Brigands Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Goal of the Game
• Components
• Setup
• Course of the Game
  • New Day
  • Planning
  • Resolution
• End of the Game
• The Characters
  • The Brigands
  • The Prince (only for games of 3 to 6 players)
• The Districts
  • Market
  • Town Hall
  • Port
  • Tavern
  • Risky Districts
  • Palace
  • Convoy
  • Treasure
  • Prison
• 2 Players - Brigand Duel
• Questions
• Player Aid

Goal of the Game

Brigands is a game of deduction and trickery that pits a prince against rival gangs of brigands.

The prince must protect the city's chests from the brigands. At the end of the 6 rounds of play, the prince wins if no brigand has managed to steal 50 Ducats from the kingdom. Otherwise, the richest brigand wins.

Components

• 43 District cards
• 7 Day cards
• 99 Ducat coins
• 3 dice
• 36 Action tokens (6 per color)
• 18 pawns (15 Henchmen and 3 Patrols)
• 6 Action wheel cards
• 6 action pointers
• 1 Prince player board + 2 markers
• 9 District tiles

Setup

• Place the tiles randomly around the Prison to form the central board.
• Shuffle the Day cards and keep 6 to form a draw pile. Return the rest to the box without looking at them.
• Randomly determine who will be the prince for the game. The prince places the prince board and all the Ducats of the game in front of them, and puts the 2 markers at the lowest position of the board.
• The other players each choose a color to play brigands. All players (including the prince, who plays white) start the game with 3 pawns, an action wheel, a pointer and the District cards of their color.
• Everyone places the Action tokens of their color around the board. They form the supply.

Course of the Game

Each round, brigands and prince simultaneously and secretly send their pawns to the districts of the city. The prince must stop the brigands with their Patrol pawns by going to the same districts as them. The brigands, for their part, try to get as rich as possible while dodging the prince and the other brigands.

The game is played over 6 rounds. Each round consists of 3 steps:

New Day

All players gain an Action token of their color from the supply.

Draw a Day card and place it on the corresponding district. The card temporarily replaces the effect of the district (until a brigand takes advantage of the effect).

Planning

Players prepare their teams for the day. Simultaneously, they lay face down in front of them the District cards of their choice. On each, they place one or more pawns. Each group of pawns on a card forms a team. Each team will perform the effect of the corresponding district during the resolution step.

Players may add one Action token per team by placing it on the card with the pawns. It will give an action to the team at resolution time (see Resolution).

You must play all your available Henchman pawns.

Once all players have decided, they reveal where they sent their teams. The pawns and Action tokens are placed in the city, on the districts designated by the cards.

Once all pawns are placed, players take all their cards back into their hand.

Resolution

Districts are resolved one by one following the direction of the arrows. Each district is resolved in this order:

1. Team action

An Action token allows a team action to be chosen (see the Characters section). Players who played a token on the district during planning simultaneously and secretly choose an action on their wheel using the pointer.

Example: the blue player tells their team to perform the "Steal from a player" action on the green team.

Once all players have decided, the actions are revealed and resolved according to their priority order (shown on the wheel by the hourglasses), in ascending order. Two actions with the same number are resolved at the same time. Action tokens played in the city are returned to the supply, even if the action was not used.

Example: the blue, green and the prince players simultaneously choose a team action on their wheel, then reveal it. Actions are resolved by priority order: the green team goes home, then blue tries to steal from green... in vain, because green is no longer there! Then the patrol moves one tile.

2. Arrests

If a Patrol is present, all Henchman pawns are immediately sent to the Prison district.

Example: there finally is a patrol, arrived from the previous district thanks to its action. It sends the blue pawn to prison.

3. District effect

If there is no Patrol, each Henchman pawn takes part in the district effect (see Districts). Once a pawn has been played, the player takes it back in front of them.

Examples: the patrol sends the green Henchman to prison, then the prince takes their pawn back in front of them. / The green player steals the treasure, then takes their pawn back in front of them. The Day card is removed from the board. / The prince takes their pawn back in front of them. The Day card stays in place. / The blue and green players each have a Henchman pawn in prison: they play the effect of the district to escape.

When a district has been completely resolved, move on to the next one.

If the district had a Day card and a brigand managed to take advantage of it, remove the card from the game.

End of the Game

The game ends at the end of the 6 rounds. The prince wins if no brigand has managed to steal 50 Ducats from them. Otherwise only the richest brigand wins!

The Characters

In Brigands, one player plays the prince, the others play brigands. Prince and brigands have different objectives and a different way of playing.

The Brigands

A brigand wins the game by having at least 50 Ducats and being the richest brigand at the end of the game.

All brigands have the same action wheel. An Action token activates the whole team present on the district and can only target pawns present on that same district. Brigand actions cannot target the prince or their patrols.

• Go Home (1): Take back your team. It leaves the district and skips its turn.
• Steal from a player (2): Each of your Henchmen steals 3 Ducats from the targeted team (if it is still present on the district).
• Push (4): Push the targeted team to the next tile. It is only possible to push one pawn per pawn of your team.
• Move (3): Move your team one tile in the direction of the arrows.

To choose your action, use your pointer on the chosen action and on the targeted color.

The Prince (only for games of 3 to 6 players)

The prince wins if no brigand has managed to steal 50 Ducats from them by the end of the game.

The prince has their own action wheel and board. On their board, they have 2 skills that they can improve during the game.

• Back to Prison (1): Move a patrol to prison (it makes no arrests).
• Steal from a player (2): Each of your patrols steals 5 Ducats from the targeted team (if it is still present on the district).
• Spy (0): Activate the Spy skill on all teams present on the district.
• Move (3): Move a patrol one tile in the direction of the arrows.

To choose your action, use your pointer on the chosen action and on the targeted color.

When a Patrol is present on the Prison:

The prince performs the following effect only once: they improve one of their skills (by moving a marker up one space) and gain an Action token. Then they activate the Judgment skill of their board. All prisoners are freed after paying the fine to the prince.

Spy: Take into your hand as many cards from the brigands present on the district as indicated by the level of the skill. You may look at them. They are only returned after the next planning step. A player cannot have more than 3 cards taken per round.

Judgment: All pawns in prison must pay the fine indicated by the level of the skill. Once done, free all prisoners without exception, even those who could not pay the fine entirely. At the start of the game, the fine is 0.

The Districts

ALL GAINS FROM DISTRICTS COME FROM THE PRINCE'S MONEY.

Market

Gain Ducats according to the size of your team. The bigger your team at the Market, the more Ducats you gain (a team of 1 Henchman gains 2, a team of 2 gains 6, a team of 3 gains 12).

Example: there are 3 blue Henchmen and 2 green Henchmen on the Market. The blue player gains 12 Ducats and green 6 Ducats.

Town Hall

Share the Town Hall's loot (10 Ducats) into as many shares as there are Henchman pawns present. If a share cannot be split between several teams, it is not stolen.

Example: there are 2 blue Henchmen and 1 green Henchman on the Town Hall. The blue player takes 2 times 3 Ducats and green 1 time 3 Ducats. The last Ducat cannot be shared and is not stolen.

Port

Each Henchman pawn at the Port performs the effect of its choice:

• take 2 Action tokens of its color from the supply,
• or sell Action tokens: each token sold brings in 3 Ducats. Sold tokens return to the supply.

Tavern

Each Henchman pawn at the Tavern performs the effect of its choice:

• roll a die and gain the result shown on the die,
• or pay 6 to gain the result of a roll of 3 dice.

Risky Districts

SOME DISTRICTS ARE RISKIER: IF THE CONDITIONS ARE NOT MET, ALL HENCHMEN PRESENT ARE SENT TO PRISON EVEN WITHOUT A PATROL PRESENT.

Palace

If there are 3 or more Henchman pawns (all teams combined) on the district, they are all sent to prison without being able to perform the district effect. Otherwise, each Henchman on the Palace steals 5 Ducats.

Convoy

If a Henchman pawn is alone on the district, it is sent to prison without being able to perform the district effect.

Otherwise, roll a die and add 10 to its result to determine the Convoy's loot. Share it into as many shares as there are Henchman pawns present. If a share cannot be split between several teams, it is not stolen.

Treasure

If several teams are present, they get in each other's way and are all sent to prison without being able to perform the district effect. Otherwise, the team present steals the 10 Ducats of the Treasure.

Prison

If a Patrol is present, the prince activates the effect of their board (see The Prince) and the prisoners cannot perform the Prison effect.

Otherwise, each prisoner may perform the effect of their choice:

• pay an Action token to make their Henchman escape,
• or leave their Henchman in prison and gain an Action token.

2 Players - Brigand Duel

The brigand duel is a competitive game mode for 2 players. Each player starts the game with the following components: 1 white Patrol pawn, 3 Henchman pawns, an action wheel, a pointer and the District cards of their color. The standard rules apply, with the following exceptions:

• At the planning step, in addition to their Henchman pawns, they each place a Patrol pawn on a card. The patrols arrest all brigands on the district where they are, regardless of the player who placed them in the city. It is not possible to use a team action on a patrol.
• The player who has the most Henchmen in prison at the start of the round places a second patrol. There will therefore be 3 patrols in the city this round.

Questions

I reached 50 Ducats, does the game end? No, the game ends only after the 6 rounds.

Several of us are stealing from a brigand, but they no longer have enough money. What do we do? The prince takes first. Then follow the fair-sharing rule as for districts: make as many shares as there are Henchmen performing the steal action. Ducats that cannot be shared are not stolen.

I played an Action token and finally do not want to use it. May I? Yes, you may choose not to perform your action. If you must choose secretly, choose an action you cannot use (e.g. steal from an absent player). The token returns to the supply as if it had been used.

Can I steal from or push the prince? No, brigands cannot do anything to patrols. That is why there is no white on their action wheel.

There are no more Action tokens or coins left. What do I do? For Action tokens, your supply is limited to 6. If you have no tokens left in your supply and must gain one, it is lost. However, if you run out of Ducats, use substitute material.

Can I play 2 Action tokens on the same card? No, only one Action token per card.

Several of us push each other simultaneously. What happens? The actions have the same priority; you push each other onto the next district at the same time.

I move / am pushed from the last district of the city. What happens? Moving from the last district of the city leads to the Prison (as shown by the arrows).

Player Aid

Round sequence:

• New day: all players gain an Action token. Draw a new Day card.
• Planning: each player secretly plans their day by placing all their pawns on District cards. An Action token may be placed on the cards of your choice. Once all players have decided, reveal and place the pawns and tokens on the board.
• Resolution: resolve each District one by one in board order. They are always resolved in this order:
  • Team action: Action tokens are resolved first, simultaneously, using the action wheel.
  • Patrol: the patrol arrests all brigands present on the district. If the patrol is on the Prison, it triggers the effect on the prince's board.
  • Henchmen: if no patrol is present on the tile, each Henchman may take part in the district effect.

The game ends after 6 rounds. If no brigand has 50 Ducats in front of them: victory of the prince. Otherwise, the richest brigand wins!

Icon reminder:

• Team: set of a player's pawns on the same district.
• Individual loot: each Henchman pawn on the location gains the indicated loot.
• Choice: each Henchman pawn performs effect A or effect B of the district.
• Random loot: roll a die to know the number of Ducats it represents.
• Loot to share: the two hands represent sharing. Each Henchman pawn takes one share of the loot.
• Die added to Ducats: when the die is added to Ducats, roll the die and add its result to the Ducats already present.