The Missing Millions - Front Story

AAR – Finding the Missing Million’s

If you’ve read and can remember the backstory to this caper then it still won’t make much sense but I’ll try my best, but this report is more to showcase The Mad Lord Snapcase’s work, building the city of Venice….Italy…. in Devon….England, and my determination to post on the Blog at least once a month during 2024. This post will, I hope achieve both aims.

During my brief trip down south to take in the delights of Snapcase Hall for a few days we played 3 games in 3 days. A wild fantastic game of Carnivalle, a dour and gritty game searching for Ruth Marrot and the Missing Millions, and finally a VBCW game where my Communists under the leadership of Bessie Bradock a most fearsome woman, attempted to repel an incursion by a mad group of Mounties, Posties, Boy Scouts, and the Household Cavalry. I was aided in having a secret weapon, the Diddy Men of Knotty Ash and a circus cannon to fire them from but for reasons that I can’t remember there was some sort of fog limiting visibility and I only got to fire one of these interesting missiles.

If I can get hold of some of the game photos it would be a tale worth telling.

Anyway…..

Venice, Jewel of the Adriatic.

In the early morning it looks a quiet and peaceful place.

But the famed canals provide plenty of places to dump a dead body should you so desire.

Its beautiful bridges also allow you to throw a dead body into the water, creating a bit of a splash if you have that sort of flamboyant nature.

Of course if you have a more retiring nature you could just roll the body straight off a calle into the canal.

This morning there was a bit of a buzz in the air, more of a buzz than usual and as you know, Venice is always buzzing.

The unusual extra bit of pizzazz might have been due to the sleek white launch moored along side the Spanish Steps, her crew bustling around cleaning and polishing the elegant vessel, so she shines in the early morning sunlight.

Late in the evening of the first day, a magnanimous Mad Lord Snapcase looks benevolently over his Venetian creation. He is reflecting that having allowed me to achieve a marginal win in the Carnivalle race, held earlier in the day, thinking that I’m open for the sucker punch on the morrow.

The morrow dawns and he does not look so confident!

I, however, am full of bacon and egg sarnie, who could not look forward to a days gaming that starts with bacon and egg, especially as it’s my game, my rules, my glorious victory must be writ large in the Devon sky.

As I intimated in the previous post I was unsure of how to combine my objectives of searching and detecting to find and solve clues to the whereabouts of Ruth Marrot. So after some discussion over a glass or two of fine wine from the well stocked cellars in Snapcase Hall we decided to do everything.

After reading Charles Grants book years ago, especially the chapter on hidden campaign movement with only 2 players I started to collect matchboxes. It’s not quite as exciting as collecting stamps, or train spotting but very close and does have the added benefit that I can create a series of hidden locations.

We used the 22b Baker Street game, there are 14 locations in the game and each one holds a clue or information about a specific crime. You go round the locations, collect this information and rush back to Scotland Yard and announce your theory and solve the crime.

To add some wargaming spice to this, when entering a building there were additional clues in the form of a dissected painting with Ruth Marrots address written on the back. You need to search for and find these painting fragments and need all 6 that make up the complete picture with the address. The idea was that the searching would provide a random time element, changing the normal Baker Street game. In addition there would be perils to overcome adding another imponderable element to an already complex game.

I did try this once before, the game is on here somewhere and was well pleased with the idea.

Anyway to continue the tour, the chap in the background is obviously one of the flamboyant disposers of bodies. Intending to throw his, off the bridge and make a splash, he’s already notified one of the local reporters obviously to ensure his splash is…..splashed on the front page of the paper.

The early tourists are just taking to the calle, strolling along the quay’s and preparing for an edifying days sightseeing.

At this point I really should apologise for the picture quality. It’s quite dark in the servant’s kitchen and even though there’s been a recent upgrade from candlelight to gaslight it doesn’t compare with the new electric lighting installed in the main living quarters of Snapcase Hall.

I believe a Mr Bertram Wooster is on the Grand Tour with his Aunt’s Agatha and Dahlia. They both like to get an early start and young Wooster has no say in the matter.

Of course Venice wouldn’t be Venice without its fair share of Gondolas on display and I’m rather impressed with the curves on this one made of MDF.

Well, on with the story, you may remember that the infamous Mabel Street Mob was coming to town led by the tall, willowy figure of Lian Su Smith. She’d brought along some of her most trusted Lieutenants and Soldiers and they’d split into two groups to cover the ground faster. She has the steady Barbara Vasseur, carrying her trusty pump action shotgun, how she got that through customs is anyone’s guess and Mad Bad Patsie Jones. She’d decided to keep Patsie close, mainly to ensure she didn’t go off with a bang like the loaded gun she carries.

The other group led by Nicolle Bousier the beautiful, seductive French woman had run into some trouble in the first 2 buildings they’d entered. First up was a swarm of rats, this is Venice and so rats might be expected but then they’d stepped into a knot of serpents. Nicole had been immobilised by their venom, leaving Isabelle DeForret and Loretta Salerno to carry on alone. From her name you would think Salerno was Italian and you’d be right but she’d grown up in Sicily and hated the northern Italians with a Sicilian passion, so Isabelle was doing all the negotiating and searching, rather than start an Italian civil war.

The other protagonists in this race against time was the bad apple Rudolf Valentino an Italian street cop, here trying to intimidate a local citizen into blubbing, which I think is American parlance for spilling the beanz. Guiseppe Garibaldi waves his rod in her direction but she’s seen bigger things in a Christmas cracker. Dino di Laurentis just tries, and fails, to look cool and hot at the same time.

The rest of Valentino’s crew are seen here entering the Dimera di Signora Passaggio Posteriore, just before a falling beam, well…..fell on them. It’s just one of the random perils to be found when walking round a gradually crumbling city.

Guccio Gucci in his very smart Italian shoes nimbly sidestepped the beam as Ferruccio Lamborghini and Garpare Campari look on in awe at his tap dancing.

Before the Complaints Departments gets snowed under with letters of complaint, the Italians and Venetian buildings were not named by me. Also if you’re thinking of writing in I should tell you that my Complaints Departments have a slogan, taken from one of the Mad Lords T-shirts. “I have selective hearing……and you’re not selected.

Shaken by the beam but not stirred, Gucci and his men move on to Il Palazzo di Ammiraglio Perricomo da Scattocase. Where disappointingly, they find nothing of significant interest.

I think in the movies they call these shots ‘B’ roll, they don’t add anything to the storyline but are usually quite pretty scene setters.

Although in this case, in the distance Lian has just crossed the green bridge, but it’s still a pretty shot of a well populated Venice.

Disaster for the lead copper, Rudolph Valentino. When questioning the proprietor of the Gelato Santo he made some unsavoury remarks about the big chaps red clothing, white beard and penchant for having small children sitting on his knee. Donner and Blitzen he remarked as Santo’s dog Dasher was ordered to KILL the man with the red nose.

“Wadda you wanta” grunted Mad Patsie as a Toff in a top hat approached. “I was looking for the Palazzo Della Disciplina” he replied. “It’s right here” she responded and fetched him a slap behind his left ear with her pistol.

“You fool” Barbara said, “the Palazzo Della Disciplina it the building right behind you” Patsie just shrugged and they moved on.

Closing with the establishment of Alfonso Soffiatore di Corno Construttore de Barche, Gucci had the misfortune to run into Aunt Agatha…..or it may be Aunt Dahlia. Either way, she gave him apiece of her mind on Italian fashion sense. The very idea of a Gentleman going out in his shirt sleeves, wearing just a waistcoat is appalling. No wonder the Romans lost their Empire if they dressed in such a cavalier manner she remarked to no one in particular. Gucci also has selective hearing.

Still having Aunt Agatha…..or it may be Aunt Dahlia’s words of admonition ringing in his ears Gucci crossed the bridge with a sigh and came face to face with Barbara Vasseur. Well it was really Campari who was staring down the barrel of her shot gun but the result was the same.

Both groups halted.

“Lets plug em” muttered Mad Patsie, Barbera nodded agreement, she knew she would never take to Campari, with or without a mixer, although she liked the look of Lamborghini, he looked fast….fast, sleek and mean, something she liked in her men.

“Let them pass” commanded Lian. Patsie looked sour but did as she was told.

Lian had seen what the other two had failed to notice, di Laurentiis and Garibaldi were just going into La Casa di Padrona Sculacciatoro the next building along the street, and so in a fight they would have been outnumbered.

Pick the fights you can win and avoid the ones you can’t her father had instilled into her, but never walk away from either. He’s served his time as a Marine in the Pacific and she took notice of most of what he’d told her. Not all of course, or she wouldn’t be the up and coming gangster she was, but most of his advice was sound she knew.

The clock is ticking and in spite of the fact that Loretta and Isabelle didn’t have the advantage of Nichole’s sage council the girls had made good time searching the buildings they’d been allocated and they were going to be the first back to the white launch waiting by the Spanish steps.

Close behind Lian refuses to run, it’s unbecoming in a lady, another piece of advice from her father, but sometimes her mother was right. Never run in high heals, you’ll break an ankle was her advice.

First back, the Mabel Street Mob started assembling all the information they’d gathered.

But the Bent Italian coppers were not far behind.

I smiled a wicked smile because I would get first turn at solving the mystery.

Lord Snapcase has had what some might call an interesting past, what he failed to mention until later was that his family had fairly close ties with the Financier Herbert Leon. The current Lord Snapcase had also visited the ancestral home of Leon, something to do with some arcane research he’d been involved in prior to the Jamjharristan Incident.

The Baker Street game clues require a modicum of lateral thinking, puzzle solving and attention to detail as well as reading the original brief very carefully. I forgot the later part of this.

After much head rubbing, the Mad Lord raised his head and with a gleam in his gimlet sharp eyes asked “Have you got it yet”

My wicked smile of satisfaction faded when I had to admit I could only resolve 2 out of the 4 answers, I could make a stab at the 3rd but was completely in the dark as to the 4th clue.

“Well my chaps will get on the launch and I’ll have a crack at answering the puzzle” he grinned, good humouredly.

Then he mentioned the name of Leon’s house, the one the current Lord Snapcase had visited, the one he’d used the facilities to aid his research, it was Bletchley Park. I reflected and was pleased we didn’t have money riding on the game outcome.

“There’s some old family story that Papa co-built Colossus” he said, “but while Papa could be relied on to drop a charging Rhino at 50 paces he could never be relied on to tell the whole truth about anything”. “Anyway the answer to the question is 42” he continued getting all 4 parts correct in his explanation.

“I think I win” he finished with a “Pip Pip” “Let’s open the Lafitte next”

So I’d just like to say a thank you to Snappers for a jolly good game and for the sterling work he put into building Venice, I particularly like the grey stippling on the paving slabs, to my mind it brings the whole thing together extremely well. It’s not the most spectacular part but it’s my favourite bit, well apart from the central tower that’s featured particularly nicely in the 3rd picture up from here.

The tower is called La Torre di Santo Vagabondini and is the largest erection in Venice.

Well if anyone should read this, I hope you have a great New Year. 

Cheers

The Missing Millions - Backstory

Richardson, President of the Fourth & First National Bank of Nashville called for his Secretary Miss Deftly and asked who had authorised the payment of $100,000 from his personal account and where had the money been sent. Minutes later Miss Deftly was back and explained that the transfer had been authorised in Mr Richardson’s name by a Miss Marrot at the Federal Reserve Bank in Atlanta. The blood drained from Mr Richardson’s face as he asked his Secretary to place a call to Miss Marrot.

   

His colour didn’t improve at all once he learned from Miss Marrot's Secretary that she hadn’t appeared for work that morning and an employee of the Federal Reserve had been despatched to her house to ensure she was alright. It was so unusual for her to take time off work, especially without notifying her boss Bingley Brackenshaw.

Mr Brackenshaw was currently sat at his desk pondering the strange call from a Mr Calhoon Carter of the First Atlanta Bank demanding to know the whereabouts of Miss Marrot and refused to state his business when requested and then had abruptly closed the call. Mrs Brackenshaw was even more confused when Evangelica his PA reported that there was no one answering the door at Miss Marrot’s residence and that there was a sold sign in the front garden.

Now he was no longer confused he was distinctly worried because Miss Marrot was the person responsible for the series of cash transfers that were being made by the Federal Reserve to the various Banks in the 6th District based in Atlanta. These transfers were providing liquidity to help stave off the runs on the various banks in his District, runs caused by the collapse of Caldwell’s the largest Financial House in the South.

Unlike the 8th District in St Louis, Atlanta had been loaning money as fast as they could get it out of the door in an effort to stave off bank collapse and so far he was being successful. Or so he had thought.

Ruth Marrot leaned back in her chair and stretched to relieve the ache in her back and neck, looking around from her balcony, the view along the Grand Canal looked particularly nice at this time of year. She’d had a busy month moving large quantities of money around the country without anyone noticing, it had been strenuous, physically and mentally but the panic over the run on the banks had been a major help. That and the assistance of a few CEO’s and Bank Presidents, she grinned thinking how annoyed they would be that she had managed to get all the ‘bribe’ money back from them in the one day…….the day she left Atlanta.

Well they shouldn’t have given her access to their private accounts but then they only thought greedily of the money going in, and not that she could also take it out again. They wouldn’t be going to the Cops and admitting complicity in the biggest fraud the country had up until now experienced.

She fully expected the Federal Reserve Bank would make a few discrete enquiries before agreeing that loosing the money was bad but admitting to loosing it to the country in the current crisis was unthinkable.

Ruth was happy that she had probably gotten away with her crime but there was one thing she wasn’t aware of and that might be her undoing. Redmire Richardson, President of the Fourth & First National Bank of Nashville was in bed so to speak with Lian Su Smith, head of the Mabel Street Mob. Not literally, Lian had far better taste in men than Richardson but she was heavily committed to his bank where she laundered her income from protection, extortion, gambling and the Speakeasy’s. Prohibition was a great source of income for the modern criminal and she was a model modern criminal. Unfortunately the Bank’s liquidity wasn’t enough to meet the queues of punters who wanted their money back out of the bank and safely under their own beds and so the Bank had gone under, with a considerable chunk of Lian's cash. The liquidity should have been provided by the Federal Reserve but as this had been siphoned off by Ruth Marrot, Lian felt that she was owed and she intended to collect……with interest.

Lian made enquiries in the underworld, her network of associates stretched a long way, international debts were called in and money was spread to grease the greasy palms until she received a nibble at her bait. Venice was where the nibble came from, Venice Italy and from the local police department or Carabianieri. There was a man, Rudolph Valentino head of the Corrotto Carabianieri, that’s bent coppers to the rest of us, who had heard of a woman answering the description that was circulated through Italy’s underbelly of crooks, criminals and conmen. He knew that if there was some kind of reward for information on the whereabouts of the woman then she was valuable in her own right. He intended to acquire a stake in that commodity and see what could be squeezed out.

  

Interpol had been founded in 1923 and this was a constant source of valuable information to Valentino, not to imprison criminals as you should expect, but to find them and then extort money to support his own lavish lifestyle. He frowned with annoyance at the latest communiqué from them, The Mabel Street Mob had just boarded a plane, destination Rome, they could be in Venice the next day, he would have to start the search for the blonde woman with the scared face sooner than he expected.

The race is on, there is information hidden in the six central districts of Venice, Ruth Marrot is located on the Island of Giudecca but you will need to uncover all the pieces of the puzzle to find her address, and don’t expect her to come quietly if you do find her.


The day after tomorrow I'm headed south to Snapcase Hall in the wilds of Devon for 3 days of wargaming, drinking and telling tall stories. Snappers has spent a good part of the year building Venice and the first game will be something called Carnivalle maybe not spelt like that. I've no idea what to expect apart from the fact that it will be fun. I'm putting on this game, set in Venice because it would be rude not to after he's spent so long building it. I'm really bereft of ideas but I want to try for a detecting type game, I'm still not sure if I'm going to build it around the Sherlock Holmes221B Baker Street or create my own puzzle.  I have a whole day to decide :(. I also thought I'd try and use the Pulp Alley Rules because I envision going into buildings and searching for clues, the Perils and Challenges would play into that but I'm still undecided. I hate playing a game and having to leaf through rules to find what I want so I might just go with the ones I always use.

So 1 day to go and I have a back story, hummm.

Thanks for reading, if you did and any thoughts you might have will probably be too late but I'd appreciate reading them.

Cheers

The Snatch - AAR

The Game

I’d inveigled my two long distance wargaming colleagues to give me a hand with this game. I’d seen the scenario on TV some 10 years ago and thought it might be worth gaming. It’s loosely based on the Venloe Incident in 1939 although to be honest I didn’t know that. What was a bit disconcerting was when I laid out the scenario; both Dougers and Snappers independently said “Is this the Venloe Incident. Looking it up, I realised they knew far more than I about it than I did. Snapcase even had a newspaper cutting to hand, which he sent and I’ve subsequently lost.

Sometimes I feel like such a lightweight in their company, but don’t tell them that.

The Scenario for this game is the previous post.

The German Dutch border, the road to Berlin is to the left and Amsterdam to the right.

General Ernst Von Stroheim is going to defect to the Allies, he has the latest Operational Plan Aufmarschanweisung N°3, Fall Gelb (Case Yellow), which is the attack on the western front.

A meeting has been arranged between himself and the British and Dutch SIS to take place in this small hotel.

A little further into the Netherlands is a small, forward supply dump guarded by an unknown number of troops.

And finally an aerial recognisance photo of the area.

The Germans have found out about this plan and have decided to turn it to their advantage by capturing the British and Dutch SIS Operatives. They have sent a crack team of SS troopers to burst through the border control check point and drive pell-mell to the hotel where they will rush inside, relying on speed and surprise to achieve their objective.

In support they have a veteran squad of Wehrmacht infantry led by Horst Dankers, they have been moving quietly through the woodland and are now in place to support the SS when they arrive in their trucks.

As the sounds of heavy diesel motors grows louder the Dutch boarder guard steps out into the road to stop them. The man must be incredibly brave or totally stupid to carry out this action, but in the aftermath of the raid it’s hard to know because he’s dead. One of the Wehrmacht, Eckhard Unger has moved close to the sentry box and as the guard steps out into the open he opens fire with his sub machine gun. The guard is hit and falls.

Unfortunately he falls in the middle of the road and without compunction Michaela Stolz, driving the lead truck runs over him.

If he wasn’t dead before, he is now.

On the other side of the road is a small corrugated iron hut that the Border Guards are using to keep warm and out of the chill winter wind. The Wehrmacht have moved a light machine gun operated by Wolfgang Arnold forward to overlook this hut. Horst Dankers who is in immediate command of Arnold, as well as the rest of the Wehrmarcht squad, hears the trucks driving down the road, and orders Arnold to open fire.

Corrugated iron blocks line of sight but not bullets and one of the two border guards sheltering in the hut is killed in the opening burst. The other guard rushes outside and is cut down in a hail of lead from Danker’s sub machine gun.

The Wehrmacht don’t know it but they have killed all the Dutch Border Guards, however ignorance is bliss and they continue to fire into the sentry box and hut.

The German trucks blaze down the road, screeching to a halt in the parking lot in front of the hotel.

SS troopers debus or if you’re an American Un-Ass is the accepted term, or so I’m led to believe, and rush towards the hotel entrance. Their officer, Kamilla Altmann leads the way; they know speed is of the essence and these chapesses are no slouches.

Inside the hotel, Agent Snapcase of British SIS, swallows his Pink Gin with unseemly haste; as the barmaid points to the back door he nods his thanks and pushes Sally Brunn his Dutch counterpart towards it.

There are occasions when being an English gentleman has its advantages. Snapcase would never dream of going through a door before a lady and as he urges Sally to hurry, he opens the door and lets her go first. Stepping through she sees Horst Dankers, at the same time, he sees her. Horst is fast but she’s faster, lightning fast even and she fires first. Hitting Dankers in the arm…..his right arm and he drops his smg, grimacing in pain laced with chagrin, a deadly combination.

Then Arnold opens fire with the light machine gun, he’s caught off guard by Sally’s sudden appearance and rushes his shots, spraying the area around her, but miraculously misses his target.

She dives behind the wall opposite the door way, well who wouldn’t do that when faced with a burst of machine gun fire.

Inside the Hotel the SS troopers move swiftly, there are 3 internal doors facing them as they burst through the outer door. Erika Baeker is the first trooper through the Lounge door. The room is full of people but she’s a professional and experienced killer. Scanning the room swiftly she notes the man at the far door trying desperately to get through it and shouts, in German “Stop or I’ll shoot” raising her smg as she shouts the command.

Snapcase, who only speaks school boy German, is annoyed, she’s much younger than he is, and so should have addressed him more formally, his old school master would have had a fit, it’s only proper protocol in these circumstances and so he turns and opens fire.

His shot’s miss but Erika reacts to them by immediately ducking back through the door she’s just entered. That’s why she is an experienced and professional killer, she knows when to duck back fast. It’s the old story, good judgement is gained as a result of experience. Experience is gained as a result of bad judgement.

Having neutralised the initial threat and vented his anger Snapcase steps quickly through the door after Sally.

He sees her crouched behind the wall and ducks down beside her.

So when the next SS trooper, Ingrid Rockmeir steps much more carefully into the saloon bar, Snapcase has already left the building.

Some of the customers react as you would expect. Colonel Mustard, Professor Plum and Mrs Peacock sit still and put their hands in the air. The observant observer would realize this isn’t a new experience for any of them. Miss Scarlet the Barmaid hides something in a beer mug on the top shelf behind the bar, no one sees her do this. Mrs White the Cook, disappears through the back door and Mr Greenstreet moves to see what the noise is all about, then sees Gerda Nerlinger through the glass door and freezes.

The sight of Gerda makes most men freeze.

Meanwhile on the border the Wehrmacht are securing the area. Eckhard Unger runs forward and checks out the sentry box, it’s empty apart from one dead body.

The small guard detail at the forward supply base is still trying to decide what to do. Should they retreat and sound the alarm or rush forwards to defend the Dutch border.

Decisions, decisions!

They make the wrong one and decide to defend the border, they run into well placed German defenders and in a fierce exchange of gunfire two of them fall and the officer ducks back to hide behind a shed, where he re-considers his options.

The fire from the machine gun has slackened so Sally Brunn and Snapcase escape around the corner of the hotel, keeping low to avoid being shot in the back as they go.

They see the ample frame of Mrs White vault the stone wall like a member of the 1936 Dutch Olympic Pole Vault Team, she’s far more nimble than she looks.

This might explain how she’s survived for so long in the Intelligence Business, although as no one was briefed about her presence it’s all a bit of a mystery to Snapcase and Brunn.

Realising she seems to know where she’s going, and as it’s away from the deadly Germans, they follow in her wake as fast as possible. Snapcase is huffing and puffing by now, as memories of his old school 100yds race come to mind…….and he hopes he doesn’t come last again.

Do you remember Mr Greenstreet and Gerda Nerlinger, if not I’d worry about your short term memory, anyway Mr Greenstreet, having seen Gerda through the glass door decides that he probably didn’t want to be picked up by SS Stormtroopers and did a runner out of the back door.

If you look carefully you can see him in the background.

Ok, for the hard of sight, this is him emerging from the Hotel. Seeing Sally Brunn streaking away from the hotel, he starts to loose heart knowing he can’t match her pace, but he cheers up a little when he sees Snapcase ploughing along manfully by her side. He is of a similar stature to Snapcase and probably a similar speed, so he brightens up and prepares to climb the wall that Mrs White vaulted earlier.

The Storm Troopers are hard on the heels of Snapcase and burst out of the side door. They are lucky that Arnold recognises their uniform before opening fire, Arnold feels fairly lucky too. He knows that opening fire on the SS has a way of ending badly.

Rushing round the corner of the hotel they see Mr Greenstreet and command him to HALT, which being a sensible individual without a death, wish he does.

He is brought back to the trucks and ordered to climb in.

Difficult but the alternative is worse.

Kamilla Altmann briefs Meinhard Wenke of the Gestapo that his raid has been a failure. He wonders how he can spin this to deflect the blame but knowing who her father is, realizes he must pack some heavy winter clothing for his next assignment, somewhere on the Russian Front.

Horst Dankers ensures the border barrier is raised so that the strike force can retreat back across the border without delay, and Arnold prepares to provide covering fire but it’s not needed as the Storm troopers make a swift but orderly retreat back to the Homeland.

Greenstreet contemplates his future with a certain degree of pessimism.

As Snapcase contemplates his with a little more optimism.

Meinhard Wenke of the Gestapo wonders if he has a future to contemplate.