Hello everyone, with release only a week away we wanted to focus this update on the individual city maps that you’ll be exploring during each of your campaigns, and maybe even help you decide which one you’ll attempt to conquer first!
City maps overview
Each city map in City of Gangsters has its own unique geography, zoning, and concentration of nationalities. Some maps even have unique resources to exploit, skills to learn and gameplay mechanics to discover. When you begin a new game you will have the option to choose from the following maps:
- Chicago
- Pittsburgh
- Detroit
- Cincinnati (Deluxe edition only)
Chicago
Overview: Located on the southern shore of Lake Michigan, ‘The Windy City’ is emblematic of prohibition in the United States. Many famous criminal organizations clashed on its streets including Al Capone’s Chicago Outfit and Dean O’Banion’s North Side Gang.
Map size: Medium
Ethnic majorities: American, German, Irish, Italian, Polish, Russian
Unique ethnic minorities: Danish, Lithuanian, Norwegian
Geography: The city is divided into three areas by the Chicago river with Lincoln Park and Goose Island in the north east, Downtown, South Loop, and Back of the Yards in the south east, and West Loop in the west. Lake Michigan borders the eastern edge of the map.
Unique game mechanics: None
Tips: You’ll find Downtown to be reasonably accessible from almost any starting location, however the highest concentration of industrial areas and train stations will be located around the Back of the Yards and West Loop which may require some creative relationship management to gain access to. Bridges are a key feature on this map and link the three main regions so you’ll need to be wary of rival outfits blocking off important routes. It's worth noting that the lake to the east of the city can provide useful protection for outfits starting out on this side.
Pittsburgh
Overview: At the start of prohibition, ‘The Steel City’ was both an industrial powerhouse and a melting pot of European nationals. Partly as a result of the cultural significance of alcohol for many of its migrant workers, Pittsburgh was soon declared the “wettest spot in the United States” by prohibition leaders. Sicilian and Neapolitan crime families fought bitterly over territory in the north and south of the city.
Map size: Medium
Ethnic majorities: American, Austrian, German, Italian, Polish, Russian, Yugoslavian
Unique ethnic minorities: Welsh
Geography: Pittsburgh is divided by the meeting of the Allegheny, Monongahela, and Ohio rivers. The area in the south west consisting of Carnegie, Mt.Lebanon, and Beachview is largely characterised by its hilly regions, while the Downtown area, or ‘Golden Triangle’ is located centrally at the confluence of the three rivers.
Unique game mechanics: Pittsburgh is home to both the Applejack and Rakija resources. Produced using ice and apple juice and the process of freeze distillation, Applejack is a potent and lucrative resource that you’ll be able to unlock very early on in your campaign. Rakija can be discovered a little later, and is refined from plums and sugar selling for a respectable $30 per case. With these two additional alcohol types, you’ll see that Pittsburgh has a much larger and more diverse market for alcohol than the other cities, meaning that it will be easier to get a faster start and earn more money overall.
Tips: The three rivers and abundant hills create a ton of choke points which could present you with some challenges when expanding your territory, so you’ll need to be extra careful with where you set up your fronts and how you work your relationships. Although the Downtown area is centrally located, it can be difficult to access, particularly if a rival outfit decides to make a play for it early on. Thankfully the heavy industrial areas and train stations are evenly distributed to the north, south, east, and west.
Detroit
Overview: 'The Motor City' has long been renowned for its booming automobile industry. Desiring a sober workforce, Henry Ford famously backed the Damon act of 1918, which was a precursor to the eighteenth amendment. As the sale of alcohol remained legal in Canada throughout prohibition, neighboring Windsor, Ontario became a hotspot for alcohol smuggling. The Purple Gang, a criminal mob of bootleggers and hijackers, were perhaps Detroit’s most notorious gang, going as far as supplying Canadian whiskey to Al Capone’s Chicago.
Map size: Large
Ethnic majorities: American, Canadian, Dutch, English, German, Polish
Unique ethnic minorities: Dutch, Greek
Geography: The Detroit river separates the city from its Canadian neighbor of Windsor, Ontario. A lack of bridges means that there is no conventional access between the two cities, however the river does provide scope for smuggling across the border via boat.
Unique game mechanics: You’ll notice immediately that the Windsor, Ontario area of the map is seemingly inaccessible to your crew, however if you work your relationships and build some trust with Canadians living in Detroit you will have the opportunity to fund an agent and safehouse over the border. You can then transfer money and resources to this new safehouse and utilize your Canadian crew member to procure Canadian whiskey, a unique alcohol resource that can be sold back in Detroit for a tidy profit.
Tips: Detroit is by far the most open map with almost no natural choke points. Its Downtown area is easily accessible and its industrial zones and train stations run horizontally from east to west. This means that it can be quite susceptible to marauding, with no natural barriers between rival outfits. If you want to gain access to the Canadian whiskey resource as soon as possible you’ll need to focus on networking to build your relationships with ethnic Canadians. A word of warning though, that once you have gained the agent in Canada they’ll take up one of your crew slots which might leave you short handed if an aggressive rival takes an interest in your territory.
Cincinnati (Deluxe edition only)
Overview: Before prohibition, 'The Queen City' had a proud heritage of beer brewing and corn whiskey distilling, with neighbouring Kentucky providing an ample supply of the world famous bourbon. The lawyer and pharmacist turned bootlegger, George Remus built his criminal empire around a loophole in the Volstead act which allowed him to repurpose distilleries to produce bonded alcohol. He was then able to sell this alcohol for ‘medicinal purposes’ through an extensive network of pharmacies.
Map size: Large
Ethnic majorities: American, English, German, Hungarian, Irish
Unique ethnic minorities: None
Geography: The east and west sides of Cincinnati are distinct, with the Walnut Hills and Hyde Park regions in the east being fairly open, and the Northside and Price Hill regions in the West being hilly and significantly more closed off. The Ohio river to the south separates the city from the state of Kentucky which is only accessible via bridges to the south east.
Unique game mechanics: You’ll be able to make good use of the abundant corn that comes from Cincinnati’s stock yards and Ohio River barges as an ingredient in the manufacture of both moonshine and the city's famed corn whiskey. In the mid game you’ll likely learn about bourbon production and bottling which you’ll then be able to sell on via your own bootleggers, speakeasies, and clubs.
Tips: Your starting location on this map can be extremely important in determining how a campaign will play out. On the east side you’ll have a considerably more open map with easier access to Kentucky. On the west side you’ll benefit from a much more defensible position with many choke points and a clearer route to the Downtown region. Industrial areas and train stations can be found to the far west and east which could prove challenging to reach if you start out in the center of the city.
We hope that this has given you some insight into how the different city maps will play, and how each will provide its own set of challenges to overcome. We also have one more update planned which we’ll post later this week which should help to fully prepare you for launch on August 9th!
Matt & Rob
Co-founders - SomaSim