Wise Guys

About this board game

Wise Guys is a quick-to-learn, cutthroat area-control board game for 3–4 players, with games lasting about 90 minutes. Set in Chicago during the height of the roaring 20s, it casts players as rival gangs seeking to strike it rich as rum runners.

Across six rounds, gangs take turns driving to locations shown in the central grid of city cards. These locations provide access to materials, cash, or clout, which gang members can acquire through trade. Players can buy and sell alcohol, earn profit from property within their territory, or exploit parts of the city controlled by a rival gang.

Success depends on more than simply building an operation. Players wheel, deal, negotiate, threaten, and form temporary alliances whenever it serves their interests. Politicians can be helped into office in exchange for assistance, while rival gangs may be double-crossed when the opportunity is too valuable to ignore.

• Area control: Compete for locations across a card-based city grid.
• Negotiation: Trade, make deals, build alliances, and watch for betrayal.
• Risk and discretion: Selling too much in one round can draw unwanted attention or saturate the city with liquor, reducing profits for everyone.
• Clear objective: Finish the game with more cash than the other gangs.

The pressure rises as every move affects the city and its competing criminal enterprises. In Wise Guys, cooperation can be useful, but no deal is necessarily permanent—and the gang that best manages control, profit, and discretion will claim the biggest fortune.