Who doesn't love a gangster game? Betty Two Bricks from Kaioss Games takes us back to the Prohibition era of speakeasies and mobster violence. It's certainly a 'take that' game but no blood will be spilled and none of the 2-6 players should end up sleeping with the fishes.
This set collection card game is named for the imagined female mobster boss for whom the players all work. We guess she earned her monicker by dispatching her victims with a couple of crushing blows of a brick to the head. Tho' she doesn't make a personal appearance in the game, she remains a menacing presence throughout: players are racing to be the first to satisfy her demand of three completed 'grifts' (criminal enterprises) and there's the threat that if no-one succeeds before her 'second brick' card comes out (near the bottom of the draw deck) then everyone loses. Even the game's box reminds us that Betty is looming over us because it's nattily shaped like a terracotta brick.
The draw deck for the game comprises mob cards and action cards. The latter have various different 'take that' effects, tho' 'Stop the Press' and 'Press Strike' can be used to cancel another player's action card. Mob cards are what you need to complete grifts, and the cards all have three key traits: 'home turf', reputation value and job. The 'job' relates to the action text of the card, so all mob cards are capable of being played as action cards...
Players are each dealt three grifts, which are their objectives for the game. Completing a grift demands three mob cards but the grift card will specify which combination of cards is acceptable. For example, 'Counterfeit Cash' specifies that its mob cards must all be value 2 and must all be different jobs. 'Election Rigging' demands that the three cards must all have different home turfs.
Players have a hand of five cards. On your turn, after drawing a card, you can place a mob card from your hand under one of your grift cards, you can swap it for a card already there, or you can play a mob card for its 'job' action. You can additionally play an action card, and at the end of your turn you must either draw or discard so that you have five cards in your hand.
The simple rules mean that Betty Two Bricks plays briskly. There's a high ratio of action cards to mob cards, and with players invited to play an action card every turn this is a game where you can expect a lot of card manipulation and 'take that' interaction, including cards that invite bluffing and challenges. Steve and Diana Read have succeeded in designing a lively and atmospheric card game that plays like a party game, especially at higher player counts. Notwithstanding the menacing theme, it's not personal. It's not business either. It's all just light-hearted good-natured fun!
Betty Two Bricks is currently available on pre-order at https://kaiossgames.co.uk/pages/betty-two-bricks