Setup

You will need a chessboard (representing the city), a number of "building tokens" (preferably flat or stackable), a large number of "thug counters" (that can rest on top of a building token), and a deck of ordinary playing cards with the jokers and face cards removed.

• Mark one corner of the chessboard as different
• Every player has a personal playing area, divided into three sub-areas- one for idle thugs, another for thugs on a job, and the last for corrupt cops. They will also have a pile of thug counters that they do not own yet (or have been discarded).
• For every player, you will need roughly 30-40 thug counters. Every player's thug counters should be visually distinguishable from every other's. Each player starts with 4 thug counters, placed in their personal playing area off of the chessboard.
• For every player, you will need 6 building tokens. Place them randomly on the squares of the chessboard.

Game play

At any time, players may negotiate with each other to exchange or discard resources. This is important, because oftentimes a player can get resources from another simply with the threat of hitmen or corrupt cops. It is perfectly "legitimate" to demand for one player to discard three of their thugs, or face losing five thugs to hitmen next turn. Extortion with corrupt cops is commonplace. Negotiation/blackmail is an important part of the flavor of the game.

Players take turns. Each turn has three phases- "legwork", "recruiting", and "cop". The legwork phase allows players to put their thugs on a job (such as infiltrating a building or the police force). The recruiting phase allows players to get more thugs. The cop phase allows players to use their corrupt cops to weaken another player's gang.

Legwork:

When the legwork phase begins, move all of the thugs from your "on a job" area to the "idle thugs" area. During the legwork phase, the player whose turn it is takes idle thugs and puts them on jobs (keep track of this by moving thug counters from your "idle thugs" area to your "on a job" area). They may do as many of these actions as they wish; as long as they have the required number of idle thugs remaining, they may continue to act.

• Word on the street: Put two idle thugs on a job to draw a card.
• Infiltrate the police force: Put one idle thug into your "corrupt cop" area. Discard another idle thug. You can only do this if, among all players in the game, there are fewer than 12 corrupt cops total.
• Infiltrate a building: Any cards that you have that are numbered one through eight represent streets. The streets are used to specify addresses of buildings in the city. The corner of the chessboard that is marked as different is where numbers are counted from- so first and first is the square on the board that is closest to the corner that is marked as different.

  To infiltrate a building, discard two cards that together correctly specify its address. If the building does not have anyone else's thug counters on it, only one thug counter of yours is required to infiltrate it- simply place one idle thug onto the building to mark it as yours.

  If the building has someone else's thug counter on it, then both you and that other player should decide individually in secret how many thugs each would like to spend in the confrontation over the building. You may each spend any number of your own thugs that are not on a job- even thugs that are on buildings or corrupt cops (but such thugs lose their special status and are placed in the "on a job" area of their owner after the attack if they survive). After both players have decided in secret how many thugs they would like to attack or defend with, the thugs in the conflict kill each other on a 1:1 basis. If a player has thugs remaining in the attack after this, they place one such thug onto the building in question (to mark the building as under their control) and the remaining thugs in the attack in their "on a job" area. If neither player has thugs remaining in the attack, the building becomes unoccupied.

• Put out a hit: Put three idle thugs on a job to target a player that owns at least one building. That player chooses one of their own thug counters and discards it.

Recruiting:

During the recruiting phase, you recruit one thug for every building you control. You may also discard cards to get more thugs.

• Street urchins: Discard a card (one through eight) to gain one thug.
• Wrong side of the tracks: Discard a card (a nine or ten) to gain two thugs.

Cop:

During the cop phase, your corrupt cops get to act. Choose one of the following:

• Cause the player with the most thugs to discard one thug for every corrupt cop you have.
• Cause the player with the most cards to discard one card for every corrupt cop you have.

Victory

Once a player controls 10 buildings, that player wins.