Brigands Board Game Review

Written by Dan York

What is the Brigands Board Game?

Ready to go to jail? Go directly to jail? Not like that other game, don’t worry! In Brigands, you can take on either the role of the Prince, hoarding wealth and sending your soldiers to police the city, or as a Brigand, a wily thief trying to get one over on the ruling class. Gameplay takes place over a handful rounds, each in two phases. Firstly, all players secretly choose which locations they will send their workers to, along with an action token if they want a bonus effect. After the location cards have been revealed and meeples have been placed, each space on the board is resolved in sequence either leading to the brigand players stealing some money, or the shiny white knights belonging to the Prince sending the brigands on that square to jail. 

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Playing Brigands Board Game

There’s some variety to it, each space has a unique way in which players can earn money, but often has a condition which could instantly send them to jail instead, even if the prince doesn’t send his personal police. Too many different meeples at the Treasury? Jail! Too few meeples at the Convoy? Jail! On top of this, all players have the opportunity to take bonus actions at each location, perhaps pushing other players out of their location to steal a bigger share of the pot, perhaps scarpering before the prince can have the satisfaction of sending you to, of course, jail. 

Brigands Review

I’ve been so conflicted on this game, it’s really fun to play, the moment-to-moment gameplay is excellent and engaging and silly and wholesome, but it can feel unfair and poorly balanced at times. Across my first handful of plays, it took a lot of work and careful consideration, combined with at least some solid luck, to get a win as a brigand player. At the end of the game, if no brigand player has stolen at least 50 coins, then the prince player wins by default, this is no mean feat, particularly at higher player counts. In a 5+ player game of Brigands, it’s easy for the brigand players to fall over each other, getting in each other’s way and causing a nuisance to each other, this is clearly intended and in the moment it’s always funny and enjoyable to realise that none of you are getting coins this round. As the dust settles, however, for some people it can be disheartening to realise that it’s round five of six and you’re nowhere near the 50 coin threshold required to win. 

The beating heart of Brigands is player interaction. Deducing where other players are going to send their meeples this turn, balancing incentives and bluffs is highly engaging. Watching everyone agonise about whether they want to risk it all for a huge swing in coins is always very fun. It’s easy to replay too, the variable setup actively changes the tactics every time you play, many of the bonus actions allow you to move meeples onto adjacent locations, so the order they are set out in fundamentally changes the value proposition of taking certain actions at certain places.

Is it a masterpiece of design? I don’t think so. Do I love playing it? Absolutely yes! There’s a lot of tension and excitement in every round of Brigands and the rules are simple and approachable enough that it can be enjoyed by a range of gamers. I will be forever nagged by worries about balance, but it’s not enough to take the shine off a fun experience where you really do have to “play the player” and get into your friend’s heads with every decision. 

Play Brigands?

Yes. It's a family game with tons of player interaction, that runs the line between push-your-luck and take-that just nicely.

You should try this game if you like Citadels. Brigands serves as a simpler and light-hearted counterpart to the crunchy deduction found in Citadels.

On the box

Designer: Florian Boué, Laurène Brosseau 

Publisher: Aspic Games

Time: 35 minutes

Players: 2-6

Ages: 10+

Price: £27

What’s in the box?

• 43 District Cards
• 7 Day Cards
• 99 Coins
• 3 Dice
• 36 Action Tokens
• 18 Meeples
• 6 Action Wheels
• 6 Action Pointers
• Prince Game Board
• 9 District Tiles