Buccheri Rules the Streets!

The return of Gangsters was celebrated by 31 thugs who laughed, ruminated, and shot it out through four Heats. The average criminal mastermind played 2.4 games and wished for more! No one managed to play in all six games, however.

Several criminal families brought their best. Keith "Twitch" and Evan "Paineer" Boone collected one win. John "The Viper", Sharee "Jezebel", and David-John "Backpack" Pack all made it to the Semifinal, where Backpack earned the Barney Fife Memorial Award by using Barney to gun down two hapless criminals. Andy "Scarface" and Ben Gardner both made the Semifinal with Ben advancing to the Final. However, the crime syndicate supreme was the Buccheri brothers who both made the Final and utterly dominated the streets of Chicago.

After all, four three-player Gangsters Semifinals ended early, the finalists quickly agreed to play onward so that some could make a Final the next morning. The finalists, in movement order, were "Dangerous" Doug Galullo masterminding the Green gang, Robert "Bobby Tweaks" Buccheri leading the Yellow mob, Ben "The Roach" Gardner land lording the Red robbers, and "Mickey the Wire" (Michael) Buccheri, godfather of the Purple plunderers.

The Buccheris agree to sit on opposite sides of the table so they don't move one right after the other. Other agreements fall victim to Gangsters' ethics. "Hey John, are deals binding?" Deals in Gangsters are binding only if both halves can be completed during a single Buy Phase. Dangerous Doug makes an agreement for a later payment - and gets stiffed - claiming this is the first time in 20 years.

Dangerous Doug turns kibitzing into an art form. First, while another player is on the clock, he chats up the current move with a third player. Yes, it's still kibitzing. $500. Later, he summons the GM over to ask a rule question during another player's timed move - and asks what would happen if that player made a certain hypothetical move. Yes, kibitzing. $500. In fact, any comment about the game action in earshot of the player whose timer is running is kibitzing (as it uses his/her time)!

Dangerous starts with the Downtown Bus Station and Brizelli's Riverside, threating big Green money. But ultimately, he focuses on joint acquisition - ending the game with nine joints. However, the other players deliver six hits to turn aside the real estate threat - with a lone Purple thug taking down a joint and surviving to make it count! Vamps seduce three of Doug's gang along the way. Despite the impressive carnage, it doesn't touch the Roadkill winner, Anthony "Trigger" Daw's eleven hits in the second Heat (or runner-up, Louis "Coins" Gehring's ten hits in the same Heat).

The Roach starts with two cheap brown joints but adds a green to keep Dangerous from making the Green One-Jump Strategy ultra-strong. Ben goes for his signature ten-joint win but threatens only very late in the game.

He ends with nine joints but takes only a single hit to set him back. Vamps picked him apart, however, with 6 seductions! Not quite enough for the "I think She likes Me!" award, which goes to John "The Viper" Pack with 8 seductions in the first Heat (a game with 42 total casualties)! Doug finishes with 86% of the winner's assets to edge out Ben with 85% for second place. Ben's gang finishes at 2/1/2 and unable to stop the others.

Mickey the Wire starts with the Pussycat Club (a ritzy $500 purple establishment that's easy to get to and from) and two green establishments! He's on the stop right from the start. He finishes with three of five Purple joints in a monopoly attempt but also with the game's largest pile of cash at $6,100. His six hits testify to his 4/1/2 gang's relentless efforts to stop Dangerous Doug and Bobby Tweaks. Barney Fife is his nemesis, taking down his thug at the Cavalry Club on two different occasions!

Bobby Tweaks starts with three cheap brown gin joints ($100 each) - clearly aiming for a slumlord strategy. But he changes pace immediately and moves from Lou's Diner to Hawthorne Hotel ($600 red joint price tag). He continues into Astoria House ($600) across the street and eventually wins with a red monopoly! Only two hits and two seductions slow him down with Dangerous calling for an intervention as soon as Robert reaches the third red.

Robert "Bobby Tweaks" Buccheri demonstrates how flexible this opening is - as he also won his Semifinal using it. However, in that game, he doesn't move on to the third red joint - but uses upgraded red joints and the public clustered around Subway #1 to score tons and tons of cash and take it to the bank!

However, at this point in the Final, the other gangs are worn down from stopping Doug - plus it takes some lucky dice to get into a red joint. That luck doesn't materialize for the final two gangs looking for the stop.

This game proves that calling on others to make the stop on the threatening player only works for 2-3 turns. The stopping gangs quickly realize their own progress toward winning has ground to a halt - and feel compelled to abandon the one-stop coalition. Best strategy might be to try to push the threat back two turns from winning, so the coalition feels more like a team of bandits!

Congratulations, Bobby Tweaks, Godfather of 2023!