Agent Avenue rules: how to play and how to win

Agent Avenue quick rules

The goal

Two spies living as neighbors hunt each other down the same street. Each has a meeple that goes around the board. You win if your meeple catches your opponent’s before they catch yours; the agents you recruit move you forward or backward.

Playing two cards

You always have 4 agent cards in hand. On your turn, you play 2 with different names: one face up, one face down, then draw back up. Before playing, you may discard a card to draw a new one, 4 times at most per game.

Recruiting

Your opponent picks one of your two cards and recruits it; you take the other. Each player moves according to the agent recruited: with 1 agent of that name in play, read the top icon; with 2, the center one; with 3 or more, the bottom one.

The agents

Enforcer: +1, +2, +3. Sentinel: 0, +2, +6. Double Agent: −1, +6, −1. Saboteur: −1, −1, −2. Daredevil: +2, +3, then defeat. Codebreaker: 0, 0, then victory. A single Sidekick (+4) and a single Mole (−3).

The End step

After both moves, check: a meeple that reaches or passes the opposing meeple wins; 3 Codebreakers in play win; 3 Daredevils lose. Two conditions at once: the active player wins.

Running out of cards

Empty deck: keep playing without drawing. If your opponent has fewer than 2 cards in hand at the end of your turn, the game ends, and the player closer to catching the other wins.

The advanced mode

On the other side of the board, landing exactly on a black market space gives you a black market card: an instant ability, or an ongoing one for the rest of the game. Some add a new way to win.

In teams

With 3 or 4, two teams each share a meeple. Each teammate keeps their hand secret; one plays a face-up card, the other a face-down card, and the opposing team agrees on which one to recruit.

How to win Agent Avenue

No points

Agent Avenue has no points: one player wins, the other loses. In teams, teammates win together.

Victory

Your meeple reaches or passes the opposing meeple, or you have 3 Codebreakers in play, or your opponent has 3 Daredevils. When cards run out, the player closer to catching the other wins.

Ties

If two conditions happen in the same turn, or the meeples are at equal distance when cards run out, the active player wins.

Advanced mode and Division M

Some black market cards give another way to win, and the Division M expansion adds one: its meeple exactly on the opposing spy. The Ludingo sheet records the winner and, if you like, how they won.

Example ending

Emma has 2 Enforcers in play and recruits a third: she moves 3 spaces and lands on Jake’s meeple. In the same turn, Jake recruits his second Sentinel and moves 2: he escapes, and Emma has not caught him. The game goes on.

Common mistakes

• Thinking you win while recruiting: you only check at the End step.
• Forgetting both meeples move together: an opponent who moves forward in the same turn escapes.
• Reading the bottom icon on your 2nd card: that’s the center icon; the bottom one comes with the 3rd.
• Forgetting that the Double Agent moves you back on the 3rd card.

How to set up Agent Avenue

Setup takes 2 minutes. For a first game, play the simple mode, without the black market cards.