It’s a digital boardgame. There’s a single-player campaign and AI skirmishes but for me the joy is in multiplayer which can be played live or asynchronously (which is almost exclusively how I play).
You play a master thief running a guild of miscreants and you have to reach a certain number of victory points before your opponent. These can won by bribing officials, taking out assassination contracts, blackmailing churches and stealing jewels from a masked ball or cargo from a docked ship–different maps allow for different opportunities. While each map has the same structure, the placement of businesses is randomised and the city is initially shrouded by fog.
To do all these things you scout the city burgling buildings, hiring urchins to infiltrate different businesses to secure certain resources and perks. Thugs block off streets and buff your gangs up (which in turn bully their way around the streets), truancy officers evict urchins, assassins take down gangs and contracts, and saboteurs trap buildings. You’ve two resources: lanterns and gold. Gold is used for hiring, lanterns are used for improving your thief and guild and unlocking new characters to hire.
It’s not a sprawling or complicated game, but it’s tight and cleverly designed to make your few moves per turn really matter. It’s been a lovely bit of bite-sized strategy throughout the year for me and @lordkosc.
Official thread here!