Cross-Bronx Expressway

Cross Bronx Expressway is the third game in the Irregular Conflicts Series. It simulates the socio-economic processes of urban development, and the human costs that result, as a competitive city-builder with collective loss conditions. Players control one of three asymmetric factions working in the South Bronx between 1940 and 2000, pursuing their own goals while cooperating to keep the borough viable. Through a card driven sequence of play, they will work to solve the economic challenges facing the area by building infrastructure and organizations, forming coalitions, mitigating the multitude of issues facing the vulnerable population, and managing resources to stay out of debt. Cross Bronx Expressway offers an engaging way to learn about the recent history of American cities, as exemplified by Jane Jacobs' pivotal work The Death and Life of Great American Cities, simulated through the case study of the South Bronx. Players will experience the conflicting incentives and complex factors shaping urban life and together determine the fate of the Bronx. Cross Bronx Expressway models this rich history as a competitive economic city builder with collective loss conditions. Three playable factions—Public, Private, and Community—attempt to save the city from the brink of bankruptcy and protect the Bronx's vulnerable population throughout this tumultuous period, while also working to achieve their own conflicting objectives. The game progresses using a shared event deck, divided into decades. Each decade features a semi-random series of historical cards whose effects will always occur but can be manipulated by the players. The factions perform actions around these events in order to mitigate their effects, while hoping to tip the balance in their favor. Infrastructure will be built and sometimes demolished, coalitions formed and abandoned, populations housed and displaced, and the vulnerable encouraged and discarded, while each faction struggles to stay out of debt and achieve their own objectives. At the end of each decade, census numbers are tallied to determine which factions have achieved their objectives and at what cost. If they manage to keep the city afloat, each decade provides the players with new opportunities to transform the South Bronx according to their own vision, but if too many vulnerable people are lost or if the city goes bankrupt, everyone will lose. Can you cooperate better than the historical actors did and pull the South Bronx back from the brink of disaster? Contents: One 22" x 34" Mounted Game Board 96 Event Cards 24 Position Cards 127 Wooden Pieces Three Full-color Countersheets Three Fold-out Player Aid Pamphlets One Non-Player Aid Sheet One Custom 6-sided Die One Rules of Play Booklet Three Orientation Guides One Historical Record Booklet One 3" Box