In Brazil in the late 1800s and early 1900s, large landowners called "coronéis" starved the north-east of the country in an extensive area that included the Sertão desert. In this climate of corruption and abuse, the Cangaceiros — bandits who violently opposed the status quo — were born.

Cangaceiros is a strategic competitive game in which each player plays a gang that tries to survive in hostile desert territories while being hunted by the Volantes, the state police trained to kill them. Each band has a chief chosen from the twenty available, each with its own unique abilities and characteristics.

The management of each seven-card deck is fundamental, with players using cards to collect resources, place bandits to guard a region, attack the Volantes, assault the prison of the city of Recife, convert accumulated resources into fame, train their leader, and recruit new members for the gang.

You win by accumulating fame points, which are obtained by attacking the Volantes, but also by training your boss to solve his life goal and help him retire in glory. You also gain fame points in several other ways, and whoever collects the most fame wins.

—description from the designer