{"id":3534,"date":"2004-11-05T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2004-11-05T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/2004\/11\/05\/bootleggers\/"},"modified":"2004-11-05T12:00:00","modified_gmt":"2004-11-05T11:00:00","slug":"bootleggers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/2004\/11\/05\/bootleggers\/","title":{"rendered":"Bootleggers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bootleggers<\/a><\/h2>\n

reviewed by Moritz Eggert<\/i><\/p>\n

“Eagle Games” is mostly known for “light” wargame-type games with
\nmonstrous boards and tons of plastic figures. Not all of these games have been equally
\nsuccessful, but so far the company has been willing to learn from it’s mistakes and
\nto constantly improve their designs. Their newest game, “Bootleggers”, is a
\nradical departure in many ways. Already “Age of Mythology” had some “Euro
\nGame” elements, but “Bootleggers” is their first game to be officially
\npresented as a “Euro-American-hybrid” game, purposely mixing the best of the
\ntwo worlds. But “Bootleggers” is also NOT a wargame. Although the game material
\nis lush as always with Eagle games, this time the map is only 1\/3 as big (still big by
\nany account), and there are definitely no combat dice to be rolled. Instead players take
\nover the role of roaring 20’s gangsters, who try to make big bucks by selling illegal
\nwhiskey in the speakeasies on the gameboard.<\/p>\n

The rules are very extensive and include many pictured examples. One might think at
\nfirst glance that this is a complicated game, but it ain’t. In fact, the game
\nmechanics are very straightforward.<\/p>\n

The game is played over 12 rounds. Each round’s turn order is decided by the play
\nof “muscle” cards (a “Euro” mechanic), of which none has exactly the
\nsame number, but everybody gets a roughly equal distribution of high and low cards. This
\nis in fact one of the more ingenious ideas of the game, as “muscle” also
\ndecides who places his trucks first and so on, so it is an interesting decision when to
\nplay your high or low cards.<\/p>\n

Players now select “action” cards (also a “Euro” mechanic), which
\nallow them to do various things like getting influence markers (represented by mean
\nlooking guys with a Tommy gun; they are first placed on your distillery, then move to the
\nvarious speakeasies to gain influence). They are also used for upgrading your distillery
\nor the consumption of speakeasies, or come as “take that” or “thug”
\ncards, which usually mess with other players (an “American” mechanic). One can
\nalso buy additional trucks, which are necessary to bring the whiskey to the speakeasies
\n(you start with a “4” truck, which can handle 4 crates of evil spirits).<\/p>\n

Next, your distillery produces whiskey, the amount of which is determined by a die
\nroll (“American” mechanic) for each distillery or distillery upgrade you
\nhave.<\/p>\n

Some players will now want to trade, as they either have too much or too little
\nwhiskey, and the game explicitly allows all kinds of deals and backstabbing.<\/p>\n

Next, you load your whiskey on the trucks (the whiskey crates are represented by
\nwooden cubes, which fit nicely into the trucks) and line up at the various speakeasies.
\nNow your mobsters with Tommy guns come into play. You’ll either have a majority (more
\ninfluence than each other player, but not more than all other players combined),
\ncontrolling majority (more than each other player AND all other players combined), or a
\nsimple minority, or no influence at all at a speakeasy. If you have the majority, you
\nwill sell your crates first, which is very important because each speakeasy only has a
\nlimited consumption capacity – they can only take THAT much of your vile illegal brew! If
\nyou have controlling majority, you also get a bonus on EVERY whiskey sold, even by other
\nplayers.<\/p>\n

\"BootleggersThe other players (minority) line up at the middle
\ndock, whoever comes first – determined again by muscle – will sell first (in fact it is
\nvery cute to line up the trucks at the various speakeasies physically). The public dock
\nremains for players with no influence at that particular speakeasy, and they have to
\ngrease the palm of the majority player to be allowed to sell there.<\/p>\n

This is the only aspect of the game, which can create some confusion with newbie
\nplayers, as one, two, or three “stars” instead of a description represent the
\nvarious “docks”. Some players thought that only controlling players could line
\nup at the “3 star” dock, whereas in fact also the normal majority player can.
\nIt might have been good to create a fourth dock for players who cash in the bonus, but
\nthe game board is already pretty crowded as it is with the huge trucks and figurines.<\/p>\n

All this majority\/minority business is “very Euro”, as you can imagine!<\/p>\n

AFTER placing the trucks, the consumption is rolled for each speakeasy
\n(“American” mechanic), which means that either all whiskey crates will be sold,
\nor only part of them. The players last in the row will suddenly have a very sad look on
\ntheir face (when the whiskey consumption is lower than expected), because all whiskey not
\nsold (or not put on a truck in the first place) will simply wither away, not to be
\nstored.<\/p>\n

Selling whiskey will give you 1000-3000 bucks per crate, depending on the speakeasy,
\nand the bonus is always 1000$ a crate.<\/p>\n

That is the core of the game, but of course many wild things happen through the play
\nof “thug” cards. It is for example possible to steal your opponent’s truck
\nand sell the whiskey as your own, or to remove influence markers from your opponents.
\nThis somewhat “chaotifies” the “Euro” aspect of the game, but also
\nhelps a bit against the staticness of the basic play.<\/p>\n

In rounds 4 and 8 all players get free influence, the player with the least money more
\nthan the others. Also from round four on, a “copper” appears, who always
\nthreatens the most prolific distillery, shutting it completely down for one round when a
\n“5” is rolled (“American mechanic”).<\/p>\n

The player who first amasses 100.000$ wins the game with “sudden death”, or
\nwhoever has the most money at game end (the former is more likely in our opinion).<\/p>\n

We liked our game of “Bootleggers”, the atmosphere is captured well and the
\ngame mechanic doesn’t feel too abstract (an “American” aspect), but players
\nwho expect a deep thought experience like “Puerto Rico” will certainly be a bit
\ndisappointed, as the action cards mess a lot with who’s leading and who’s
\nnot.<\/p>\n

A very “wild” aspect of the game is the whiskey production. We had players
\nrolling strings of 1’s, and others strings of 6’s, and of course the latter will
\nhave a big edge in income, even though the game partly tries to remedy that with the
\nintroduction of the “copper”. But that so much is depending on a dice roll
\nmight turn some players off, especially if they are used to games like “Puerto
\nRico”. Winning or losing might only be a “pip” apart!<\/p>\n

This is why Aaron Haag of our group thought of a variant for “Euro Gamers”
\nwhich links the production to the number of influence markers in the back room, and the
\nconsumption to the number of influence markers in the speakeasy. For this, a ratio of two
\nshould probably be introduced, and it also might mean that you should gain 2 instead of 1
\ninfluence marker per card. A more strategic game could be imagined, for those who find
\nthe current game to random for their taste. Perhaps some players will be tempted to try
\nout such a variant and be willing to report their experience to us? (As an
\nalternative, Steve Gross suggests on Boardgamegeek the “Mensa” version of the
\ngame where all die rolls are replaced by a constant “3” [ah])<\/i><\/p>\n

But as it stands this is a valid and interesting effort, and might be the most
\n“playable” Eagle game yet. To explain the rules one should expect around 15
\nminutes, the actual playing time varies wildly with the ambition of the players. If they
\ntend to think deeply the game might drag on for 3 hours or more, but a relaxed round
\nmight finish it in a much shorter time, more like 90 minutes or so. Fact is it is longer
\nthan your typical family board game, but not as long as a fully-fledged wargame (and
\ntherefore much shorter than any other “Eagle” game).<\/p>\n

“Eagle Games” has taken an interesting path here, and we will look at their
\nnext games with heightened interest. Now give me back my bottle, will you, buddy?<\/p>\n

\n
<\/form>\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bootleggers reviewed by Moritz Eggert “Eagle Games” is mostly known for “light” wargame-type games with monstrous boards and tons of plastic figures. Not all of these games have been equally successful, but so far the company has been willing to learn from it’s mistakes and to constantly improve their designs. Their newest game, “Bootleggers”, is … Bootleggers<\/span> weiterlesen →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3534","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-spieleabende"],"views":4,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3534","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3534"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3534\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3534"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3534"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westpark-gamers.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3534"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}