Breaking the Law on the Tabletop | Bad Company

Reading Time: 7 minutes

What’s up, Chaos Heroes!

Beyond the paragraphs of the law, where the loot is king, I’m bringing you a game that basically spits in the face of the Penal Code: this is the Bad Company board game! Would you have ever thought that organizing a street gang could be so addictive? Neither did I, until I got this piece of contraband from my best friend. So, put your gloves on so we don’t leave any fingerprints, because today we are going to commit some crimes. (With dice on the tabletop, obviously.)

What do you need to know about the Bad Company board game?

The essence of the Bad Company board game is to mash together a hard-hitting team of criminals and pull off various heists to become the richest kingpin in the city. This is a pure-blooded dice-rolling game (which we obviously love), where besides luck, you’ll also need some common sense. Well, as much common sense as a criminal can muster.

The game is published by Matagot, which immediately reminded me of Meeple Circus, also released under their banner. Even if you can’t find a localized box, it is completely language-independent, so you can just grab an English copy anywhere!

Basic Data

Gameplay Experience

It’s dead simple, but incredibly cunning. You have a crew full of all sorts of shady characters—11 of them, to be exact—sitting right in front of you. They are assigned numbers from 2 to 12, and you activate them with D6 dice rolls.

Every turn, the gang boss (the active player) rolls 4 golden dice and one black die. From the 4 golden dice, they form two pairs, as you can see in the picture below.

By activating your gangsters based on these paired values, you gather their corresponding flashlights, masks, and other essential heist gear. You place these on the heist card, and once completed, you score victory points.

You can recruit new goons, upgrade them, or hit the gas on your getaway car to slip away from the police cruiser. The black die drives the cop car, and just like in real life, it’s crucial to always stay one step ahead of the fuzz. (Assuming you’re up to no good, of course.)

On top of this, safe cards give you extra loot, and the necklaces you can acquire are more than just optical bling for your gang members. And for those who have already started having an anxiety attack over the dice: calm down, there are ways to modify your rolls.

The absolute genius of the Bad Company board game is that from the 2 dice pairs rolled by the active player, every other player gets to choose one pair for themselves! This means everyone simultaneously activates a gang member. Practically every player is invested in everyone else’s turn, constantly getting some useful gear.

The bottom line is: you don’t have to agonize for hours. The turns fly by, and before you know it, you’re already plotting your next big score. Obviously, the winner is the one who scrapes together the most cash (victory points) from the jobs. To do this, it’s vital to upgrade your gang so you can rake it in even more efficiently.

The game goes on until someone finally pulls off their 6th heist, or one of the cars reaches the red zone on the police chase board.

Components of Bad Company Board Game

Okay, now that we know the drill, let’s see what makes this game a visual feast. The box of Bad Company is a little comic book masterpiece in itself—edgy, cartoonish, but not childish. The component quality? Well, you won’t burst into tears of joy, and don’t expect a high-tech insert.

The card design is decent, the characters are stylish (each one is a truly unhinged face), the money tokens are… well, money tokens, and the meeples are meeples.

The material quality is fine. It’s not a luxury edition, but it seems durable enough to survive when we smash the dice a little too hard out of frustration. However, the two-part gang boards feel pretty flimsy to me. The game boards (the chase and recruitment boards) are functional, but your attention will mostly be fixated on your own little crime syndicate anyway.

The Dicepool Magic Scale

The WOW:

• Player count flexibility: You can pull off solo heists (though I haven’t tried it), it plays smoothly at 2, and it’s highly enjoyable from 3 to 6 players. I’d say 2-4 players offers the friendliest playtime. So you can commit crimes at any player count—strictly over the tabletop, of course.
• Badass artwork: The whole thing has this comic-book “urban underworld” vibe, which looks incredibly cool in my photos and set up on the table.
• Fast-paced gameplay: There is very little downtime—in fact, almost none at all, which I absolutely love. Since you are invested in everyone’s turn, there is constantly something happening.
• Ability upgrades: It feels incredibly satisfying to see your gang become more and more hard-hitting.
• Engages your brain cells: I think even a more hardcore gamer crowd can enjoy this. It’s not overly complicated, but you still have to spin those mental gears.

The MEH…

• Luck factor: If you are allergic to dice rolling, you might be grabbing your head in despair sometimes. But hey, it’s a dice game, what did you expect? Besides, the game tends to reward you even if you don’t roll the exact number you wanted. Plus, you can modify the rolls.
• Interaction: There is no direct “take that” element to screw with others; everyone is mostly building their own little empire. Though you can completely dump a Monday morning on someone’s head if you reroll a die they desperately needed.
• Table hog: Setting this game up on a standard table is a challenge even with 3 players, especially when everyone’s gang is growing upwards and downwards. (Much like my frustration when someone calls Monopoly the peak of board gaming). The point is, with 6 players, we were packed in like sardines.
• Replayability: While the different gang members and jobs provide variety, it can feel repetitive after a while. Though, if you don’t slam it on the table every single day, it absolutely deserves a spot in your collection.

The Dice Mage’s Verdict

I love how my gang gets stronger round by round, and the characters literally grow into giants—it’s an insanely creative graphic design choice. Granted, they fit less and less on the table, but I’ll let that slide.

This dice-rolling mechanic, where other players participate in the boss’s turn, is as rare as a unicorn. At least, I hadn’t encountered it before, and it’s mind-blowingly good because there is practically zero downtime.

The Bad Company board game is exactly the kind of stuff that fits perfectly into the “fast-paced but brainy” category (officially 30 minutes, but we all know that varies depending on the player count and the level of overthinking). We played it at 2, and we played it at 6—at which point it crossed the 1-hour mark, but it still wasn’t boring for anyone. It has enough depth that it doesn’t get stale after two rounds, and I think 8-year-old gangster rookies can easily jump into it.

And this theme! Who wouldn’t want to be a bad boy/bad girl for a little while, at least around the table? Because as we know: good girls go to heaven, but bad girls go everywhere.

Who do I recommend it for?

The Bad Company board game is perfect for those who like lighter but still thinky games, love dice, appreciate a great theme, and aren’t afraid of a little imaginary crime. You can easily bust it out with friends (up to 6 players) to let off some steam after a long day, or to set the mood before diving into a heavier, brain-burning adventure for the evening.

Who should steer clear?

People who don’t like dice? I don’t know… Maybe super hardcore heavy gamers will find it a bit too light. But honestly, I can’t really think of anyone I wouldn’t recommend it to.

Chaos Heroes! If you get the chance, you have to try Bad Company! Alright, I’m out, gotta go plan the next big score… (which in reality just means sacrificing at the altar of dishwashing and building a plastic Tupperware totem). Stick around, because the depths of Dicepool Magic always hold something special!