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 Russians 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'!

Holiday games

 We managed to play a few games over the past week.

First off, instead of our usual D&D session, Arthur set up a Fistful of Lead game, set somewhere between Russian and British controlled territory in Afghanistan.   Arthur set it up as a three-way battle, with his intent being that the Russians and British would fight each other for the village, while the Afghans would snipe at both sides.  As it turned out, things happened a bit different from Arthur's original plan!

Here is the village that the troops will battle for.

Each of the imperial forces had an officer (veteran, d12) and 4 riflemen (d10).  The Afghans had no veterans, but they did each get a couple groups of 3 grunts (d8) each.

British force carefully advances into the village.

Meanwhile, the Russians enter the village from the other side.

The first British soldier enters the orchard, and is immediately ambushed and cut down by a group of Afghan warriors.

Remaining British are more cautious and shoot at the Afghans rather than risk hand to hand combat.

Russians were carefully checking each location, but found no Afghans.  Arthur eventually figured out that Oliver had set up all of his Afghans to attack his father's British soldiers.

British soldiers carry on fighting the Afghans.  Smoke clouds represent shock on the affected models.

Russians continue their careful advance.

The skirmish between the British and Afghans continues.

Meanwhile the Russians move in behind the skirmishing warriors.

After the Afghans and British battled to a standstill, the Russians came in and cleaned up.

Today, Arthur and I played a couple of scenarios for our Mad Dogs With Guns campaign.  

In the first game, my Dockworkers gang conducted a raid against the Rum Room, a speakeasy on the South Side of Chicago.  As we don't actually have any big city terrain, Chicago's South Side ended up looking a bit less urban.

Lucius and his gangsters move to the front door.

Meanwhile at the rear of the building, Crazy Ivan and Modest Mike climb up the back stairs.

A defender of the speakeasy looks out the window at Crazy Ivan and his friend move up.

My tommygunner Chun Lee opens up into the main room of the speakeasy but ends up jamming his submachinegun for the rest of the game.

Upstairs, Crazy Ivan and Mike beat up the Southsiders.

On the ground floor, Lucius and Sam were too slow to intervene, and the blonde southsider managed to call for support.

Not shown in the photos, a car with 6 low-level gangsters showed up (summoned by the blonde's phone call) and slowed the Dockworkers efforts to take over the Rum Room.

Meanwhile, two jokers were drawn from the deck, signalling outrage and a police response!

All the gangsters dashed for the exits.  Most of the Dockworkers escaped, but Modest Mike was cornered by the police and was arrested.

Final result for the Dockworkers.  The raid failed, Crazy Ivan suffered a gruesome death, and Sam the Shovel was knocked out and arrested.

We next played out an ambush as Arthur's corrupt Mounties tried to hijack an NPC truck.  Here is the truck coming along the road, with a driver, hoodlum co-driver and an enforcer with a tommygun in the back of the truck.

The truck comes around the corner, spots the roadblock and slams on the breaks.  As the driver puts the truck into reverse, Arthur recognises that he didn't consider that the truck might not stay still and allow it to be taken!

The Mounties open fire on the truck, as their mooks rush forward to seize the truck.  The BAR gunner in particular is quite indifferent about risk, and fired while his friend Inigo Montoya was nearby.  Inigo had to dive for cover to escape his own friend's fire!

The BAR gunner knocks out the tires, and the brakes, and damages the motor.  The truck crashes and is immobilised for the rest of the game.

The truckers return fire, killing and wounding some of their attackers.

But it's too little, too late.  The Mounties' BAR gunner keeps shooting, until a bullet hits the fuel tank and starts a fire.  The vehicle explodes, killing the truckers as well as one of the Mounties.

Final result, the truckers were all killed, the truck exploded, and for the Mounties, they lost two of their gang killed and two wounded.

Johnny Law

As our gangster campaign proceeds, public outrage grows.  That means that there will be a call for the City Police to intervene!  Fortunately, fresh off the painting table, here come the boys (and one lady!) in blue!

Cops with nightsticks, walking the beat.

These three have pulled their sidearms to investigate some suspicious activity. 

As things get more serious, they can call in support from colleagues armed with rifle and tommygun.

Back at the precinct, the sergeant supervises as old Mike the town drunk gets booked, while Matron keeps an eye on sweet-talkin' Sally.

The cops came with a fire hydrant and an old-timey police call box (notably different from the UK version favoured by time- and space- travelling timelords).

And here are a few shots against a lighter background.

A few comments.  I was going to paint the Matron to match Queen Latifah from Chicago, but that didn't end up happening.  

The police uniforms have red stripes on the trousers and red cap bands.  This is more of a Canadian police thing than American, but I like it as it gives a touch of colour to the otherwise monochrome uniforms.  Similarly, white shirts offer a better contrast than dark blue shirts!

Sally was inspired by Anita from West Side Story.  I didn't have the mauve required for Rita Morena's version in the 1961 movie, so instead I went with a yellow dress based on the 2021 version.