How to Play BANG! Armed & Dangerous

Game Objective

The objective of the game remains the same as the original BANG!, with the additions of the Armed & Dangerous expansion. Players take on the role of gunslingers looking for a showdown, using deadly new weapons, powerful equipment, and lethal ammunition, the Dangerous cards. The use of these cards is limited, and speed in taking advantage of them is crucial for victory.

Preparation (Setup)

1. Separate the expansion components: 28 playing cards (13 Dangerous cards, 9 new brown-bordered cards, 6 brown-bordered cards from the base game), 8 characters, and 32 Load tokens.
2. Shuffle the 8 new characters with the original characters from the base game.
3. Shuffle the 28 new cards with the basic playing cards from the game.
4. Keep the Load tokens in the center of the table in a common supply. When a token is needed, take it from the supply. If you spend or discard a token, return it to the supply.
5. During the game, Load tokens are kept on your Dangerous cards and/or on your character. They will be used to activate your Dangerous cards, the abilities of some characters, and to enhance the effects of some brown-bordered cards.

Game Flow

The game rules remain the same as the original BANG!, with the following additions:

• Playing a Dangerous card: When playing a Dangerous card in front of you (exception: Bomb can be played on any player), whether it's a weapon or an object, add 3 Load tokens to it. If the supply does not have the necessary number of Load tokens (usually 3), you cannot play the card.
• Using a Dangerous card: To use a Dangerous card in play in front of you, you must first pay (i.e., discard) the indicated number of Load tokens from the card. If you discard the token(s), you can use the specified effect on the card. If there are not enough Load tokens on the card, the effect cannot be used.
• Exhausting a Dangerous card: When a Dangerous card in play runs out of tokens, discard it immediately.
• Reloading a Dangerous card (or your character): There are two ways to add Load tokens to a Dangerous card in play or to your character:
  1. Playing a blue-bordered card: Each time you play a blue-bordered card, you can add 1 Load token to any of your Dangerous cards in play, or to your character. This is valid even when you play a blue-bordered card on a different player (e.g., Jail), but not when you receive one (e.g., Dynamite).
  2. Discarding a card from your hand at the end of your turn: Each time you need to discard one or more cards from your hand during Phase 3 of your turn (when the number of cards in your hand exceeds the number of life points you have), you can add 1 Load token to any of your Dangerous cards in play or to your character for each card discarded. Remember that you cannot voluntarily discard cards in this phase! Also note that you cannot immediately use the tokens you add in this phase, because Phase 3 ends your turn.
• Each Dangerous card can hold a maximum of 4 Load tokens. Any token to be added beyond the 4th is simply ignored. The same limit applies to characters.
• Dangerous cards behave like blue-bordered cards and can be discarded by playing Cat Balou, etc. If you play a Panic! on a Dangerous card in play, you take it into your hand without the tokens on it, which return to the supply. If you play the same card again, add 3 tokens to it as usual.
• The tokens on cards cannot be targeted by cards or abilities, unless explicitly specified.

Actions and How to Play

Card Types

• Dangerous cards: Have an orange border and behave like blue-bordered cards (weapons and other objects) in all aspects, with the additions mentioned above.
• Dangerous Weapons: Are Dangerous cards that are weapons in every sense: they have an orange border without bullet holes, black and white illustration, and a number in the crosshairs. They replace and are replaced by any other weapon. Like blue-bordered weapons, Dangerous Weapons allow you to play a BANG! card from your hand up to the reachable distance. But, each Dangerous Weapon also has a special ability that you can activate by spending the necessary number of tokens when playing the BANG! card (and before the target player reacts, for example, by playing Missed!). Important: you can only use the special effect when playing real BANG! cards, not similar cards like Gatling, Flintlock, Quick Shot, etc.
• Upgradable Cards: Are brown-bordered cards (play and discard) whose effect can be enhanced by spending the necessary number of tokens. The tokens you spend can be taken from any of your Dangerous cards in play or from your character, in any combination. Remember that if you remove the last token from a Dangerous card, it must be discarded. Upgrading a card is always optional. You can use the upgrade multiple times if you wish and can afford it: always choose at the moment you play the card, before performing its effects. Example: A little nip allows you to recover 1 life point, and 1 additional life point for every 3 tokens you spend. By spending 6 tokens when playing the card, you gain a total of 3 life points. If you spend 0 tokens, you only recover 1 life point.

Specific Card Abilities

• Ace up the sleeve: Refer to the manual for details on this section.
• A little nip: Unlike Beer, it cannot be used out of turn.
• Arrow: The target player chooses whether to discard a BANG! card or lose 1 life point. You cannot respond with similar effects like Flintlock or Gatling. Upgrade: All targets must be different.
• Bandolier: You can play an additional BANG! card, which must follow the usual distance rules, can trigger the effects of a Dangerous Weapon, etc.
• Beer keg: Unlike Beer, it cannot be used out of turn.
• Bell tower: Applies only to the next card you play, but you can use it many times during your turn. Works against a Mustang, for example.
• Big Fifty: Cancels the effects of cards like Mustang, Barrel, etc., the ability of Julie Cutter, etc.
• Bomb: Play this card on any player (with 3 Load tokens on it as usual). At the start of your turn, if the Bomb is in play in front of you, “draw!”: on ♥ or ♦, pass the Bomb to another player of your choice (who will do the same check on their turn, etc.). On ♣ or ♠, discard 2 Load tokens from the Bomb. If the Load tokens run out, the Bomb explodes! Discard it and lose 2 life points. The Bomb does not explode if it is bought or discarded in other ways (e.g., Panic!, Cat Balou, Whip, Squaw, etc.), but it explodes if the Load tokens run out due to Rust, for example. If you also have Dynamite and/or Jail in play in front of you, check the Bomb last.
• Buntline Special: It doesn't matter if the shot is canceled with a Missed! card, Barrel, etc.
• Caravan: Refer to the manual for details on this section.
• Crate: If you also have Barrel in play, you choose the order of card use, if necessary.
• Double Barrel: A BANG! with the ♦ suit cannot be canceled, even using Barrel, etc.
• Duck!: Refer to the manual for details on this section.
• Flintlock: It is not a BANG! card, so it does not count towards the 1 BANG! card limit per turn, and does not trigger the special effect of a Dangerous Weapon. Upgrade: If the shot is canceled (it doesn't matter if by Missed!, Barrel, etc.), you can spend 2 Load tokens to take this card back into your hand (and play it again immediately after, if you wish).
• Lock Pick: Affects only cards in hand, not those in play. Works regardless of distance.
• Quick Shot: It is not a BANG! card, so it does not count towards the 1 BANG! card limit per turn, and does not trigger the special effect of a Dangerous Weapon. Upgrade: All targets must be different and within reachable distance.
• Reloading: Take 3 Load tokens from the supply and place them in any combination on your Dangerous cards and/or your character. Remember that a card can never have more than 4 Load tokens.
• Rust: Each of the other players must remove 1 Load token from each of their Dangerous cards and their characters. Add all removed tokens to your character, up to the limit of 4, and discard the extras.
• Squaw: Works regardless of distance.
• Thunderer: Works whether the shot was successful or not, and the BANG! card must be taken back before the target player responds (with Missed! or another action).
• Tumbleweed: A newly completed “draw!” must be repeated, ignoring the previous result. Can be used on any “draw!”, even your own, and can be played out of turn. You can cause the “draw!” to be repeated again by spending additional Load tokens.
• Whip: Affects only cards in play, not those in hand. Works regardless of distance.

Character Abilities

The tokens needed to activate the abilities of some characters can be taken from your character and also from any of your Dangerous cards in play (only during your turn, unless otherwise specified, for example: Al Preacher). Remember that each character can hold a maximum of 4 tokens.

• Al Preacher: Can be activated out of turn. You can draw only 1 card for each blue or orange-bordered card played, even if you can spend more than 2 tokens each time. You must activate it before another card is played after the blue or orange-bordered one.
• Bass Greeves: You can add the 2 tokens to any of your Dangerous cards or to the character itself, but not to two different cards (one per card).
• Bloody Mary: Does not work with cards that are not real BANG! cards, such as Flintlock, Quick shot, Gatling, etc.
• Frankie Canton: The tokens you take can come from any Dangerous card in play, whether yours or a different player's, or from another player's character. The limit of 4 Load tokens still applies. If you take the last token from a Dangerous card, it must be discarded as usual.
• Julie Cutter: It's only 1 BANG!, even if you lose more than 1 life point at the same time. It's automatic (you don't need to play a BANG! card), works regardless of distance, and can be canceled as usual with Missed!, Barrel, Crate, etc. Each time a player makes you lose at least 1 life point, “draw!”: ♥ ♦ = they are the target of a BANG!.
• Jourdonnais (base game character): His ability can be used to avoid the effect of Flintlock and Buntline Special, and also against Mexicali Kid.
• Lucky Duke (base game character): With the Tumbleweed, he repeats his entire “draw!”, so he shows two new cards and chooses the result.
• Mexicali Kid: The BANG! is additional, so it does not count towards the 1 BANG! card rule per turn and you don't need to play any cards. The shot can be canceled as usual with Missed!, Barrel, Crate, etc., and reaches the reachable distance of your weapon, but does not trigger the effect of a Dangerous Weapon. Does not work out of turn (against Indians!, Arrow, Duel, etc.).
• Ms. Abigail: Does not work against cards that affect all players, such as Indians!.
• Red Ringo: You must perform the token movement as a single movement, but you can choose two different cards and place 1 token on each of them. You cannot move from Dangerous cards back to Red Ringo with this ability.
• Slab the Killer (base game character): If he uses a Buntline Special, you need 3 Missed! to cancel his BANG!.

General Card Rules

• Any card with a Missed! symbol can be used to cancel the effect of a card with a BANG! symbol.
• When you are losing your last life point, you can only use a Beer to avoid being eliminated from the game. You cannot use other cards with similar effects like Saloon, Beer keg, or A little nip out of turn.
• You can only play one BANG! card per turn, but you can play any number of other cards that show the BANG! symbol.

End of Game and Scoring

Refer to the manual for details on this section.

Tips for Winning

• Manage your Load tokens wisely: They are a limited and crucial resource for activating the abilities of your Dangerous cards and characters. Plan when and where to place your tokens, remembering that each card and character has a limit of 4 tokens.
• Take advantage of Dangerous cards quickly: The use of these cards is limited, and your enemies can take advantage of them if you are not fast enough. Use their special abilities at the right time to maximize their impact.
• Consider the upgrades of brown-bordered cards: Upgrading a card is optional, but can be very powerful. Evaluate whether the cost in Load tokens is worth the enhanced effect, especially at critical moments in the game.