LORDS OF VEGAS 

LORDS OF VEGAS

OBJECTIVE OF LORDS OF VEGAS: The objective of Lords of Vegas is to score the most points by owning and expanding the biggest and best casinos.

NUMBER OF PLAYERS:  2-4 players

MATERIALS: A rulebook, one game board, 9 sets of colored casino tiles (green, red, gray, gold, purple), Player dice of player colors (Green, red, blue or yellow), Player Markers, score chips, money (1, 5, 10, and 20 million bills), Property cards (same colors as casino tiles with additional strip cards that also contain the end of game card.), action cards, player turn card, and a house gambling card.

TYPE OF GAME: Economic Board Game

 AUDIENCE: 12+

OVERVIEW OF LORDS OF VEGAS

Lords of Vegas is a game where you play as up and coming casino owners in Las Vegas. Your goal is to acquire lots, build casinos, and expand your empire to become the best casino own in Vegas. 

SETUP

To setup Lords of Vegas, players will choose the color to represent their player and take their colored dice, score chip and player markers. Each score chip will be placed on the 0 at the start of the score tracker. Then a player will be chosen as the banker.

The banker will remove the end of the game card from the deck, shuffle the remaining cards and deal all the players two cards. 

These cards are revealed and determine both a player’s starting cash and starting properties. The properties matching the cards will be marked by each player’s markers and the sum of the values on the cards will be their cash.

The cards then are discarded into their sections on the board and the remaining deck will be split into 4 similarly even piles. The end of the game card should be placed on top of one pile and the remaining piles should be stacked on that pile. Then you are ready to begin the game. 

GAMEPLAY

Lords of Vegas is played over a series of turns until the end of the game card is revealed. Each turn consists of two steps, a draw and a play step. Each player performs these two steps which have smaller actions to be taken during them as well. Here are the basics though.

A lot is a space that has not had a player marker on them; these are not owned. You own a lot once you have drawn the corresponding card, you will then mark the card with your marker. 

You can pay for a lot you own to add a casino tile to it; your marker is then replaced with a die. You own your die in that casino tile.

Once two or more casino tiles of the same color touch those make a casino. Multiple players may own dice in a casino, but the boss is determined by who has the highest pip number in the casino. Ties will always be rerolled until there is a clear boss.

Drawing

Each turn starts the same; a player will draw the top card of the draw pile. Then this sets off a series of occurrences. First, the player will mark the corresponding lot with their marker. 

Following this each player will get paid for their owned lots, meaning each player will receive 1 million dollars for each lot marked with one of their player markers (casinos and dice do not count). 

Then the casinos that match the color of the card drawn will payout. This means any casino matching that color even if just one tile will pay each player that has a dice of their color in it. You will be paid for the sum of pips you have in each casino of the color. There are also strip cards; instead of a color of a casino, when these are pulled, any casino touching the strip (the road running through the center of the board) is paid out the same way. 

The boss of each casino matching the color (or strip) of the card pulled will then be awarded points. Points are for each tile in the casino. These are scored one at a time, meaning if you are the boss of 2 casinos one worth one point and one worth two points you don’t score three points. Instead, you score one point, then you score two points. This matters for moving up on the score track, as it gets harder to advance the higher you get. Any points scored move your score marker up accordingly.

Once all the above has been taken care of you may discard the drawn card into the appropriate pile.

Playing

Once you have discarded your card you are ready to play your turn and perform actions. There are 5 actions you can take in your turn as many times as you can while following the rules (the only action that can only be performed once is the gambling action). These actions include the following:

Build

You may perform the build action as many times in a turn as you like as long as you have the owned lots, money, dice, and casino tiles for it. To build you will pay the amount marked on your owned lot. Then you may pick from any of the remaining casino tiles to place on your lot replacing your marker with a dice matching the face of the one illustrated on the lot. 

Sprawl

You may sprawl as many times as you like on your turn as long as you have the money to do so, are the boss of the casino and follow the guidelines following. When you sprawl you must own a casino and pay double the amount of the lot you wish to sprawl to. It must be connected to a casino tile you already own and must not be owned by another player. You will place a casino tile of the same color as the other tile you own and place one of your dice to match the dice illustrated on the lot. Beware though if a player draws this lot, they take it over automatically, removing your dice and replacing it to match the illustrated dice with their own. 

Remodel

You may remodel as many times as you wish during your turn as long as you have the money, are the boss of the casino being remodeled. To remodel you will pay 5 million for each tile in the casino, then you may exchange all the tiles of one color for another. All tiles in the casino must be changed if you are not able to you cannot remodel to that color. 

Reorganize 

You may reorganize as many times as you want during your turn, but you cannot reorganize the same casino twice in a turn. You also have to have the needed money and at least own one casino tile in the casino. When you reorganize you will pay 1 million for each pip on each die in the casino. Then all dice will be rerolled and replaced. The new highest pip in the new boss of the casino. 

Gambling 

You may only gamble once during your turn. To gamble you will pick as casino to gamble at. The boss of this casino will be the house. You can only bet an amount you currently have. You may bet up to 5 million for each tile in the casino (and cannot bet more than the house can pay) and the house may choose to either be responsible for the full amount or split it with the bank. If split with the bank the house will only have to pay half of the winning if the player wins (the bank pays the rest) but they also only win half of the bet if the player loses (the bank gets the rest). 

Once that has been determined the player will roll two dice. If the amount matches any of the numbers on the house card, they win the betted amount (if the roll a 2 or 12 the received double or the amount the house can pay). If, however, you don’t roll one of these numbers you pay the house the amount betted. 

Once these actions have been taken and a player is satisfied with their turn the next player may draw their card. 

2-Player

In a two-player game, the “F” cards will not be used anytime they are drawn both lots and casinos are paid then the card is discarded and a new one is drawn by the same player. No player markers will be added to the “F” lots and they cannot be built or sprawled on. A player will continue these steps till they draw a none “F” card and can continue their turn. 

END OF GAME

The game ends once the final “End of Game” strip card is revealed. Players will score their casinos on the strip just as with strip cards in the past. Once final scores are tallied, the player with the highest score wins.

You can also win by having over 90 points, but I have never seen this.

Nakoa Davis
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