Gang Rumble in Downtown Lancaster, PA

    A terrified pedestrian backs against a wall as the Flippos arrive in downtown Lancaster

For the first time in years, the First Command Wargames crew was heading to a big convention to run our games. Five of us had scheduled events at Historicon 2022 in downtown Lancaster, PA. I would be running Mean Streets on Thursday night and Friday morning. Jenny would be helping me run Wars of Insurgency on Friday night and Saturday morning. I had created a terrain setup that would be usable for both games, which minimized the amount we had to haul east and pack and unpack out of the convention. Meanwhile, Mike S and his son Jason would be running Battles on the American Frontier using Song of Drums and Tomahawks rules. Steve V would be running his Battle of Mollwitz, 1741, using his War of Austrian Succession supplement for his For King or Empress rules.

    Two gangs of bitter rivals battle it out on the Mean Streets - the Flippos and the Mohawks

Kicking it all off was my Gang Rumble in Lancaster Mean Streets scenario. I have to admit, I did nothing to make my terrain resemble downtown Lancaster, PA. Until this point, I had never even been to the downtown portion. I was pleasantly surprised at all the historic buildings and the many restaurants, markets, and brewpubs there were within walking distance of the convention center. Jenny and I arrived Wednesday night and met up with Jason M, who had reserved the rooms and been very helpful reminding us when event registration opened and so on. One of our regular Sunday night gamers, Andy, also arrived Wednesday night. We met him and his roommates Tim and Don for beers on a rooftop bar that evening. It was an enjoyable way to begin a weekend convention.

    Our Thursday night group of players start to rumble on my downtown battleground

The convention actually began on Wednesday, but its first main day was Thursday. After breakfast, Jenny and I grabbed a hotel cart and took the terrain, miniatures, and First Command rule books up to our table. The Historicon staff was very gracious and placed all three of our event tables adjacent to each other. We hoisted our First Command Wargames banner and (I think) made a nice presence in the Commonwealth room. It took less than an hour to set up the terrain for Mean Streets. I was given an 8'x5' table, which gave elbow room for the players with my 5'x4' setup. I was really pleased with how the table looked. In the last couple months, I have made some tweaks to my urban terrain. I've added cork squares as the asphalt streets to place between the acrylic floor tiles which resemble gray concrete. The latest addition were my street medians, which I had scratch-built using wooden molding decorated with Woodland Scenics street lamps and small shrubs and flowers. The scratch built guardrails on each end with their yellow and black pattern really set them off. I find it is the little things like the medians that often make a table "pop" and draw attention.

    The martial arts gang, the Daos, stand their ground as the Santanas approach in their leather jackets

Once we were finished setting up the terrain, we wandered through the rest of the convention center to check out the early games that were under way. One that stuck out to me in particular was the Have Gun Will Travel Old West game. His game spread across several tables popping with eye candy, including a mine lit with electric lights and a native American cliff dwelling. When the Exhibit Hall opened at noon, I was able to take my time and get my shopping fix in right away. I didn't want to buy a lot on the first day, though, because Jason would be trying to sell my last three 15mm DBA armies in the flea market. If they all sold, I'd get an influx of more than $300, so I was going to buy only the things I really needed Thursday. Or, at least that's what I told myself! I'll cover my purchases in the next post covering my Wars of Insurgency game.

    The Kings, in their black and green gang colors stalk towards the gas station to join the rumble

I had a very relaxing start to the day, and was ready to go when 7pm and rolled around and the first session of Gang Rumble in Lancaster was set to begin. The table was completely full - as were all four of my sessions of both games. I find that if you can set up your game early, place a sign telling potential players which event it is, then your terrain can sometimes recruit those last spots to fill up. That was my #1 reason for getting set up first thing that morning. Most gamers at Historicon don't know me or my games like folks back home in HMGS Great Lakes country. I'm lucky back home that enough people have had fun in one of my previous games that my events tend to fill up.

    A Flippo tries to convince a market stall owner to pay protection money (their gang mission)

The scenario is my standard one for Mean Streets. There were six players, each controlling their own gang. I chose my most eye-catching gangs, which for this game would be the Flippos in their clown masks, the punk rock Mohawks, the leather jacketed Santanas, the black and green Kings, the Highlanders in their checkered pants, and the Daos in their purple and yellow martial arts attire. Each gang would have a Primary mission, which might be stealing a car from the service station garage, shoplifting at the general store, or shaking down merchants for "protection money."

    Meanwhile, Ramona of the Santanas sneaks into the service station bay to steal a car

Each gang also had a secondary mission, which was to get some payback on a rival gang that had put a "beat down" on them last week. I selected the target gang so that every gang had one other going after them. Finally, all gangs had the additional way of earning victory points by "tagging" buildings with their gang logo. Players received a stack of foam circles emblazoned with each gang's logo. Players also lost victory points for each of their gang members knocked out of action.

    A late-arriving police officer puts knocks down a Flippo with one blow from his billy club

After one of my CincyCon games, I have a special mechanism I've installed in my gang warfare games. If a player is essentially knocked out of the game with all (or nearly all) of his gang members down for the count, I have that player control a police car which arrives on the scene. The player is given complete control over where to bring it on and what he wants the two policemen to do. They can get payback on the player who beat them up, try to take out the one that appears in the lead, or just have fun with it. I tell the other players that they hear sirens. This also has the effect of encouraging players to wrap up their missions and heading for the board edge. I don't tell them the game is moving towards a conclusion, but by this time, they are getting into their role of a street thug and they begin to think it might be a good idea to take their winnings and skedaddle!

    Julio, gang boss of the Santanas, and his warchief Cruz catch Kira in the act of tagging their turf

I thought about writing separate battle reports for Thursday evening's and Friday morning's games. However, I figured that might get a bit redundant. I liked how the balance worked out, though. The gang that scored the most victory points on Thursday, the Flippos with 21, actually scored the least on Friday. Similarly, the winner on Friday, the Mohawks, were in the bottom half of scores on Thursday. Some players were laser-focused on their primary missions. For example, the Kings on Friday barely engaged in any scuffles with other gangs until they had completed their mission. Once they each had a six-pack of beer under their arm, they returned to the street ready to rumble. Other gangs ignored their mission for most of the game and concentrated on attacking or evading other gangs. The Daos did that on Thursday, and it ended up causing them to fail to complete their mission of convincing the owner of Finn's Factory to pay protection money. In fact, Manager Keith bloodied the nose of the punk who tried to rough him up!

    The other Mohawks come to avenge Kira's knockout, while the Kings decide to join the fray

One thing that was common in both games was much of the mayhem centered on the gas station near the center of the board. The wide open space and clear path to rival gang members was too much for most players to resist. At one point, nearly every gang was involved in a huge scrum in the center of the board. Mohawks traded punches with Santanas, while Kings and Daos duked it out in front of the alarmed patrons of the Shell station. When I am setting up scenario, I make it a point for each gang to have to traverse the board to a far side to complete their missions. So, a player who starts in the middle of one of the long edges of the board will likely have to go to an opposite corner to reach their objective.  If you were to draw arrows from where gangs deployed to where they ended up, you'd see the arrows intersecting many times in the middle of the board.

    The Santanas don't look happy that other gangs have muscled in on their turf - the gas station!

Adding in the secondary mission of wanting payback against a certain gang, and making knocking their figures out of action worth double points, usually tempts them away from focusing only on their primary mission. The player may have planned to stay on target, but when they see a punk from a rival gang by himself, they can't help but dash in and beat him up! Honestly, I feel that if players just moved around the board and tagged buildings and then beat up shopkeepers, it would be a fairly boring game. That's why I structure my victory points and starting positions/objectives to encourage them to mix it up. I am always reminded of my old friend Eric's frustration in a game when no casualties were being removed and it was mostly maneuver. He pounded the table with his fist in mock anger saying, "I just want to kill something!"

    The Flippos and their creepy clown masks are always a scary sight on the streets

Keeping Eric's adage in mind means my games and scenarios are designed to allow players to inflict casualties. Mean Streets' combat system reinforces this. When a gang member wins a combat, he either inflicts a wound on an opponent (permanently giving that street punk a -1 to further rolls...and wounds ARE cumulative), doubles them and inflicts twice as many wounds plus a special effect for the weapon the figure is armed with, or triples them knocking that figure out of action. No matter how mild mannerd a player may be in real life, there is a visceral thrill to beating up the rival players' street punks. This is YOUR turf and you're the baddest street gang out there!

    What's this? A truce between the Santanas and Highlanders to go beat up other gangs??

And speaking of casualties, both games saw the police car arrive on board late game. This time, I told the player the cops are armed with billy clubs but also have their pistol. They could choose whether to shoot the gang member or just try to beat up the punk. Surprisingly, no shots were fired this time around, but the officers did knock out a punk or two! The arrival of the police car always seems to light up the table. Players smile and pull out their cell phones to take pictures. Maybe I should find on that has actual flashing LED lights? Or maybe I should get a police siren sound effect on my phone and play it when the cops arrive? The thing a GM wants is for his or her players to have fun. Anything that adds to the thrill is worth looking into!

    The colorful Mohawks are one of my favorite gangs - most figs are modified from The Assault Group

Speaking of which, all the players said they had a great time. It is always satisfying to hear your players say that, and even more when they are excitedly recapping events in the game. As a rules designer, I love to hear players say, "Hey, I could use these rules for ____!" Mean Streets seems to get those comments more than any other system. It is a "toolkit" kind of system which can be accessorized and added to so that it fits a different period. I have run this same engine for French & Indian War frontier raids and even Pulp adventures in the South Seas. 

    In both runnings of the game, a swirling melee broke out in the back alley near the gas station

This was our first time coming to a convention and having several vendors already stocking our rules. So, although we had a small holder with a copy of the rules we were using on the table for our games, we did not have the whole line displayed like we have done at other conventions. We told players where they could buy the rules in the Exhibit Hall and encouraged them to to get it from them (even though we make less on wholesale to vendors than retail to players). As a company, we realize we can't be at every convention running games and then selling them off of our table. We need those vendors out there taking our rules to shows, putting them on their websites, and so on.

    The back alley rumble gets bloody as more gang members wade in with chains, clubs, and knives

One of our vendors told me that people must have had fun with Mean Streets because there was a "run" on the rules he had. That was satisfying to hear. Only a dozen people total participated in the two sessions of Gang Rumble in Lancaster, but you hope your game creates a "buzz" as they tell their friends and others how much fun they had. Based on vendor feedback, First Command Wargames' trip to Historicon was a success. Based on my players' comments, it was a knockout success!

    Mean Streets cover was drawn by one of my students - pick up a copy if you don't have one already!

A Different Kind of Battle Report

    Click here or on the photo to read my comic book style after action report on my Mean Streets game

I took my Mean Streets game up to Drums at the Rapids 2022 this past weekend. Both of my games were completely full and the players said they had a blast. I wasn't 100% sure introducing a new class of characters (Heroes) above Gang Bosses would work. I found that there is definitely enough granularity in the d6 system when paired with multiple modifiers that results were no preordained. There were heroes knocked out of action and there were heroes who were still up and fighting at the end of the game.

    The gangs begin to arrive and are met  in the streets by the Bexley Blockwatch in 'Invasion: Bexley'

In fact, more than one player seemed excited about creating new abilities (Skills in Mean Streets) for the heroes. I'd added a few for the scenario and don't think any were particularly over or under powered. My mind has been whirring with new ideas -- usually when I'm trying to sleep! Does anyone else have that problem? I seem to get a lot of game system ideas while I am lying in bed trying to shut my brain down and go to sleep. I thought of a character who can choose to abort an enemy attack (leaping backwards out of contact) by sacrificing one of their future actions. The player selects to do that immediately before the dice are rolled, giving them a chance to negate a badly disadvantageous melee roll. I also thought of one who can choose to attack while executing a Run action anywhere along the path of his movement. Normally, if you choose to Run (as opposed to Move) you may not attack. Pair that ability with Sprinter and you have a Quicksilver/Flash type character.

    The players controlling the street gangs got victory points for knocking out the scattered civilians

Another idea I had was for a character who plows into an enemy, receiving a bonus for movement in a straight line on the same turn as their attack. I know I should probably also come up with some heroes with missile type attacks. I am worried that it may be overwhelmingly powerful if others can't respond -- especially if they stick to the rooftops and hurl attacks at the characters below them. I don't know, though, maybe I just need to try it and it will work out.

    One of the hero abilities was being able to leap from a rooftop and land on an enemy below

Either way, the response to my games was positive enough that I will keep working on new hero abilities. I should also find a source for miniatures, too, while I am at it!

Indianola Mohawks close in on an unsuspecting Bexley citizen in their bid to take over the streets

By the way, summer is here, so what else is on my painting or project table? Number one was to finish gluing the shields and weapons on for my 28mm Republican Roman Saga army. I am going to do a first and mail it off to Ted Bender to be painted. I know it is so far down the list of me getting to it that I figured I would help Ted out and give him some business! I also have another batch of six 28mm Mongol horse archers for my Saga army. A few more batches and I will actually be finished with this army! An entirely mounted army tends to paint up a bit more slowly than foot ones! Now that it is summer, I also hope to be able to finish up a few odds and ends for my post-Apocalyptic games so I can begin running them for the Sunday night gang. So, it should be a busy summer for me, painting-wise. So, stay tuned...and check out my comic book style battle report on the game at Drums!

The Bucknuts Post-Apocalyptic Gang

    The Bucknuts, my newest post-Apocalyptic gang, scour the city ruins looking for supplies

A lot of my post-Apocalyptic groups have very unique looks. Whether the WW I inspired gas masks of F Troop to the cultist-like Blood Brotherhood. I wanted at least one or two of my gangs to look like ordinary citizens armed to survive the Aftermath. So, my 6th and final group (for now) would fit that mold. 

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The figure on the left was painted to be the leader - I love how the mirrored red sunglasses came out   

I believe most of the miniatures are 28mm Foundry, but since I bought them at flea markets, I honestly am not sure. I decided to go with an irregular look, but still wanted a unifying theme to them. So, I chose two themes! The first was that all of them are wearing camouflage pants or shirts of some sort. I painted the gamut from urban gray camo to woodland green to modern desert sand. I also threw in some olive drab, too, to give them a look like they ransacked an Army surplus store.

Love how the beer-gutted fig at left came out...just trying to figure out if he should be called Woody?

The other theme, as the title of this post suggests, was an OSU Buckeye one. I gave a few of the miniatures OSU Buckeye caps -- including the black "Woody Hayes" one. A couple also have the bright scarlet shirts on, which of course does wonders to supplement their camouflage! Their tendency to dress in OSU garb has led to their name of the "Bucknuts." I mean, you would have to be nuts to be sporting bright red apparel when staying hidden is a good key to survival in the post-Apocalyptic world!

    I was really happy with how all the camo patterns came out -- I can't even decide which I like best

I picked and chose from the figures I had to make sure these looked irregular -- from the black track suit one sports to the woman wearing police body armor. The ammo pouches and such were painted in a variety of suitable colors, from faded olive drab to tan to dark gray. The metal gun parts are painted with craft paints -- a Gun Metal base color and highlight of Pewter. A medium gray wood color on the gun stocks was also highlighted with a brighter color. All in all, I think this gang turned out good with its mix of military and civilian apparel. 

What's next? I have a handful of figures that I need to get done in time for my events I am running at Drums at the Rapids Friday night and Saturday morning, May 20-21. I'm throwing a twist into my Mean Streets game with masked vigilantes appearing out of the shadows to help the local block watch repel the street gangs. The playtest is in a week, but it is just a handful of figs, so that should be a problem. Stay tuned for more details!

Gangs Taking Over the Streets of CincyCon 2021

    A half-dozen Flippos surround a couple Eastmoor Kings while the Santanas get ready to wade in

Sporting their leather jackets and colors, rival gangs took to the Mean Streets to rumble for control of turf and put a beat-down on their rivals at CincyCon 2021, Oct. 22. The Franklinton Flippos, Indianola Mohawks, Hilltop Highlanders, and other gangs brought clubs, blades, chains, and bare fists to take control of businesses, steal cars, and help themselves to brews on a day of mayhem and urban warfare. Just as often, the gangs ignored their planned missions and threw themselves into spilling blood of their hated rivals when they felt they deserved a little payback.

    The Linden Daos martial arts gang gathers by a building splattered with graffiti by them previously

The last time I had been able to run my new gang warfare rules had been the previous Cincycon, 20 months ago in March of 2020. A long, Covid-induced layoff of cancelled conventions had kept me from taking my rules on the road to promote at gaming shows. I was actually scheduled to run it three weeks earlier at Advance the Colors 2021, but my dad's passing that week led me to cancelling both events. Here I was, though, nearly two years later at the same venue where I had done my final playtest prior to publishing the rules in summer of 2020. 

    I had 5 players for my four slots in the evening game, and six in the afternoon one...scheduling oops!

I planned small, shooting to run it in the afternoon and evening on Friday for four players each time. Cincycon's website and scheduling woes led to both games being oversold. I had six players for the afternoon game and five for the evening. Luckily, I had brought most of my gangs along so had spares that I could toss out on the table. The hardest part was where to place their starting areas, as the table was 4'x4' and each gang was supposed to start in a corner. My players would good sports and understood I was making changes on the fly to keep from turning people who had registered away. 

   Jeffe, El Lobo, and Julio of the Santanas spot rival gang members and get ready to rumble!

It felt good to be running games at a convention, again. I felt bad that the stresses of the last few weeks had caused me to forget that I hadn't done certain things to prepare. Gone were the cards with pictures of the gang member that I'd created but forgot to print out. That meant I had to scrap the Special Abilities for the gang members and ran all figures as "base" Gang Bosses, Warchiefs, or Punks. Also gone were the gang member's names I planned to write with the Micropen on the edge of each miniature's base. Sigh. At least the player's didn't seem to notice or mind that missing touches. Everyone said they had fun and enjoyed the rumble.

Franklinton Flippos stalk past Jack & Benny's Old Time Diner intent upon Friday night mayhem

The planned scenario had each gang -- the Flippos, Highlanders, Santanas, and Mohawks -- starting in their respective corners. They were given a mission to achieve that was diagonally across the table. It might be stealing a car from the Shell station's service department, beating up the owner of Jack & Benny's Old Time Diner to get put on the "take," or similar missions. In addition, each was given two secondary missions. One was to give some payback to a rival gang who'd recently put a beat-down on them. That target gang was the one to each player's left. Gang members were also supposed to "tag" buildings with their gang logo to get the word out on the streets that they were there.

    Patrick and Andrew's gangs mixed it from turn one, both ending bloody and battered

In the first game, most players made an attempt to complete their missions. I doubled up on one mission, and gave the sixth player a different mission. Both had their objectives across the table from their starting points. In the evening game, all but one of the five players abandoned their missions and immediately barrelled into melee with each other. The Hilltop Highlanders ignored the provocations of the Santanas and continued to move through the streets till they arrived at Jack & Benny's Old Time Diner. Poor Benny (or was it Jack?) had no chance as he was mobbed by the street toughs from the west side of Columbus. Josephine, who was playing the Highlanders, scored double the points of her more belligerent fellow players who simply beat the snot out of each other instead.

    The bitter end of Archie of the Eastmoor Kings, encircled by both the Flippos and Santanas

I like to give players some choices when setting up a game. I did leave out the "home turf" element that I sometimes throw in. Often I will task a gang with the secondary mission of protecting their home turf (a designated building near where they start) from being tagged or harassed by rival gangs. This will tend to force players to consider splitting up their gangs. Each gang has a Gang Boss and a Warchief, so players are given the resources for doing so if they desire. Most of the gangs in both games kept themselves in a fairly cohesive group, this time around. So, I will probably add that back in the next time I run it.

Santanas pay a visit to the kiosks -- are they looking for some smutty magazines or some robbery?

This game also featured the unveiling of my new "streets" for Mean Streets -- vinyl 1' square floor tiles that I'd purchased this summer that conveyed the look of a faded asphalt street. The mottled gray pattern looked good, I thought with all the buildings, scatter terrain, and miniatures on it. I got some nice compliments on the look from players and passers by alike. Yes, vinyl floor tiles are heavy, but I thought they looked better than the charcoal gray felt I'd been using and a lot better than my scratch-built MDF concrete squares I had previously placed buildings atop. The tiles were the "peel and stick" type that Jenny attached black felt to the bottom of to make them sit well on the tabletop and stay in place. All in all, I was pleased with both the look and functionality of the new tabletop.

Flippos check out a cool convertible before sauntering down the street to engage in some mischief

As intended, the rules were taught quickly and questions were at a bare minimum. Mean Streets was written to be a fast-play rules set that is easy to learn for a convention game. The system allows you to tailor your gang how you like and individualize the figures with special abilities. There is a campaign system included in the rules, if players want their gang members to grow in experience and become tougher as the games progress.

Flippos jump a couple of Eastmoor Kings who they suspect of messing with their building 'tags'

I hope to run more Mean Streets games, but likely will not be doing so at any conventions over the next few months. School has been keeping me ridiculously busy (as usual), and my Dad's passing and helping my mom deal with it has been consuming a lot of my free time. So, I would love to hear from anyone who purchases Mean Streets ($20 print, $10 PDF) and how their games are progressing. It might give this stressed gamer a chance to live vicariously through your gaming opportunities. The links to purchase Mean Streets are on the First Command Wargames website.

    The Santanas and the Hilltop Highlanders mix it up when the two gangs bump into each other

I hope you enjoyed the pictures of the gangs and their rumbles! Feel free to comment either on my blog or on the Mean Streets: War in Gang-infested Cities facebook group. Hope to hear from people soon!

Mean Streets is back! Demo games ran at Drums

    The Santanas and the Mohawks rumble in the Mean Streets of Columbus at my demo at Drums 2021

Prior to this weekend's Drums at the Rapids convention at Fort Meigs in Perrysburg, OH, my last convention I attended was Cincycon 2020. At that con, I ran the final playtest for my Mean Streets rules. It is only fitting that I ran demo games of my gang warfare rules in my first convention after COVID-19. In the ensuring year-plus off, the rules were published and are now available for purchase in print and PDF download.

    The Indianola Mohawks cruise past the graffiti-spattered streets, ready for a fight

Although COVID restrictions are easing, some were still in place - including a 4-player limit to games being run. I set up a game featuring four of my newer gangs that I have painted up -- the Indianola Mohawks, the Santanas, the Franklinton Flippos, and the Eastmoor Kings. Each gang had its own separate primary mission to complete on the opposite side of the board from their starting point. They also had identical secondary missions of "tagging" buildings with their gang logo. I had printed up little foam circles with each gang's logo that they could lean up against the building they were tagging. They were even permitted to come along and tag over a rival gang's logo! And finally, the standard victory points for knocking out rival gang members (plus negative points for those of your own gang knocked out) were in place. 

    A look at the urban tabletop I set up for my demos at Drums at the Rapids

I was running the game on the Friday afternoon session and the Saturday morning session. Normally, Drums features evening sessions, too, but COVID restrictions eliminated those. I like to schedule the final Friday session and first Saturday session when I go to cons to run games to ensure I have to set up my game only once (and can leave it set up overnight on Friday). I had a full table both sessions, along with great, fun-loving players who certainly got into completing their missions. I also normally add a secondary mission of double points for knocking out gang members of a particularly bitter rival on the tabletop. This is to encourage them to "rumble" and not just run around the table tagging buildings and avoiding the other gangs. I'd left that out this time, which I personally think was a mistake. 

    The Franklinton Flippos spy a Mustang that looks ripe for ripping off from the Shell Station!

In both sessions there were gangs who minimized the fighting and instead focused on stealing the car, going on the beer run, or roughing up the restaurant owner (to get put on the "protection money" take). So, next time, the rivalries will be back in play. Of course, if this were a campaign game between players in a regular club, those rivalries will come about naturally. You will want revenge to beat down those low lifes who roughed up your gang members last time! So, next time I run it at a convention (currently scheduled for Advance the Colors and Cincycon in October of 2021) I will put those rivalry bonus points back in place for knocking out members of certain other gangs. 

    Julio, Gang Boss of the Santanas, leads Ramona and El Lobo (two Punks) down the street

I was pleased to see how quickly rules explanation went. Mean Streets is meant to be a fast, easy-to-learn system that lets you get started playing at the convention or club game right away. I gave each player six gang members, a Gang Boss, Warchief (second in command), and four "Punks" (normal rank-in-file). There are a number of Skills they can be customized with, so I gave each Gang Boss, Warchief, and one Punk a skill. The other three had none to minimize the learning curve in what would be most players' first games, I assumed. Once you've played the rules, you could easily handle more than six member gangs. However, I have found in convention games, it is better to err on the side of simplicity and small than go too big.

    Kira, Julius, and Iggy jump a member of the Eastmoor Kings as he trespasses on their turf

The games were, in the words of one of my players, a "hoot" and there was a lot of laughter and ribbing as one gang put the beat down on another. My favorite moment of the two games was when a husband and wife team played in the same session. The hubby sent one gang member across the board by himself into his the territory of his wife's gang. He confessed they had discussed a "truce" beforehand, knowing I love to run free-for-all type gangs. However, when his wife saw this gang member show up in her turf, she had her gang jump the poor Punk and he was quickly knocked out of action. This started a gang war as Wifey put the beat-down on Hubby. A third gang joined in, and it was a wild and woolly melee that raged across one street corner for most of the game.

    The Franklinton Flippos move out from their turf near O'Brian's Pot O' Gold Motel

 

I was really happy with how the miniatures and buildings and other terrain looked on the tabletop. I still have tweaks that I want to do to my urban battlefield, but I really like my Sarissa Precision 28mm MDF buildings. They look perfect, and provide a variety of settings for missions, such as Wallace's Brewpub lets gangs go on "Beer Runs" or Sams Quickie Mart lets another initiate a gang member by having them steal something from the shelves. Lately, I have been buying Terrain Crate plastic/resin terrain from the local game stores to stock the interiors of the buildings. This will only give me more ideas and options for gang missions to perform.

    The Eastmoor Kings move past the kiosks on the roadside, looking for some rivals' heads to beat in

On Friday night, the Eastmoor Kings (controlled by Jim W from our HMGS Great Lakes group) narrowly won the session, scoring 24 points (edging out the Indianola Mohawks and their 23 points). Saturday, the Franklinton Flippos (controlled by Mike S from our Sunday night gaming group) parlayed their intimidating looking creepy clown masks into a comfortable victory with 22 points. It was really fun to see the miniatures that I had spent so much time on and tried to breathe so much personality into interacting on the tabletop. I have named each miniature. Players were given a roster with pictures so they knew who was Sid, Iggy, or Julius from the Mohawks, or Julio or Cruz from the Santanas. I am contemplating attaching something to the base of the figure itself to help identify them, but still not sure about that. I normally don't like figures running around the tabletop with labels on them. So, it needs to be somewhat unobtrusive if I decide to do it.

    A very busy street corner in the Saturday session saw three gangs rumbling in front of the brewpub

In evaluating the missions, I think I made the Flippo's "Steal a Car" too easy with my tabletop setup. Both players succeeded. The other three missions succeeded at about a 50% rate. So, in my opinion, they were "just right" -- not too easy. I will adjust for future missions. Other tweaks that I would like to make with future runnings of Mean Streets demos include jazzing up my streets themselves. I have an asphalt-looking gray-black felt groundcloth I use for my games. However, I may purchase additional lengths of it and paint on yellow road stripes. My center medians with flowers look okay, but can't carry the street look themselves, I feel. I certainly need more of my sidewalks, made from gray ballast flocked MDF boards. I should have a good variety of them in more standardized sizes so that building blocks line up to create streets better.

    In their first rumble on the tabletop, the Indianola Mohawks proved they were up for the fight!

I know I am probably being too picky, but part of any miniatures game is the "Wow!" factor of an excellently staged tabletop. I think I am partway there, especially with the Sarissa buildings and their graffiti-splashed walls. I also need some more scatter. The dumpsters and the gas pumps and various WizKids pieces look great. I need more, though. I created some street lights that I forgot to pack in my boxes, and also need to paint up those electrical poles I have obtained from the local train store. Plus, my friend Tim P sold me a bunch of cool resin pieces like newspaper vending machines, trash bins, and more that need to be finished and added to the tabletop scenery.

Close up of one of the foam circles I created to mark spots gang members (like Ramona) had "tagged"

Despite all of this to do, I was very pleased with how the game looked on the tabletop. I was even  more pleased with how it ran. Both games flowed quickly and smoothly and finished in a reasonable amount of time. No one seemed to feel cheated that it finished too early, and no one looked like it was dragging on and on. Good sign! So, if you are interested in recreating wars in the streets between rival gangs, I encourage you to check out my rules. They're only $20 print, or $10 PDF, and include LOTS of background information. 

    Jenny, playing the Santanas, sends a gang member into Wallace's Brewpub to steal some beer

I hope you enjoy the photos, and feel free to comment on here with questions. If you are on Facebook, join the page I created for the rules, here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/403568800749744

   Manana of the Santanas shows no fear taking on Julius and Iggy of the Mohawks

Warchief Archie leads a contingent of the Eastmoor Kings, tagging buildings at they roam the streets

    

All caught up on the news, the Frankinton Flippos set out to bust some heads on the streets

    And it looks like the Flippos have found a fight with the Eastmoor Kings behind Wallace's brewpub!

    Manana, Jeffe, and Cruz of the Santanas prowl the streets looking for a fight

    Mike ran the Flippos on Saturday, while Heidi in purple ran the Mohawks, and Jenny the Santanas

    Close up of one of the biggest rumbles of the weekend with the Mohawks, Santanas & Kings