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.