Caper: Europe

To set up, place the game board between players. Set aside the core location, gear, and thief decks. Choose one of four city decks (Paris is recommended for beginners) and flip its top card for special rules. Shuffle the remaining city-specific location, gear, and thief cards into their corresponding core decks. Place the shuffled thief deck face down on its designated space, and the gear deck beside it. Deal one location card face up into each of the three location spaces on the board, returning any unused location cards to the box. Collect all stolen goods tokens, flip them face down, mix them, and then reveal and place four randomly into each of the hexagonal spaces beside each location card. Place a caper tracker on the center space of each caper track next to the locations. Finally, place the round marker on the 'Intro' space of the round track.

In Caper: Europe, players embody rival criminal masterminds, each aiming to prove their supremacy by accumulating the most victory points. This is achieved by strategically sending gangs of thieves to various European locations, equipping them with specialized gear, and executing daring heists to steal precious goods. Players must also focus on controlling locations and leveraging their unique abilities to outmaneuver their opponent and maximize their score.

The game is played over six rounds, with each round beginning by checking the round track. The symbol next to the current round marker indicates whether it's a thief round (white symbol) or a gear round (green symbol), and the number of dots shows how many cards each player draws from the corresponding deck. The arrow on the round track indicates the first player for that round. Players then take turns playing one card from their hand, resolving its effects, and then exchanging their remaining cards with their opponent. This continues until each player has played all but one card from their hand. The last card each player holds is then placed face up into their personal discard pile, marking the end of the round. The round marker is then advanced, and a new round begins.

Scoring occurs at the end of the sixth round. Players first score points for locations. For each location, check the caper tracker: if it's in the center, no points are scored. If it's on a space closer to a player's side, that player wins the location and scores the points indicated on the location card's top banner. Additionally, any scoring icons on the location card (showing a star) award points based on matching colored cards at that location or specific stolen goods in the player's hideout. Next, players score their thieves. For each thief, score any star icons shown on their card, which might award points for specific card combinations or types of cards at their location. Finally, players score for their collected stolen goods. Arrange these tokens into the largest possible sets of unique symbols. A set of three unique symbols is worth 9 points, a set of two unique symbols is worth 5 points, and a single unique token is worth 2 points. The player with the highest total score wins.

The game concludes at the end of the sixth round, after all players have played and discarded their final card for that round. At this point, players proceed to calculate their final scores using the provided score sheet, tallying points from controlled locations, scored thieves, and collected stolen goods. The player with the highest total score is declared the winner. In case of a tie, the tied player with the most coin tokens wins. If there's still a tie, the tied player with the most stolen goods wins. If a tie persists, the tied players share the victory.