Gangsters and WWI games

On Friday evening, Lisa, Arthur and I had our first playtest of Fistful of Lead Bigger Battles.  The game was inspired by Lisa's research into the Kerensky Offensive on the Eastern Front in 1917, where a squadron of Royal Navy Air Service armoured cars reinforced the Russian Army.

The battle featured the Russian and their British allies attacking German trenches.

Lisa included a few special rules, most importantly that when a joker was dealt, one of the Russian infantry units would gain a 1d6 red markers, representing Bolshevik propaganda.  The idea was that any unit that ended up with more markers than troops would be persuaded by the propaganda and leave the battlefield.  As it happened, none of the Russian units reached that break point, but it was fun to pile those markers onto units.

German forces man the trenches.  There was a pre-game bombardment that ended up wiping out the German light machine guns (a Lewis gun team and a MG-08 gun team), and left most of the other units with some shock.

RNAS armoured cars prep for battle: 3 Rolls Royce and 1 Lanchester.

Russian Maxim Gun moves onto the table.

Russian cavalry advances, supported by infantry following up behind.

Russians used this cover to good effect to close with the German infantry.

Russian cavalry charge the German trench.

And then clear the trench!  We used smoke markers to represent shock - as you can see, there is more shock than surviving Germans.  The Germans routed the next time their card came up.

Elsewhere on the line, German defenders attempt an unsuccessful close assault on a RNAS Roller.

However, their assault failed, and then the Germans routed.

In the end, the Russians captured the German trenches.

The verdict is that Bigger Battles gives a good, fun, fast-paced game.  Complexity is similar to a Dan Mersey Rampant-style game.  I had thought that morale might have been an issue, but it wasn't.  Due to the way shock works in this game, a unit that is battered is most likely to fall back and eventually rout off the table.

And then on Sunday, we had our monthly gangsters gaming day.  I got to represent the South Side gang as Moe's Diamondbacks attempted to cut through their territory.  Moe rolled to see how many South Siders were on the street, and ended up with 17 various gangsters ready to stop his single red truck transporting 6 Diamondbacks.

Southsiders open fire on the truck.

They blew out a tire, causing the truck to careen into a nanny pushing a pram.  Morale outrage was assured!

The Diamondbacks, in trench coats, abandon their truck and set off on foot, pursued by angry Southsiders.

After gunning down a Southsider, the Diamondbacks hijack another truck.

But they don't get far - the Southsiders shoot up the hijacked truck and swarm the Diamondbacks as they pile out.

At this point, we pulled the dreaded back-to-back jokers, which is the trigger for the cops to arrive.  Only two of the Diamondbacks clear the table in time, the remainder are arrested.  Most likely, being arrested saved them from rough justice at the hands of the outraged Southsiders!

As a result of this battle, there weren't enough Diamondbacks left to raid my Docksiders' gin joint.  This left me free to bully another business in my neighbourhood into accepting my 'protection'!