Tammany Hall is played over a period of sixteen years, divided into four terms. During each year players will be able use the power associated with their office.
They can also either place two ward bosses or one ward boss and one immigrant cube on the board. If they place an immigrant cube they also take a political favor chip of the same color.
Players also have the chance to slander each other. An election is then held at the end of every fourth year. An election is held in each ward, the winner being the player who has the highest total of ward bosses and favor chips. Players expend favor chips in a sealed bid, so you are never quite sure what the opposition are going to do.
The player who wins the most wards becomes the mayor. He then assigns city offices to the other players, which they use to their advantage. Victory points are scored for winning elections in wards and becoming the mayor. After four terms the game ends and bonus points are awarded for favor chips in hand and any remaining slander chips.
Components
- 1 game board
- 1 set of rules
- 100 Immigrant cubes
- 140 Political favor chips
- 100 Ward Boss pieces
- 2 Council President markers
- 15 Slander chips
- 1 Year marker
The Board
1 Victory point track
2 Year track - divided into four terms. An election is held at the end of each fourth year.
3 Active Zones - indicates which zones are in play, which depends on the number of players.
4 City Offices
5 Zone number - The wards are grouped into three zones, I, II, and III.
6 Tammany Hall - Gives bonus of 2VPs if you win in this ward.
7 Bonus favor chip - Gained immediately if you win the election in the ward.
8 Sequence of play
9 Victory points scored at end of game.
10 Victory points and tokens gained after each election.
11 Castle Garden - Immigrant cubes are placed in this box.
12 Bonus immigrant cube - Gained immediately if you win the election in the ward.
13 Ward number - Ward numbers have no impact on play but can be useful as points of reference.
14 Immigrant leader boxes - use to show which players receive the three chip bonus for controlling the most cubes of a color.
15 Zone boundary
16 Setup boxes - Indicates which cubes to place here at start. Place them on the board when the zone becomes active.
The board is divided into three zones; I, II, III. These zones will come into play at different times depending on the number of players. Each zone is divided into wards.
All elections begin in Zone I, then progress in turn to Zone II, and III. Follow the arrows on the board to proceed from ward to ward during elections.
The wards at the coastal tip of the map give advantages to the players that win them in elections.
As indicated by the icons on the map, the player that wins the ward acquires a political favor chip of his choice from the supply or places an additional immigrant cube of his choice from the supply in any ward.
The ward with Tammany Hall is worth two victory points but still counts as only one ward when determining the outcome of elections.
Setup
Randomly determine the start player. Each player chooses a color of ward boss pawns and places one each on the zero of the scoring track.Place the Year Marker on '1' space on the Year Track.
Distribute three black slander chips to each player. These can only be used in terms two to four.
Immigrant cubes are placed in the Set Up Boxes on the board as indicated. The cubes will be taken from the set up boxes and placed in wards in the indicated zone either during set up or later when the zone becomes active.
A three player game starts with only the cubes in Zone I on the board. Place one green cube on the Tammany Hall ward and randomly place the other cubes indicated in the other wards in Zone I, one cube per ward.
The cubes for Zone II are placed at the start of year five. Randomly place the cubes indicated on the board one cube per ward in Zone II. The cubes for Zone III are placed at the start of year nine. Randomly place the cubes indicated on the board one cube per ward in Zone III.
In a four player game all of the cubes for Zones I and II are placed on the board before the start of the game. Zone III cubes are placed before the start of year five. In a five player game all of the cubes indicated for all of the zones are placed on the board before the start of the game.
Only those zones which have cubes placed in them are in play. Zones with no cubes in them are off-limits. No blue Italian immigrant cubes are placed on the board at this time. Place all of the remaining immigrant cubes in the bag.
Game Play
Game play in Tammany Hall is divided into four terms. Each term is four years in length. At the end of each term an election is held.
In the first term the first player has already been determined randomly. The order of player will go clockwise from this player. In each new term the first player is the player who became major. The order of play always goes clockwise from the first player.
Year Sequence
The sequence of play within a year consists of the following phases. In player order each player completes phases one and two. After all players have completed these two phases the game proceeds to phase three.
- 1. Castle Garden
- 2a. Office Benefit
- 2b. Place Pieces On The Board
- 2c. Slander
- 3. End Of Year
Phase two consists of three sub-phases. Each sub-phase can be performed once. It is up to the active player which order he wishes to perform each sub-phase in, i.e a player could slander, then use his office benefit, and then place pieces.
Phase 1: Castle Garden
If the Castle Garden has no immigrant cubes in it then draw and place a number of immigrant cubes from the bag equal to the number of players plus two in the box.
Phase 2a: Office Benefit
You may use the benefit of your City Office once per year. As these are only determined at the end of an election you cannot complete this phase in the first four years.
Mayor - there is no benefit to be gained from this office during the year sequence. However, you should not complain as you did score three victory points and determined who got what offices.
Deputy Mayor - you take one political favor chip of any color from the supply and add it to your holding.
Chief of Police - you may remove one immigrant cube from any ward and return it to the bag. You cannot remove the last cube from a ward. Council President - you may choose to 'lock up' one ward.
You place a silver token in the ward to show that it is locked. You can only place a maximum of two such tokens during the term and only one in a single year. No ward bosses or immigrant cubes can be be placed in a ward while it is locked up. The tokens will be removed at the end of the next election.
Precinct Chairman - you may move one immigrant cube from one ward to an adjacent ward. You cannot move the last remaining cube in a ward. The immigrant cube must be moved to a ward that already contains at least one immigrant cube, i.e. a ward in an active zone.
Phase 2b: Place Pieces On The Board
You must choose to:
- place two of your ward bosses on the board or,
- place one ward boss and one immigrant cube from the Castle Garden box on the board and take one political favor chip matching the color of the immigrant cube you placed in play.
If you place two ward bosses then you can choose to place them in any ward in play. They can be placed in the same or different wards. You cannot place them in a ward that has been locked up by the Council President nor in a ward in a zone that is not yet active.
If you choose to place one ward boss and one immigrant cube then you can choose to place them in different wards or the same ward. You can only place ward bosses and immigrant cubes in wards that already contain immigrant cubes.
With three or four players there will be one or two zones that you will not be able to place bosses or cubes in until later in the game.
There is no upper limit to the number of ward bosses that can be placed in a ward. You may have more than one ward boss in a ward.
There is no upper limit to the number of immigrant cubes that can be placed in a ward.
Phase 2c: Slander
You may slander another player. You can only slander one player per term. You can only slander a player in the second, third, and fourth terms.
When you slander you target a ward boss pawn belonging to another player in a ward where you also have one or more ward boss pawns. The targeted ward boss pawn is removed from the ward and returned to the owning player. You may then perform a second slander action in an adjacent ward.
You must expend one black slander chip to initiate a slander. If you then choose to slander in an adjacent ward you do not pay a second slander chip.
You must also expend one political favor chip. The chip must match the color of one of the immigrant cubes in the ward.
If you perform a second slander action you must expend a further two political favor chips. They must be the same color and match one of the immigrant cubes in the ward AND match the color of the chip used in the first slander action. Thus the slander begins within a single immigrant population and then spreads to an adjacent ward within the same immigrant population targeting the same player.
You cannot perform a third slander action in this phase.
Example: Here red wishes to slander yellow in ward eight. He expends one slander chip and one German political favor chip. He wishes to slander again. He can only slander into ward fourteen as ward five does not contain any German immigrants.
It would also not be legal to slander into ward ten as it is not adjacent to ward eight. He slanders ward fourteen as well, expending a further two German favor chips. Yellow removes one ward boss from each of the wards.
Phase 3: End Of Year
After each player has taken a turn, the year marker is moved one year. Play resumes with the first player taking their turn. The current term ends after four years have been completed. Once a series of four years has been completed an election is held.
At this time any remaining cubes in Castle Garden are returned to the bag.
The Election
At the end of every fourth year, an election is held in each ward that contains immigrant cubes.
The election consists of the following phases:
- Ward Elections
- Award Political Favor Chips
- Score Victory Points
- City Offices
- Ward Elections
1. Ward Elections
Ward elections are resolved in a set order. Always start with Zone I. Within that region resolve the election in ward one first. The arrows show the order in which the remaining ward elections are resolved. Then go to Zone II.
The first election will be in ward nine. Then follow the arrows. Finally, you resolve the ward elections in Zone III, starting in ward seventeen and then following the arrows. Only resolve elections in those zones that contain immigrant cubes.
To determine which player wins a ward, each player counts the number of ward bosses they have in the ward. Each boss counts as one vote. Players may then spend political favor chips to add to this number.
Only favor chips that match the color of immigrant cubes in the ward can be spent. Each political favor chip is worth one vote. If there are a variety of immigrants in a ward then a player would be able to use any favor chips that match the immigrant colors present.
Players with no ward boss pawns in a ward cannot compete for the ward.
Political favor chips are spent through sealed bids. All information is open so each player announces the number and colors of the chips they possess that could potentially be used as votes in the ward.
Players secretly determine the number and color of political favor chips they are using and simultaneously reveal the chips used in their bid. A zero bid is allowed.
Each player adds the number of chips they bid to the number of their ward boss pawns in the ward. The player with the highest total wins the ward. If case of a tie no one wins the ward.
All of the political favor chips bid by all of the players are lost to the players and are returned to the supply after the votes are tallied.
Once the outcome of the election in a ward is determined, all of the ward boss pawns in the ward are removed from the ward and returned to the players, except for one ward boss belonging to the player that won the election in the ward.
In the case of a tie, all of the ward bosses are removed from the ward and returned to the players.
Ward Bonuses
Four wards confer a bonus to the player who won the election there. Wards one and two allow the winner to place an immigrant cube of their choice from the supply in any legitimate ward.
Wards four and seven allow the winner to take one political favor chip of a color of their choice. These bonuses are claimed as soon as the ward election in question is resolved.
Play now proceeds to the next ward election.
Example: Red announces he has two English political favor chips and two Irish political favor chips. Yellow has two English political favor chips and three Italian political favor chips, but only announces his two English political favor chips, as the Italian political favor chips cannot be used in this ward.
Red secretly bids his two English and one Irish chips while yellow secretly bids one English favor chip. When revealed, the resulting votes are red with five (two ward boss pawns and two English chips and one Irish chip) and yellow with four, (three ward boss pawns and one English chip).
Red wins the ward. Both players place the chips that they spent back in the stock of chips. Yellow removes his three ward boss pawns. Red removes one ward boss pawn leaving one in the ward. Note that the number of immigrant cubes of each color had no effect on the election.
Award Political Favor Chips
After all of the elections in the wards have been decided, each player counts the total number of immigrant cubes of each color present in all of the wards they have won. The player with the highest number of immigrant cubes of a particular color is awarded three political favor chips of that color.
In the case of ties, each player is awarded three chips of that color. Players should place ward boss pawns in the correct Immigrant Leader boxes to show which colors they have earned bonus chips in.
Example: Black wins six wards. He has a total of five Irish, seven English, and two Italian immigrant cubes in his wards. Red wins four wards. He has a total of three Irish, two English, and five German immigrant cubes in his wards.
Yellow wins only three wards. But they contain many immigrant cubes. He has a total of six Irish, five German, and two Italian immigrant cubes. Black receives three white English favor chips and three blue Italian favor chips.
Red receives three orange German chips. Yellow receives three green Irish chips, three German chips, and three Italian chips.
3. Score Victory Points
Each player scores one victory point for each ward they win. The ward with Tammany Hall is worth two points but still only counts as one ward.
The player who wins the most wards becomes the mayor and scores three additional victory points. He should place one of his ward boss pieces in the Mayor box.
In case of ties, use the following tie breakers in order to determine who will become the mayor:
- The player with the most political favor chips in their possession.
- The player with the most green political favor chips in their possession.
- The player with the most white political favor chips in their possession.
- The player with the most orange political favor chips in their possession.
- The player with the most blue political favor chips in their possession.
If none of these conditions result in a mayor being chosen, the current mayor wins and serves an additional term. If this occurs on the first term, (and continues to occur) no Mayor is chosen, no City Offices are awarded and play continues as usual.
Players use one of their ward pawns on the Victory Point track to record their victory points.
4. City Offices
The newly elected mayor must assign one City Office to each of the other players. Each office can only be assigned to one player and a player cannot have more than one office assigned to him. Players' offices are subject to change after each election, even if the current mayor wins re-election.
When a player is assigned an office he places one of his ward boss pieces in the correct City Office box.
Players' offices cannot be changed until after the next election. With less than five players some offices will remain unassigned. These are ignored until the next election is decided. They may be awarded or not by the newly elected mayor.
End of the Game
The game will end at the end of the fourth election.
Players now score additional victory points. The player who has the most political favor chips in a particular color scores two victory points. In the case of a tie all of the tied players score two victory points. It is possible for a player to score a bonus in more than one color of favor chips.
Each unused slander chip is worth one victory point.
The player with the most victory points is the winner. In the case of a tie use the tie-breaker rules used to determine who becomes the mayor. If there is still a tie then the player who is the mayor is the winner.
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