The Double Cross AAR

One thing I've found when running a game is that the more unknowns I have for the players, the more fun everyone seems to have. I think that is a big reason why I'm drawn to the games with card interrupts, like DMH and TCW.

For this particular game of The Chicago Way I really wanted a huge surprise right off the bat for the bad guys. A real "What the heck is going on!?" moment.

The scenario I came up with was that the Capone gang was to meet an empty truck at the Wrigley's Building and load it up with boxes of Canadian Whiskey for distribution in another part of town. The twist was that unknown to the Capone gang, the truck that was going to pick up the whiskey was going to actually be filled with police officers and a federal agent!

This scenario also allowed me to try out something that I've wanted to do for quite a while now - use a blue light to simulate night time. I think it worked out brilliantly and definitely added to the "feel" of the game. I do need to get another light though :)

For the police they had 3 officers and 1 agent - Eliot Ness - hidden inside the Wrigley's truck.

Hidden across the street inside the garage of the Sinclair Gas Station was another Police vehicle, again with 4 figures in it, 3 officers and 1 agent.

Here is the gas station in the moonlight.

And the last two agents, Malone and Stone, hiding behind the fence in the alley behind the gas station. The perfect spot to watch the Wrigley's Building from.

For the bad guys, the Capone gang had 4 gangsters positioned inside the ground floor, along with Capone himself, as well as the bookkeeper (the cowering figure with the briefcase!).

There were bonus victory points for the police if they could arrest Capone and or the bookkeeper - the Police winning hand to hand combat with these models would put them under arrest.

Meanwhile, outside the building had 5 members of the Capone gang keeping a watchful eye out for the Police. Two guys, one with a tommy gun, watched the truck entrance.

Two more members of the gang, again one with a tommy gun, took positions on the outside loading dock, utilizing all the crates and boxes as cover if needed. You can also see the last member of the gang hiding out in the second floor dock door.

And looking from the other direction.

This ended up being an absolutely brilliant sniper position and this figure without a doubt had an incredible Hollywood-esque moment you'll see shortly.

I actually allowed the player running the Capone gang to place the Wrigley's truck wherever he wanted within 12 inches of the center of the Wrigley's Building itself. Well, of course he put it right in the center of the  building - and really why wouldn't he!

The look on his face was priceless! Since the police had the element of surprise, the four officers in the truck got to activate before the Capone gang could even grasp what was happening

Eliot Ness moved out from behind the wheel of the truck and took two shots at the gangster by the crates of alcohol. Luckily he only took one hit. The other three officers jumped out of the truck and immediately went into hand to hand combat with the gangsters on and around the dock. Frank Nitti absolutely annihilated the officer he was fighting, another officer just barely took out the gangster he was fighting, and the last group actually tied their rolls so they stayed locked in hand to hand to start the next turn.

Highest initiative card went to the Police car that was hidden at Sinclair's - another "What!?" moment for my Capone player! The car made it's way out of the garage and headed toward the Wrigley's Building, but it was when it was just about to start its third movement that the gangster on the second floor used a quick shot to attempt to shoot the driver. His first attempt actually failed, but the Capone gang controlled the photographer, right below him in front of the dock, and that allowed him another try - and what's he get? Natural 20! The only thing that could have made it better is if the car could have crashed or flipped!

With the driver dead, the other three officers chose to exit the car when their activation came up - it would have been interesting to see what would have happen if the agent in the passenger seat tried to take over driving the car and continued into the building.

Malone and Stone made their way out from behind the fence and hid behind some cover in the parking lot of the gas station taking shots at the gangsters across the street.

More gun fire and chaos occurred on Main St. with both officers and gangsters falling to the hail of bullets.

Gangsters view looking at Sinclair's gas station. This guy did end up taking Malone out of action, but got his two activations later with both Stone and the officer from the police car putting under fire markers on him in a fury of bullets.

The gangster with the rifle made a jump from the second floor dock, and snuck around the corner to hide behind some barrels, trading fire with officers across the street.

The gangster outside on the dock made his way around to help with taking out the police inside the Wrigley's Building.

After several turns of back and forth gun fire and with the heat really getting turned up inside the Wrigley's Building, Capone and the bookkeeper made a dash to get outside to a getaway car parked next to Klapp Radio and Electric.

Frank Nitti helped run interference to any possible officers trying to stop Capone from getting to the getaway car.

Capone and the bookkeeper made it to a getaway car and ended up escaping! A super fun game, made even more with some really cinematic moments. Looking forward to trying this one again, but I'm going to have to give all the models names - gangster and police officer doesn't work well when trying to write about it :)

One last final photo of every figure that was painted to 100% completion has finally been based! 44 figures - what's horrifying though is that I still have roughly 20 more pulp/gangster figures to paint :(

Still, super happy about getting them all done and ready for some games.

As always, thanks for looking!

Ivor