How to Play

Black Orchestra

1-5 players 90-90 min 7.5 Board Game Geek Rating

Players become Nazi conspirators plotting Hitler's assassination during WWII. Through cooperative gameplay, they manage suspicion levels while gathering items and positioning themselves for assassination attempts. Success requires rolling dice to execute plots, but high suspicion risks Gestapo arrest. Victory comes from successfully killing Hitler before all conspirators are captured or discovered.

Published 2016

Black Orchestra

Get Ready

Setup the game with these step-by-step instructions before diving into your turn.

1
Place Hitler and deputies
Position the Hitler tile and six deputy tiles on the board in their starting spaces by matching the icon on each tile to the corresponding space icon
2
Distribute item tiles
Shuffle the item tiles and place one face-down on each space with a black square
3
Set difficulty level
Choose easy, standard, or hard difficulty and place the red military support cube on the appropriate value (2 for easy, 3 for standard, 4 for hard) on Hitler's Military Support track
4
Place difficulty tile
Take the corresponding difficulty tile and place it on top of the track over the area listed on its back
5
Prepare event decks
Sort event cards by stage number into seven face-down decks, shuffle each deck, and return the top two cards of each deck to the game box without revealing them
6
Position event decks
Place the seven event decks face-down in order above their appropriate spaces on the board
7
Create conspirator deck
Shuffle all conspirator cards and place them in a face-down stack next to the board
8
Create interrogation deck
Shuffle all interrogation cards and place them in a face-down stack next to the board
9
Prepare dice
Place all ten dice to the side of the board within reach of all players
10
Select conspirators
Each player chooses one conspirator sheet (two if playing solo) plus a pawn and two cubes of the same color
11
Set starting levels
Place one cube on timid motivation and one cube on medium suspicion on your conspirator sheet
12
Position pawns
All players place their pawns on the Train Station space in Berlin
13
Determine first player
The player wearing the most black takes the first turn

On Your Turn

What you can do during your turn.

1
Check for Hitler penalty
If you start your turn in the same space as Hitler, lower your motivation by 1
2
Check for deputy penalties
If starting in the same space as deputies, suffer their penalties:
3
Take up to 3 actions
Perform any combination of available actions, taking the same action multiple times if desired (except Conspire, which is limited to once per turn)
4
Act action
Resolve one effect in your dossier or on your conspirator sheet preceded by the ➡ symbol
5
Collect Item action
Take a revealed item tile in your space and add it to your conspirator sheet
6
Conspire action
Take up to 3 dice (spending one action per die), roll them, and resolve results:
7
Resolve Dissent Track
When three dice are on the Dissent Track, choose to either raise one conspirator's motivation by 1 or lower Hitler's Military Support by 1, then return all dice to supply
8
Deliver Item action
If in a space with revealed delivery text, discard the appropriate item(s) to lower suspicion by the amount shown
9
Dossier action
Draw the top card of the conspirator deck and add it face-up to your dossier, observing dossier limits (2 cards at timid motivation; 6/5/4 cards based on 1-2/3-4/5 players)
10
Move action
Move from your current space to a connected space with a stage number equal to or less than the current stage
11
Navigate Berlin
All Berlin spaces (marked B) are always accessible and connected to each other; enter or leave Berlin through the Train Station
12
Apply space modifiers
When entering a space with modifiers, immediately apply the listed effects without using an action
13
Release action
If in Gestapo HQ and not at extreme suspicion, roll one die to attempt releasing an arrested conspirator:
14
Reveal Item action
Flip a face-down item tile in your space face-up
15
Transfer action
Give or take one item or card to/from a conspirator in your space
16
Draw event card
After completing actions, draw the top card from the lowest numbered event deck available and resolve its effects immediately
17
Handle key events
When a key event is drawn, resolve it normally; when the next event card is drawn, move the key event to the side of the board where it causes important (yellow) events to be discarded without effect
18
Respond to Gestapo Raids
When drawn after Stage 1, arrest all conspirators at extreme suspicion, then each conspirator must either discard each illegal card or keep it and raise suspicion by 1, then return all dice on Dissent Track to supply
19
Handle arrest
When arrested, immediately discard all illegal cards in your dossier and move to Prison
20
Take prison turn
If starting your turn in Prison, draw an interrogation card, secretly choose one option you can fully resolve, read it aloud and apply effects, then draw an event card

Winning

How to claim victory.

1
Assassinate Hitler
The only way to win is to successfully attempt a plot by rolling enough target symbols to equal or exceed Hitler's Military Support while rolling fewer eagle symbols than your suspicion level allows
2
Meet required elements
Before attempting a plot, confirm you meet all required elements on the plot card (location, proximity to Hitler, and committed or reckless motivation)
3
Build dice pool
Gain one die for meeting required elements, then add dice from optional elements:
4
Roll for success
Roll all dice in your pool after optionally removing any dice
5
Check detection first
Count eagle symbols rolled; if equal to or exceeding your suspicion threshold, the plot fails and is detected:
6
Check success second
If not detected, count target symbols; if equal to or exceeding Hitler's Military Support, Hitler is assassinated and you win the game
7
Handle undetected failure
If target symbols are lower than Hitler's Military Support but the plot wasn't detected, continue your turn normally with the plot card still available
8
Lose if all imprisoned
If all conspirators are in prison at the same time, you lose the game
9
Lose if no events remain
If you cannot draw an event card when required, you lose the game
10
Lose if documents found
If the Stage 7 event "Documents Located" is drawn, you lose the game (optional variant allows removing this card during setup)

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