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Theme

It’s the heart of prohibition in the big city. The mayor is dead… murdered in a very public and messy drive by shooting on the steps of city hall leaving a power vacuum behind. Who is behind this assassination and who will take over?

Each player is in control of a syndicate aimed at dominating the city. Players vie for dominance behind the scenes, and can use multiple tactics/paths to achieve victory (most VPs).

Overview

Each player has means of influencing city council members on the vote for the next mayor. Each council member is tied to a district. The player with the most influence in a district controls the vote of that council member. Some influence is overt: the play on the main game board. Some is covert: via a card vault that locks in different types of influence for each district. Build influence, and get your candidate elected to dominate the city!

The Board

Large city map, laid out in 10 districts (precincts) with city hall at the center of the map. Each district has its own central police station and has a mix of four types of areas: retail business, residential, manufacturing, and warehouse areas (not all districts will have all four areas in them). Other city government buildings and special buildings are spread throughout the city: i.e. fire depts., local union houses, post offices, schools, museums, Caribou Club (businessmen’s private club), speakeasies, etc…

Cards

One large deck of person cards (from footpads, shopkeepers, and patrol officers up to senators, wealthy businessmen, and the governor). Each person card has different types of influence optimized for different areas and special buildings, and can negate/compliment other cards operating in the same district.

Federal Agent Cards: part of person card deck, FBI, ATF, IRS, etc... Played against another player’s home district to disrupt their influence as well as push blame for the murder of the previous mayor on them.

Person cards are descriptive in terms of what type of influence a person has.

Five mayoral candidate cards: each candidate represents two of the ten districts whose council member will vote for this candidate by default. Cards kept in center of board at City Hall.

Special Gadgets

The vault is a slotted rack facing the player that holds person cards that are in play, but hidden. The player must first choose the district in which the person on the card is placing influence by toggling the districts number in. When the card is inserted, that district becomes locked with the person. The Vault contains 10 slots.

The vault has a toggle for the 5 different mayoral candidates to be selected by the player prior to start of play

Game Set up

Players are dealt 5 cards to their hand.

Districts are selected after each player has had a chance to look at their hands in order to allow players to optimize the influence of the person cards in their hand. Players take turns bidding on a district to select as their home district. Bidding starts to the dealer's left and goes clockwise and consists of playing a person card on the desired district. When two players vie for the same district, the player with the highiest influence in that district (based on the person card played) wins and the losing player's person card is discarded. Player's denote their home district by placing a token on the district's precinct station. Only one player may occupy a district. A player operating in their home district gains an influence bonus on all person cards played there.

Players then choose a mayoral candidate to support. Each candidate optimizes different types of influence: i.e. unions and civil servants; business and manufacturing; police and street toughs; etc… Players choose a candidate that will allow them to gain the most VPs at the end of the election. Candidate choices are kept secret, and more than one player can support a given candidate.

Game Play

Play starts with dealer and goes clockwise.

Players start by drawing 1 card to their hand.

The player then must play a card face up on the board, face down in front of them (a player can have only one face down card), or play a card in their vault.

A card face down in front of the player (played in a previous turn) may be played at this time to the board only.

Cards played face up on the board are placed in the district where influence is desired. The player places a token on the card to identify ownership.

Play stops 1 round after voting criteria is met (stopping just prior to the player on whose turn voting criteria was met).

Voting Criteria

Last player fills card vault

Player has enough overt influence over a candidate to force an election and chooses to do so at the end of his/her turn. The player must have influence over five districts (which may include the candidate’s two home districts if there is no overt influence on the board in these districts). The candidate a player uses to force the election does not have to be the candidate selected in the player’s vault.

Vote Winner Determination

Total overt and covert influence is tallied for each district. The player having the most influence over a district gets the vote for their chosen candidate. Six votes are needed to elect the mayor. If no candidate has six or more votes, then the council is undecided and there is no mayor.

Game Winner

The player with the most VPs wins. If tied, the player whose candidate won wins. If still tied, then the player who had the most votes for that candidate wins.

Awarding VPs

5 VP - Candidate gets elected mayor
3 VP each - Player controls the most influence in an area that the mayor supports as listed on the mayor’s card: unions and civil servants; business and manufacturing; police and street toughs; etc…
2 VP - Controlling a district’s vote
1 VP - Most districts controlled
-4 VP Named the Assassin: player with the most Federal Agent influence against them. If tied, it was a conspiracy and all parties share the blame and receive -4 VPs.

Strategy

Watch how and where other players are developing their overt influence. Are they pushing for a gangster friendly regime or a city friendly to big business?

Default district voting can allow for a fast early vote based on what’s on the board. Be careful initiating a vote this way, because other players have one last chance to place overt and/or covert influence in these districts.

Be careful of having too much influence on the board, or else you may be framed for the previous mayor’s demise.

Face down cards can help get that last minute push for influence in the final round.