Five Families Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Game Components
• Game Setup
  • General
  • Assigning Non-Player Districts
  • Determine Starting Player
  • Prepare the Market
  • Each Player
  • The District Cards
  • Claim and Control
• Gameplay
  • Phase 1 - Take Control
  • Phase 2 - Claim
    • Special Case: Direct Takeover
  • Phase 3 - Collect Income
  • The Barrels
  • Area Scoring
  • Draw Pile Exhausted
• End of the Game
  • Scoring
• Tips for the First Game

Game Components

• 1 game board - New York in 1931. The game board is based on historical maps from the early 1930s, but has been adapted for better playability and clarity.
• 54 district cards
• 2 cards for the game overview
• 25 Mobster figures (5 per player)
• 30 cars as markers for controlling an area (6 per player)
• 35 barrels as joker
• 72 money tokens ($100 and $500)

Game Setup

General

All five families always participate in the game. In games with fewer than five players, some districts will start under the control of the non-player families.

Assigning Non-Player Districts

1. Remove all district cards marked in the lower right with the player count - e.g., in a 3-player game, remove all cards marked "2-3" and "2-4."
2. Sort them by their markings, creating a stack of 6 cards for each type:
   • In a 2-player game: remove the cards showing "☆2", "☆2·3" and "☆2·4".
   • In a 3-player game: remove the cards showing "☆2·3" and "☆2·4".
   • In a 4-player game: remove the cards showing "☆2·4".
3. For each player colour that you are not using, take any of these decks, shuffle it, and draw all 6 cards one after the other. For the first two cards drawn, place 1 Mobster of that colour on the corresponding district on the board. For the next two cards, place 2 Mobsters each. For the last two, place 3 Mobsters each. Repeat for all stacks assigned to unused colours.

Determine Starting Player

The player who most recently visited New York goes first. If no one has been, the player who "looks most like a Mobster" begins.

Prepare the Market

1. Shuffle the remaining district cards and lay out 6 + the number of players face-up on the table beside the board to form the Market. (In a 4-player game, 10 cards are laid out on the market.)
2. Place the rest face down as a draw pile on the marked space at the top left of the board.

Each Player

Each of you receives starting capital in the form of money and Mobsters, depending on your starting position. Each player also receives the 6 cars and 1 barrel.

Position	Starting capital	Mobsters
1	$1,000	8
2	$1,000	9
3	$1,200	9
4	$1,200	10
5	$1,400	10

The Mobsters you receive this way are Mobsters in your "active supply." All other Mobsters remain in your "passive supply" for the time being. Keep these two supplies strictly separate.

During the game, you can only use the Mobsters in your active supply. If there are no more Mobsters in your passive supply, you cannot obtain any more, even through income, bonuses, or barrels. The total number of Mobsters is therefore limited.

The number of Mobsters in your active and passive reserves must always be visible to everyone else. You can keep the amount of money you have as a secret stack. The other players can see the stack (and therefore how high it is), but you do not have to show or answer how much money you actually have.

Example: setup for the player in position 1 (8 active Mobsters, 17 passive Mobsters, 6 cars, 1 barrel, $1,000).

Starting with the last position and moving counterclockwise, each of you may now take a card from the market to claim it. Place this card in front of you and place as many of your Mobsters from your active supply on the card as the number of patches on the card plus 1 (e.g., 3 Mobsters for 2 patches). If there are no patches on the card, place 1 Mobster on the card. This process is explained in more detail on page 6 → the district cards.

Examples: on this card, 3 Mobsters have to be placed for 2 patches. This card shows no patches, so only 1 Mobster has to be placed.

The District Cards

Each district card corresponds to a district of New York on the game board. Three districts are grouped together to form an area, which is identified by a unique colour. These can be recognized even if you have colour blindness thanks to the labeling, a unique number, and the outline lines. The district, its number, and its location on the board are shown at the top of the card.

• Influence Points (IP): The number of IP that will be awarded at the end of the game for control of this district is shown in the top right corner.
• Patches: The number of patches indicates how difficult it is to take control of this district. The more patches, the more Mobsters will be injured during the takeover. Accordingly, control can only be gained with a minimum number of Mobsters (see below).
• Takeover bonus or penalty: In some districts, you receive a bonus or suffer a penalty when you take control. In this case, the number of Mobsters you receive when you take control is indicated at the top. In addition, some cards show an amount of money that you receive or have to pay when you take control (negative amount in red).
• Income: The bottom half of the card shows the income you receive per round from this district when you control it. Depending on the card, this consists of money, Mobsters, and barrels.
• Non-player marking: At the bottom right, you can see the number of players at which this district is assigned to non-players (see above).

The bonuses and penalties for takeover and the income from the districts are also shown on the game board for reference. Bonuses, penalties, and income are the same for all three districts in an area.

Claim and Control

Two important terms in connection with districts and their cards are "claim" and "control." It is essential for the game to understand this difference and to distinguish clearly between the two.

If you take a card from the market during the game and occupy it with your Mobsters, you claim that district. You then place the card in front of you in your claim space. The district is not yet under your control, and it is still possible for another family to take the card away from you.

Only when you take control as described below do you secure the district for yourself. Place the card in your control space, where it remains in your possession until the end of the game and earns you victory points at the end.

Gameplay

Each of you takes a turn in clockwise order. Your turn consists of three phases:

1. Take control
2. Claim
3. Collect income

These three phases are described in more detail below. Don't be confused by the fact that you take control during your turn before you can claim new cards. For a single card, the sequence is of course reversed: first you claim it, then you take control.

This simply means that any card you claim that moves into your claim space during the second phase of your turn must remain in your possession for at least one round before you can take control of it during the first phase of your next turn (provided the card is still in your possession).

The game ends when control has been taken over all districts.

Phase 1 - Take Control

In this phase, you may take control of all districts within your claim space. You do not have to do this for all districts or even at all. Any districts that you do not take control of now will remain within your claim space.

If you want to take control of a district, you must pay $200 for each of your Mobsters on the map, e.g., $600 if you have three Mobsters on the card.

You can immediately offset this with any bonus on the card. So, in this example, if you receive a bonus of $200 from the card, you would only have to pay $400. If the card includes a penalty (i.e., a negative dollar amount), this must be paid in addition. If you do not have the total amount, you cannot take control for the card during this turn.

Bonuses in the form of Mobsters may be transferred from your passive supply to your active supply when you take the card. Bonuses in the form of barrels may either be taken as barrels or even offset against the amount to be paid ($100) (see page 10 → barrels).

Example: total costs to take control of the district: -$200 (costs of $400, bonus of $200). In this example the yellow player took control of the district by paying $200. 2 Mobsters had been placed on the card. After taking control, 1 Mobster is moved to the district, the other one to the passive supply.

When taking control, as many Mobsters are injured as there are patches shown on the card. If there are no patches shown, no Mobsters are injured. The injured Mobsters are moved from the card to your passive supply.

All Mobsters still on the card now take control of the district. They are moved to the corresponding district space on the game board.

The card is now moved to your control space and cannot be taken from you until the end of the game.

If the third card of an area has been taken over in this way, the area is scored (see page 11 → area scoring).

Phase 2 - Claim

In this phase, you may choose exactly 1 of these 4 options:

1. Claim a card from the market
2. Claim a card from an opponent's claim space
3. Increase the number of Mobsters on a card in your own claim space
4. Pass and receive 2 Mobsters and $200

1. Claim a card from the market. Take a card from the market into your claim space. Then place a card from the draw pile into the market so that there are always 6 cards in the market, unless the draw pile is empty.

You must place at least as many Mobsters from your active supply on the card as the number of patches on the card plus 1. If there are no patches on the card, then the minimum number of Mobsters is 1. However, you may always place more Mobsters on the card. If you do not have enough Mobsters in your active supply, you may not take the card.

2. Claim a card from an opponent's claim space. You take a card from an opponent's claim space and place it in your own claim space. To do this, you must place at least one more Mobster from your active supply on the card than there were opponent Mobsters on it previously. The opposing Mobsters return to the active supply of the player who also receives 2 barrels from the stock as appeasement. If you do not have enough Mobsters in your active supply, you may not take the card.

3. Increase the number of Mobsters on a card in your own claim space. You increase the number of Mobsters on a card in your claim space by adding Mobsters from your active supply to better secure the card, gain majorities in areas, or take over the card directly (see below).

4. Pass and receive 2 Mobsters and $200. If you do not want to or cannot perform any of the first three actions, you may pass and receive 2 Mobsters from your passive supply to your active supply, as well as $200. Sometimes this is the only way to get new Mobsters or money.

Special Case: Direct Takeover

An offer you can't refuse: if the number of Mobsters on a card in the claim space is 5 higher than the number of patches (or at least 5 if there are no patches on the card) at any time, control of that district is taken over directly (forced by the sheer superiority of the Mobsters).

Control is taken over according to the rules for phase 1, i.e., $200 per Mobster must be paid, and any bonuses and penalties apply. If you do not have enough money to take over the card immediately, there is no direct takeover. In this case, you may not place enough Mobsters on the card to trigger this situation, but only one less than the required number.

Note: You may also deploy more than the 5 surplus Mobsters at once; in this case, they will of course be transferred directly.

Phase 3 - Collect Income

In this phase, you collect the income (bottom half of the cards) for all cards in your control space. You do not receive any income for the cards in your claim space.

Depending on the district, income consists of money, barrels, and Mobsters. You add the latter from your passive supply to your active supply, if available.

Example: $100 + $100 + $400 + $200 + $500 = $1,300.

The Barrels

The barrels in your supply serve as wild cards.

Note: You may have a maximum of 7 barrels. If you already have 7 barrels and receive another one, you must immediately exchange that barrel for money or Mobsters.

You may use as many barrels as you want at the same time. You can use a barrel in three different ways:

• Exchange a barrel for $100. You may exchange one barrel for $100. You may do this at any time when it is your turn.
• Exchange a barrel for 1 Mobster. You may exchange one barrel for 1 Mobster from your passive supply. The Mobster is moved to your active supply. You may do this at any time when it is your turn, but only as long as you still have Mobsters in your passive supply.
• Perform an additional claim action. You may perform another action in phase 2 of your turn (and only then), but not the pass action. You may only do this if you did not pass as your first action. So, you choose another of the three actions (claim a market card, claim an opponent's card, increase the number of Mobsters) and perform it as normal, as described in phase 2. You may also use additional barrels to gain even more actions.

Area Scoring

As soon as the third card of an area in phase 1 has been taken into any control space (regardless of whose control space the other two cards of that area are in), the area is scored.

This determines which family has gained control of that area. If there are fewer than five players, this may well be a family that you are not playing.

1. The family with the most Mobsters in this area wins the scoring. In the first step, it does not matter who controls more districts in the area.
2. Only if there is a tie does it matter which of the families involved in the tie controls more districts. If there is still a tie, the player whose turn it is wins control, provided they are involved in the tie. Otherwise, the players involved in the tie are determined in clockwise order and the area is won.
3. Whoever wins the area marks control over the area with a car on the corresponding area on the game board. All Mobsters from this area are returned to the passive supplies of the corresponding players. This is the only time Mobsters can return from the game board to the players.

Note: The number of cars you have and thus the area scores you can win is unlimited. If 6 cars are not enough, use other markers.

Examples: in the first example, the green player has the most Mobsters in the area and therefore gains control. In the second example, both players have the same number of Mobsters in the area, but the yellow player holds more districts. In the third example, the yellow player won the area and places a car in the area. All Mobsters are moved back to the passive supplies of the competing players.

Draw Pile Exhausted

If a card is taken from the market but there are no more cards in the draw pile to replenish the market to 6 cards, the following rule applies from this point on:

If you do not take a card from the market in phase 2 of your turn, place one barrel on each card still in the market, provided there are still barrels in the supply. This also applies if there are already barrels on the cards.

You receive the barrels on a card as an additional bonus if you place this card in your claim space during phase 2 of your turn. You can even exchange them immediately for the Mobsters you need for the card (provided you still have Mobsters in your passive supply).

Example: there are only 4 cards left on the market. A barrel is placed on each card. One card already has a barrel placed on it, so now it carries two barrels. The green player then chooses to take this card into the claim space and immediately exchanges two barrels for two Mobsters.

End of the Game

Scoring

When all districts have been taken over, i.e., are in your control space, and the last area scoring has been carried out, the game ends immediately and the scoring is carried out.

To do this, each of you adds up the IP on the district cards in your control space. You also receive an additional 5 IP for each controlled area (i.e., for each of your cars on the game board).

Money and Mobsters are worthless at the end of the game, so they should be used as effectively as possible during the game.

In the event of a tie, the player who is involved in the tie and has more cars on the game board (i.e., controls more areas) wins. If the tie persists, the player who has more district cards in their control space (i.e., controls more districts) wins.

Tips for the First Game

It is important that you build up a solid income from the districts you control. At the beginning, you should not focus solely on income in the form of money, Mobsters, or barrels, but rather try to achieve a balanced mix of money and Mobsters. Otherwise, you may find yourself in a situation where you have to pass in phase 2 of your turn in order to get at least some money or Mobsters, which is fine for emergencies but not very effective.

You should also keep in mind that an area majority can be achieved with just the third area card. So you shouldn't necessarily spend too many resources on the first two cards of an area. Often (but not always), it may make more sense to save your resources for the third card. Unfortunately, you never know in advance when it will appear in the game.