Game-Design

Chicago Poker
Before the Wind	Gipsy King
Augsburg 1520	Hermagor
Fragile	Marquis
Karibik	Sicilianos
ZooSim	Capt'n Clever
O Zoo le Mio	Subulata
Logistico	Master Thieves

Authors: Bruno Faidutti; Bruno Cathala
Illustration & Layout: Czarnè

Number of Players: 2 – 6
Age: 10 years +
Duration: 45 Min.

Published by: Phalanx 2007

Welcome to the roaring twenties! The players represent notorious gangster bosses in the heyday of organized crime in Chicago. They try to take control of the main legal and illegal sources of profit - speakeasies, gambling houses, jazz clubs, and breweries / distilleries. In order to achieve this, each player sends his gangsters to intimidate the owners of these businesses. Most of the businesses even change ownership at the gambling table! The first player to either take control 3 businesses of the same kind, 4 different businesses or any 5 businesses, is the winner in Chicago Poker!

Comments:
Most German game illustrators have a perfect mastery of all the graphic techniques, but they sometimes lack personality and initiative. Their works are technically perfect, but they all look the same. They are flawless, but have no soul.
Czarné is one of the few exceptions. He has his personal graphic style, and he can take risks. The results can be questionable, like with Hermagor which would have benefitted from a lighter and more colorful style. They can also be great, and I think that Chicago Poker is one of Czarné's masterworks. The ochre colors, the photographic style, the expressive portraits, all this helps creating the right mood for the game. The only reproach I can make is that Czarné made a too good colt picture, and that's probably where the publisher got his absurd idea of replacing the machine gun with a colt. (Bruno Faidutti)

Links:

• Phalanxgames