PatrickAug 27, 2023

Cangaceiros is a thematic Euro for 2-5 players and the setting is Brazil around the turn of the 20th century. Players control outlaw gangs, headed by chiefs with unique abilities and attributes, who are hunted by the Volantes - a police force as corrupt as the landowners they serve.

Players start the game with an identical set of seven cards but can replace them with more powerful, specialised ones. A card can be played for the effect on either its top or bottom half; the top is always Move and Attack while the bottom has a variety of actions. With the starting cards, you can move (a single space or from city-to-city along the train track), add one of your bandit meeples to the area your Chief is in, plunder the area your Chief is in to gather resources (or increase your combat strength and heal) or trade resources for fame points in cities, or commit one of your bandit meeples to one of the end-of-round events to protect yourself from its effect and gain a reward. The most interesting action (at least on the starting cards) lets you strengthen your Chief by removing a training marker to reveal a benefit - increased combat strength, more health, or the Chief's special ability.
The replacement cards are Serra cards (which provide more powerful actions) and Caatinga cards (which can be played on an opponent to take resources or fame points off them - the target chooses their poison.) All of the replacement cards also have improved combat values. (1/4)

#boardgames #Cangaceiros

Show threadPatrickAug 27, 2023

Combat is between player and Volantes (and, apart from a special ambush action, never between players) and comes in two flavours.

In the Player Action phase, a player can choose to attack the Volantes. The conflict is a nice mix of open information (you know your gang strength and you know the base strength of the Volantes) and surprise (reserve tokens, equal to the number of Volantes faced, are drawn and increase the enemy's strength). You line up the three rows (Shooting, Protection, and Facão) on the played card with the corresponding rows on both your player (gang) board and your Chief card to determine your gang's combat strength for the conflict.
There are two stages to the conflict: Shooting and Melee. In the first stage, you compare your gang's Guns (Guns value of your Chief + gang strength [number of bandit meeples on the Guns row] + action card played) with the Volantes Protection (Protection value of Volantes card + all reinforcement tokens) and, since this combat is simultaneous, vice versa. If either side's Guns value exceeds the other's Protection, wounds are dealt. If both sides are still standing when the bullets stop flying, machetes are drawn and you compare your Facão strength to that of the Volantes (same as before, but with Facão instead of Guns) - except this time neither side has any defence, so you ignore Protection.
Each defeated Volante is taken as a trophy to later trade for fame points or spend to fulfil a life goal. (2/4)

Show threadPatrickAug 27, 2023

It's possible that neither side will come out on top and you'll be left to tend to your wounds as well as your pride.
Attacking the prison in Recife can be a tougher proposition, as it requires drawing an additional prison reinforcement token, but the reward is greater. You'll get 1 fame point for every bandit (of a single colour - not necessarily your own) freed this way.

In the Activate Volantes phase, the Volantes move (order of preference: to an adjacent Chief > to an adjacent Garrison [group of 1 or more bandits] > by following the arrows on the board) and attack if possible. Unlike when players choose to attack the Volantes, I'm afraid this bit is all take and no give. A single Volante will arrest 1 bandit or give 1 wound to a Chief, two Volantes will arrest 2 or give 2 wounds, and 3+ Volantes will arrest all bandits or kill a Chief outright. As more and more Volantes are added, and they spread out across the board, it becomes harder to avoid them. It's a bit like the viruses in Pandemic - if, you know, the viruses were armed with guns and machetes. (3/4)

Show threadPatrick

There are 20 Chief cards in the game, all based on real Cangaceiros (with descriptions of the historical figures in the rulebook), and you'll likely go through multiple of them each time you play. Your Chief will be replaced if they die, from taking too many wounds (in which case you'll lose fame points corresponding to your bounty level), or retire by meeting the requirements on one of the available life goals. Retiring a Chief is the main way to earn fame points. You'll earn 9 points minus 1 for each wound marker on the Chief card - so it pays to heal up before riding off into the sunset.

The game ends after seven rounds or when all life goals have been taken and the player with the most fame points is the winner. Your first few plays are bound to run long, with players double-checking iconography on action and Chief cards, but with more experience the listed 60-120 minutes won't be far off the mark. There's a good amount of variability (with a different combination of replacement cards, life goals, events, and Chiefs in play) that will help keep things fresh.

Cangaceiros is a solid game, with a unique theme and interesting combat mechanics, and I look forward to my next play. (4/4)

Aug 27, 2023 at 8:28pmWeb