Bandit Camp

Bandit Camp
Info
Cost
Type(s)	Action
Kingdom card?	Yes
Set	Dark Ages
Illustrator(s)	RC Torres
Card text
+1 Card +2 Actions Gain a Spoils.

Bandit Camp is an Action card from Dark Ages. It is a village that gains you a Spoils to use later.

FAQ

Official FAQ

• Draw a card before gaining a Spoils.
• The Spoils comes from the Spoils pile, which is not part of the Supply.
• If there are no Spoils cards left, you do not get one.

Strategy

Bandit Camp is both a village and a Spoils gainer.

In money strategies, it can be useful early on as essentially a delayed Gold for , since every shuffle after the first time you see your Bandit Camp, your deck will both gain and use one Spoils. It also potentially eases terminal collision, allowing a money deck to support a few extra terminal Actions.

In engines, it is primarily used as a village, but it tends to delay achieving deck control by adding a temporary stop card to your deck. For this reason, if there are other villages, you are likely to want to get them first and get Bandit Camps later once your deck is more under control. Later, however, it becomes a great way to add both a village and additional payload to your deck simultaneously. In a deck that draws itself, the Spoils you gain becomes like a Gold that is particularly likely to be found near the end of your turn (since it is gained to the discard pile), so it is less likely than a Gold to interfere with your ability to find all your draw cards. Bandit Camp works particularly well with cards that synergize with Spoils such as Counterfeit.

Notable synergies

• Triumph

External strategy articles

Note: Article(s) below are by individual authors and may not represent the community's current views on cards, but may provide more in-depth information or give historical perspective. Caveat emptor.

• 2012 forum discussion

Versions

English versions

Print	Digital	Text	Release	Date
		+1 Card +2 Actions Gain a Spoils from the Spoils pile.	Dark Ages	August 2012
		+1 Card +2 Actions Gain a Spoils from the Spoils pile.	Dark Ages (2017 printing)	September 2017
		+1 Card +2 Actions Gain a Spoils.	Dark Ages (2020 printing)	2020

Other language versions

Language	Name	Print	Digital	Text	Notes
Czech	Tábor banditů			+1 karta +2 akce Vezmi si Kořist z balíčku karet Kořisti.	(2016)
Dutch	Bandietenkamp			+1 Kaart +2 Acties Pak een buitkaart van de buitstapel.	(2013)
Finnish	Rosvoleiri
French	Camp de bandits
German	Banditenlager			+1 Karte +2 Aktionen Nimm eine Beute vom Beute-Stapel.	(2019)
	Banditenlager			+1 Karte +2 Aktionen Nimm eine Beute.
Japanese	山賊の宿営地 (pron. sanzoku no shukuei-chi)			+1 カードを引く +2 アクション 略奪品の山から略奪品1枚を獲得する。
Korean	산적 소굴 (pron. sanjeog sogul, lit. bandit's lair)
Polish	Obóz bandytów				Although Polish version is not released, this card is referred to in the Polish version of Empires rulebook
Russian	Лагерь Разбойников (pron. lagyer' razboynikov)
Spanish	Campamento de Bandidos			+1 Carta +2 Acciones Gana una carta de Botín del montón de Botines.	(2014)

Trivia

Official card art.

Secret History

I started out trying '+1 card, +1 action, gain a Silver.' It was a very basic card I hadn't done yet. It was kind of weak. I tried it with the Fool's Gold reaction on the bottom. Then the set needed another village, so I changed it to '+1 card, +2 actions, gain a Silver.' At that point people would complain that gaining Silver was at cross-purposes to having a village - the Silver reduces your chance of drawing your actions together. I thought it was fine though; some people won't see that, and if you are a more serious player who does see that, well, does it stop you from buying the card? I think not. And anyway some of the cards have to be simple.

When I was looking for things to do with Spoils, I saw this card, and thought hey, try changing that Silver to Spoils. And that worked out, and somehow people stopped complaining. The one-shot Gold does not water down your village-ing capabilities as much as the Silver did.

—Donald X. Vaccarino, The Secret History of the Dark Ages Cards, 2012