Tammany Hall Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Setup
• The Play Area
• Game Objective
• Year Overview
• Player Turns
• Step 1: Castle Garden
• Step 2: Actions
  • Ward Actions
    • Active Wards
    • Placing Ward Bosses
    • Placing Immigrants
    • Political Favors
  • Optional Actions
  • Slander
    • Spreading a Slander
    • Slander Tokens
  • Using Office Benefits
• End of Year Phase
• Elections
  • Step 1: Clear Castle Garden
  • Step 2: Ward Elections
    • Ward Order
  • Holding a Ward Election
  • Special Ward Benefits
  • Step 3: Name Immigrant Leaders
  • Step 4: Score Points and Name Mayor
    • Naming the Mayor
    • Election Tiebreakers
  • Step 5: Appoint City Offices
  • Step 6: Populate New Zone
• End of the Game
  • Tiebreakers
• Credits

Components

• 1 game board
• Rulebook
• 100 Immigrant cubes (25 Irish, 25 English, 25 German, 25 Italian)
• 140 Political Favor discs (35 Irish, 35 English, 35 German, 35 Italian)
• 100 Ward Boss player pieces (20 of each color)
• 2 Council President tokens
• 15 Slander tokens
• 5 City Office cards
• 1 Year marker
• 1 Draw bag

Setup

1. Year Track: Place the Year marker on "1" on the Year track.

2. General Supply: Place all Political Favor tokens in a general supply area, separated by color. Place the City Office tiles and Council President tokens nearby.

3. Distribute Pieces: Each player chooses a set of 20 colored Ward Bosses and 3 Slander tokens.

4. Score Track: Each player places 1 Ward Boss on the "0" of the Score track.

5. Starting Immigrants Track: Place the following Immigrant cubes on the Starting Immigrants track to the top left of the map. (Note no blue cubes are placed on the track.)

   	Zone I	Zone II	Zone III
   Green	2	2	2
   White	2	2	1
   Yellow	2	1	1

6. Activate Zones: Refer to the following table to determine which Zones are active at the start of the game.

   Players	Active Zones
   3 Players	I
   4 Players	I, II
   5 Players	I, II, III

   Begin with Zone I. Take all Immigrant cubes from the "Zone I" box on the Starting Immigrants track. Place 1 green cube on Ward 14 (with Tammany Hall). Then randomize the remaining cubes and place 1 random cube on each other Ward in Zone I.

   Repeat the above for each other active Zone, placing 1 random cube on each Ward in the Zone. When you are done, every Ward in every active Zone should have 1 cube on it.

7. Draw Bag: Place all cubes that are not on the board (including blue ones) into the draw bag, and give it a good shake.

8. Fill Castle Garden: Draw cubes from the bag equal to the number of players plus 2 and place them on Castle Garden. (For example, in a 3-player game you will draw 5 cubes.)

9. Start Player: Randomly choose a start player for Term 1. Then begin Year 1 with the first player's turn.

The Play Area

• Year Track – Tracks progress through the game, and through each 4-Year Term.
• Active Zones – Indicates when new Zones are populated for the first time.
• Ward Order Arrows – Shows the order in which Ward Elections are held.
• City Offices – Shows which City Offices players occupy and benefits they can use.
• Scoring Track – Tracks each player's score.
• Starting Immigrants Track – Immigrant cubes used to populate newly active Zones.
• Zone Boundaries – Marks the borders of each Zone on the map.
• Immigrant Leaders – Indicates who is Immigrant Leader for each population.
• Ward Numbers – Uniquely identifies each Ward.
• Special Ward Benefits – Winning this Ward in an Election grants this special benefit.
• Draw Bag – Holds cubes not yet placed on the board.
• City Office Tiles – Mayor, Deputy Mayor, Council President, Chief of Police, Precinct Chairman.
• Zone Numbers – Wards are grouped into Zones, which enter play at different times.
• Tammany Hall – Worth 2VP during Elections (instead of 1VP).
• Castle Garden – New Immigrants wait here to be settled.
• Sequence of Play – Summarizes player turns, available actions, and the Election phase.
• Scoring References – Shows VPs scored during Elections and at the end of the game.
• Political Favors – Favor discs available in the general supply, by immigrant color.
• Council President Markers – Used to mark the two Council President positions.
• Ward Bosses – Each player's pool of colored player pieces.
• Slander Chips – Each player's 3 Slander tokens.

Game Objective

In Tammany Hall, you will use Ward Bosses and Political Favors to drum up votes for your campaign for Mayor of New York City.

There are 4 Elections held throughout the game. During each Election, you score Victory Points for each individual Ward where you win the most votes, and for winning the most Wards and being named Mayor.

At the end of the game, the player with the highest score wins!

Year Overview

Tammany Hall is divided into 4 Terms, each of which is made up of 4 Years (16 Years total).

Each Year, each player takes 1 turn, starting with the first player and proceeding clockwise around the table.

After each player has had a turn, players resolve the End of Year phase. If it is the end of a 4-Year Term, an Election is held.

After the final Election is held at the end of Term 4, the game ends and a winner is determined.

First Player: In Term 1, the first player is randomly selected. In each following Term, the Mayor is always the first player.

Player Turns

Each turn consists of the following steps:

1. Castle Garden: If Castle Garden is empty, draw Immigrant cubes to refill it.
2. Actions: In any order, you must take 1 Ward Action, and may take each available Optional Action once.

Step 1: Castle Garden

At the start of your turn, check if the Castle Garden space is empty. If it is, draw new cubes from the bag equal to the number of players plus 2 and place them on the Castle Garden space.

Important: Castle Garden does not refill until it is completely empty. If there are any cubes remaining on Castle Garden at the start of a turn (even just one), do not draw any new cubes from the bag.

Table Talk: Players are encouraged to negotiate and make deals with one another at any time during the game. However, players may not give away their Political Favors, and promises are never considered binding.

Step 2: Actions

Next, resolve your Actions. You must take one of the two available Ward Actions.

In Term 2 or later, you may also take Optional Actions. Your Ward Action and Optional Actions may be taken in any order.

Ward Actions

You must do one of the following Ward Actions on your turn.

A. Campaign: Place 2 of your Ward Bosses in active Wards.

B. Settle: Place 1 of your Ward Bosses in an active Ward, then choose 1 Immigrant cube from Castle Garden and place it in an active Ward. Receive 1 Political Favor from the Immigrant population you placed.

Important: With either Ward Action, you may choose to place both pieces in the same Ward, or in 2 different Wards.

Active Wards

A Ward is considered "active" if there is at least 1 Immigrant cube there (of any population).

Wards that have no Immigrant cubes on them are inactive. While a Ward is inactive, it does not vote during Elections, and Ward Bosses cannot be placed there.

New Wards become active at the end of Elections (see "Populate New Zone" on p. 11). Once active, a Ward can never become inactive again. This means that if there is only 1 Immigrant cube left in a Ward, it cannot be removed or moved to another Ward, by any means.

Placing Ward Bosses

When you place a Ward Boss, you may place it in any active Ward on the map. Your Ward Boss may be placed in the same Ward as an opposing Ward Boss. There is no limit to the number of Ward Bosses that a player can have in any active Ward.

Example: Freddy takes the Campaign action, placing one Ward Boss in Ward 1 and one in Ward 4.

Important: The Council President has the ability to lock down Wards and prevent other players' Ward Bosses from being placed there (see "Council President" on p. 7).

Placing Immigrants

When you place an Immigrant cube on the map, you may choose any cube in Castle Garden, and place it in any active Ward on the map. You do not have to have a Ward Boss in a Ward to place an Immigrant cube there.

When you use the Settle Action to place an Immigrant cube, immediately take 1 Political Favor of the same color from the supply.

Example: Sheila takes the Settle action, placing one Ward Boss in Ward 2, then taking 1 English Immigrant cube from Castle Garden and placing it on Ward 6. This earns her a white Political Favor.

Political Favors

Immigrant populations give you Political Favors for helping to settle new Immigrants, and as rewards for performing well during Elections.

Each Political Favor you earn can be spent in an active Ward where there is at least 1 Immigrant cube of that population (i.e. a cube of the same color as the Political Favor disc).

Political Favors can be spent to either gain votes (see "Holding a Ward Election" on p. 9) or Slander opposing Ward Bosses (see "Slander" below). Unspent Political Favors act as election tiebreakers, and can earn you points at the end of the game (see "End of the Game" on p. 11).

Political Favors may not be given or traded to other players.

Optional Actions

If it is Term 2 or later, you may do one or both of the following Optional Actions on your turn.

C. Slander: Once per Term, you may spend 1 Political Favor to Slander an opponent and remove 1 of that opponent's Ward Bosses. You may then spend 2 more Political Favors of the same color to spread the Slander to an adjacent Ward.

D. Office Benefit: If you have been appointed to a City Office, you may use its benefit once each Year.

Slander

Players may not use the Slander Action during Term 1.

In each subsequent Term, each player may Slander an opponent once. You may choose any Year during a Term to use your Slander.

To Slander an opponent, first choose an active Ward where you have at least 1 Ward Boss, and spend 1 Political Favor that matches a population in that Ward.

Then remove 1 opposing Ward Boss from the Ward. Return it to its owner's supply.

Spreading a Slander

After you make your initial Slander, if there is an adjacent active Ward with the same population, where the same opponent has a Ward Boss, and where you have at least 1 Ward Boss, you may spend an additional 2 Political Favors of the same color as the first to spread the Slander to that Ward.

If you do, remove 1 of that opponent's Ward Bosses from the adjacent Ward, and return it to their supply. (Note that a Ward in a different Zone can be adjacent, as long as it is active.)

Important: You may only spread each Slander once. You may only spread Slander to an adjacent Ward (you may not remove 2 Ward Bosses from the same Ward with 1 Slander action).

Slander Tokens

After you have Slandered an opponent, discard 1 Slander token from your supply to indicate that you have used your 1 Slander for the current Term.

Important: You may only Slander once per Term, and may not "carry over" unused Slander actions to later Terms. However, each unused Slander token is worth 1VP at the end of the game (see "End of the Game" on p. 11).

Example: In the second Year of Term 2, Sheila (purple) decides to Slander Freddy (red).

She decides to target Ward 1, where both she and Freddy have 1 Ward Boss. Since there are English Immigrants in Ward 1, Sheila spends 1 white Political Favor to initiate a Slander. Then she removes Freddy's Ward Boss.

Freddy and Sheila also each have Ward Bosses in Ward 3, which is adjacent to Ward 1. There are also English Immigrants there. Sheila decides to spread her Slander to Ward 3 by spending a further 2 white Political Favors (for a total of 3). She removes Freddy's Ward Boss from Ward 3.

Sheila has spread her Slander as far as it will go (and Freddy is stinging from the loss), so she ends her Slander action by discarding a Slander token. She can't Slander again until next Term.

Using Office Benefits

During each Election, each player is named to a City Office. (The first Election is held at the end of Term 1, so players do not have City Offices during Term 1.)

You may use the Office Benefit printed on your City Office tile once per turn.

Mayor | Prestige: When you are elected, you receive 3VP, and decide which City Offices other players are appointed to. You are first player for the duration of your Term. You have no other benefit you can use on your turn.

Deputy Mayor | Favor: Each turn, you may take 1 Political Favor of any color from the supply.

Chief of Police | Arrest: Each turn, you may remove 1 Immigrant cube of any color from any Ward with at least 2 cubes, and return it to the draw bag.

Council President | Lock Up: Up to 2 times per Term, you may place a Council President token from your supply on any active Ward that does not already have one of your tokens. While one of your tokens is present, no one may place OR remove Ward Bosses or Immigrant cubes from that Ward until the end of the next Election. (This includes moving Immigrants to or from the Ward with the Precinct Chairman's "Resettle" benefit.) Once you have placed a token, it remains there until the end of the next Election.

Precinct Chairman | Resettle: Each turn, you may move 1 Immigrant cube of any color from any Ward with at least 2 cubes to an adjacent active Ward. (You do not gain a Political Favor for this action.)

Important: You do not need to have a Ward Boss in a Ward to use your Office Benefit there. Using an Office Benefit does not cost any Political Favors.

End of Year Phase

After each player has taken a turn, the Year is over. Resolve the following End of Year steps:

1. Check for End of Term: If it is the end of the 4th Year of a Term, resolve an Election (see below).
2. New Year: Move the Year marker forward 1 space and begin the next Year.

Elections

If a Term has ended, resolve the following additional steps before moving the Year marker forward and starting a new Year:

1. Clear Castle Garden: Return all cubes on Castle Garden to the draw bag.
2. Ward Elections: Determine which player wins each Ward.
3. Name Immigrant Leaders: Determine who has the most influence over each Immigrant population.
4. Score Points and Name Mayor: Each player scores Victory Points for Wards they won, and the player that won the most Wards becomes Mayor.
5. Appoint City Offices: The Mayor appoints each opponent to a City Office.
6. Populate New Zone: If a new Zone becomes active, distribute cubes from the Starting Immigrants track to each of its Wards.

Step 1: Clear Castle Garden

Return all remaining Immigrant cubes on Castle Garden to the draw bag.

Note that Castle Garden is only cleared at the end of each Term, not at the end of each Year.

Step 2: Ward Elections

In each active Ward on the map, players resolve a Ward Election to determine who secures that Ward in the Mayoral race.

Ward Order

The order in which Wards hold elections is indicated on the map by printed arrows. The first election is always held in Ward 1. Once this is resolved, Ward 2 holds an election, followed by Ward 4, and so on, following the printed arrows, until all Wards in Zone I have held an election.

If Zone II is active (there are Immigrant cubes there), the elections continue in Ward 9 and again follow the arrows.

If Zone III is active, the elections continue in Ward 17 and again follow the arrows.

Once all active Wards have held an election, proceed to Step 2.

Holding a Ward Election

To determine which player wins a Ward Election, each player first counts 1 vote for each of their Ward Bosses in the Ward.

Then, each player with at least 1 Ward Boss present may secretly bid any number of Political Favors to increase their vote count. Players may only bid Political Favors that match at least 1 Immigrant cube in the Ward. (Players may include Political Favors of more than one color in their bid, as long as each color is present in the Ward.)

Before holding the bid, players must announce how many Political Favors they have of each color (this is public information). Then, each player simultaneously and secretly places their bid in a closed fist and holds it above the table. (Make sure to hide the Favors you are not spending, so other players can't count them.)

When all players have decided, they open their hands to reveal their bids. Each player adds 1 vote to their total for each Political Favor that they bid.

After the bid, the player who has the most total votes (Ward Bosses + Political Favors) is declared the winner of the Ward. All Ward Bosses are removed from the Ward, except for 1 Ward Boss that belongs to the winning player. The removed Ward Bosses are returned to their owners' supply.

In the case of a tie, no winner is declared, and all Ward Bosses are removed from the Ward and return to their owners' supply.

Once the Ward Election is decided, all Political Favors that players bid are discarded to the general supply. Note that all players that participated must discard their bid, even if they did not win the vote.

Important: Players may only bid Political Favors on a Ward if they have at least 1 Ward Boss present. This means that if only 1 player has Ward Bosses in a Ward, there is no bidding, and they are declared the winner by default.

Example: At the end of Term 1, Freddy, Sheila, and Grace hold an Election. They begin with Ward 1.

Freddy has 2 Ward Bosses in Ward 1, while Sheila has 1 Ward Boss, and Grace has none. This means Freddy is currently winning the Ward.

But it's not over yet! Freddy and Sheila can increase their vote count by bidding Political Favors. (Grace cannot participate, since she doesn't have a Ward Boss there.)

Ward 1 currently has English and Italian Immigrant populations, which means white and blue Political Favors may be spent.

Freddy has 3 blue Favors and 1 white Favor, while Sheila has 1 blue Favor and 1 white Favor. Each of them secretly decides how many to bid. They then reveal: Sheila bid 1 white Favor, and Freddy bid 1 white Favor and 1 blue Favor.

Freddy now has 4 votes, and Sheila has 2 votes. Freddy wins! Sheila must remove her Ward Boss. Freddy also removes 1 of his Ward Bosses, leaving only 1 behind to show he won. Then both players discard all Favors that they bid.

Note: Since Ward 1 is a Special Ward, Freddy gets to use an immediate benefit (see below).

Special Ward Benefits

There are 4 Special Wards that provide immediate benefits to the players that win them. After a Ward Election is resolved in a Special Ward, the winner may immediately take the associated bonus action.

Ward 1 and Ward 2: The winner may take 1 Immigrant cube from the bag and place it in any active Ward. They may choose the color of the cube. (They do not gain a Political Favor for this action.)

Ward 4 and Ward 7: The winner may take 1 Political Favor of any color.

Step 3: Name Immigrant Leaders

Once all active Wards have voted, players evaluate the map and receive rewards based on how well they performed. The first step is to name an Immigrant Leader for each population.

Starting with the Irish population, each player counts the total number of Irish Immigrant cubes in all Wards they won. Note you can easily tell which player won each Ward, since the winner will have 1 Ward Boss there.

The player with the most Irish cubes becomes the Irish Immigrant Leader and earns 3 green Political Favors. They indicate this by placing 1 Ward Boss from their supply on the "Irish" Immigrant Leader box to the left of the map.

Repeat this process for each of the other Immigrant populations, awarding 3 Political Favors from each population to their Leader.

Whenever a tie occurs, all tied players share Immigrant Leader status and receive 3 Political Favors.

Important: You can be Immigrant Leader of more than one population, and each population can have more than one Immigrant Leader.

Example: Freddy, Sheila, and Grace have completed Term 1 Ward Elections, and now move on to rewards. They begin by counting how many cubes of each Immigrant population they have in their Wards.

Sheila has the most Irish Immigrants, so she places a Ward Boss on the Irish Leader box and takes 3 green Political Favors. Freddy is English Leader, and Grace is German Leader, so each of them marks this and takes 3 Favors of the appropriate color.

Freddy and Grace tie for Italian Leader, so they both put a Ward Boss on the Italian Leader box and take 3 blue Favors.

Step 4: Score Points and Name Mayor

Each player scores 1 Victory Point for each Ward that they won. Ward 14 (where Tammany Hall is located) is instead worth 2 Victory Points.

Naming the Mayor

The player that won the most Wards is named Mayor of the city.

The player who becomes Mayor immediately scores an extra 3 Victory Points. To indicate they are Mayor, they place 1 of their Ward Bosses on the "Mayor" box of the City Offices area, and take the Mayor card.

Example: Following the last example, our 3 players score the following for their Term 1 Election. Grace won the most Wards, so she becomes Mayor and scores an extra 3VP (for a total of 6VP).

	Freddy	Sheila	Grace
Wards	2 Wards	1 Ward (Tammany Hall)	3 Wards
Score	2VP	2VP	3VP (+3VP)

Election Tiebreakers

If there is a tie for Mayor, use the following tiebreakers, in order, to determine the winner:

1. The tied player with the most total unspent Political Favor chips wins.
2. The tied player with the most Irish (green) unspent Political Favor chips wins.
3. The tied player with the most English (white) unspent Political Favor chips wins.
4. The tied player with the most German (yellow) unspent Political Favor chips wins.
5. The tied player with the most Italian (blue) unspent Political Favor chips wins.

If there is still no winner, the player who was Mayor in the previous Term serves an additional Term (even if they were not one of the tied players). They appoint City Offices in Step 4 as normal.

If there is no winner at the end of Term 1, no Mayor is named, and no City Offices are appointed.

Note: As a reminder, the Immigrant Leader box is arranged in tiebreaker order.

Step 5: Appoint City Offices

Once the Mayor is named, they appoint each other player to a City Office of their choice.

Each player places 1 Ward Boss from their supply on the City Office they are appointed to the top right of the map. Each player also takes the City Office tile describing their Office Benefit. They may use this Office Benefit until the next Election.

If a Council President is appointed, they take both Council President tokens from the map (or supply) and may use their Office Benefit to place them on new Wards. (If the Council Presidency is empty, remove the tokens from the map and set them aside for this Term.)

Each player must be appointed to one City Office. If the previous Mayor was re-elected, they may appoint each player to a new City Office.

Important: If there are fewer than 5 players, some City Offices will be empty. None of the City Offices are required to be filled (except Mayor). The Mayor may decide to fill any City Office or leave it empty, as long as each player receives a City Office.

Step 6: Populate New Zone

After the Mayor and City Offices have been named, refer to the Year track to determine if a new Zone becomes active. Zones become active in different Terms depending on the number of players.

Players	Active at Start of Game	Active at End of Term 1	Active at End of Term 2
3 Players	I	II	III
4 Players	I, II	III	—
5 Players	I, II, III	—	—

When a Zone becomes active, take all Immigrant cubes from the matching-numbered box on the Starting Immigrants track. Randomize the cubes and place 1 random cube on each Ward in the new Zone.

All Wards in the new Zone are now active. Players may place Ward Bosses and new Immigrant cubes there, and must resolve a Ward Election there in the next Election.

In a 3-player game, Zone II is activated at the end of the Term 1 Election. The Immigrant cubes on the "II" box are randomized, and 1 cube is distributed to each Ward in Zone II.

End of the Game

At the end of Term 4, players hold the final Election. The final Election is resolved the same as other Elections, except that the elected Mayor does not appoint City Offices.

Tiebreakers

If players are tied after final scoring, the Election Tiebreakers (see previous page) are used to determine the winner. If there is still a tie, the player who was named Mayor in the final Election wins.

After the final Election is held, players score the following end-game Victory Points:

Political Favor: Each Immigrant population awards 2VP to the player with the most unspent Political Favors of its color. If there is a tie, all tied players earn 2VP.

Slander Tokens: Each unused Slander token is worth 1VP.

The player with the highest score is the winner!

Credits

Game Design: Doug Eckhart

Development: Aaron Lauster, Max Michael, Martin Wallace

Art: Peter Dennis & Public Domain

Rulebook Editor: Jeff Fraser

Graphic Design: Stevo Torres

Playtesting: David Duffield, Jeff Curtis, Ross Gerke, Mike Lochtefeld

Thanks also to Juli Paini, Nathan and Alex Eckhart for help and patience through the very painful early prototypes.

Toast with Chocolate Spread: Tim Cockitt

Pandasaurus Games would like to thank: Elizabeth "EJ" Williams, our friends Ben and Rachel Moody at Blue Goggles Films and all of our supporters on Kickstarter!

"The way to have power is to take it." – William "Boss" Tweed

Copyright © 2020 StrataMax Inc. All rights reserved. Tammany Hall is the trademark name for StrataMax Inc.'s Manhattan Political Game. © 2020 Pandasaurus Games, LLC. All rights reserved.