I’m often looking for games that travel well, which generally leads me to amassing many games that come in tiny boxes. But an important aspect to a travel game is how much table space it takes up. A few times I’ve packed a small box game into my backpack, and pulled it out at an airport or pub, only to realize that the game demands much more table space than we anticipated. This is the case with Bandido by Martin Nedergaard Andersen and published by Helvetiq.

Bandido starts with a light-security prisoner card with 6 tunnels extending out from its starting point. The goal of the game is to close off all the tunnels. If you do, you win! If the deck runs out, players all lose.

Players get 3 cards in their hand, each one depicting various shapes of tunnels that they can place wherever they want, as long as no tunnels abut a wall or overlap existing tunnels. A turn consists of simply playing a card, then drawing a card to refill your hand. Players continue to play until they win or lose.

I received Bandido as a stocking stuffer from my wife for Christmas. She always tries to buy me some kind of small game for my stocking, as she knows I love exploring new games. Bandido lends itself incredibly well to being stuffed in a sock, as the box fits in the palm of your hand.

Being a coop game, it offers a low-barrier gameplay experience, drawing in family members who may be nervous about learning all the rules to a competitive game, again, the perfect game to have around the holidays when you may find yourself rubbing elbows with people who don’t automatically default to playing a board game when they have a moment of free time.

Bandido can be lost or won within the first few turns. If you have the cards that combine or end tunnels, you can make short work of the task. On the other hand, if the only cards available to you are the ones with several open ends, you’ll find the game quickly spiral out of control.

You need to be aware when placing cards. Much like in Carcassonne, you can create situations in which a tunnel could technically be placed, but the specific orientation of tunnels may no longer exist. In which case you’ll just keep playing cards, spinning off the side of the table, drawing cards until the deck runs out and you lose.

Speaking of loss, unlike other cooperative games that have multiple loss conditions and a single way to win, Bandido has one way to win and one way to lose. Winning happens when you close off all the tunnels, and losing happens when you’ve run out of cards. Again, quick and simple to explain.

Unfortunately, because the cards often feature several tunnel openings, placing cards often makes the board state worse, and combining tunnels can be an impossible task, unless you got lucky. And that’s where the game comes down for me, if you’re lucky you can win and if you’re unlucky you’ll lose. I never felt smart or clever when I managed to combine tunnels, just lucky that I pulled the right cards. My wins didn’t feel earned, and I never felt like any amount of clever play would overcome poor card draws.

Bandido is a little game that can travel well, and that aspect alone gives it some credit. Pulling it out at a family gathering is a great way to introduce what a simple little deck of cards can do in this modern board game hobby, and even introduce what a cooperative game even is. In the end, it’s a game that I’d move on from quite quickly, but I was happy that it existed in my stocking while I was at my in-laws for the holidays.