
The Feds: New Orleans City Card
- 2–4 players
- 30–45 min
- 2024

2024
Rules assistance for The Feds
Plain-language explanations of turns, card effects and disputed situations, with official source references and saved question history.
For 2 players

What would you like to know?
Answers come from the official rulebook, with the page to check.
The Feds is a board game released in 2024 for 2–4 players, 30–45 minutes per game, and ages 12 and up. It was designed by Steve Finn and its main mechanics are Variable Player Powers, Set Collection, and Variable Set-up.
Organized crime has overtaken the city. Headquarters wants you and your team to infiltrate the ranks, identify the key players, and break up the syndicate. Do you have what it takes to put a stop to their insidious operations? In The Feds, players are leaders of FBI units seeking to send agents out to combat crime by arresting criminals. The game is heavily inspired by Gunrunners, an earlier game by the same designer and publisher. The game is played over a series of rounds. In each round, players simultaneously choose an agent card to play from their hand and a location to play it. In turn order, players then deploy their agents as moles (face-down) to the chosen locations. If a mole is already at a location, that mole is revealed and is now a "field agent". Sometimes, when a mole is revealed, a special power will be performed by the owning player of the mole (some agent cards have powers). These special powers change from game to game for variety of play (based on the City Card being used for the game). They do such things as forcing criminals to move, redeploying agents to new locations, making small arrests, and so on. At the end of the game, each location is scored and players arrest criminals based on their agent powers at each location. -description from designer
The Feds supports 2–4 players according to the catalogue. This range comes from the publisher’s listed player count, so the game can be set up for any group size within it. Some setups, rules and scoring details may still vary by player count, so check your edition’s rulebook for the exact configuration.
The listed playing time for The Feds is 30–45 minutes. This is the publisher’s estimate for a full game. The actual duration depends on the group, the player count and familiarity with the rules: first sessions usually run longer, while experienced groups often finish faster. Setup and teaching time are not included in this estimate.
The catalogue lists The Feds for ages 12 and up. This is the publisher’s recommendation and reflects reading demands, rule complexity and small components rather than theme alone. Younger players can often join with help from an adult, so check the age guidance on your edition and consider your group’s experience with board games.
The Feds has a complexity rating of 2.0 out of 5 from BoardGameGeek players, which makes it a medium-light game. The rating reflects how much rules knowledge, planning and decision-making a typical game demands. Expect a longer first teach for heavier games, and use a preparation guide before game night.
The Feds belongs to these categories: Card Game and Spies / Secret Agents. Its main mechanics are Variable Player Powers, Set Collection, and Variable Set-up. Categories describe the theme and setting of a game, while mechanics describe what players actually do on their turns. Each mechanic links to a catalogue hub with similar games, which helps when you want something comparable.
The credited designers of The Feds are: Steve Finn. These credits come from the published game data and name the people responsible for the game’s design, not its illustrators or publishers. Designer pages on MeepleRules collect other titles by the same designers, which helps when you enjoy a game and want to find similar ones.
The catalogue lists The Feds as a base game. It can be played on its own with the components in the box and does not require any other title. Expansions, if any exist, add new content or rules on top of it and are listed separately in the catalogue with a link back to this base game.