Category: Street Wars NYC

Street Wars NYC is a fast and fun skirmish system that deals with battles between rival gangs in New York City in the ’70s. Sounds special? It is, but it’s a lot of fun and it ties in with many motifs from movies.

Street Wars NYC is developed by Funky Skull Games. To play you need the rulebook and the included cards, a few matching miniatures per side, dice, measuring stick and any markers. The terrain is urban terrain with terrain pieces (cars, phone booths, hydrants…).

The game itself is pretty clear: you have a gang of 5-10 miniatures, that’s it. The gang members are equipped with melee weapons, some may also have pistols. First and foremost, it’s about classic turf wars. Two gangs meet, mob each other, one loses his nerve and off they go. With extended rules or in scenarios you can let passers-by run around randomly, rob them or injure them. But be careful, some passers-by can be very defensive! Also, at a random time, cops can enter the board and start making arrests. A little bit of GTA feeling comes up!

Funky Skull Games have their own miniatures for gangs, civilians and police officers, but you can play with any figure.

The rules are simple in principle and allow various movement options: climbing on houses, cars, phone booths, falling from buildings, charging into fist fights. The gang leader has certain abilities with which he can motivate or command his members. When a fight starts, the action really starts. Don’t let the opponent outnumber you!

I find the dice system innovative. In principle, each test is passed on 4+. Different strengths and weaknesses of the gang members are represented by different dice. A weak member rolls only a W6, a leader may roll a W10 or higher (so the 4+ is more likely to be rolled).

Overall, the result is a fast, not too complex game that is clearly focused on the actual theme and should primarily be fun. Great strategists will not get their money’s worth here, beer&pretzel players or people with a fine sense for pop culture will have their fun. By the way, it also matters how much “funk” your members have :)