CA$H ‘N GUNS (2014)

PLAYERS	TIME	DESIGNER	ARTIST	PUBLISHER
4-8	30 mins	Ludovic Maublanc	John Kovalic	Repos Production

METHOD

You and your ‘friends’ have just robbed a bank. Back at the rendevous you get down to the serious business of dividing up the loot; a mix of paintings, diamonds, and a lot of cold, hard, cash.

But you’re not all honest thieves.

What follows are eight rounds of backstabbing and double crossing as you attempt to walk away alive with the most winnings.

With the rounds loot laid out on the table, each round sees players deciding, in secret, whether to load their gun or leave it empty. On the count of three you will all point your gun at another player. But no one knows which guns have bullets in them so now it’s a case of standing firm, or getting the hell out of there.

If you run, or get shot, you don’t get to pick any of the rewards. But if you stand your ground and no one takes a shot at you, then it’s time to take your prizes.

Eight rounds later, the surviving player with the most money that wins.

POINTS OF INTEREST

While CA$H ‘N CUNS is starting to look it’s age now, it still has the simple enough rule set and laugh out loud moments to encourage it to the table when you have a big enough group. Games that play up to eight don’t grow on trees, and good ones are even rarer.

One of the best things about party games of this ilk are when they create little meta moments. The first round is always the catalyst for the chaos that follows. Because you can’t avoid aiming your gun at someone, it will immediatly bring forth squeeling defenses of “why me?” and “but player x is winning!”. After that, you can be sure that anyone you targeted in the previous round is going to bring the shooty end of their pistol to bear on you the next round, even if it doesn’t make much tactical sense.

To add a little bit of extra spice into the preceedings, one player each round is the Godfather. This character has two advantages in the game. If they make it to the looting phase then they get first pick. But the more important icing on their cake is that, once the guns have chosen their targets, the Godfather gets to pick a player and divert their aim. Great for getting themselves out of a pickle.

It’s a big advantage, but the Godfather’s desk is up for grabs every round, so if you can avoid being shot, maybe you can step up and take on the role.

You’d think that, when the lead had flown and the smoke had cleared, the conflict would be over. But picking from the plentiful bounty in the centre of the table brings it’s own challenges. Surviving the shoot out is only half the battle. The loot itself comes in a variety of flavours, and while everything is worth money, you might not always walk away with what you wanted.

Paintings are a sort of set collection. The more you have, the more they are worth overall. They also look really cool too with cartoon art versions of famous paintings. Sometimes I’ll grab one even if I don’t need it, just because I like the picture.

Diamonds are worth varying amounts of money but come with a majority bonus. The person who has the most diamonds at the end of the game gets the big diamond worth a not-to-be-scoffed at $60,000.

And after that there good ol’ fashioned money. $5000, $10,000, and (chi ching!) $20,000 notes are all up for grabs. You’ll usually find the $5000 left until last.

And that’s it. A whole bunch of money and other expensive rewards. Nothing else to see here.

Except there are a couple of extra rare treats that occasionally show up, sometimes when they are needed most.

You see, when you take a bullet, you’re not immediatly knocked out of the game. Each player can take a number of wounds (because you’re all tough bastards, obviously). It’s only your third wound that ejects you from the game. This means that something like a healing card could be worth more than money to some players, allowing them to get back in the game and settle some old scores.

But I’ve saved the best until last. You see, you only get three bullets across the eight round game. Shoot them all off in the first three rounds and everyone will know you’re bluffing from that point onwards. But what if you could find some extra ammo lying around among all the loot? That might just give you the edge in future rounds. It might make people think twice about messing with you.

All this adds up to make a super fun party game where the high ground is always changing, where banter leads every round of play, and where you get to aim a foam gun at a friend while trying to seem tough.

ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT

Probably the main issue that might sour a players enjoyment of CA$H ‘N GUNS is the player elimination. If you’re shot enough times, and knocked out in the first half of the game, it can feel a little harsh. While it’s not a super long game, not being a part of the fun and faux danger makes you nothing more than an audience member within touching distance of all the fun.

Of course, if you get taken out early, you could argue that it was your own fault, that you took the obvious risk. But at the end of the day, sitting out while those around carry on is a product of yesteryear.

This also isn’t a game for you if you don’t like conflict. You will be fighting each other to come out on top and if a friend doing something unexpected ruins your round and you get annoyed easily then this will dampen your experience, and probably everyone elses. This is definitely a ‘what happens at the table, stays at the table’ sort of game.

The game comes with player powers too, but I’ve never felt like they were needed. The beauty of the game is the simplicity of it’s rule set and design. The fun comes from the stories between players and from knowing that person sat across from you. Chuck in abilities and having to remember who can do what to make an informed decision just adds unnecessary leg work. For me, vanilla us best.

EXTRA CONTENT?

There are a couple of small box expansions (TEAM SPIRIT adds team mode while MORE adds asymetrical guns), as well as a few mini expansions and promo character cards. We’ve not tried any of them.

FOR 2-PLAYERS?

This is a game that goes as low as 4-player, and rightly so. The mechanics just wouldn’t work as a 1v1 game. In fact, even 4 is probably low to get the maximum enjoyment from the premise.

– – CONCLUSION – – CA$H ‘N GUNS shows it’s age a little, but it presents itself as a fantastic party game that really shines at the higher counts. It won’t win any awards for depth and strategy, but with the right crowd, it does a fantastic job at bringing chaos and laughs by the bucket load.

Review #0202