this trash talk, the game might well fall flat on its luck-based face. Woe be the owner of a still, who keeps rolling low numbers and can’t produce enough booze, or doesn’t have enough (or any) influence in a ‘speak easy’ to sell the stuff. You need to be aware of the potential and downright necessity of deals with your opponents. You can try (as I did) to maintain a low profile and just go about your business, but you (as I did) will lose.
Work on your Edward G. Robinson imitation and think like a gangster. Act like a gangster. And have a hell of time.
Bootleggers, first published by Eagle Games in 2004, is designed by Don Beyer, Ray Eifler, and Steve Gross, with artwork (excellent, by the way) by Pennie Barbel, Paul Niemeyer and Jacoby O’Connor. It’s recommended for ages 14 & up, although its rules and process could easily be comprehended by a 12-year-old. Though it can be played with as few as three players, it’s best with a maximum crowd of six (more interaction, more trash talk). It will, especially with larger numbers, take a minimum of two hours. Retail price is around $35-$40, though it can be had for less. The publisher’s Web site (www.eaglesgames.net) offers what it calls a ‘ding and dent’ copy for just under $16.
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