Rolling Bandits
Rolling Bandits Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Contents
- 1 Locomotive card
- 16 Wagon cards
- 21 Trunk tiles
- 28 Bandit dice (7 per player)
Objective
Each player is the leader of a group of Bandits which they send to strike the train in order to plunder its riches. Roll your Bandit dice, attack the train and rob the passengers before the other players. The winner is the richest player at the end of the game.
Set up
(For 2-player gameplay, see Special 2-Player Set Up at the end of the rules.)
- Place the Locomotive card down, then shuffle the 16 Wagon cards together and place these behind it to form a train.
- Shuffle the 21 Trunk tiles, face-down, and place one Trunk on top of each Wagon (except the Locomotive). The remaining Trunk tiles go back in the box.
- Players each choose a colour to play and place the 7 corresponding dice in front of them. Any unused dice are placed back in the box.
The youngest player starts and they become the active player. After this, gameplay continues clockwise with players taking turns being the active player.
How to play
On their turn, active players must carry out the following actions in order: STEAL, ROLL THE DICE, ATTACK THE TRAIN.
Stealing
This is the first step of every turn.
To steal a Wagon, you must be the active player and you must fulfill the following conditions at the start of your turn:
- Have at least as many Bandits in the Wagon as is indicated at the top right of the card.
- Have a bigger Group of Bandits than the other players in the Wagon.
Example: It's the Blue player's turn. The Blue player steals the middle Wagon because they have more dice on it than the Yellow and Red players. Blue doesn't win any more Wagons on this turn because they don't have the majority in the Wagon on the left and because they only have one die in the Wagon on the right.
When the player steals a Wagon, they put it in front of them face-down. If there is still a Trunk on it, this is discarded. Then each player takes back any dice they had on the Wagon. If necessary, you can move the remaining Wagons closer together to avoid gaps.
Outright theft
Any active player with 7 of their dice on the same Wagon can steal it immediately without waiting for their next turn. Each player then takes back any dice they had on this Wagon.
Rolling the dice
Before rolling all their available Bandit dice, a player can take all their Bandit dice back from one or several Wagons, starting with those they have at the back of the train.
Note: The available Bandits are all those of your colour which aren't already on the train.
If a player takes dice back, they MUST take back all the Bandits of that Group (in other words, all the dice in that Wagon).
Example: The Red player can remove their dice in groups, moving from the left to right (groups 1, 2, 3 and 4). They can remove those from 1, 2, 3 and then 4. However, they cannot remove the dice from group 2 if they haven't already removed those from group 1, and they cannot remove the dice from group 3 if they haven't already taken out those from groups 1 and 2 and so on.
The active player takes all their available Bandit dice and rolls them. They then assemble these dice in Groups according to their symbols. Dice without symbols are considered as jokers and can also join a Group.
Example: It's the Blue player's first turn. They roll their 7 available Bandit dice and then regroup them according to symbol. The two dice without symbols will be useful later when attacking the train.
Gang: A Gang is the collective name for all the Groups of dice which are found in neighbouring Wagons. An individual Group can never be separated from the rest of the Gang.
Attacking the train
Each time a player creates a Group after rolling the dice, they can either decide to put it on the train or take it back to keep it in front of them for their next turn.
If a player decides to place Bandits on the train then they must place ALL of their Bandits of the same symbol in the same Wagon. Once Bandits are on the train they can't be moved except in the case of an Ambush (See Trunk).
When you place Bandits on the train, there are 3 possibilities:
- The symbol of the Group doesn't match any of your other Groups already on the train. Bandits must be placed in the first Wagon located immediately in front of your Gang. If none of your Bandits are on the train (as is the case at the start of the game) they must first be placed on the Wagon at the back of the train with the next group in the Wagon in front of this, and the next in the one in front of this and so on.
- The symbol of the group matches the symbol of one of your groups already on the train. You MUST add all your Bandits with this symbol to the wagon that already contains your Bandits of the same symbol to increase the number in the group. You cannot separate Bandits of the same symbol.
- Dice with no symbol (jokers). All dice which don't have a symbol MUST be added to a Wagon where the player already has Bandits. The dice must be turned so that they show the same face as those Bandits already in the Wagon. Dice without a symbol cannot be placed on their own in a Wagon.
Bandits of the same symbol cannot be separated and must ALL be placed in the same Wagon. Bandits CANNOT be placed on a Wagon further back than the last Wagon a player's Bandits are placed on, or be placed in a Wagon that is not directly connected to their Gang.
Trunk
The back of the Trunks are marked with a Bandit symbol: A Revolver, Mask, Hat, Boot or Horseshoe.
Trunks have a value of 1 or 2 points and can contain a bomb or an action. The value of these contents will be added to the player's points total at the end of the game, even if it is a bomb.
When a player has 3 Bandits in one wagon which have the same symbol as the Trunk in the Wagon, they immediately carry it off and then look at what is inside. Either the contents must be used immediately (as with the Bomb) or the player can keep the Trunk and use its contents at a later turn.
When the action in a Trunk is used by a player, they must keep the Trunk with the Open Trunk symbol face up, and so until the end of the game.
- Bomb: immediate action. All players with Bandits in this Wagon must take them back, EXCEPT for one die per player, which remains. The player who used the action takes the Trunk and places it in front of them, Open Trunk face up. Note: If a bomb is found following the theft of the Wagon, it has no effect and the Trunk is discarded.
- Ambush: During their turn, and after having rolled and placed their available Bandit dice on a wagon, the player can use this action to swap the position of two of their Groups. The player takes all their Bandits from one Wagon and swaps them with all the Bandits of another Wagon. Note: In this instance, it is possible for the Bandits who have been moved to gain 1 or 2 Trunks.
- Roll again: During their turn, and after having rolled their available Bandit dice, the player can use this action to re-roll 1 or several of the Bandit dice they have just rolled.
Reminder: After using a Trunk or if the Trunk taken contains a bomb, players keep it in front of them, Open Trunk face up. All the points for Trunks acquired by players will increase their scores at the end of the game.
End of the Game
The game ends as soon as the Locomotive and all the Wagons have been taken over. Players show their Wagons and their Trunks and add together the points indicated to get their total. The player with the highest points total wins. In case of a tie, the player with the most Wagons wins. If there is still a tie, then it is the player with the most Trunks who wins. In the event of there still being a tie, the players involved must attack a new train to decide the winner.
Special 2-Player Set Up
The gameplay is the same for 2 players but, when setting up, randomly remove 6 Wagon cards which can be placed back in the box. Then, assemble the rest as indicated in the original rules and play the game as in the original rules.
Variation on 2-Player Game
Using the 'Special Two-Player Set Up', each player takes 2 colours of dice. One colour will be a Hoard of Bandits and the other will be a group of Mercenaries who can be called on for reinforcement.
Before rolling their available Bandit dice, a player can ask the Mercenaries (their second set of dice) for reinforcement. They then add as many of these dice as they want to the set of dice they will roll.
Once these dice have been rolled, the Mercenaries can be placed in the Wagons OR they can be ignored and placed back with the rest of the Mercenaries. These dice function in the same way as Bandit dice EXCEPT for the fact that when they are taken off a Wagon, for whatever reason, they are immediately put back in the box and are no longer playable for the rest of the game.
Example: Player B can use all the blue dice to make up their Hoard and the red ones for their Mercenaries. During the game, Player B needs backup and decides to add 2 Mercenaries to the dice they'll roll.