It’s time for some rootin’ tootin’ train swag grabbin’ in this Western-themed card game! Will you choo choo choose to risk waiting until the next turn and hope you get the right cards to finish the train and get the goods, or will you call the Sheriff and block the heist.

👥 2 to 4 players
⌛ 30 to 45 minutes
🧠 8 years+

Gameplay overview:

Each player is a train-heisting gang in the Old Wild West, building communal trains from rear to front, while also trying to be the person to complete said train and claim its points. Over 5 rounds, players draw and play various cards until 4 trains are ‘completed’ and the round ends. Whoever has the most points at the end wins!

On your turn you have a choice of three actions (you choose any you like, in any order, including repeats):

• Draw more cards.

• Play action cards – these do various things like give you an extra turn, make someone else miss a turn, steal cards, and even double the points of a train.

• Place a carriage or caboose (great word!) card – this can mean you’re starting a new train, or starting/extending/finishing a carriage.

• Complete a train with a Locomotive card, Escape Car card, or Sheriff card.

Whoever completes a train puts their gang card on it to claim it (and therefore claims the points at the end of the game). A Locomotive can only be played after a finished carriage or caboose. An Escape Car can complete a train at any time (the current carriage doesn’t need to be finished). A Sheriff card can also complete a train at any time, but because the Sheriff is now in town, the completed train is now worth nothing!

Points are totted up at the end of each round. Each carriage/caboose card is worth points. The higher the class of the carriage (third, second, and first class), the more points it is worth. And if your second or third class carriage has a middle section, it gives bonus points.

Our first impressions:

We played Los Banditos with 2 players. We liked that all the cards were landscape to feel more train-like (even the action cards for consistency), and building up trains with the different cards was fun. And the different ways to complete trains felt thematic. Swooping in with an Escape Car felt cheeky (we did think getting full points for an Escape Car train was generous when it has the added perk of playing it next to an unfinished carriage!). Messing up your opponents scoring plans with the Sheriff was also fun – and because it adds to the 4 train limit it makes winning the other trains even more important. We enjoyed teasing each other with what cards we were going to play, where!

Although we were excited about the train building, in our games we seemed to always end up in the same situation: left with an open carriage that neither of us wanted to close until we knew for sure we could complete the carriage and the train in the same turn (i.e. having the right class end carriage plus Locomotive in hand, or just an Escape Car). Because if you end your turn with a closed carriage, your opponent is more likely to be able to complete it and claim the points before your next turn (i.e. they’d only need a Locomotive or Escape car). We did also prefer to cap our games to 3 rounds than play a full 5; for us this felt the right balance for this type of light, luck-based card game.

It’s very satisfying when you use the action cards to chain multiple moves and/or turns together (i.e. using cards that give you an extra turn or skip another player’s turn). But if you’re the one stuck watching the other player take multiple turns while you don’t get to do anything, it can feel less fun. Some cards do get removed in a 2-player game that reduces the chances of this happening, but it does still happen. 

It is also possible to get into a cycle where you’re can’t play anything ‘meaningful’ that feel like you’re progressing; instead you keep drawing through the deck for multiple turns until you get the cards you need to complete a train (there aren’t a lot in the deck – I think only 2 Escape cars and 4 Locomotives). That luck of the draw can feel very punishing at times…in one of our games I didn’t get any train-completing cards until the very end of the round, when we’d been through most of the deck – before that point I’d felt I couldn’t do anything productive with my turns other than building trains that Matt could claim.

While we didn’t get the chance to play a 4-player game, we did think that there might be less of a lag waiting for the ‘right’ cards to come up because more of you are drawing. And actions would be spread around so you wouldn’t get one person chaining turns as easily (or one person always missing their turns). So we wondered whether some of the issues we experienced are because the deck isn’t quite balanced for 2 players. But we still think 4 players would still be in the situation of leaving train carriages ‘open’ unless they knew they could complete the train. And with 4 players there’s more people who have the chance to extend and complete the trains before your next turn.

The bandit gang names add more fun to the heist fun and we enjoyed playing the part of our bandits when we played. A unique character for each gang (on the gang cards) would be a cool way to add a bit more attitude and theming to the gang cards.

As a card game, it’s quick and easy to set up and comes in a cute portable box. You do need a bit of table space to have room for trains, but you can layer the cards a bit to fit it on a smaller table if you need to.

Final thoughts:

Los Banditos has a lot of potential and there were some elements we enjoyed, particularly some of the thematic elements. And we were really excited for the train-building heists, but unfortunately the 2-player gameplay didn’t quite win us over in its current form.