Contract Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• 1. Components
• Setup
• 2. Turn Actions
  • Principle of the Game
  • Influence Values
  • Five Actions
  • Types of Influence Cards
  • 1. Action: Influence a Mafioso
  • 2. Action: Reinforce an Influence
  • 3. Action: Pay Copper
  • 4. Action: Hire Vicelard
  • 5. Action: Pass
• 3. End of a Round
  • 1. Count of Influences
  • 2. Special Influences
• 4. New Round
  • Bonus Tokens
• 5. End of the Game

1. Components

• 5 player cards
• 15 influence tokens (3 per player, in each player's colour)
• 2 pawns to fix on the plastic stands provided: the Vicelard pawn and the Copper pawn
• 1 game board to assemble (3 parts): Copper > Central < Vicelard
• 24 Mafiosi cards: Brakova (5 cards), Yakaz (5 cards), Rodrigos (5 cards), Costa (5 cards), Blackmat (4 cards)
• 53 influence cards: 40 contract cards, 13 dollar cards, card backs
• 1 first player card, 1 Vicelard card, 1 Copper card
• 8 trafficking tiles: 4 first trafficking tiles and 4 second trafficking tiles
• 6 double-sided bonus briefcase tiles

Setup

1. Assemble the game board.
2. Shuffle the first trafficking tiles and distribute them at random to the left of the board; shuffle the second trafficking tiles and distribute them at random to the right of the board.
3. Shuffle the bonus briefcase tiles and distribute them at random above the board.
4. Each player takes 1 player card and the 3 influence tokens of the same colour.
5. Shuffle the Mafiosi cards and form a draw pile in the centre of the board. With 2 or 3 players, remove the Mafiosi of value 2.
6. Lay out from left to right a number of Mafiosi cards below the board:
   • 2 players > 4 cards > Back - Face up - Back - Face up
   • 3 players > 5 cards > Back - Face up - Back - Face up - Back
   • 4 players > 6 cards > Back - Face up - Back - Face up - Back - Face up
   • 5 players > 6 cards > Back - Face up - Back - Face up - Back - Face up
7. Place the Copper pawn on the leftmost card. (Position of the Copper pawn at the start of the round.)
8. Place the Vicelard pawn on the rightmost card. (Position of the Vicelard pawn at the start of the round.)

Shuffle the influence cards and form a draw pile near the board (the first player, Vicelard and Copper cards are set aside).

Deal 5 influence cards to each player.

Determine the first player. This player takes the first player card and turns their player card to side 1.

Only at the start of the game: the last player (to the right of the 1st player) takes the Vicelard card.

2. Turn Actions

Principle of the Game

The goal is to influence as many Mafiosi as possible in order to obtain the most lucrative trafficking operations and bonus briefcases. The trafficking operations and bonuses will let you become the most powerful trafficker in the world!

To influence Mafiosi, you must use the various influence cards and tokens.

Influence Values

Each influence card and token has an influence value. The back of the cards also has a value of 1/2 influence point.

• Contract card > 2 influence points
• Influence token > 1 influence point
• Dollar card > 1 influence point
• Card back > 1/2 influence point

Five Actions

During their turn, players must perform exactly one action among the following 5 actions:

1. INFLUENCE
2. REINFORCE
3. PAY COPPER
4. HIRE VICELARD
5. PASS

Types of Influence Cards

A. MAFIA CONTRACT (mandatory) Is played on a Mafioso card necessarily of the same family (same colour).

Example: the red contract can only be used to influence red Mafiosi.

Warning: the Blackmat (black) Mafiosi only accept dollars (1 $ or 1/2 $). They do not accept contracts.

B. DOLLAR, 1/2 DOLLAR AND COPPER (mandatory) Is played on the Mafioso card of your choice (a member of the 4 families or a Blackmat). Like dollars, Copper is played on all Mafiosi.

Example: dollars can be used to influence all Mafiosi.

C. VICELARD CONTRACT AND DOLLAR (mandatory) Is played necessarily on the Mafioso card where the Vicelard pawn is placed. If it is a Blackmat, the player must use the 1 $ side (no contract for the Blackmats). If the Vicelard pawn is moved, the card nevertheless remains in play.

Example: the Vicelard pawn being on the yellow Mafioso, only this one can be influenced by the Vicelard card.

1. Action: Influence a Mafioso

• Play, necessarily, one or more influence tokens, necessarily accompanied by one or more influence cards, on a Mafioso card of your choice. See the column above.
• The first player of a round must necessarily influence a Mafioso.

2. Action: Reinforce an Influence

• Play influence tokens and/or cards on a Mafioso card that the player already influences. See the column above.
• A player can reinforce their influence on a Mafioso only if at least 1 of their influence tokens is already in play on it.

3. Action: Pay Copper

• Pay 1/2 $ to move the Copper pawn onto any Mafioso card in play except the one where the Vicelard pawn is.

Power of Copper

• At the end of the round, the Mafioso on which the Copper pawn is placed talks and delivers a member of his family to the police.
• The player who wins this Mafioso card has two choices:
  1. Choose a Mafioso of the same family already won by another player and make them discard it. or
  2. Take the Copper card for the next round.

Example

At the end of the round, the purple player wins the yellow 4 card with 6 influence points (2+2+1+1). The Copper pawn is on this card.

The purple player chooses to make the yellow 5 card, present in the white player's play area, be discarded. The white player, who was the leader for the Yakaz family, is dethroned by the purple player, who becomes in turn the leader of the yellows.

The purple player does not win the Copper card for the next round, because they preferred to make their opponent's card be discarded.

4. Action: Hire Vicelard

• Pay 1 $ to move the Vicelard pawn onto any Mafioso card in play.

Power of Vicelard

1. Vicelard protects against the presence of Copper. When the Vicelard pawn is moved onto a card where Copper is, Copper is forced to leave. The active player must then move the Copper pawn onto another Mafioso card of their choice.
2. The Copper pawn cannot be moved onto the Mafioso card where the Vicelard pawn is present.
3. At the end of the round, the player who wins the Mafioso on which the Vicelard pawn is placed takes the Vicelard card for the next round.

5. Action: Pass

• A player can pass if they have no other action to perform or if they wish to delay their actions and see what the other players do. For more immersion, passing can be signalled by tapping the table (as in poker).
• Passing is not final. On their next turn, the player can perform an action again.
• Warning! If all players pass in succession, the round is over and play immediately moves on to the count of influences.

3. End of a Round

When all players have passed in succession, the round ends and the count of influences is carried out.

1. Count of Influences

• Starting necessarily from the left, the players total the sum of influence points present on the various Mafioso cards.
• The one who has the most points wins the Mafioso card, which they place directly in their personal play area, in a column by family colour.
• Important! In case of a tie in influence points, the Mafioso is considered uninfluenced. The Mafioso card is then discarded; nobody wins it.

Particularities

• The Blackmat (black) cards are not linked to a family. When a player wins a Blackmat card, they can place it in any family column in their possession.
• The points of a Blackmat are added to the sum of the points of the family in which it is placed.
• Important! A Blackmat cannot be moved from one column to another. If it is hired with the reds, it stays with the reds.
• However, if all the red cards of the column are discarded, the Blackmat immediately joins another family of its play area.
• If the player has no family column, the Blackmat is kept until the player wins a coloured Mafioso, which it necessarily joins.

2. Special Influences

COPPER: The player who wins the Mafioso card on which Copper is placed must activate one of these 2 powers:

1. Make a Mafioso card be discarded.
2. Take the Copper card at the end of the count of all the influences. See the column above.

VICELARD: The player who wins the Mafioso card on which Vicelard is placed takes the Vicelard card at the end of the count of all the influences. See the column above.

4. New Round

Once the count of all the Mafioso cards is finished, the players prepare the new round.

• Each player takes back all their influence tokens.
• All Mafioso cards present below the board that were not influenced are removed from the game.
• All influence cards played are discarded.
• Lay out Mafiosi from left to right below the board:
  • 2 players > 4 cards > back - face - back - face
  • 3 players > 5 cards > back - face - back - face - back
  • 4 players > 6 cards > back - face - back - face - back - face
  • 5 players > 6 cards > back - face - back - face - back - face
• Deal 5 new influence cards to each player. Note: if necessary, the influence draw pile is remade by shuffling the discard pile.
• Important! Each player can keep their hand at the end of the round. For example, if a player has 3 cards left, they will begin the next round with at least 8 influence cards in hand (maximum 10 influence cards).
• The first player turns their card to the standard side; the player to their left becomes the first player, turns their player card to side 1 and takes the first player card.
• A new round begins. Reminder: the first player must necessarily influence a Mafioso.

Bonus Tokens

During the game, the first player to fulfil the conditions can win the corresponding bonus briefcase:

• First to have 3/4 cards of different families.
• First to have 2/3 cards of the same family (yellow, red, blue or green).
• First to have 2 Blackmat cards.
• First to have 3 cards of strength 2. (Used only with 4 or 5 players.)

5. End of the Game

• The game stops at the end of the last round (there are no more Mafiosi to influence).
  • 5 rounds with 2 players.
  • 4 rounds with 3, 4 and 5 players.
• Each player totals the sum of the points of the Mafiosi by colour in their play area. Reminder: the points of the Blackmats are added to the sum of the points of the family in which they are placed.

(Illustrated example of a play area: yellow family 7 points, red 8 points, blue 6 points, green 4 points.)

1. The player who totals the most points in a colour of Mafiosi wins the first trafficking tile corresponding to the colour of the family, on the left part of the board. In case of a tie in a family, the player who has the card with the highest number of points for the colour wins the trafficking.
2. The player in second position in terms of score wins the second trafficking tile corresponding to the colour of the family, on the right part of the board. In case of a tie, the same rule as for the first trafficking applies.

Finally, the players total all the trafficking tiles and the bonus briefcases obtained. The richest player wins the game.

At the end of the game, the players can win the corresponding bonus briefcases:

• Maximum of Mafiosi cards in their play area (yellow, red, blue, green and black).
• The largest family of Mafiosi of the same colour (yellow, red, blue or green).
• Maximum of cards of strength 3.
• Maximum of cards of strength 2. (Used only with 4 or 5 players.)

In case of a tie, nobody wins the bonus!