How to Play Bandido

Game Objective

In Bandido, a prisoner is trying to escape from his cell through a network of tunnels. You and your team, working together, must use your cards to close all exits and prevent the prisoner's escape. The challenge is that your own cards might, unintentionally, end up helping the prisoner escape by creating more tunnels.

The victory condition is to successfully isolate all tunnels. If a tunnel remains open after all cards have been played, the prisoner escapes and everyone loses.

Preparation (Setup)

1. Find the starting card (with the prisoner in the cell) and place it in the center of a large table. Choose the easy or normal side of this card, depending on the desired difficulty level (5 or 6 exits, respectively).
2. Shuffle the remaining cards and place them face down, forming a draw pile.
3. Each player draws 3 cards to form their starting hand.

Game Flow

The game progresses in turns, starting with the youngest player. On their turn, the player must perform the following actions:

1. Play a card: The player chooses one of their cards from their hand and plays it on the table.
2. Draw a card: After playing their card, the player draws a new card from the draw pile.

Players continue playing clockwise until one of the end-game conditions is met.

Actions and How to Play

Playing a Card

On your turn, you must play one of the cards from your hand. The chosen card must connect to one or more cards already placed on the table. It is crucial that the card fits perfectly with the others, continuing all existing tunnels.

Drawing a Card

After playing your card, you must draw a new card from the draw pile to replenish your hand.

Unable to Play a Card

If you cannot play any card from your hand according to the connection rules, you have a special option: you can place all cards from your hand at the bottom of the draw pile and then draw three new cards from the draw pile.

Teamwork

Players must work together. It is allowed to talk to each other, but there is an important restriction: players cannot reveal their cards or talk openly about them (for example, "I have a card with three exits").

End of Game and Scoring

The game ends when one of the following conditions is met:

• Victory: If you manage to isolate all tunnels, the team wins the game.
• Defeat: If the draw pile is exhausted and a tunnel remains open, the prisoner escapes and everyone loses.

There is no individual scoring system; victory or defeat is shared by the entire team.

Tips for Winning

• Connect with Care: Be careful not to place a card in a way that makes it impossible to isolate a tunnel. Think about future moves and the possibilities of closing tunnels.
• Strategic Communication: Although you cannot reveal your cards, use the allowed communication to discuss the general strategy and the tunnels that need to be closed.