Lead Up
A few days before the start of the game I was thinking of a way to spice it up a bit. I had many ideas, but the prominent one was to have a secret character responsible for choosing The Godfather. The unknown brains behind the mafia's operation, finger in every pie, connections everywhere, that sort of thing. My random generation system came up with
Sasaki Kojiro; he was then given a lengthy PM explaining the details of his job. He had to do several things; 1. Choose the Godfather before finding out the Godfather's choice of Mafiosi, 2. Choose the Detective, (the secret investigative service around these parts is very corrupt heheh) 3. Predict the person the detective will investigate each turn and mess the investigation up, e.g. the detective picks Bob, Sasaki picks Bob, Bob is innocent but the detective thinks he is guilty, (I shall say at this point that there were never any 'suspicious characters', I simply made that up so that when Sasaki successfully wrecked the detectives investigation on an innocent there would be no questions) 4. Promote the Mafia and defend them when they are under fire. Oh yeah, and another feature of Sasaki's role was that if the Mafia chose to try to kill him, they would instead end up killing someone else by accident.
Sasaki Kojiro picked
GeneralHankerchief as the Godfather. Here is his PM to me:
Originally Posted by
Sasaki Kojiro
My choice is GeneralHankerchief of course. Knows the game and is universally liked.
I think you should tell him that my role is "honorable citizen" and I can't be corrupted by the mafia. The stranger role doesn't really work if I'm one of the mafia.
Sasaki
Next, he chose
Ignoramus as the detective. At the time, I had absolutely no idea why (he gave no reason, and I expected him to pick someone like
The_Spartan (no offense TS, but you gotta admit, some of the things you did in Mafia III were a bit iffy) but I was to find out soon.
GeneralHankerchief chose
Cowhead418 and
GoreBag to be his grunts.
Originally Posted by
GeneralHankerchief
Interesting, very interesting... this first PM I send you will probably determine the game. I need to think carefully now...
I'll go with
Cowhead418 as my first choice; he's a reliable mafioso and knows how to play. However the villagers may see through this deception, so
Gorebag is my other choice. He's a total wild card and I know he won't fail me.
The game was set to begin. Unfortunately, however, it didn't.
Day 1
Cowhead418 kills nobody.
GoreBag kills nobody.
Ignoramus investigates
Sasaki Kojiro.
Sasaki Kojiro provides alibi for
Cowhead418.
Before I say anything else, well done for investigating Sasaki first round, Ignoramus, but unfortunately part of his role is that he is innocent to investigations.
Anyway, the game had begun and did not have what I would call 'a good start'. Neither of the Mafia got their kills in on time, and as a result nobody could be executed. This was very annoying. I remember talking to GH in the chat before posting the kills, and he shared my anxiety. In the meantime, however, I decided that my game of Mafia wasn't complete without a chief of police like Beirut in GH's version, and so I decided to take advantage of the lack of kills to have the people vote for a police chief instead. This person would not be able to vote but to make up for it could not be killed by the mafia and got to choose the executions.
At first a lot of people voted for themselves. GH came up with a small alibi by asking what had happened with the lack of kills. Then, however, Sasaki began a campaign to put his 'puppet' in the police chief's hat by saying that he deserved a fun role of some kind (nice one Sasaki
). Nobody seemed to pay attention at first, except GH who voted for himself. When people did listen, Sasaki's strategy seemed to have the wrong effect as he got 3 votes for himself in quick succession.
Orb tried to start a mini-bandwagon on
The Spartan based on the fact that he was unhelpful, but Sasaki quickly blasted it out of the field. Then, however GH got a landslide of 9 votes and so Sasaki had done his job to a tee. GH was not only the Godfather, but also the new chief of police. Talk about corruption. I think it would have actually made a lot of sense for Ignoramus to put himself forwards and reveal himself at this point. Had everyone known he was the detective
and he was immune to mafia kills, the villagers would have been at a huge advantage. I think he just wasn't around during that vote, unfortunately for the villagers, as he didn't vote but picked up on it afterwards by saying "Wouldn't it be good if GH was the detective?" or something along those line.
Day 2
Cowhead418 kills
Krazilec.
GoreBag kills
Leet Eriksson.
Ignoramus investigates
UltraWar.
Sasaki Kojiro provides alibi for
Cowhead418.
At the start of this round I was glad to see that the Mafia didn't forget their kills for the second time. Leet Eriksson and Krazilec were the first to go. It was a great shame about LE, as this was his first mafia game and he seemed to have been looking forward to it. Sasaki was the first to vote and instantly began a seemingly random bandwagon on
Reenk Roink. Orb voted for himself, and several other people voted for
discovery1. A lot of random bandwagons were going on here. But then
Sigurd Fafnesbane stepped up with this post:
Originally Posted by
Sigurd Fafnesbane
Bad, bad MAFIA!!!!
Killing Leet in the first round… This was his first MAFIA.
Someone trying to frame you disc?
Anyway;
Vote: Reenk Roink
there will be no list
making him an easy target for a bandwagon.
AggonyDuck also asked the people to vote for him, and this annoyed me a little, but in hindsight it was probably better that he went like that than being killed off by inactivity as others did. This attracted a few votes, but ultimately it was GH who turned the tide in that round:
Originally Posted by
GeneralHankerchief
Now the only question is: "who would want to frame Disco?" To this, I look to the chat. Killing off his fellow viking (Leet Eriksson) in the first round is a truly diabolical move, and a perfect alibi. Sort of a rite of passage, as he himself went through it. Thus, the Chief of Police's personal opinion (NOT A VOTE) is that Sigurd Fafnesbane should suffocate for this.
It was a very clever move for GH to avoid bandwagoning at this stage, but rather create his own bandwagon with made up evidence that others would soon swallow whole. This single post would secure his strategy later on in the game and coupled with his one-kill-per-turn agenda would hope to create a concrete alibi. Congratulations to
B_Ray for being the first to vote for him, by the way. It was probably the closest round so far, with only 5 votes for Sigurd, 3 for Reenk Roink, and 2 votes each for quite a few people. Sigurd went down with nothing near a majority vote. GH wanted to do the execution by dropping Sigurd into a pit of lava slowly while interrogating him, but I wouldn't allow it at this stage in the game so instead he settled on sucking the air out of a room with Sigurd in it.
Day 3
Cowhead418 kills
Hiji.
GoreBag kills nobody.
Ignoramus investigates nobody.
Sasaki Kojiro provides alibi for/evidence against nobody.
I kill
AggonyDuck.
So why did only one person remember their PM? Was it because I hadn't sent them a PM telling them that they needed to? Whatever happened, it seemed like the first round pattern was returning. At least Cowhead killed somebody, and voting was allowed to take place. AD had been asking to be lynched for a while now and so I killed him myself instead of letting the villagers waste a lynching on him. I'm happy with this, as it let me throw in a super-cool kill (turn to page 6 to see it) which I had been wanting to do for quite a while.
Sasaki to the rescue again, as he immediately created reasoning that would 'prove' GH's innocence for the rest of the game. Although GH assures me that the first time there was only one kill it was only an accident, it was to become a strategy that would play a big part in winning the game for them. Of course, Sigurd dies, there's one kill in all rounds after it, he must be mafia right? And if GH was the one who started the bandwagon, he must be innocent, surely? Sasaki seemed to pick up on this right away and used the logic to defend GH right to the end. I shall say at this point that throughout the game, GH was constantly telling me about how glad he was that he had persuaded Sasaki and even that it was the best achievement he had made in the entire game. Now you know, GH. He had you thoroughly fooled. This was also good from my point of view, as it would mean that GH would leave Sasaki alive, and so I wouldn't have to resort to changing the names on the kills. Sasaki then started a bandwagon on B_Ray, which took in many people and ultimately led to his execution. Interestingly, he didn't even vote for B_Ray, but doc_bean instead.
When I saw what happened next, though, I buried my head in my hands.
Ignoramus had revealed himself, claiming B_Ray was in the mafia without having even investigated him. You had so much to offer to the villagers later in the game, Ignoramus, why did you throw it all away? This, I think, was one of, if not the biggest blow the villagers took in the game. Dangerously for the mafia, he also named GH, but without claiming to have evidence and at the same time claiming the Sasaki was innocent from a previous investigation. GH made a clever post in which he defended Sigurd and BR but at the same time implied that if Sigurd was in the mafia there was no way GH could be as well. He also defended Sigurd on the basis that one of the mafia may have gotten his kills in late. At this stage it was still an accident, and so this statement may have been a bit blunderous at the time, but was very effective later when it was certain that the mafia hadn't just got the kills in late.
The bandwagon of B_Ray was huge, with 11 votes for him and only a single vote for anybody else (note:
discovery1's vote for
Ice does not count
). As per GH's request, B_Ray was executed by being pushed off a cliff.
Day 4
Cowhead418 kills nobody.
GoreBag kills
Ignoramus.
Ignoramus got home from the lynching as usual and headed home.
In GB's kill, there was a very obvious error but nobody seemed to pick up on it. I don't think it would have been particularly good evidence anyway.
Here we see the start of the great mafia strategy to kill only one person per turn. Sasaki began the voting again, with a large analysis. This analysis was done in such a way that all 3 other members of the mafia were protected by its alibi, although he himself wasn't. Not that it mattered, as Ignoramus had already declared him innocent. The analysis is on page 7 if you want to read it. It also made the further implication that Sigurd was in the mafia, as a result further defending GH. GH pointed out Sasaki's self-naming, at the same time building on Sigurd's guilt.
The Spartan didn't seem to be paying attention and voted for Sigurd, who had been dead for a long time.
discovery1 got a few votes, as did
Gertgregoor, but in the end many pieces of evidence came together upon TS, including him saying he didn't like coffee
, and so he was the one who got the execution. This time, it involved him being hacked apart with a chainsaw in the Gameroom Theatre.
Day 5
Cowhead418 kills
Reenk Roink.
GoreBag kills nobody.
Drisos opened this time with a vote for
doc_bean, but without really giving any concrete reasoning. Sasaki picked him up on this, asking why he voted for db as opposed to
Gertgregoor when he was suspicious of both, attracting a vote for Drisos from
Crazed_Rabbit. Resident mafioso Cowhead voted Gert, using some highly ironic logic:
Originally Posted by
Cowhead418
This mafia is a bit different than past games, because the mafiosi are chosen by the Godfather, not randomly picked. It's possible the Godfather chose someone who was mafia in the last game, hoping that people would think he couldn't be in the mafia two games in a row. Vote: Gertgregoor
Not only did this make me laugh out loud, I also think it was quite clever.
After another vote for Drisos and a few more votes for Gert, Drisos suspiciously changed his vote from doc_bean to Gert, in a very 'don't get me wrong' kind of way. But nobody picked up on this, and afterwards there was a torrent of people all voting for Gert, except for
discovery1, who voted for
Ice again despite him not even playing. I tried to make the 'MechaFeather4000' execution look as horrifying and inhumane as possible by involving Gert being dragged towards it in the execution.
This was also the first time that people died due to Wrath of God (apart from
AggonyDuck) during the game. The purpose of this was to ensure lots of discussion for each vote, and to try and scare people into voting. Unfortunately the scaring wasn't enough and I had to kill 4 people that round. At least it wasn't too much. Looking at the list of people killed by Wrath of God I am pleased that I didn't really catch out anybody devoted to the game with it. All those who died from it were lurking for the most part of the game.
Day 6
Cowhead418 kills nobody.
GoreBag kills nobody.
GAH! Another round without a single kill. This annoyed me quite a lot, because I still wanted an execution to take place and so I had to make up some story about GH having his house vandalised with a message about the mafia still being alive during his sleep and it being a punishable offense. This caused many people, headed by
Crazed_Rabbit, to vote for no lynch, despite it not being allowed in the rules. When I pointed this out I had a small exchange with CR, nothing bad really, and I was lenient to not give warnings to those who posted with a vote for no lynch. Unfortunately for him, Sasaki pointed out a 'flaw' in his idea, saying that it would help the villagers to lynch somebody (actually, if that somebody was innocent which it almost definitely would be it would be more of a boost to the mafia than to the villagers, but nobody pointed this out).
Originally Posted by
Sasaki_Kojiro
umm that's poor strategy for town. We'd be giving up a chance at lynching a mafioso. It would be in the mafia's interest to have a no lynch. Why did you really vote no lynch?
Edit: why are you all voting no lynch? That makes you all suspicious.
After a few random votes, this was later responsible for the bandwagoning of CR.
doc_bean had also gained some votes by this point. Danger struck for the mafia, however, as Sasaki was voted for by db and even worse,
Orb voted for GH. Well done on this, Orb. I know
B_Ray did it first but you actually came close to causing a lynch of GH. If only more villagers had listened, maybe the villagers would have won. This got a couple of votes in bandwagon.
Day 7
Cowhead418 kills nobody.
GoreBag kills
Orb.
The mafia took a big risk here. But a risk that was surely going to pay off. The mafia tried to create a 'GH is being framed' situation, while removing the threat of
Orb's reasoning in the process. This turned out very successful. As GB put it after the game:
Originally Posted by
GoreBag
That was actually my idea. I banked on the notion that people wouldn't vote for GH because it would be too obvious. Besides, Orb was irritatingly voting for my boss day in and day out. Two birds with one stone.
Drisos was the first to fall for it. He voted for
doc_bean. Then
Masy agreed, whilst at the same time stating the possibility of a brilliant plan, but did not actually vote. Sasaki then wasted no time in targeting
Divine_Wind, accusing him of lurking. As you can expect, a bandwagon began but was halted by GH, who used the same reasoning to go after
Big King Sanctaphrax, while 'ignoring the obvious attempt to frame him'
. But it did not work and DW was the latest victim of the mafia-run lynching machine. He tried to commit seppuku before the execution,
Originally Posted by
Divine Wind
Hello there Silver Rusher,
Id like to commit Seppuku, rather than be lynched by the mob.
Death with honour.
Thanks
but I would not allow this on the basis that it would be unfair on the other players. I did slip DW's attempted seppuku into the execution, however. He was dropped into a pit of hydrochloric acid.
Day 8
Cowhead418 kills
Destroyer of Hope.
GoreBag kills nobody.
Right at the start I had noticed that the writing styles of Cowhead and GB were very different. Cowhead took a more present-tense methodical approach, whereas GB was more about the storytelling. These two different styles were alternating, and nobody at all seemed to notice. If it had been clear that there were still two grunts remaining, GH's alibi would be down the drain and the voters could have come out in full force against him. Too bad nobody noticed this.
Masy began the voting with a fairly good reason for voting
discovery1:
Originally Posted by
Masy
Hmm, Destroyer of Hope once commented:
Originally Posted by
Destroyer of Hope
Discovery seems sucpisous right now that he hasn't voted for ethier memeber and has not sided with etheir of the major votes
I reckon discovery has been biding his time, patiently waiting to strike back at Destroyer, and thus I
Vote: discovery1
There was another vote for disco after this and a suggested vote from GH, adding on the 'playing dumb' with regards to disco's votes for
Ice (who, if you really need reminding, wasn't in this game). But
Orb had left a dangerous legacy for the Mafia.
doc_bean voted for GH, accusing him of bandwagoning under the impression that it will lead to him not being investigated further. After this, there were a couple of excuse votes (i.e. votes that were only made to avoid wrath of god) against disco, stopping doc's reasoning to really take off. By the way,
Evil_Maniac From Mars and
Dutch_guy, if I hadn't stopped with the warning system you would have been given a warning for those votes. I don't consider those reasons to be good enough. All it took was a couple more votes from a couple of mafia members, and disco was as good as lynched. This time, he had a spike through his head.
Ten players remaining.
At this point in the game I begun a 'countdown' theme, with 10 players remaining being the mark at which I would pull the warning - wrath of god system off. It wasn't really because there were 10 players. Some players were complaining, but there was a more important reason. It already looked like a total mafia victory was on the way and so giving them wrath of god to kill off a few more villagers would have made it too easy on them. I wanted to give the villagers something of a fighting chance here.
Day 9
Cowhead418 kills nobody.
GoreBag kills
Evil_Maniac From Mars.
Nine players remaining.
Sasaki reinforced GH's alibi at the start of this round more than any other round before it. He accused Sigurd and CR of being in the mafia, and made a connection with
doc_bean. But more importantly, he said this:
Originally Posted by
Sasaki Kojiro
Now I find that fact that you are going after GH very interesting. If he is mafia, why would he lynch sigurd first round? Why would he be posting so much? The mafia have historically been quiet...like you. People say "he's an obvious person for the godfather to choose as a mafioso" and yet that fact makes it unlikely that he would be chosen as a mafioso. And, imo, we have lynched the 2 chosen mafiosi (sigurd and CR, though we can't be sure about cr).
Now consider the endgame scenario again. What happens if there are two people left, the godfather and GeneralH? The chief of police can't be killed by the mafia, so it would be a tie presumably, or else silver rusher would flip a coin. I bet the godfather would worry about that, his only option would be to get GH lynched.
Vote:doc_bean
Not only does he remind us of GH's 'alibi' here, he also talks under the seemingly confident assumption that GH is innocent for the last paragraph. Nice one, Sasaki
.
The two grunts provided the starting momentum for the newly created bandwagon, as well as GH voicing his suspicions.
Drisos added another vote, making it complete.
doc_bean and
Dutch_guy both voted for Drisos, but in the end it was db who was executed. This time, he was run over by a train. My favourite of the executions in the game, I think.
Eight players remaining.
Final Round: Day 10
Cowhead418 kills
Masy.
GoreBag kills nobody.
Seven players remaining.
The mafia had pretty well won by this point. The only way the villagers could have won would have been either if one member of the mafia didn't vote (unlikely), the mafiosi did not agree in their votes (even more unlikely) or if there was a tie vote and the 3 remaining villagers had all voted for GH, causing a dead vote as a result. Even then, GH would have to be lynched. I didn't think it was very likely.
The final target of the mafia was
Big King Sanctaphrax. GH and Sasaki attacked him with full force, and Cowhead and GB backed this up with votes. BKS and Drisos tried to end it by voting GH, but without
Dutch_guy's vote, it was useless. Dg, Dg, if only you had voted GH in that round you could have saved the townspeople! But no, it was all over. The mafia had won. Instead of waiting for the next pair of kills I decided to reveal the end twist then, declaring that the game was over.
In hindsight, I am very dissappointed in the number of people who signed up but remained inactive. If those people hadn't signed up I would have made things easier for the villagers, but no, they didn't vote or anything anyway. Also,
Ignoramus' early, unbacked reveal was a huge blow to the villagers.
I must congratulate the mafia on a spectacular total mafia victory. The level of tactics used by them in the game was superb, and I hope this level of thinking is present in many games to come. Sasaki made two very good choices in his godfather and his detective (no offense Ig, but it was a poor move) and GH, Cowhead and GoreBag played the game very well.
I have learnt many things from this game about how to play it in future, and I can tell thee now, in Mafia IV I will do my best to take whichever side I am on to victory.
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