Crown of Underworld (2012)

user summary
Players compete as mafia bosses for the most influence in Munshine City.

Each player takes one of 8 different families/organisations, each with special powers.

The game takes 10 turns, divided into phases of which the most important are:

Bribing phase: The players bid blindly on one or more of 6 so called Key Figures, which convey special powers in the following turn.

Planing Phase: The players plan their next moves by adding influence tokens to the board, hiring or assigning gangster cards, so called suspects, to the tasks of attacking, defending or collecting income. Those assignments are secret.

Venality phase: Bribes are revealed and Key Figures' powers used.

Combat phase: Players who planned on attacking use their suspects to attack another player. Results are given by the value of attacking and defending suspects and the number of influence tokens on the attacked area.

Cash In / Cash Out Phase: Planned moves must be payed, otherwise a penalty is taken. Income is collected.

All the while, players can play event cards on each other.

After 10 turns, a winner is determined by the number and position of controlled areas, with some extras for number of suspects or cash.

quoting from the manual
Crown of Underworld is strategic card-driven boardgame! It's hybrid nature merging two different kinds of game engines offers something absolutely new for fans of this kind of entertainment. Players struggle on many levels simultaneously to earn advantage and ultimately - the victory.
The game develops planning skills and ability to use own advantages and see weaknesses of others to dominate competitors. Unlike many games, Crown of Underworld is completely different with each game. On the other hand, non-linear nature of the turn-flow, created by random sequence of events affecting each turn promotes flexible players.
We hope you will enjoy playing Crown of Underworld as much as we had fun when we designed it!

additional information
according to the designers, 150 copies were printed exclusively for Essen 2012