Vegas Strip

• Designer: Peter C. Hayward
• Publisher: Allplay
• Players: 2-6
• Age: 11+
• Time: 40 minutes 
• Played with review copy provided by publisher

In this 2-6 player bluffing game, players have hidden information about which casinos are corrupt. Take turns playing money tiles (two 2’s, two 4’s, one 5, one six, one seven) into the different casinos. When scoring a corrupt casino, the highest bidder wins the jackpot (and everyone else gets nothing). In a non-corrupt casino, whoever has the most points there LOSES, and everyone else gets points equal to their bid. Players can’t place more than two tokens at a casino, and can’t place their highest token at the casino they know is corrupt. 20 unique casino power cards change up the formula every game. Take a gamble to win big!

Lay out the casino cards in a row on the table and place starting jackpot amount on each of them (see the reference setup card).  If any casinos are unused, remove the corresponding Fixer card from the deck.  Shuffle the character cards and deal one out under each casino.  Each player takes a player card, takes the matching tiles and places the designated tiles in front of them.

The game is played over three rounds, each with three phases:

1] Round Setup – first assign teams by placing markers onto the setup card.   The player on each team that is earliest in player order is the “fixer” for that team.  The fixer cards are shuffled and each fixer gets 2 cards – one of these is placed facedown to the left of their board, showing it to be the rigged casino; the other is placed facedown to the right of their board, this is the secure casino.  Matching team cards are then given to the teammates of the fixers so that everyone on the team knows which is rigged and which is secure.

2] Player Turns – going clockwise, place one of your player tiles under a casino, always rearranging so the strongest player is on top.  There are a few restrictions though: you are limited to two tiles per casino, you can not tie the current leader, and you cannot play a 7 tile at your team’s rigged casino.  Finally, pay attention to the character at each casino as they will provide a unique rule which must be followed at that particular location.

3] Collect Payouts – when everyone has played all their tiles, the fixers each reveal their rigged casino.  The player leading at each of those casinos will take the entire jackpot on the card.  All other players get nothing.  At the remaining casinos, which are all secure, the leader gets no chips and removes their tiles.  All remaining players now collect chips equal to the value of their tiles.  All earnings from players in teams are placed beneath the team board and then split evenly at the end of this phase.

Go through this process for three rounds.  The two individual players who have the most chips (i.e. most and second most) are the winners.  If there is a tie for second place, the tied player who won the most chips in the final round is ranked higher (and therefore wins).

My thoughts on the game

Vegas Strip is an interesting game of bluffing and tactical tile playing.  Each player knows a fraction of the casino behaviors and will have to figure out the rest by watching how the other players play their tiles to the other casinos.  You always need to remember who are partners on the same team as you may also be able to learn things from the combination of tile plays from the teammates.

The changing partnerships in the game are interesting, and I really like the way that teammates evenly split the proceeds from any round. The even split encourages the teammates to consider working together to get big payouts.  When you play with odd numbers, someone is always the odd-gamer-out and plays on their own.  This isn’t a great position to be in as you don’t have anyone to help you out.  Of course, you don’t have to share your take with anyone else.  Interestingly, not everyone will be on their own in a 5 player game (as there are only 3 rounds). For me, this is a game I’d always consider for 4 or 6 players as I’m personally not a fan of having a player on a solo team each round.

Each game plays out differently as the special rules for each casino can change. Some of the abilities might restrict how you play tiles to that particular casino.  Other abilities might add coins to the potential payouts.  Without these special rules, the game would admittedly be quite dull.  Having to work around and/or with the casino rules makes each game of Vegas Strip a strategic challenge.

The win condition seems really clunky at first – that the top two players win – but it feels to be a necessary rule in the shifting partnership game.  Without the rule, any player who would be partnered with the leader in the final round would have zero chance of winning – as it is impossible to gain any ground on your partner as all winnings are evenly split.  With the non-traditional win rule, all players remain motivated to do as best as possible in each round of the game.

Vegas Strip is another “big game in a small box” from Allplay. While it’s still probably a super-filler, it’s a lot of game to come in a super small box.  If you get the upgraded bits, beware that you might need a rubber band to hold the lid on (or be willing to spend 15 minutes meticulously packing the box to use every cubic millimeter of volume).  There is a lot going on in this tiny box, and I think we’ll be trying to cheat the casinos a lot over the course of this summer.

Ratings from the Opinionated Gamers

• I love it!
• I like it. Dale Y
• Neutral.
• Not for me…