Tammany Hall
"The way to have Power is to take it" - William "Boss" Tweed
Tammany Hall is a game of backstabbing, corruption, temporary alliances, and taking power at all costs. If you want to rule New York, you are going to need to play the city's growing immigrant populations against one another. Help the immigrant groups who owe you political favors, call in those favors to slander your rivals, and win elections.
In Tammany Hall, players help immigrants settle in New York, collect political favors from those immigrant groups, send ward bosses into Manhattan to secure votes, and slander political opponents. An election is held at the end of every fourth year, and the player who uses his power base best will be elected mayor. The Mayor's grip on the city is tenuous at best. After every election, the Mayor must pay off his political rivals by placing them in offices that they can wield to try to take control of the city. Every player is your friend, every player is your enemy.
Tammany Hall was the political machine that dominated New York City politics by organizing the immigrant populations. While the organization's influence spanned from its founding in the 1790s to its collapse in the 1960s, this game is set in lower Manhattan roughly between 1850 and 1870 – the era of Boss Tweed.
User Reviews (2)
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Pros: Easy to learn, great interactions during gameplay, Individual power cards that get switched each round really help make sure you get your revenge. Rules are right on the board for easy viewing. Great time period art on the cards and board.
Cons: Got to put on all the stickers on the political favor tokens. Mayor card has too little power (however it does keep the game close by doing this)
Tips: Play with people who don’t take offense from being voted agaisnt, ganged up on, or beaten down. This will happen. Wheel and deal throughout the game add some mystery to your vote and throw people off of what you may or may not do.
Overall: A great area control game that includes backstabbing, slandering, and political favors. Set in the time period of one of my favorite movies (Gangs of New York) it’s easy for me to get into the theme of using immigrants as political favors to win districts to strength my grip on the city. This game always ends with one or more people pouting so it must be doing something right.
In Tammany Hall, published by Pandasaurus Games, each player plays a rather vindictive cog in the political machinations of New York City in the 1850s – a time of growth, increasing immigrant populations and corruption. In order to succeed you will need to “help” newly arriving immigrants to “settle” into communities (while ousting others) and thus guaranteeing future political favors from them. These favors will help you gain influence into one of the numerous wards represented on the map.
This is not an easy task. Your options are simple but it will require lies, alliances, back-stabbing, fore-sight and a willingness to walk over anyone who gets in your way. You will send your muscle – ward bosses (meeples with bowler hats!) – into Manhattan to help secure votes and rally the immigrant populations there.
You will slander political opponents and use the offices you may already hold to sway the districts in your favor. The road to Tammany is paved with deceit, my friends, it is paved with dirty, filthy deceit…and immigrants…but mostly deceit.
Read the full review at Troll in the Corner