Bandida - Card Game

Bandida is a co-operative card game by Helvetiq. Designer Martin Nedergaard Anderson has taken the core idea of predecessor Bandido, but added in extra features. The setting is the same: there’s a jailbreak occurring! Bandida is a wily old fox; she’s trying to tunnel her way underground. Can you and your friends stop her?

This is a hand management game, with rules so simple that anyone can play! Your aim is to block all possible tunnel exits leading out of Bandida’s starting card – her jail cell. Players each start with a hand of tunnel cards, which they keep secret from each other. Bandida is a co-op game, but you cannot tell each other what cards you have. You can say something like: “I have a great card to go there!” But you can’t say that you have a specific card.

You play a card on your turn into the ever-growing tunnel network, and then replenish your hand. You can orientate cards any way you like, so long as they don’t overlap on top of another. They simply have to sit next to a previously played card. Some of the tunnel cards branch off, but some provide dead ends. Hooray! That’s the trick to fencing Bandida in. You need to try and block off all her exits before the deck runs out.

Some of the cards have icons on them, such as a backpack, dynamite or a map. When you play one of these cards, you have to take the action associated with them. Some increase or decrease your hand size. Some let you remove cards from the tunnel network. Some are alarms, which alert Bandida are bad for the players!

There’s a second mode in Bandida where you try to aid her escape, rather than hinder it. This game comes with an extra Ladder card. If you’re playing this ‘Help Bandida’ mode, you need to play the Ladder card and block off all the other exits. The sneaky thing about this game is it sounds so very easy – but it’s a surprising challenge!

Players: 1-4
Time: 15 minutes
Age: 6-99