Geezers! Wages Snatch Part Two

So, the Capri makes a mess of the turn and slams into the wall. We decided that the car was a write off, and Soft Eddie needed to get hold of a replacement vehicle. This wasn't strictly under the rules, but the car rules in Geezers are a bit off, imo, and just throw up too many bizarre results.

Mad Harry took Stan the security guard hostage. The rest of the gang jumped out too, and made their way towards the security van. 

Meanwhile, one of the WPCs made an effort to talk down Johnny. But they don't call him 'nostrils' for nothing, and he shot her down in cold blood.

For some reason, the local force never got another volunteer for undercover security van work.

Eddie managed to get the door of the new getaway car open. Seven blaggers and three bags of swag in a mini? No problem.

Denny and Marty grabbed the remaining bags of money from the van and then made their way towards the alleyway behind the factory.

In the previous game, played on a very similar table, there was a back way out of the factory grounds, which I had covered by sending a couple of policeman to block off an escape. I totally forgot about it, this game, and so the gang decided to leave Soft Eddie to it, and all make their way down the back alley. Which, in any case, was the most direct route to the gang's table edge. Poor policing.

The police tried to talk Mad Harry down, and despite them being unarmed, and Harry having a hostage...

...he bottled it. What a muppet. Sad Harry, more like.

Meanwhile, the rest of the gang headed for the alleyway.

The PCs also got their hands on Soft Eddie who gave up quickly, too.

We decided that now he was liberated, the security guard would join the police's side. So he rushed off towards the factory with the PC.

The gang made their way down the alleyway. Movement in the game is random. You get 2d6 movement points whether you're legging it, walking, or sneaking. So, the getaway was pretty pedestrian.

Realising their tactical error, the detectives' jag did a U turn and headed for the end of the alley.

Getting there just in time. Callan shouted for the villains to give themselves up. Marty did, dropping his swag, while Arthur and Denny disappeared off  the edge of the table with a grand, each. Reggie decided to go down fighting.

Meanwhile, keeping their cool, the security guard and the two PCs decided to look for clues. They each managed to grab a clue, which could turn out to be vital evidence if they could get any of the villains to court.

So, Reggie did go down fighting. 

And trapped in the alleyway, hampered by Mr Smith's slow movement, it was only a matter of time before Johnny gave himself up, too.

So, the villains got away with 2 grand, had one killed, and four arrested. The police meanwhile suffered one fatality. Of the three bits of evidence collected, two turned out to be decent clues. 

In the first game we played, four police got killed and three villains, so that was a lot more blood thirsty. Of the three villains captured two were inexplicably let off for lack of evidence, and Mad Harry got ten years.

This game, Soft Eddie got released after the police interview. Despite being caught red-handed trying to break into a mini, there wasn't enough evidence to go on. Marty, caught with a bag of swag running up the road, went down for fifteen years, as did Johnny, cornered holding a shotgun to the local factory owner's head. And Mad Harry's lawyer managed to get him out of the police station quicker than you can say 'travesty of justice.'

So, under Geezer's strange victory points system: the Villains won 11 points: 2 for swag, 1 for killing the PC, 4 coz two of them escaped, 6 coz two of them got off, and minus 2 coz two of them went down.

And the police got 5 points: 2 for killing a slag, minus 1 for the dead PC, minus 2 coz two villains got off, and 6 for sending two villains to jail.

Very fun game but some hard to fathom or sketchy rules around the edges. Think I might make a few house rules and have some more goes.

Geezers! Wages Snatch

I've been playing a bit of Geezers! Shut it!, playing the Midgate Wages Snatch scenario. I find the rules a bit sketchy. It covers a lot of the key bits of the genre very well, but misses out some basic stuff. I might have a go at expanding it out a bit. A weird thing, the rules neglect to even mention stuff like who goes when. I've assumed that they've assumed we would assume it's a standard sort of one side moves everything once, then the next side moves everything once, sort of format, but that's not explicit.

These are the geezers, Mad Harry's gang from the scenario in the book. They've been staking out a wages deliver to a local factory and are confident of the routine. Two of the boys will be hiding in the factory when the van arrives, while the rest of them will be ready to pounce from their trusty Capri (it's a transit in the scenario, but a brown Capri is extra 70s).

Unknown to Mad Harry (due to a random roll based on the respective Nouse of the two sides), however, DI Callan has got word that something a bit naughty might be going down. He has replaced the two security van guards with police officers. He will be driving around the area in his jag, with his two plain-clothed, pistol-armed sidekicks and there will also be a patrol car in the area with a couple of truncheon-wielding PCs.

Mr Smith, the factory owner, will be waiting in the factory at the crack of dawn, for the wages to arrive, and will have the two birds from accounts with him. There will also be a security guard at the factory. For some reason, the two fake delivery guards have disguised themselves as WPCs, to throw the villains off the scent that they are actually PCs. The real WPCs are of course back at the station putting the tea on.

Not wanting the area to feel suspiciously quiet, Callan has sent one PC off on his normal beat.

Right on time the security van arrives at the factory...

...and the guards get out.

Johnny 'Nostrils' and Arthur have been hiding in the factory grounds waiting for this moment.

Meanwhile, Mr Smith and the birds from accounts don't suspect a thing.

Two uniformed PCs are in a police car, waiting for the alarm to be raised.

While Callan and two more detectives are taking the jag for a spin. 'Blimey, Guv, 92p for a gallon of petrol. I remember when it was 4 and 6.'

The villains seeing the security van pull into the factory, pull down their balaclavas and start the Capri.

Forgot to mention, the villain player leaves a bunch of clues around the place, that the police can bother to pick up. Some of these are red herrings, but the good clues will help with bringing to justice any villains that they manage to apprehend.

In our first game, three villains were arrested, but two of them got off scot free, despite four police ending up dead and a couple of good clues being found. Only Mad Harry went down, and that was for a ten year stretch. The next scenario in the book is about springing someone from custody, so that works well, narratively.

So, Johnny and Arthur surprise the security van guards. Had they been normal neutral figures then they would be obliged to do what the robbers tell them. But, as they're undercover police, they're not. So, they attempt to arrest the robbers.

Meanwhile, the villains on their way to the blag see the beat officer, and can't resist...

...a quick hit and run. This isn't really covered in the rules, but was too good to resist.

The security van guards' arrest attempt wasn't successful. One gets hit by a shotgun blast and the other is forced to back away.

Then Johnny takes Mr Smith hostage. Having a hostage is pretty decent under the rules. It's much more likely that any police trying to shoot you will hit your hostage instead.

And Arthur gets the first bag of loot from the van. We played there are three bags, each with a grand in it. In used oncers, probably. One bag max per person.

The plan was for the Capri to steam into the factory grounds, pick up the rest of the money, and then make a swift getaway. Unfortunately, trying to take the tight gateway at 30 mph, it runs out of control and smashes into the wall.

End of

Part One

Masked Faction

I've finished a bunch of bebalaclavaed minis which I plan to use as a faction for Living on the Frontline. I'll probably call them the Bishopston and Horfield Popular Front, or something like that. (Not to be confused with the Horfield and Bishopston People's Front.)

Some of them look a bit urban guerilla, but some look more like criminals pulling a bank job, so much so that we were gonna play LotFL with them yesterday, but ended up playing Geezers, Shut It! instead.

They're from a bunch of different manufacturers but ended up looking pretty cohesive, together.

These guys are from Mike Bravo Miniatures, specially designed from Winter of '79, LotFL, and definitely look a bit more militaristic than the others. There should be more coming, in the same range, too.

These are from Crossover Miniatures, at minibits.net. They might look a bit modern for '79, but you can probably get away with it, when they're in with a bunch of other minis. Not sure I like the idea of one bloke walking around with his hands in the air, but this mini came in handy as a surrender marker in Geezers.

These are proper Geezers from Killer B. Again, the blokes with money bags don't really fit with LotFL, but they were great in Geezers for marking the villains who were holding the loot.

These are new from Crooked Dice.

This bloke is from Matchlock Miniatures. I bought a bunch of minis from them thinking they'd all be good for this faction, but I only ended up with one balaclava head, so will be looking out for more balaclava heads.