|
|
Jonathan Barnes is on the clock as
Anthony Daw observes. |
Dacey Collinson, Jim Savarik and Alex
Metzger on the east side. |
|
|
No GM is in style without unique Table
markers. |
Being prepared is a John Pack GM trademark. |
Always Dangerous Doug ...
Here,
in move order, are the four finalists, their starting positions,
and their status at the end of the game:
Jonathan "The Zealot" Barnes:
Start: 5/1/2; $300; Brizelli's Riverside [Racketeer], Taylor's
Machine Shop [Thug], Huck's Marine [Vamp]
Finish: 8/1/3, 8 Hits, 1 Seduction; $3,200, 8 joints (3 of 8
Yellow) - 3rd Place
John "The Viper" Pack:
Start: 5/1/1; $400; Palace Chophouse [Vamp], Brzkowski's Imports
[Racketeer/Thug], Ambassadors' Club
Finish: 3/1/1, 3 Hits, 4 Seductions; $8,600; 2 joints (2 of 6
Blue) - 2nd Place
Rob "Bobby Tweaks" Buccheri:
Start: 4/1/5; $100; Jack's Auto Body [Thug], Joe's Lanes [Racketeer],
Martha's Commissary [Vamp]
Finish: 4/1/0, 8 Hits, 4 Seductions; $1,000; 7 joints (5 of 9
Brown) - 4th Place
"Dangerous" Doug Galullo:
Start: 5/1/1; $700; Wylie's Storage [Thug], Franklin Hostel [Vamp],
Greenwood Park [Racketeer]
Finish: 2/1/1, 5 Hits, 2 Seductions; $10,100, 3 joints (3 of
8 Yellow) - Wins!
As usual, I tried to just note the unusual aspects of each turn
and only recorded unusually high cash collections (so that I
would have no advantage). Hopefully, with these notes, my memory,
and the player chits, I can accurately reconstruct the Final.
Let's take a look at the setups before going into the turn by
turn report.
Setup: The Zealot starts out looking like he'll go for
the Bus Station cash strategy. And this is what I expected when
no one else bought the Bus Station defensively. Instead, he picks
up one more green and an out-of-the-way yellow joint (the latter
to counter Dangerous Doug's opening). So it appears Brizelli's
was purchased as a pro-active Bus Station defense and to give
his Racketeer a lot of options for a second turn purchase with
the added benefit of an occasional cash infusion. Ten joints
appears to be his plan with cash as a backup.
The Viper buys the Palace Chophouse first in order to see what
the other players are up to before committing to any particular
setup. It's also a near ideal starting spot for a Vamp with the
highest mobility rating of any space and the safety of a friendly
joint. Then, seeing no one else interested in the Blue One-Jump
strategy, the Viper buys both blue one-jump joints. He'll be
looking to win by cash with a Blue Monopoly as a backup plan.
Bobby Tweaks goes cheap and mobile with Brown joints around the
map. He'll clearly be going for ten, cheap joints. This allows
him to start with an unusual and powerful starting gang with
five Thugs! He'll need to vamp another Racketeer in the early
going to avoid a one-move-per-turn catastrophe. But this kind
of firepower will allow him to hammer other gangs and their joints
while he collects ten joints.
Dangerous Doug goes with the Yellow One-Jump strategy but buys
an out-of-the-way joint as his first - leaving the easy-to-get-to
middle yellow joints open for early purchases. Cash is his likely
strategy, but the unheard-of Yellow Monopoly might be a backup
plan. This is confirmed when he retains $700 of his starting
cash instead of buying a sixth Racketeer or two additional Thugs.
Perhaps this should be called a Yellow Sneak-Up-the-Cash Strategy.
Turn
1: The Zealot upgrade Brizelli's Riverside and vamps the
Viper who, in turn, vamps Bobby Tweaks. The Viper moves Public
x3 into the Palace Chophouse and upgrades Brzkowski's Imports.
Tweaks brings on T.J. Hooker (Cop #7) at Subway #3 and sends
him straight toward the Chophouse. Dangerous Doug removes Zealot's
Thug with two hits from the Boys in Blue while jumping Public
x1 from the cup into Greenwood Park.
Turn 2: The Zealot vamps Bobby Tweaks and hits the Viper's
Chophouse. He collects $100 by agreeing to leave the public in
Greenwood Park. The Viper moves the Public from the Park into
the Ambassadors' Club. Tweaks vamps Dangerous Doug. Dangerous
moves Robocop (Cop #10) past Greenwood Park while moving the
Public x3 there. The Public x1 leaves the Ambassadors' Club after
paying the Viper twice.
Turn 3: The Viper sends Rosco P. Coltrane (Cop #3) to
kill Dangerous' Vamp. Later, the Viper's Vamp is also killed
by Rosco P-Co.
Turn 4: The Zealot collects two small payments from the
Public. The Viper chokes down a $1,200 payment to recruit a new
lady. Bobby Tweaks recruits back to four Racketeers. Dangerous
Doug gets his Vamp working at Mary's Merchandise (the lowest
mobility joint on the board) - making her ultra-safe from roving
coppers.
Turn 5: The Zealot acquires his sixth joint and vamps
the Viper's Thug off of the board. The Viper recruits a Thug
for $300 and gets his Vamp out extorting. Dangerous Doug collects
$1,200 - the game's first big payoff.
Turn 6: The Zealot buys his seventh joint. That prompts
a discussion later in the turn as to who should be responsible
for shooting up the Zealot's joints. We all finger someone else.
Robocop helps by killing the Zealot's Vamp. Dangerous takes up
the baton and kills the Zealot's Taylor's Machine Shop.
Turn 7: Joints are dangerous? Not enough to keep the Zealot
from buying a seventh... again. Instead, he collects $1,800 at
Brizelli's Riverside. Public x3 then moves to Brzkowski's Imports
such that the Viper collects $2,500 while vamping the Zealot.
Bobby Tweaks hits the Zealot's Racketeer for one loss while taking
one in return.
Turn 8: The Zealot adds SMC Cartage Co. to his portfolio
- his eighth real estate acquisition. He also uses Kojak (Cop
#6) to kill the Viper's Thug. Bobby Tweaks takes up the torch
and kills the SMC Cartage Co. Dangerous Doug begins battle over
the Palace Chophouse.
Turn 9: The Viper collects another $2,400 from Public
x3 in a level 3 Ambassadors' Club and recruits two Thugs. The
Chophouse inflicts another hit on Doug's Racketeer. In Bobby
Tweaks turn, the Chophouse kills Dangerous' Racketeer. Dangerous
Doug luckily rolls a 1 on the green die and recruits two Racketeers
for a mere $300. This should have tipped off the rest of us that
he was closing in on a cash win.
Turn 10: The Zealot buys his eighth joint again. Bobby
Tweaks takes down Jaeger's Clothier with no losses in the effort.
Turn 11: The Zealot buys his eighth joint one more time
and brings Robocop to bear on Tweak's Thug for two hits and also
vamps Tweak's Racketeer. The Viper puts a Public in the Zealot's
Palace Chophouse and swings Barney Fife (Cop #2) toward that
target. The cold room reminds us of the morgue where Bobby Tweak's
Thugs now reside. Bobby Tweaks brings Barney into raid and eliminate
the Chophouse. Dangerous recruits one Thug.
Turn 12: The Zealot buys his eighth joint yet again. He
vamps the Viper's Thug off-the-map and uses John McClane (Cop
#8) to kill Bobby Tweak's remaining Thugs. The huge starting
Thug is dead. The Viper recruits one Racketeer for $800 to get
back up to four. His expensive recruiting has kept his cash total
down despite his two earlier, huge payoffs. Bobby Tweaks recruits
three Thugs for $600. Public x1 jumps from the cup to Franklin
Hostel to pay Dangerous $400.
Turn 13: The Zealot, unable to buy a ninth joint, vamps
Tweaks. The Viper's dice are all low again. Dangerous is excited
by all the 6s he rolls, but claims he's not "it" (up
for hitting the Zealot). He does collect $1,200 extortion, however.
Turn 14: The Zealot vamps the Viper's Thug off the map...
again. He recruits one Racketeer so that he's got eight. The
Public moves to Brizelli's. That Public heads to the upgraded
Brzkowski's to pay the Viper $800. The boyz-in-blue kill Tweak's
three new Thugs. Dangerous collects just enough to win with $10,100.
This was a long game. Most games run 6-16 turns, with the median
at 10-11. That's because the initial payouts were so small, the
Cops were so effective, and the high 35 casualty count. I have
seen one game end earlier than Turn 6 (a 4-turn win in the game
that gave Moneybags his name) and one go longer than 16 (a PBeM
game that ended after 18 turns). Longer games work for joint
collectors (The Zealot) and sneak-up-the-cash players (Dangerous
Doug).
In this case, the Zealot attracted all of the counter-measures
very early and consistently. He wasn't able to purchase joints
on his last two turns or he'd have had nine joints at least and
threatened to win. His Racketeer ended up in a heavily purchased
area of town at the end which made his low rolls at the end decisive.
Bobby Tweaks made it quietly to seven joints, but he was the
bulwark keeping the Zealot from winning with his eight over-all
Thugs. His game-high 12 losses while the other players relied
on him to stop the Zealot put him in a hard-to-recover position.
The Viper threatened a cash win, finishing at $8,600. But, during
the course of the game, he recruited his Thug three times and
a very expensive Vamp for at least $2,400 altogether.
Dangerous Doug ended up as Godfather by saving cash at the beginning,
not drawing attention to himself, slowly collecting cash over
the whole game (with his Vamp ultra-safe), and making only small,
necessary purchases. His fateful, failed attack on the Chophouse
permanently steered all attention away from him and directly
onto the successfully defending Zealot. His gang at the end (2/1/1)
was just enough to win - but not enough to be called upon to
stop the Zealot. Congratulations to Dangerous Doug!
|
|
Craig Reece isn't buying that Mr.
Happy routine from Tom McCorry. |
GM John Pack meets with fellow gang
heads in the Final. |
|