Bad Company First Impressions
Bad Company sees players prep for then complete heists.
Also, try and stay one step ahead of the police.
Build your own gang and customize it to suit your plans. Gather resources to complete heists and money to recruit new gang members. And make sure you escape the police!
Bad Company Game Play
This is a brief overview of the essential bits of gameplay.
Players get 2 random gang board pieces that when put together will give your gang a name is shown. I was the Lazy Angels.
Players get 2 heist cards to give players something to aim for.
Roll Dice
The first player (The Boss) rolls the 5 dice and uses the 4 yellow dice to make any 2 pairs.
Activate Gang Members
Players now activate gang members matching the numbers shown on those pairs to gain what is shown on the matching number person.
The Fixer, Number 2, and The Chauffeur are fixed and allow you to get certain symbols and move your car two spaces respectively.
Whenever you gain a symbol, you place it on your heists or tasks that match the symbol shown.
Then you can pay the value shown to advance your recruiter to draw the top 3 upgrade cards and keep one. It’s placed on the gang member with the matching number on your gang board upgrading them and will give you more stuff when activated.
Then players resolve any completed heists and tasks to gain the reward or bonus shown on them.
Some of them have symbols and the player with the most symbols gets the medallion of that type that goes on a gang member. That gang member gets the point when activated.
The boss moves the police car spaces equal to the value of the police die that was rolled in phase 1. Players will also be moving their getaway cars around the city. There is a penalty if a police car overtakes a getaway car, also the cars down the track will trigger the end game eventually.
End Game
Players score points for completed heists, scoring effects on completed heists, points on loot cards, points on upgrade cards, points for each necklace possessed and minus 3 points if your car is behind the police car.
The player with the most points wins the game.
Theme
It’s a decent theme. I mean, it could be anything really but it gave a great excuse to add a good old police chase.
Setup
There are bits and bobs, cards and tokens all over the place, including at least 2 boards. But, it looks pretty straightforward.
Components & Artwork
Everything looks great. I mean, it’s not my art style but functionally it’s all good.
Ease of Teaching
It’s a fairly straightforward game. Most of it is done simultaneously however so people need to be on hand to answer questions.
If a new player has played Machi Koro they’re halfway there.
Bad Company Summary
So I used to say Space Base is my fave ‘Machi Koro’ replacement but this really pushes it.
For anyone that doesn’t know, these are games where you roll dice and everyone activates gang members/buildings/space ships matching those numbers to gain resources to upgrade said gang members/buildings/space ships.
The token collection and filling cards bingo-style a la Augustus in Bad Company adds in that mechanism alongside the dice rolling selection one.
I like the multitude of resources you need to gather to complete heists/quests while also picking up cash so you can upgrade your gang members.
You also need to keep pace and stay ahead of the police car. While moving you can pick up bonuses on certain spaces, not if the police car is in front.
Then you have to look at getting that cash to upgrade your crew to make them more efficient.
So if you like these mechanisms, give it a go, and see where you rank them in your top 3 of whatever this mechanism is called!
Jesta ThaRogue
