My commentary for Mafia VI.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 
Beginning

Mafia: Dutch_guy and AndresTheCunning
Detective: Orb

I was unsure of the response I would get in this game immediately after engaging in some less-than-sporting play in the previous large Mafia game, Capo di Tutti Capi. Luckily, the players were as eager as ever to participate, which I was glad of. I am particularly thankful to those people who promoted the game as a very basic, vanilla one. It may be boring, but I think the endgame of this one proved that these type of games can still be very exciting and suspenseful in their own right.

The mafia in this game were a very interesting combination. Dutch_guy had been playing from the beginning, never really getting any major role aside from a couple of Detectives in which he had little impact. This would be his first time as mafia. I remember Kommodus saying in an earlier thread that he was worried about Dutch becoming a mafioso, since it would throw his trusty program Holmes for a loop. These words would turn out to be prophetic, at least for a while. Meanwhile, AndresTheCunning was DG’s complete opposite aside from the fact that they spoke the same language. He was a well-known stirrer-of-trouble in the short time that he had played Mafia games, and was your typical “crazy Flemish person”, ala Gertgregoor/Moros.

Orb, the Detective, had been an on-and-off player, with some pretty good results as mafioso in smaller games. I wonder how he would do on the good-guy side in a larger game.

The realism system remained in place. Basically, whoever sent their PM in first performed their action first in “real time.” Ideally it was to come in play much later than it did, but I don’t think it really made a difference with the timing. What Detective reveals after two rounds when they haven’t gotten a mafioso?

Round 1

Dutch kills Omanes Alexendrapolites the Idiot
Andres kills UltraWar
Orb investigates Sasaki Kojiro

Smart move on Orb’s part by investigating Sasaki first. It probably would have helped later on if he would have survived.

Kills weren’t that surprising. UltraWar had long replaced discovery1 as the traditional “first to die” target, and Omanes was a relative unknown, although an extremely active poster. As the mafia were probably hoping, he lost interest after his early death.

It was a typical first round, all in all. There were lots of abstains, the usual vote for Sasaki from Ichigo, and votes based on fairly poor reasoning. I must give kudos to Sasaki for promptly voting for our Detective (after he had just found Sasaki innocent, no less! ). However, now I begin to wonder if Orb had investigated someone else, his reaction to the vote might have been something different thus causing a chain reaction that would have affected the game completely. In any case, Orb had little comment and Sasaki went elsewhere.

Also, actual kudos must go to Kommodus for nailing Andres extremely early on. It was only a good defense by Andres and lack of assertiveness on Kommo’s part that left him alive for a while.

Eventually, however, HughTower attacked a post made by Sigurd Fafnesbane in his usual blunt manner, provoking feelings of suspicion from the other townies. He got lynched in a close vote, just barely beating out Sasaki and Sigurd.

One last note. I got really annoyed by the rampant lack of people keeping track of their votes this round. Just a personal thing guys, I count these votes on pencil and paper and it would be really helpful if you made things a little easier for me. Luckily, people got the message and did what I asked from then on.

Executed: HughTower

Round 2

Dutch kills Zalmoxis
Andres kills Orb
Orb investigates Sigurd Fafnesbane

Orb did not get a result back for his second investigation due to the realism system.

The game started to get a bit nasty this round, as discovery1 opened with a very nasty-looking picture of himself (I still shudder from that), and Reenk Roink started to blast Sasaki’s record. Finally, people started attacking inactives (most notably Destroyer of Hope) simply because they started becoming active. I strongly discourage this style of play, because otherwise the people who try to change will be caught up in an endless loop. I let it slide for now, but had to step in a little bit later on.

Btw Sigurd, I did not write the part about oxen being colorblind.

Eventually Disco fell by a margin of three votes. What was disturbing, however, were the ridiculously large amount of abstains and no votes. This plagued me all game as I tried to find a way to remedy it.

Executed: discovery1

Round 3

Dutch kills sapi
Andres kills Rhythmic

Two Aussies bought it this round. I was kind of sad about Rythmic’s death, as this was his first major game since Mafia I. Ah well. This was also the last of Andres’s “Do you like meat?” kills, which was a smart thing to drop. It was also more interesting from the story point of view, as more attention was focused on the mafia’s quest for this one item. I was caught up in at as much as the rest of you, and in fact didn’t know what it was until I PM’d the mafia after Andres’s execution asking what it was so I could finish the story properly.

I would now like to address my policy on abstains, no votes, and Wraths of God.

I hate WoGing people, I really do. It’s a pain to write the scenes, and it takes away from the game. It’s why I allow abstention, as well as passive abstention (a player who posts but doesn’t vote being counted as an abstain). Several people had questioned Dutch’s townieness because I kept counting him in the abstain section, but the truth is I had been doing that for a while now, definitely since Mafia V and probably since Mafia IV.

However, when mass abstention comes up, it starts to irk me, because people can just slide by without really doing anything. Ideally, I would like all of my mafia games to have all players participating actively and voting actively in every round unless they are truly stumped. It’s eventually why I removed the option to abstain in the later rounds (and enforced it in a harsh manner), because I knew it would be better for discussion, for better or for worse.

I got really peeved in Round 3 when thirteen people didn’t bother to vote, and that didn’t include the passive abstainers. Something had to be done, so I posted a few warnings to inactive players.

Meanwhile, Caius Flaminius went down in flames, as usual, during this round, probably because he’s not a native English speaker and thus made some suspicious-sounding posts. I must admit, if he ever becomes a mafioso in a big game it’ll be tough to tell whether he’s guilty or not since his posts are always obtuse anyway (no disrespect sir, just saying what’s true). I have helped his lynching several times in the past, incorrectly, because of me not quite understanding him.

Executed: Caius Flaminius

Round 4

Dutch kills Sir Boo
Andres “kills” Sir Moody

Due to Carnaval, Andres was out (or as Dutch put it, “probably getting wasted even as we speak” ), so I allowed Dutch to kill Sir Moody as well in order to keep things moving. Andres PM’d me a quick confirmation, and the round was on.

Destroyer of Hope suicided this round due to lack of time. I replaced him with Faust|, explaining his role and other things. He got right into the spirit of the game with an immediate vote on Reenk Roink, with no explanation. An interesting exchange followed, until it got slightly too heated and I had to step in. However, I was glad that Faust| proved to be active for the short time that he was alive.

Pannonian also came under fire for some questionable voting logic (looking for a reason to vote Reenk). However, these minor conflicts soon gave way to a majority of votes being thrown to Xiahou (persona non grata to Sasaki) and Sigurd Fafnesbane (playing the crazy townie role that had served him so well in the past). Since tons of votes were cast and changed, I relied on someone else’s tally, which was of course incorrect. D’oh! Luckily, Andres PM’d me and others posted their thoughts in the thread. When I went back and corrected the tally, there was a clear “winner” instead of a tie vote. Xiahou did go down fighting, though.

Executed: Xiahou

Round 5

Dutch kills ChuggtheSquirrel
Andres kills Faust|

Crisis! I had to reduce to number of alive townspeople by one after doing a mass Wrath of God. Mainly, pevergreen posted a screenshot even when it clearly said in the rules that none were alive. I agreed that it really didn’t do any harm, but rules were rules, and pever took his punishment very honorably. You well be welcomed back in Mafia VII, good sir.

Anyways, back to the mafia. Things were looking quite splendid for them, with the gift of inactivity. Both members had managed to stay pretty much under the radar, although Andres took some moderate flack from Kommodus and Dutch came under fire for his constant abstention. All in all, they were playing rather cautiously, but the strategy was serving them well.

Faust died this round, which was what I was afraid of. I assumed (and now know) that Andres thought that he was the Detective. Ah well. He made for an interesting round.

It was around this time where Sasaki Kojiro became absent from the thread. He told me offhand that he was extremely busy in real life when I had PM’d him about the hosting queue. This seemed to be another blow for the town, since their leading voice was gone (although to be fair, he was way off-target the entire game), and he would most likely get lynched if he didn’t get back to his normal posting style, and quickly. Nevertheless, the town pressed on, executing Sigurd Fafnesbane for his erratic posting style. Fourteen were left, including two mafiosi. Sasaki was absent, Kommodus was focused on Pannonian, and the bad guys were doing a remarkable job of avoiding suspicion. I began to wonder if I would have to write a “total mafia victory” story for the first time ever (which, incidentally, will result in the death of Beirut if it happens).

Executed: Sigurd Fafnesbane

Round 6

Dutch kills Seamus Fermanagh
Andres kills Redleg

Again, smart kills by the mafia. Seamus, a smart player, would be proven innocent but I think it really wouldn’t have mattered since almost nobody suspected him. Redleg made a huge impression in Capo, but wasn’t really that active in this game, and thus wasn’t that suspected. Even better for the mafia, Redleg named Sasaki as his killer, and Sasaki once again did not defend himself.

The story that was in most of the kills had grown very cohesive and flowing, and it was evident that there was a lot of collaboration between Dutch and Andres before they sent the kills to me (although this would hurt later on). An example of what they wrote and what I put in:

Quote Originally Posted by Dutch_guy PM
I'm killing Seamus, Andres is killing Redleg.

My kill descr is part one, Andres' is part two.

Again, edit as you see fit.


Seamus was busy staring at his computer screen, it contained a list of names. People whom
he suspected of being the cause of the killings. A lot of work he had put into it, but if
that was needed to keep himself and the rest of the town alive, and to keep it out of the
hands of the mafioso, then so be it. Also stored away on his computer, was data he knew the
mafia was prepared to kill for. As a matter of fact, it was why he had moved his trusty colt
from the basement to the cabinet in his working room.

A door knob turning caught Seamus' attention, the front door was being opened. And he wasn't
expecting company. Seamus immediately started for the cabinet on the far side of the room,
reaching it the moment the mafioso barged into the house. Panicked, Seamus pulled open
the drawer and pulled out his trusty colt, he wasn't going to make this easy.

Seamus stood up and turned around the corner, aiming his gun at the body of the mafioso, who
apparently had stopped to make sure his suit wasn't ruffled. His silenced gun was placed
on a table to his left.

It ends here, mafioso. Seamus spoke, not being able to hide a quick smile.

You'll never have it, it was foolish to ever think you would ! He added, with a steady voice.

The mafioso smiled pleasantly at a sweating Seamus, still holding his colt.

'Seamus, Seamus, Seamus. We've known each other for quite some time now, and you sure as hell
know I'm no fool.' the mafioso replied dryly.

Seamus said nothing.

Now you don't actually think that gun is loaded, now do you ? I made sure of that when I
entered the house when you were out at work, now I obviously wasn't able to take what I needed,
since your laptop is pretty well encrypted. So I had to wait until you signed in, which it
seems you have done. Thanks for making this so easy, I'm only going to have to shoot you once now.

A loud click was heard, Seamus' had tried but the mafioso wasn't lying. His colt was useless

So, it seems you have outlived your usefulness to me, Seamus.

I fear You're going to have to die now, can't have you running around telling everyone
who I am, now can I ? The mafioso spoke, bemused.

Seamus, however, quickly turned around, in a desperate attempt to shut off, or destroy, his
laptop. Two paces was all he was allowed to take, three soft thuds later Seamus was dead.

The mafioso walked over the body, to the laptop, eyeing the list of Seamus' suspects with
an absent minded expression.

Putting the laptop under his left arm, he took his cell phone out of his pocket with his right.

'Hello, it's me.'' He spoke

'All went according to plan, why don't you pay Redleg a visit, you know why'.
Quote Originally Posted by AndresTheCunning PM
Kill : Redleg

Write-up:

The pale mafioso was reading his newpaper. He enjoyed the article about the lynching of a guy named Sigurd.

His phone ringed.

"Ok, I'll pay him a visit.", the pale man answered.

About half an hour later, Redleg woke up. He felt a bit dizzy and it took awhile before he realized that the doorbell was ringing. He stumbled towards the door, the last remnants of his nightmare still confusing his mind. It was always the same nightmare. Allthough he had quit the marine corps several years ago, the spirits of those poor children still haunted him.

He opened the door. A pale man with thin lips stood in front of him.

"Hello mister, I heard you had some problems with your television. I'm from the cable company. Please, let me in, I'll fix the problem for you."

Redleg protested: "I didn't call anybody. Besides, I don't have cable television. I canceled my subscription with you guys, since I'm moving soon."

The mafioso grinned.

"Come on now Redleg, don't act stupid. You know well enough who I am".

Redleg took a good look at the man: "But, I don't... What? It's YOU? How is that possible!".

"Ah, you were stupid to believe that I can't swim. In fact, I used to be a pretty good swimmer. Hahaha! A fatal mistake, huh? But let's get down to business now, shall we? You made a big mistake working together with Seamus. Oh, you marines always like messing around with stuff which is above you heads. So foolish, so unnecessary, so... deadly".

Redleg panicked: "I swear, Seamus hasn't told me anything about it yet, he said he didn't trust me enough ! I swear !" Redleg seemed very scary.

The mafioso let this sink in for a moment.

" Hmm, good point, I daresay Seamus would be so trusting..."

Redleg was getting a bit of his colour back, this was going fairly well. " So, let's just call it a day then, I'd never tell anyone about this, I won't reveal your identity. On my word", Redleg added subtlely.

That last bit caught the mafioso's attention. "You'd never reveal me, eh ? On your word ? Nice try sucker, but the last time I trusted someone on his word was when my boss promised me a raise, which he never give me. I had to kill him, you know." The mafioso said, with a slight smile.

Redleg quickly lost all his colour, again. He looked even paler than the mafioso.

" So, no. I fear we can't come to an arrangment. A pity", the mafioso said, pulling the trigger and putting a bullet in Red's head.

"Sweet dreams, Redleg", the mafioso said.

The pale man went home.
To compare, view the actual kill post: https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showp...&postcount=677

The one “tell” that I left in was the use of the term “daresay.” To my knowledge, no American uses that word so that left suspicion on the Euros. Nobody caught it, though.

In this round, Andres, smelling blood, led the attack on Sasaki. He was quickly joined by CountArach and Reenk Roink, the former being convinced of Sasaki’s guilt and the latter always looking for a reason to take Sasaki down. Kommodus started a small counter-bandwagon against Andres (nice work), but once again Andres defended himself pretty well and it didn’t manage to pick up enough steam. Sasaki lost in a close one, and I sent him off in appropriate style, this being the first time he was executed in one of my games (in Mafias II, III, and V he was killed and in Mafia IV he survived). Sasaki asked me to alert him when his WoG was coming up. I guess I didn’t have to worry about that anymore.

Also, Crazed Rabbit was pretty close to a Wrath of God, but his posting level went up a bit so I spared him.

Executed: Sasaki Kojiro

Round 7

Dutch “kills” Reenk Roink
Andres kills Pannonian

Due to some miscommunication, I never received Dutch’s Reenk PM, but luckily I reached Andres in enough time to get a replacement. The chat was a godsend for that. I laughed when Reenk later blasted the mafia for their “lame kill.” Reenk, I believe that your original kill can now be seen in Dutch’s write-up.

This was also the round where I stopped counting “abstains.” In a PM conversation, Dutch reluctantly agreed to abide by these new rules as long as I made it clear in the thread that this was done by me and me alone. I agreed, and he promptly drew fire for actually voting. Oops.

This game parallels Mafia III in so many ways it’s scary. Think about it: Running storyline, an experienced mafioso and a semi-new Flemish player as the other one, and now the game’s direction. If the mafia survived one round, just one more round without one of them being executed, the game would be over. However, it was not to be. The round opened up with both Dutch and Andres getting votes.

Kommodus finally caught on to Dutch’s strategy and went on the attack. Andres tried to shift discussion to people that blindly followed Holmes and Dutch tried to defend himself from these accusations. They targeted Crazed Rabbit, however, there was one small problem – Rabbit staunchly defended his innocence. And he never lies (a reputation I would oh so love to have ) This was pointed out, and Dutch went down, leaving Andres in a bad position for the final round.

Also, I WoG’d ByzantineKnight for not voting in this round while leaving CountArach alive. It caused a minor controversy and I apologize to BK for doing so. However, he did contribute less to the game than CA, I wanted to enforce my policies, and numbers worked out so that there would be one final round, a sort of “make-up” to the mafia after putting Dutch in such a bad position.

Executed: Dutch_guy

Round 8

Andres kills CountArach and Ichigo

This was the most difficult story to tweak yet, with there being a complicated timeline (Ichigo was actually killed first but his death was a flashback) and the PM had minor but still obvious grammar errors. Nevertheless, I was eager that the game was winding down and waiting to find out what on earth that item was.

Luckily, Andres killed CountArach, thus bringing an end to the WoG controversy. I would have never forgiven myself if the game ended with a mafia victory because of some stupid mechanics decision I had made.

Sasaki came out pretty strongly against Stig, being, once again, wrong. Luckily, he did correctly name Kommodus and Rabbit as innocent. The general consensus was that Dutch was indeed Mafioso and that his partner was either Stig or Andres, based on voting patterns.

I did put clues about the mafioso’s identities in both of their execution scenes and both were caught. These need to be more subtle in the future as everybody knows about them now and will probably be looking for them. I did put a minor one in Orb’s death but nobody caught it until I told Kommodus that I had put one in after the game had ended.

Andres continued to press the attack towards Rabbit, although this was probably not the smartest move. Rabbit’s honesty is the one thing that remains a certainty in these games. He quickly got a majority of votes even after wisely changing his target to Stig, and Kagemusha changing his vote to Kommodus at the last second didn’t really help things.

Executed: AndresTheCunning

Wrap-up

Thus, the similarities to Mafia III were completed with this final turn of events. The mafia went from total victory to defeat in two rounds. However, unlike the previous game, I can’t really pin a turning point on Mafia VI. I suppose it was the moment when Kommodus did the reread of the entire thread and didn’t like what he saw with Dutch. After that, Dutch went down in flames and Kommodus, newly-backed with popular support, finally launched an assault on Andres and the people followed. The credit definitely goes toward him and Holmes for this townie victory.

I had a good time with the final scene and keeping you guys guessing. It was really funny hearing from Andres what that item was, and I hope I did the story justice with the ending. The idea was to make each innocent player seem suspicious until the very end. All in all, it was definitely an interesting game, especially at the end. Great game, everyone.