“3000 Scoundrels” by Unexpected Games is a card-driven board game that wants to do its name justice. The game features “thousands of unique characters” along with bluffing and engine building as its core mechanics.
Surviving the Wild West and Outwitting Your Opponents
Designed by Corey Konieczka, the head of studio at Unexpected Games, the game will expect from you to build combos, develop unique characters and ultimately outsmart your opponents to become the most powerful gang leader in the Wild West. Konieczka has created a product that captures his love for all there is to tabletop gaming.
“3000 Scoundrels” was created from my love of card games, engine building, and bluffing,” he said in the game’s release announcement. Konieczka wants to go even deeper with the game, though, and reimagine an entire genre:
It started as a deconstruction of what a ‘card’ is in a game, and it tries to turn the genre on its head. I really think this game will resonate with hobby gamers all over the world.
Unexpected Games head of studio and designer Corey Konieczka
A clearly competitive title, “3000 Scoundrels” will pit 2-4 players against one another as they advance through an alternative-reality Wild West where there is no shortage of outlaws determined to become the most notorious names in this cut-throat world.
Each of the players will get to play with one of the gang leaders who will compete to advance their own agenda at the expense of everyone else. The leaders want to scour the land for pieces of technology left behind by a mysterious stranger referred to in game as the Traveler.
While not completely grasping the technology, the gang leaders instinctively sense its value to the way the American Frontier will shape in future and who will have control over it. Secure the tech, and your victory is all but guaranteed. The game uses “clear cards” to create up to 3,000 scoundrels with a unique name and artwork, as well as an innate ability. Only 50 scoundrels get to tussle in the Wild West for supremacy during a game, though.
Unexpected Games is confident that this unique approach creates a game with immense replayability and different feel every time you send to play through it. Each gang leader will draft scoundrels and use them to further their own agenda.
Components, Creating Your Character and Bluffing
Without a doubt the vast opportunity to customize your characters throughout the gameplay is one of its main selling points. The game comes with 60 clear job cards, 50 trait cards, 28 poker cards, eight strategy cards, four leader sheets, one game board and so much more.
The “clear card” mechanic is a nice touch as it allows you to fit different cards together and create brand new characters that vie for control of the American West. You will use special poker cards to activate abilities, although you need not tell your opponents if you are telling the truth.
However, you will tarnish your reputation you if you are caught cheating. The game is available to players who are 12+ and an average game takes 60-90 minutes. “3000 Scoundrels” will be releasing in English, Spanish, French, German, Italian and Chinese and be available at $49.95 this fall.