Burgle Bros Blackjack

• Designer: Tim Fowers
• Publisher: Fowers Games
• Players: 2-4
• Age: 10+
• Time: 30 minutes
• Played with review copy provided by publisher

The Burgle Bros are back—this time, the heist is at the Blackjack table! In this cooperative twist on the classic casino game, you and your crew work together to crack safes while dodging guards. Trade cards, build your decks, and plan your moves carefully—every swap brings you closer to success… or disaster. Use unique character abilities and clever tools to stay one step ahead. Can your team pull off the ultimate score before time runs out?

The game is based on a regular deck of cards; you will play with the Ace thru 10s in the main deck.  The Jacks, Queens, Kings and Jokers are the character cards; each player chooses one character card from the king/queens/jokers at the start of the game, taking the matching ability card and placing that underneath until 2 Stealth icons are seen.

The regular deck is shuffled and each player gets a personal deck of 10 cards.  Into this personal deck, a random Jack is shuffled in, and the player gets the ability card which matches the suit of their Jack.   The tool deck is also shuffled and placed on the table.

In this cooperative game, the players work together to each crack a safe; they do this by collecting five cards which match the suit of the Jack in their personal deck.  If any player would need to give up Stealth and not have any to give up, the game is lost.

The game is played in a number of rounds, and each round there are three phases: Draw Phase, Trade Phase, Evaluate phase

Draw Phase – each player draws one card from their deck and places it in their area. Somehow set this card aside so that it is known as the “current card”

Trade Phase – players may trade their current card for any other player’s current card – though no one can trade their Guard; that is the Jack which was shuffled into their deck at the start of the game

Evaluate Phase – sum up the value of all the cards in your hand.  Aces can be 1 or 11. Jacks are worth 10.  

• If your total is 5, 10, 15 or 20: you may peek at the top card of your deck and either leave it there or discard it
• If your total is exactly 21, you can choose to stay active (and no benefit) OR become inactive and then take a benefit: either discarding a Guard from any player’s display OR allowing all players to peek at the top card of their deck and either discard it or leave it be
• If you have 5 cards in the suit of your Guard, you have cracked your safe.  You become inactive and rotate your character card.  Take a tool card which is a one-time use ability. You are now “Targeted” for the rest of the game.   You only need to crack your safe once each game.
• If you remain active and your total is over 21, you trigger an Alarm.  You become inactive and you must discard two cards from your deck.  If one of these is a Guard, you must lose a Stealth. 
• Finally, each active player can decide to Bail (and become inactive).  If your total is 16 or less, you trigger an Alarm (see above)

If everyone at the table is Inactive, the round ends. Otherwise, keep playing, going back to another Draw Phase.   When the round ends, discard all cards in your display area to your Discard pile – so any cards which you took in trade remain in your deck.   Remember that you only shuffle your discard pile to make a new deck when you need to draw a card and do not have one in your deck to draw. 

The game is won if all players can crack their safe.  The game is lost if one person needs to give up a Stealth and does not have it to give up.

My thoughts on the game

Wow – when we first started the game and played a few hands, we all felt like it was going to be impossible to win.  We couldn’t see how we were going to get a single person to be able to crack their safe, much less all of us!  However, as we gained some experience with the game and made a few important trades, the game quickly jelled, and the game became much more competitive.

The one crucial rule that we misinterpreted at first was the rule about cracking the safe.  If you have 5 cards in the suit of your Guard, you crack your safe – and it’s important to see that you make this check before you see if you have busted (value over 21).   Thus, if you have 4 cards in the right suit, it is almost always worth it to go for it to try to draw the fifth; or at least once you have made a few trades and have increased the proportion of the right suit in your deck.

Once you get the first safe cracked, the team does get the benefit of a Tool card – each of which gives a decent advantage to the team.  Of course, once you have cracked your safe, you still have to watch out for busting as you could still get eliminated if you run out of stealth.  Also, you still have to have a decent deck – i.e. you can’t just take all the high cards in trades – because you’ll trigger an alarm if you leave with less than 16 as well.

During the round, players are obviously trying to get in a position to improve their decks in order to be able to crack their safe.  The numerical goals of 21 or multiples of 5 also can lead to card trading in order to take advantage of the benefits of hitting these totals.  Getting a chance to peek at the top card of your deck can be a huge risk mitigator. 

The retro art on the cards is nice, and overall the theme is good.  Though the rules don’t say you have to do this – I’d definitely recommend taking a character card that matches the suit of your Jack – so that it’s easy for everyone to remember which suit you’re looking for.

For those that like cooperative games, this is one that offers a familiar backdrop (blackjack) – though the special abilities and actions on the tool cards will give players a lot to think about and plan for/around.   And if you do try it, don’t be discouraged if it feels too hard at first – we felt the same way, but once it clicked for us, it was definitely winnable.

Ratings from the Opinionated Gamers

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