3,000 Scoundrels Review

3,000 Scoundrels from Unexpected Games has players building a gang of scoundrels in the old west in order to steal future technology that was left by a mysterious time traveler. Immediately, there's a lot to unpack here. Luckily, the game leaves you with significantly fewer questions. On your turn, you'll play a poker card from your hand of four to anything from 1-6 on the board. Whatever slot you play, you'll pick up its bonus which can be collecting money or stealing/scouting safes. Also, you'll get to activate your scoundrels depending on if their number gets called. Each one of the scoundrels games is randomized by slotting a character card behind a clear occupation card. This can create powerful cards that you can play on your turns. There's also a bluffing mechanic. If you don't think that the other player played a matching card to the slot number, you can place one of your posse members and this can net you points or bite you in the butt and lose your posse members to jail. After you've done your actions, you can recruit a scoundrel by simply paying its cost and adding them to your tableau. The game will play over 2 days which equates to 8 rounds. Whichever player has accumulated the most tech during that time from safes and various scoundrels will go on to win the game. You also have the option to play a longer 3 day game or play with cards that can provide a bonus action once per turn.

The Good: Scoundrels. This is one of the coolest implementations of clear cards that I've come across. I absolutely love that there are so many combinations you could run into. Go figure, it's 3,000. I love that you can get some really powerful combinations or you could end up with really silly ones like a sleepy printer but none of them felt like they were completely useless and I could see a situation for all of them. It worked so well with the wild west theme to the point of I don't know if it could work with anything else. Corey Konieczka continues to blow me away with his storytelling and world building.

The Okay: Some of the symbolism could be a bit confusing on the cards. For instance, there were cards with arrows that would activate depending on where they were placed in your group of scoundrels. These made combinations very powerful but also somewhat confusing to build out. Especially if you get a lot of these cards at a time. It can make combinations tricky to even pull off because you can't get anything out to your tableau.

The Not So Good: The clear cards are amazing. The film over top of all of them, not so much. It's totally optional but if you're like me you're taking all of them off. For reference, there's 60 of these cards and they're not easy to take off. I didn't even realize they had it at first so I had already sleeved the cards.

Final Thoughts: 3,000 Scoundrels was a game that I was immediately drawn to the day that it was announced. It's a weird game in the best ways. It doesn't take itself too seriously but even when it's being silly its still being productive. You'll need to plan ahead with whats available in order to make the best moves for your engine and the bluffing mechanic adds in an extra layer to the game. You need to call people out for the reputation points or else you could find yourself in last place. It's a high risk, high reward game.

Thanks to Unexpected Games for providing me with a review copy.