COSCA: Take Over the Mafia
COSCA: Take Over the Mafia Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Game Components
- 6 city cards (they form the city map): Bank, Gun Shop, Racetrack, Club, Villa, Street
- 20 mobster cards
- 1 calendar card
- 5 villa tokens
- 35 weapon tokens
- 50 money tokens
- 1 current day marker
- 5 player screens
- 5 x 11 loyalty tokens (hats in the players' colors)
- 29 minion dice
- 1 last day marker
Round Overview and Quick Reference (summary printed on the cover)
Round structure:
- Phase 1 - New Day: move the day marker; take 3 minion dice; gain a minion die/dice for your loyal mobsters; gain a minion die from the villa token; add a new mobster card; return excess resources to the supply (you may have max. 10 money and 10 weapons).
- Phase 2 - Sending Out the Minions: set and reveal the minion dice; place hats under mobsters.
- Phase 3 - Day Evaluation: gain resources; perform location actions.
- Phase 4 - Gaining the Mobsters' Loyalty: evaluate the mobsters' requirements - win them over by fighting or without a fight.
Location actions:
- Bank - For each of your minion dice showing the Bank symbol you gain 1 money.
- Gun Shop - For each of your minion dice showing the Gun Shop symbol you may exchange 1 money for 1 weapon.
- Racetrack - On Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday you gain 2 money for each of your minion dice showing the Racetrack symbol.
- Club - For each of your minion dice showing the Club symbol you may invite 1 of your loyal mobsters for a drink.
- Villa - You gain 1 extra minion die for the following day (once per day, twice per game).
- Street - The player(s) with the most Street symbols on their minion dice gain(s) 1 money and 1 weapon.
Special mobster requirements:
- John Brown - All your minion dice must show the same symbol.
- Scarlett - All your minion dice must show different symbols.
- Henrietta - At least 3 of your minion dice must show the same symbols as the minion dice of another player.
After the city actions are evaluated:
- Little Buck - You must have the fewest money tokens.
- Roberto di Salvo - You must have the most weapon tokens.
- Bobby - You must have an equal number of weapon tokens and money tokens (0 tokens also meets this condition).
Game Setup
- Lay out the city cards in the middle of the table in the following order: Bank, Gun Shop, Racetrack, Club, Villa and Street. Together they form the city map.
- Place the calendar card to the left of the city cards. Place the current day marker on the day on which you are playing the game right now. Place the last day marker on the day before the current day marker.
- Each player receives: 1 player screen, 3 minion dice, 1 villa token (black side up), 1 money token, 1 weapon token and 11 loyalty tokens (hats) in the color of their mafia family.
- Create a general supply of resources from the money tokens and weapon tokens, and a supply of minion dice, within reach of all players.
- Shuffle the mobster cards and form a deck. Place the deck face down to the left of the calendar card. Then reveal from the deck as many mobster cards as there are players in the game. Place the mobsters face up, from left to right, below the city map.
(Example of setup for 3 players shown in the original.)
Goal of the Game
Gain, by the end of the game, the loyalty of the majority of the mobsters in the city. In case of a tie, the player with the most resources (weapons and money) wins. If the tie persists, the player with the loyal mobster furthest to the left below the city map wins.
Introduction
You have a week (7 rounds) to win the loyalty of the majority of the mobsters in the city. You win their loyalty using minion dice, which you also use to perform actions in the city.
Each die represents 1 of your minions who is available for the given round. Minion dice are never rolled! Instead, you turn each of them to the desired side to indicate how you intend to use it. All dice are the same and their sides correspond to the 6 places in the city.
In each round you will always have at least 3 minion dice. You can get more if you win the loyalty of mobsters or when you ask the Don for help in his villa. The process of gaining mobsters' loyalty is described in "Phase 4: Gaining the Mobsters' Loyalty" (see below).
Beware! Mobsters do not work every day of the week. So if you manage to win the loyalty of one of the mobsters, check the calendar on his card. A mobster gives you 1 extra minion die only if he is loyal to you on the specific day (round) when he works.
Structure of a Round
- Phase 1 - New Day
- Phase 2 - Sending Out the Minions
- Phase 3 - Day Evaluation
- Phase 4 - Gaining the Mobsters' Loyalty
Phase 1 - New Day
(Skip this phase in the first round.)
Move the current day marker to the next day on the calendar card.
Take your minion dice for this day. You always have 3 minion dice available. Add to your supply 1 minion die for each loyal mobster (with your hat) who works on this day.
Example: It is a new day, Friday. The green player has a loyal mobster, John Brown, who works on Friday, so he gains 1 extra minion die. The red player also has one loyal mobster, Mama Pazzo, who also works on Friday. So he too gains 1 extra minion die. The blue player has a loyal mobster, Jacob Soldini, who works only on Saturday and Sunday, so he gains no extra minion die.
If there is a minion die on your villa token, you add that die to your supply for this round. If the token was on its black side, flip it to its white side. If it was on its white side, return it to the box.
Example: When you gain a minion die from the villa token the next day, flip the token to its white side. When you gain a die for the second time, return the villa token to the box.
Reveal 1 mobster card from the deck and place it face up to the right of all currently revealed mobsters below the city map.
In Phase 1, each player may have at most 10 pieces of each type of resource (money and weapons). Return excess tokens to the supply.
Phase 2 - Sending Out the Minions
Place all your minion dice behind your screen. You may now secretly set each of your minion dice to any side. Remember that each side of a minion die corresponds to a place in the city. Each minion thus performs a certain action in the city for you. The mobsters below the city map also watch your moves, and if you use particular combinations of dice, you can try to win their loyalty in Phase 4.
The decisions you make now determine your actions for the rest of the day (round). As soon as all players have turned their minion dice to the desired sides, they are revealed. Make sure all players are ready, and then reveal your minion dice simultaneously by lifting the screens.
You use the revealed minion dice for the following two things:
- You gain resources and perform other actions (Phase 3) in the city.
- You meet the loyalty conditions of the mobster cards (Phase 4). Place your hat under each mobster card whose loyalty conditions your minion dice meet. You can place most of the hats immediately after revealing the minion dice, but for some you must wait until after the city actions have been performed (see page 9).
Phase 3 - Day Evaluation
In this phase you gain resources and perform other actions in the city based on your minion dice (you can no longer change the sides of the minion dice). Evaluate the individual places in the city one after another. Start with the Bank and then proceed through the other locations from left to right. The order in which the city locations are resolved is important, so always follow it. The action of each location is resolved by all players simultaneously.
There are 2 types of resources in the game:
- Money - a money token has a value of 1 (both for fighting and for paying in the city).
- Weapons - a weapon token has a value of 3 (only for fighting - you cannot pay with weapons!).
The number of resources you own is public information. For most of the game you will have them visibly placed in front of your screen. You place your resources behind the screen only when fighting for the loyalty of mobsters (Phase 4). You cannot freely exchange money for weapons and vice versa.
Overview of City Locations and Their Actions
Bank (1) Gain 1 money token from the general supply for each of your minion dice showing the Bank symbol.
Gun Shop (2) You may exchange 1 money token for 1 weapon token for each of your minion dice showing the Gun Shop symbol (exchange money tokens for weapon tokens from the common supply).
Racetrack (3) If the current day is Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday or Sunday, you gain 2 money tokens from the general supply for each of your minion dice showing the Racetrack symbol. The days on which races are held are marked with a horseshoe symbol on the calendar card.
Club (4) For each of your minion dice showing the Club symbol you may invite 1 of your loyal mobsters (marked with a hat of your color) for a drink. When you invite a loyal mobster for a drink, place a money token from your personal supply on him (on your hat) (if there is no money token on him yet).
Inviting a mobster for a drink allows you to take part in the fight for his loyalty in Phase 4, even if your minion dice do not meet the conditions for his loyalty. If the mobster already has a money token on him, you cannot invite him for a drink again.
If you later take part in a fight for his loyalty (and your minion dice do not meet his loyalty condition), return the money token from the mobster's card to the general supply, and you may take part in the fight for his loyalty as usual. If nobody fought you for his loyalty, you keep the money token on the mobster's card for later rounds.
Villa (5) If you have at least 1 of your minion dice showing the Villa symbol, you may ask the Don for help and gain 1 extra minion die for the following day. You may ask the Don for help only twice per game. You may also voluntarily decline this action. Whenever you ask the Don for help, mark this by placing 1 new minion die from the general supply on your double-sided villa token. You gain this extra die only during Phase 1 of the following day.
If you have already asked the Don for help twice, you cannot use the Villa action. You can still turn minion dice to the Villa symbol in order to meet the mobsters' loyalty conditions.
Street (6) The player with the most Street symbols on their minion dice gains 1 money token and 1 weapon token. If several players have the same number of Street symbols on their dice, all of them receive this reward in full.
Phase 4 - Gaining the Mobsters' Loyalty
To win the loyalty of any mobsters at all, you must first meet their conditions. These conditions usually consist of combinations of 2 or 3 symbols on the minion dice, but in the game you may also encounter mobsters with special conditions (see page 9). Remember that you can use the same dice to meet the conditions of several mobsters. Mark the mobsters whose conditions you meet (and for whose loyalty you can therefore fight) with your hat under their card (see Phase 2). Evaluate the gaining of loyalty of the individual mobsters below the city map from left to right.
Two things can happen when determining the mobsters' loyalty:
- A player gains a mobster without a fight.
- Players fight over a mobster.
Example: The red player has 4 active minion dice (3 basic and 1 for a loyal mobster who works this day). By setting his minion dice this way, he will try to win the loyalty of these 2 mobsters (Marco Ricci and Jacob Soldini) and keep the loyalty of Lucky.
1. Gaining a Mobster Without a Fight
If you are the only player who meets the mobster's loyalty condition, and the player to whom this mobster is loyal has not invited this mobster for a drink, you gain his loyalty without a fight. Move your hat from below the mobster card directly onto the card. If another player's hat was on this card from the previous round, return it to the respective player. If one of your hats was already on the mobster's card, nothing happens: move your hat from below the card back to your personal supply. Keep your hat on the mobster's card until another player gains his loyalty.
2. Fighting for a Mobster
If more than 1 player meets the loyalty conditions on the mobster's card, these players will fight for his loyalty. If you invited this mobster for a drink, you can fight for his loyalty even if your minion dice do not meet his condition (see page 6, Club). The players who met the mobster's condition, and also the one who invited him for a drink, fight for his loyalty simultaneously.
Resolving a fight for loyalty
All players taking part in the fight move their resources (weapons and money) behind their player screens. Then each player secretly places, behind the screen, any number of resources (even none) in any combination into their hand, and holds out that hand over the table as a fist to hide the resources.
Once all players are ready for the fight, they simultaneously reveal the resources hidden in their fists. The player with the highest total value of resources in hand (money has a value of 1, weapons a value of 3) gains the mobster's loyalty. The winner moves his hat from below the mobster card directly onto it. If another player's hat was on the card from the previous round, return it to that player. If the winner's hat was already on the mobster's card, the winner simply moves the hat from below the card back to his personal supply. The winner keeps his hat on the mobster's card until another player gains his loyalty. All players who lost the fight return their hats from below the card to their supplies. In addition, everyone who took part in the fight (whether he won, lost or tied) returns the resources used for the fight to the general supply.
Example: The green and red players meet the loyalty condition of Jacob Soldini and fight for it (1). Both hide their resources (money and weapons) behind their screens and decide how many resources they want to invest in this fight (2). The green player decides to use three money tokens with a value of 1, while the red player uses one money token with a value of 1 and one weapon token with a value of 3. Then each player hides the chosen tokens in his hand, and when both are ready, they reveal their offers at the same time (3). The red player's offer has a total value of 4, so he wins the fight and gains the mobster's loyalty (he places his hat on the mobster).
In the case of a tied fight, the mobster's original loyalty is retained (neutral, or to the original player). However, the players in the tie leave their hats under the mobster's card. The next day (round) they automatically take part in the fight for his loyalty without having to meet his loyalty condition.
Special Conditions on Mobster Cards
Most mobster loyalty conditions are tied to specific places in the city. However, there are 6 mobster cards with special loyalty conditions:
- John Brown - All your minion dice must show the same symbol.
- Scarlett - Each of your minion dice must show a different symbol.
- Henrietta - At least 3 of your minion dice must have the same combination of symbols as the minion dice of another player.
- Little Buck - After the city actions are evaluated, you must have the fewest money tokens.
- Roberto di Salvo - After the city actions are evaluated, you must have the most weapon tokens.
- Bobby - After the city actions are evaluated, you must have an equal number of weapon tokens and money tokens (0 tokens also meets this condition).
End of the Round
Once you have evaluated the loyalty of the last mobster in the row below the city map (the one furthest to the right), the current round (day) ends. If at this moment the current day marker is in the same place as the last day marker, the game ends immediately. Otherwise, you play another round, starting again with Phase 1.
End of the Game
When the last round (the last day) has been played, the game ends. The winner is the player with the most loyal mobsters (the most hats placed on mobster cards). In case of a tie, the player with the most remaining resources (weapons and money, by the sum of their values) wins. If the tie still persists, the player with the loyal mobster furthest to the left below the city map wins.
Example: The green and blue players each have two loyal mobsters at the end of the game. The red player gained the loyalty of three mobsters and therefore becomes the winner.
Example: In this case the green player has two mobsters, and the red and blue players have three each. Because there is a tie, red and blue compare their remaining resources. Red has three money tokens with a total value of 3, blue has one weapon token with a value of 3. It is still a tie. The red player has the loyal mobster furthest to the left below the city map, and therefore becomes the winner.
Publisher's Note
All characters in the game are inspired by historically real members of the mafia. Although the game COSCA is set in the violent and morally corrupt history of New York City, no member of our team sympathizes with mafia practices or wishes to promote them in any way. It is only a thematic inspiration for the game.