Speakeasy

With Lacerda designs since CO2, opening the box tends to produce a familiar concern: how punishing is this one going to be? Speakeasy looks ready to justify it, because the initial unboxing is generous to the point of fatigue, until the player trays finally impose order. EGG’s production is not merely lavish, though; it is practical. Once the first bit of labour is done, setup and teardown become remarkably brisk. Better still, the rules are approachable, with useful examples and the orderly progression of Lacerda’s older landmark designs; one is rarely left holding a worker and wondering what on earth it is meant to do.

Each player runs a gangster family in Prohibition-era New York, working beneath Lucky Luciano and trying to build the most profitable criminal empire over eleven actions. Worker placement is the engine, but this is not the gentle, reassuring variety: from the opening move, money and time are constrained enough that a miscalculation does not simply slow a plan down. It punishes it. That is a welcome departure from the modern feel-good euro, and the first game is likely to be an expensive lesson.

Workers and cards open businesses, assign family members to protection, move illicit barrels, contest districts, and pursue goals and tracks, while arriving ships of rum and Irish whiskey and casino investments create several routes through the design without splitting it into unrelated subsystems. The interesting decision is whether to take the safe, low-return investment or the risky opening that might make a fortune; players do not trade gunfire with each other, only with the game’s rival gangs, yet they clash meaningfully over openings, area control, denial, and even barrel purchases made purely to change a ship’s dock. The absence of direct violence is the correct thematic compromise. More take-that would burden an already taut design without improving it.

We abandoned our first, incomplete attempt after five rounds because we had not yet understood the economy as a whole. Once we played full games, the verdict came quickly: this became our game of the year, even following the excellent Perseverance 3 & 4. For our group, Speakeasy belongs beside Carnegie among the very best heavy euros, and it is unlikely to lose its perfect standing. Anyone who cannot abide Lacerda’s style will not be converted here; everyone else will find a game that invites improvement, counterplay, and another attempt.

Updated session

Later plays only strengthened the first judgement. At three players, with everyone already familiar with the design, Speakeasy proved to be at its best for us: denials became sharper, seemingly eccentric barrel purchases had a genuine purpose, and overlooked details in the gang war proved costly. Four plays in a year is already unusually clear evidence of its welcome at the table.