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Mark Collins
United Kingdom
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Full article here - http://www.grimtreegames.com/grimblog/?p=184
Hello all, I had the chance to finally play our demo copy of letter from whitechapel at Wigan Wargamers games club. A very good club with very nice people, more info here http://www.grimtreegames.com/grimforum/viewtopic.php?f=49&t=....
I have wanted to play this game for ages, but at the same time dreading it. I did a video on youtube about the concept of the game and how you would play it, as looking at a board of numbers looks confusing. The game breakdown video is here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XO9kEqze7rs if you need more info on how you actually play the game. When you get down to it, it’s a very good game, but the pressure is on for the player playing Jack.
The idea of the game is Jack has to pick a hide out from one of the many numbered circles on the board. The Police and Wretched (a politically correct term for prostitute I think) tokens are placed on the board and moved around by the players, Jack chooses the right moment to kill a Wretched pawn, then the police have to track Jack down before he gets back to his hideout. They can move and look in adjacent circles for clues (Jack has to say if he has been there since the last murder and put a marker on the board) or make an arrest. If they make an arrest on a circle Jack is on they win. On his turn if he hasnt been caught Jack can move by secretly noting down an adjacent location to show that’s where is has moved to. Once he gets to his hideout that night is over. You start again and have to last 4 nights. Sounds simple.
With this in mind, I was trying to work out the best place for my hide out. My thinking was, too central and my tracks would be easily seen, as there was a lot more chance of the police moving over this area and searching. So, my cunning plan was to have a the hide out to the edge of the map, less chance of the police encountering me. But, as I found in my first turn, there is a downside to that. You have less access to the board and the Wretched figures. You don’t want to kill one and have to go right over the board to get home, so I went for a localish kill. Then it occurred to me, I cant get home too soon, if I make it home in 3 turns they know I am very close to the first murder. So to confuse them I stretched this out as long as I could buy circling the hide out. Eventually I had to go the hide out as the police were coming closer and closer to the scene of the crime. So, night 1, not a great start but I had put up a smoke screen, at this point they had no idea where I was.
Second turn, not so good. I spotted my mistake of the first turn and decided the kill had to be further away, so went for a central location. Because of the last turn most of the police were around the last kill site, so I had to lure them away. I picked a target near the centre then started my escape. The very first move I made I decided to use an alley token. This would mean I could move to a space next to any adjacent block. I thought this was a good idea as I could move away then easily disappear from that location. However, due to it being a small block the police worked out that I could be in one of 2 locations. No problem I thought, as I could out run them. Using good strategy the police brought their pieces up from where they were after the first night and started to surround me, then the ones that were near me just chased me down, getting clue after clue following my trail until they made the arrest. Using the alley was a mistake as it gave a good indication as to where I was.
My thinking was to get distance between my self and the murder site as soon as possible, but I think the trick is, you don’t have to. You can be on the same circle as the police if they move onto you and you are still safe, the only danger is if they make an arrest. They will only do that if there are pretty certain you are there or they loose the opportunity to look for clues (you can only do one of the other in a Police tokens turn). It think it’s a case of holding your nerve and not panicking and dashing to the hide out, which I did. I know, I’m a wuss.
I like the game, a lot. The first game for Jack is hard though, well, it was me. If I play it again there are a lot of mistakes that I would not make again. The problem is there are so many choices that need to be made by Jack, each one critical to not getting caught.
That’s not to say it’s a bad game, its very good, might just need a few plays to master. There are extra rules to make things easier for either Jack or the Police if its looking a bit one sided after a few plays, which helps the balance.
Anywho, more games to play, until next time.
Mark
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