Speakeasy

The Act Structure

The game runs for 13 years (1920–1933): a first round, 11 player rounds, and final scoring, grouped into 4 acts.

Each act:

• Return capos (acts 2, 3, 4 only) — some capos come back to your Operations board, the rest go to the box
• Player rounds:
  • Act 1: 4 rounds
  • Acts 2 and 3: 3 rounds
  • Act 4: 1 round
• End of act (acts 1, 2, 3 only) — mob war, cops patrol Manhattan, payout for zone control
• Final scoring (act 4 only)

Turn order may change at the end of each player round if any player visited the Restaurant.

Your Turn

On your turn, in order:

• (Optional) Use a Helper card — gain the benefit on the lower half of one Helper card in front of you, then place it behind your Safe screen (it cannot be used again)
• Send a Capo (required) — send one Capo from your Operations board to a Person of Interest at one of the 8 locations: Docks, City Hall, Restaurant, Commission, Contractor Office, City Planning Office, Garage, or Park. Place the Capo on a Person of Interest that does not already have one, and perform that Person's actions
  • Each Person of Interest talks with only one Capo per act
  • Exception: the Restaurant has no limit on Capos
• Draw an Operations card — top card of any of the 4 Operations decks. No hand limit

Turn Order Change

At the end of a player round, if anyone's Turn Order marker is on the lower row of the Turn Order track (because they visited the Restaurant):

• Every player gains $3 cash per Operating Casino ($5 in 2P) — applies to all players
• Keeping relative order on the upper row, shift markers up so the spaces directly below are vacant
• Move markers from the lower row up into the corresponding upper-row positions; existing upper-row markers shift as needed to accommodate them

Operating Buildings

A building is Operating if either:

• There is no cop in its district, or
• It is protected by a Family Member

Golden rule: a non-Operating building is the same as a non-existent building. It cannot receive, produce, distribute, or sell barrels. It does not count for payout zone control or for final scoring.

Exceptions: Crate tiles and Central Park Goal tiles marked with the "break the Golden Rule" symbol ignore the Operating requirement — the goal applies even when the building is not Operating.

Mobster Speakeasies are unaffected by cops.

Operations Levels

Your 4 Operations levels (1–5) on your Operations board:

• VIP Room: capacity of your VIP area for Family Members
• Party: number of barrel sales per sell action
• Stills: number of barrels produced (requires an Operating Stills)
• Fleet: Truck delivery range; second Truck unlocks at level 3+

Increasing a level:

• Move the marker one space right. Also increase Infamy by the same amount
• To reach level 5, also discard an Operations card (of any type)
• You may not go above level 5

Extra boost: you may discard any one Operations card to bump the increase by an additional +1. The type of discarded card does not have to match. If this brings you to level 5, you still discard the level-5 card on top.

Strength

Your Strength (1–5) on your Operations board. The base value for:

• Your attack strength when taking over a Mobster Speakeasy or ambushing a Rum-runner Ship
• Your building defense strength during a mob war

Increasing Strength:

• Move the marker one space right. Also increase Infamy by the same amount
• To reach level 4, also discard 1 Operations card (any type)
• To reach level 5, also discard 2 Operations cards (any type)
• You may not go above level 5

Infamy

Your Infamy on the Infamy track = sum of your 4 Operations levels + Strength. It advances any time one of those increases.

• Sets the price you sell barrels for (higher is better)
• Upon reaching certain spaces, immediately gain the benefit shown:
  • A Family Member
  • A Helper card
  • An Operations card
  • A new Cooked Book space

Money, Cash, and the Safe

Money is kept in two places.

Cash (in front of you):

• Sources:
  • Selling barrels
  • Crate rewards on a successful ambush
  • Payments from other players using your Family Members in ambushes
  • $3 per Operating Casino ($5 in 2P) each time turn order changes
• Spent freely at no cost

Safe money (behind your Safe screen):

• Sources:
  • Zone control payout at end of act
  • Cooking Books
• To spend, it must be laundered at 2:1 — you spend $2 from the safe to use $1
• At final scoring, counts at face value with no laundering penalty

Blocked Districts

A Blocked District marker means no building may be placed in that district. Ports may still be used, Trucks may enter and leave, and cops may be placed there.

Blocked districts appear in:

• 2P games: during setup, 5 districts are blocked from Mobster District tiles (2 Downtown, 2 Midtown, 1 Uptown). City tiles are not placed in blocked districts
• 3P games: the 4th space of both rows of the Turn Order track is blocked (those spaces are not used)
• Solo games: same as 2P

At the end of acts 1, 2, and 3, resolve each of the following fully before moving to the next:

• Mob war — new mobsters enter Manhattan and attack your buildings
• Cops patrol Manhattan — cops are placed in the city
• Payout for zone control — you are paid for the districts you control

After payout, check for a Turn order change, then start the next act with a Return capos step.

Your final score is your cash + safe money (at face value; no laundering penalty), plus:

• Money for each Protected building, from below its space on your Operations board:
  • Stills: $10
  • Speakeasy: $15
  • Nightclub: $20
  • Casino: $20
  • Unprotected buildings score nothing
• Money for each Helper card (next to your board or in your safe) with a unique bottle — duplicate bottles score nothing. It does not matter whether the Helper card was used

Most money wins. Tie-breakers, in order:

• Most Protected buildings
• Most buildings in total (Protected or not)
• Most placed Books
• Most Family Members on the main board, at the Docks, and on your Operations board combined

If the tie is still unresolved: play again.

Ways to earn cash:

• Sell barrels from your Operating buildings
• Crate rewards from ambushing Rum-runners (max $24 or $25), plus selling the stolen barrel
• Other players paying you for using your Family Members in their ambushes ($1 each)
• $3 ($5 in 2P) per Operating Casino whenever turn order changes

Ways to earn safe money (2:1 to spend):

• Zone control payout at end of act
• Cooking Books

Ways to spend money:

• Opening or upgrading buildings
• Paying an Associate
• Hiring Goons
• Buying barrels from Rum-runners
• Paying other players for their Family Members during an ambush

Building reference:

• Speakeasy: holds 1 barrel, sells at lower value, upgradable to Nightclub or Casino (watch for upgrade discounts)
• Nightclub: holds 1 barrel, sells at higher value
• Casino: holds 1 barrel, sells at higher value, pays $3 ($5 in 2P) per Operating Casino when turn order changes

Watch out for:

• Be ready to defend during a mob war
• Note where cops will enter Manhattan at the next end of act
• Multiple buildings of yours in the same district must each be defended separately
• Taking over a weak Mobster's Speakeasy is often better than opening in empty spaces, because empty-space openings will be targeted later
• Buying barrels from ships is faster than building a Stills, though less profitable
• Establish Nightclubs and Casinos early — bigger payouts and stronger position in district control

Variant: rebuild your Stills (recommended for first-time players):

• If you lose your Stills during a mob war, place it back on your Operations board instead of removing it from the game
• You may rebuild following normal rules; you may lose your Speakeasy upgrade discount until the Stills is rebuilt

You play against Jo, a bot that uses its own Operations board, Action card decks, and District card deck. Jo plays by 2-player rules with a small set of exceptions.

Solo setup (set up as for 2P, with these exceptions):

• Choose a colour for Jo and create a supply: Operations markers, Infamy marker, Turn Order marker, Zone Control markers, Capos, Family Members, Books, Stills, Speakeasies, Nightclubs, Casinos
• Jo does not use: Strength marker, Trucks, Associate marker, safe. Return those to the box. Jo has no starting money
• Place Jo's Family Members, Books, and Stills next to Jo's Operations board. Place one Zone Control marker on the bottom of each Zone Control track
• Place Jo's 4 Capos next to the Operations board, and each Operations marker on level 1
• Left to right on Jo's Operations board: 8 Speakeasies, 3 Nightclubs, 3 Casinos
• Shuffle the District cards into a face-down deck
• Shuffle deck 0 and reveal the top card — increase Jo's matching Operations level by one step. If the card does not increase any Operations, shuffle and reveal another. Return the card to the box
• Place Jo's Infamy marker on space 5 of the Infamy track

Prepare Jo's action decks:

• Separate and shuffle Jo's 4 Action card decks (1, 2, 3, 4) and the difficulty modifier deck 0
• Remove 2 of the 5 cards from deck 2 unseen, return to box. All decks should have 3 cards each except deck 0
• Choose a difficulty:
  • Brick Wall (very hard): all 12 cards from decks 1–4
  • Consigliere (hard): replace 1 card each from decks 2 and 3 with 1 card from deck 0
  • Gangster (normal): replace 2 cards each from decks 2 and 3 with 2 cards from deck 0
  • Duck Soup (easy): replace 1 from deck 1, 2 from deck 2, 2 from deck 3, 1 from deck 4 with cards from deck 0
• Return replaced and remaining deck 0 cards to the box (unused)

Prepare Jo's action deck each act:

• Start of act 1: shuffle deck 1 + deck 2; place on Jo's Action card space. Draw from this in act 1
• Start of act 2: shuffle the 2 remaining cards from Jo's Action deck into deck 3, place on Jo's Operations board
• Start of act 3: shuffle the 2 remaining cards into deck 4, place on Jo's Operations board. Use this for the rest of the game

Setup round:

• Randomly determine turn order
• In reverse turn order, follow normal 2P rules. For Jo: draw District cards until one names an empty district space. Jo places his Stills on the leftmost/top building space of that district and moves the City tile to his Operations board. Return drawn cards to the District deck and reshuffle. Ignore any bonus on District cards this round. Jo does not place a Family Member at the Docks

General rules for Jo:

• Does not play or discard Operations cards, use Helper benefits, or use City tile benefits
• Does not gain or hire Goons, use Associates, or attack Rum-runners (except for his Ambush action below)
• Always gains cash; never pays for buildings or barrels
• Only spends money to defend buildings in a mob war — equal to the mobster's attack strength per defended building. If short, spends what he has
• If Jo's Capo goes to the Park, he receives $5
• At the Restaurant: moves Turn Order marker to the lower row, placing first on the lowest-Leverage position if possible, otherwise first place. When turn order changes, Jo gains $5 per Operating Casino at end of round
• Jo's building priority is always: Casino > Nightclub > Speakeasy > Stills
• Tie resolution for Jo's actions: always choose the lowest-numbered district
• If Jo cannot take the action on his card, he passes
• Jo places Family Members at the specified dock left to right, top to bottom
• Jo's Operations are always limited by his Operations levels
• Same rules apply to Jo for production, Stills pickup, delivery, selling, Lucky Luciano payout, and scoring. Jo's buildings must be Operating to count

On Jo's turn:

• Flip the top card of Jo's Action deck. Send one of Jo's Capos to the named location's Person of Interest if available; otherwise send to the right. Ignore the location's actions — Jo performs the action on the Action card
• If both spaces are blocked by your Capos, move your leftmost Capo to the Park and take one of the 3 Park actions
• If all spaces at the named location are blocked by Jo's Capos (or the Park is full), draw new cards until a location Jo can place at is drawn. Shuffle any unused cards back to the bottom of his Action deck
• Resolve all actions on the Action card top-to-bottom, left-to-right, then discard (will not be played again)

Jo's action types:

• Deliver barrels:
  • Jo does not use Trucks — delivers anywhere on the main board
  • Number of barrels limited to his Fleet Operations level
  • Takes barrels first from his Stills, then from the cheapest ship
  • Delivers to higher-value Operating buildings first
• Sell barrels:
  • Number limited to his Party Operations level
  • Price per barrel: his Infamy track position
  • Sells from higher-value Operating buildings first
• Place buildings:
  • Follows normal rules; no benefits, no payment. Jo never upgrades
  • Draw a District card; if Jo cannot open or take over in that district, keep drawing
  • District card with a Family Member symbol: send one from Jo's supply to the indicated Docks zone. Ignore any Family Member symbols on later revealed cards
  • District card with a Helper card symbol: take the most valuable bottle type Jo does not yet have, left to right. If Jo has them all, take the most valuable, left to right. Ignore further Helper card symbols
  • District deck is reshuffled at the start of acts 1, 2, and 3, or when depleted
  • Jo places within a district left to right / top to bottom, moving any City tile to his Operations board
• Get Protection:
  • Number of Family Members limited by Jo's VIP Room Operations level
  • Ignores Leverage
  • Sends from his supply in this order: buildings in districts with cops; buildings with barrels; higher-value buildings; buildings in Uptown, then Downtown, then Midtown
• Ambush a Rum-runner Ship:
  • When you ambush, Jo gains $1 from your pocket per used Family Member. When Jo ambushes, he gains $1 from the bank per your Family Members (used or not) at the Dock of the attacked ship
  • Jo always has enough strength; no Family Members required
  • Jo attacks the ship with the most barrels (tie: lowest-numbered district)
  • Jo gains: $5 in act 1, $10 in act 2, $15 in acts 3 and 4
  • Jo places the Crate tile on his Operations board, moves a barrel from the ship next to one of his higher-value Operating buildings without a barrel (or to his Stills area); returns 1 of his Family Members (if any) from the Dock to his supply; moves the ship
• Cook Books (Jo always has Books available; must meet each goal):
  • Jo attempts to place 3 Books in this order:
    • Zone Goals: increases the lowest Operations level (left-to-right, top-to-bottom), gains $20 per Book
    • City Hall: gains $20 per Book
    • Docks: gains $15 per Book
    • Infamy track: increases the lowest Operations level as above, gains the $ shown on the track space per Book
  • If fewer than 3 Books placed above, place 1 (and only 1) at the leftmost available Central Park space, ignoring the goal and any benefit, and gain $10

Final scoring (1933): scored as 2P — money, Protected buildings, Helper cards. Jo adds $1 per City tile on his Operations board. You must have more money than Jo to win.