When board games win awards, everyone has opinions about them. A title you simply couldn’t stand will grab game of the year, or your all-time fave will fade into obscurity. Opinions are subjective; it’s natural. However, I’d like to kindly nudge a snubbed board game back into the spotlight. If you haven’t played The Gang, you really should, even if it won zero awards at the 2024 Golden Geeks.
The Gang is a light game for four to six players that bears a lot of resemblance to Texas Hold’em Poker. Crucially, though, it’s a cooperative board game.
Players are dealt Poker hands in secret, and they cannot tell their fellow players exactly what hand they hold. Instead, they must take a poker chip that they think represents the value of their cards.
After everyone’s hand is ranked, another public card is added to the Flop. The group has three rounds like this to alter the order of its hand rankings. The goal here is to have perfectly predicted the value of everyone’s hands, from most valuable to least valuable.
Flavor-wise, this represents your party trying to break into a bank vault. Three successful rounds where you correctly guessed everyone’s hand value, and you’ve found your way in to grab the gold. However, if you fail three times, you’ve triggered the alarms. Game over.
The Gang adds extra aids and challenges round-to-round that modify play depending on how well you’re doing. Technically, these are only included in ‘advanced mode’, a difficulty variant designed to challenge experienced players (or anyone who’s played a lot of Poker). There’s also a ‘professional mode’ and ‘master thief’ mode that ups the challenge further and introduces more variety.
The Gang is genuinely unique, mixing up a classic game’s formula with limited communication mechanics and aspects of a social deduction game. Its base mode can feel a little simple if you’re a Poker professional, but it’s a delightful dose of chaos if you’re unfamiliar with the original playing card game.
Judging how good your hand is (or how likely it is to change) is one challenge. It’s another challenge entirely to determine what your friend thinks a good Poker hand looks like. Wordless arguments take place as you fight over the lowest-value chip, and guesses that prove way off the mark are a great catalyst for giggles.
The Gang is an easy-to-learn 20-minute game that’s a great icebreaker before embarking on a heavy strategy board game session. One playthrough is rarely enough, though, and you should expect to host several heists in a row as you and your team try to crack the vault.
The Gang was actually a runner-up at this year’s Golden Geeks, as it was nominated for best party game. The popular Flip 7 won first place, and I graciously congratulate it, even if it wasn’t my preferred choice.
If you’d like to talk about your snubbed favorite to win game of the year 2024, hop over to the Wargamer Discord. Or, for more recommendations, here are the best board games we’ve played, period.
Source: Wargamer
