Criminals are running rampant and only you and your team can infiltrate the ranks and break up the syndicate. In this 2-4 player experience, each player will be tasked with sending agents to gather intel, infiltrate mobs, and arrest criminals. The player with the most points at the end of the game wins. Special thanks to Doctor Finn’s Games for sending out a copy for coverage purposes.
2-4 Players, Ages 14+, Average Playtime = 30-45 Minutes
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Setup & Gameplay
First, locations are placed in a column in alphabetical order. Criminal meeples are placed in the bag, with 8 being drawn randomly onto each location. Each player gets all the components of one color (agent cards and office). Players choose 1 city card to use, the rest go back in the box. Each city card will tell you how to setup the utility tokens. Finally, choose a starting player.
The game is played over 7 rounds. Each round has 4 steps:
1. Choose Agent – All players simultaneously choose an agent card and on the count of 3, play it face down onto one of the four corners of their office. Closed locations are off-limits.
2. Take Turns – Starting with the first player going clockwise, each player takes a turn:
Phase A: Deploy Agent – The active player moves their face-down card from their office to the matching location’s lone slot (they called a mole). If there’s already a face-down card there, it’ll be flipped face-up and put off to the side to start a row of overlapping cards for that location (they are called field agents).
Phase B: Activate Special Agent – The owner of the card/mole that was flipped up and moved to the side may use its special ability if the card has one. The city card determines what the symbols do on the cards.
3. Close Location – If a field (overlapped row of cards) has 7 or more cards in it, it’s considered closed and a stop sign is placed on the lone slot. Closed locations can be reopened due to special actions.
4. Pass Badge – The first player marker moves clockwise to the next player.
After 7 rounds, players flip their offices to the jail side. Players score each location one at a time by moving a mole to the field as normal (if present), calculating the strength of their number cards, and finally awarding meeples. The player with the most strength takes all the meeples of one chosen color, and so on, placing these meeples into their personal jails from left to right. Meeple colors match their spaces, though grey meeples are wild and can be played on any colored row.
The player with the most points after scoring, wins!
The above is a general overview. You can check out the full rules here.
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Review
This game reminded me of a lighter version of “Smash Up”, mainly because you’re wrestling for control at various locations with multiple winners gaining benefits and for the game’s comical art style. I’m grateful for this as “Smash Up”, as much as I enjoy playing that game, can sometimes give this old coot a headache. I’ve seen players chain cards for days, depending on their two chosen factions. “The Feds” keeps it light with the occasional ability kicking in from special field agent cards.
Along those lines I do appreciate that there are 6 city cards and each instruct the special field agents to do different things. Alot of these abilities seem focused on moving field agents around and revealing moles, which makes sense considering the primary goal is to out-strength your opponents everywhere you can.
There is a two-player variant in the rulebook that involves the use of a third set of agents from an unused color. This AI player is called “The Officer”. They deploy agents but don’t use abilities. A police car meeple moves from location to location within accordance to the strength of the card it just drew and then plays it as a face-up mole where the meeple lands. There’s also a New Orleans variant with its own unique location that involves the use of sirens…I’ll let you discover the details on your own.
I enjoyed my time with this title. There’s a bit of card counting though. As more cards get played as agents, the more you know about what cards your opponents have left and what may possibly be a mole out of those still face-down at a location. It didn’t make or break anything, but anyone good at counting cards and weighing odds in their heads will do well here. Twenty years ago I might have cared to be that meticulous…now I just play for fun.
“The Feds” is a solid entry in the long line of Doctor Finn’s Games.
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Score: 8/10 (Great)
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