Designer: Daniel Aronson (The Island of El Dorado), Nick Tompkins

Artist: Anna Aronson

Publisher: El Dorado Games (The Island of El Dorado)

Genre/Mechanisms: auction/bidding, auction: sealed bid, betting and bluffing, card drafting, economic, negotiation, set collection, trading

Funding Status: At the time of this posting, Capone is already fully-funded. In fact, pledges currently total almost 2x the initial funding goal, with 5 days left to go on the campaign.

Player Count: 2-5

Solo Mode: no

Complexity: medium-light

Risk: medium-low

What It’s About:  “A strategic game of drafting, actions, and back-alley negotiations” set during prohibition in 1920’s Chicago where each player has a speakeasy with a front business.

How It Works:  Capone plays over 3 Rounds, with each Round made up of 6 Phases: Fill Truck & Deal Cards, Client Draft, Truck Auction, Open Trading, Capone Visits, and Serve Clients.

During Fill Truck & Deal Cards, 4 bottles per player are randomly drawn from the bag and added to the truck. In the first round, 3 Client cards are dealt to each player; in the second round, 4; and in the third and final round, 5.

During Client Draft, each player chooses one card from their hand to place and keep in the back of their bar, then passes their remaining cards to the player on their left. They take the cards passed to them from the player on their right and repeat the process, until each player has 3 cards in their bar during the first round, 4 during the second, and 5 during the third.

During Truck Auction, players now bid on the truck, with the winning bidder receiving all bottles from the truck. The winning bidder takes the truck and pays their winning bid to the bank. Losing bidders keep their bids.

During Open Trading, players may openly trade bottles, Client cards, and money with each other. Once all bar keeper meeples are back in their bar because all players have passed, play proceeds to Capone Visits.

During Capone Visits, any player with more than 10 bottles in their possession must flip the Capone coin and discard all of their bottles. If the result of the Capone coin flip is bottles, all players except the one who flipped the coin must discard half of their bottles (rounded down) into the hole in the top of the truck. If the Capone coin flip yields money, then all players except the one who flipped the coin must discard half of their money (rounded down) to the bank.

Finally, during Serve Patrons, players can now serve drinks to their Clients, taking the Client cards from the back of their bar and placing them down in front of their bar along with the required bottles.

After players have completed 3 Rounds, they’ll proceed to the end phase. Player will Collect Tips from completed Client cards, pay a $1 fine for each remaining bottle at their bar during the subsequent Police Raid, and finally reveal their end-of-game money count. The player with the most money wins, with ties broken by the player with the most completed sets, and then by the player who served the most total Clients.

Comparisons: Several other popular Mafia-themed board games that involve some amount of auction/bidding, negotiation, and bluffing include The Boss, Ca$h ‘n Guns, The Godfather: Corleone’s Empire, La Cosa Nostra, and Nothing Personal.

What Should I Pledge?:
$54 Capone: The Business of Prohibition: a copy of the KS Edition of Capone, including 60 KS Exclusive large metal coins, 1 KS Exclusive Jumbo Capone coin, the 3D Cardboard Truck, 6 screen printed meeples, 5 unique Speakeasies/Storefronts, 60 plastic bottles in linen bag, Police Tracker Board, bottle label sticker sheet, and 100 Client cards.

Add-Ons:
None.

KS Exclusives:
The large metal coins and Jumbo Capone coin.

All-In Total: In the continental U.S., you’re looking at $54 for the Capone pledge plus $15 in shipping for a total of $69.

Capone completes its Kickstarter on Tuesday, November 26th and tentatively ships in September 2020.