Gangsters 2 hints and tips ver 2.00 By Kegmiester (a.k.a Johnway lee and Spoonbeast) FAQ Level adviser Hyper Dyper D This GAMEFAQ has been made by Johnway lee A.K.A Kegmiester. You are not allowed to copy any information without permission from the author of the FAQ. All trademarks and copyrights contained in this document are owned by their respective trademark and copyright holders. Copyright 2004 Johnway lee (AKA Kegmiester) [Introduction] In this FAQ, we will discuss general tactics and any recommendations in tactics or solutions on certain levels. If you have any ideas, questions or recommendations on how to make this FAQ better, please send an email to Sushi_bar_2000@hotmail.com and give the subject line "G2help". If this fails, post a question onto the topic board and I'll assist you any way I can. You're are not aloud to copy this work without the permission of the author. [UPDATES] VER 1.25 I would like to thank Hyper Dyper D who has kindly helped me by supplying me more information on Gangsters 2 levels. There have been some updates in the level tips. Without this person's effort, we wouldn't have a completed FAQ of this game. So you should, like me, thank him for his efforts and time helping me make this FAQ. Ver 2.00 28/06/04 A massive over haul of the FAQ has been made. Things are now looking slightly more in depth with a couple of extras. A table on contents has been made. Many thanks to vikram Basu for his effort for finding me the maps and extra resources, we should all give thanks to him as well (As well as everyone else who helps on the FAQ. If enough people do help mid you, I'll create a dedications section). [CONTENTS] Section 1 [General tactics] [Gangster skills] [Your opponents] [Shopping tactics] [Business and cash flow] [Weapons] [Motors] [Fights] Section 2 [Level tips] [Act 1: Retribution] [Episode 1: The first payback] [Episode 2: Under fire] [Episode 3: Building power] [Episode 4: The contact] [Episode 5: Cain langham] [Act 2:Into the mob] [Episode 6: Divided Loyalties] [Episode 7: Hollington's lynchpin] [Episode 8: The Farellis] [Episode 9: A friend in Need] [Episode 10: The die is cast] [Act 3:Open intent] [Episode 11: Religious zeal] [Episode 12: In the army] [Episode 13: River of gold] [Episode 14: The gateway] [Episode 15: Into the heartland] [Act 4: Levelling the score] [Episode 16: Yorkdale docks] [Episode 17: The bookkeeper] [Episode 18: An eye for an eye] [Episode 19: The fury] [Episode 20: End of the line] [GENERAL TACTICS] [GANGSTER SKILLS] We'll cover all the skills that gangsters can pocess. Please note that stealth and weapons skill come as standard for an ordinary gangster. Any other skill will require more money to pay for his/her wages. (Weapon skill) does what it says. The skill level of using any weapon and the amount of damage done to an opponent. Does not take into account the weapon itself though. Muscle and police all have a 2 star rating. (Stealth) How close you can get to an opponent without being spotted. A little pointless in my opinion especially when you've got muscle. If your stealth rating is higher then a muscles one (ie 2 stars) there will be no benefit to the muscle or yourself as the muscle will get spotted along with you. (Fast driver skill) This allows a specialist gangster to drive cars a lot faster then ordinary gangster. A useful little trait especially doing drive bys as you take less hits and you're able to do more damage as you turn corners faster and right yourself properly for a second run. Even the most slowest cars can be driven faster then ordinary gangsters with the fastest cars. (Bomber skill) Incredibly useful in all manner of work. The bomber skill is something you just can't live without. It's useful for breaking people out of jail, removing pesky police officers under someone else's pay roll even using it as a hand grenade to kill large amounts of people. But the charm of this skill is for clearing offices. Don't even think about clearing a gangster's office without someone with this skill. As the bomber can clear buildings with lots and lots of gangsters still hiding out inside the office. But each time somehow the gang leader and his muscle always survive the blast only to get blown away by you. At the basic level it will damage building and hurt muscle on the higher skills only the most tough of gangsters survive the blast. Rigged cars will destroy both occupants and the vehicle. (Charmer skill) This is only good when a certain person isn't under someone's pay roll. But when you're wanted, very few people will listen to you. Suggest you put this gangster skill to good use in the early stages of a level and to a defenceless person (like the local priest). Once he's wanted, just use him like a normal gangster and use the kidnapper to do the work as charmer (see kidnapper skill for details). (Assassination skill) Another vital skill for any gangster, this skill allows gangsters to eliminate other gangsters WITHOUT THE NEED TO KILL THE MUSCLE. Make no mistake this skill is useful when you've been caught in the open and it's just you and a gangster with muscle after your blood. By applying this skill, the gangster dies, the muscle leave and they join a recruitment centre adding more people to that pool. With 3 gangsters that can assassinate you're indestructible against gangsters on foot and can guard areas efficiently. But The only drawbacks is that you'll have to tell them to use their unique ability and second the skill is useless against gangsters in cars and trucks. Gangsters with assassination skill are absolutely useful in all levels but especially in the last few levels. (Kidnapper) These people are able to capture people for information and for influence. The longer they hold their prisoner the more wanted your gangster becomes. When kidnapping keep a watchful eye on your prisoner. He make a run for it when there's danger or when he thinks he's got a chance to flee. This could cause all sorts of problems. You also need the right skill level depending on the person you're kidnapping. This is broken down into: Dignitaries 5 stars Gangsters 3 stars Enemy business specialists 2 stars Priests and other characters. 1 star Kidnap skill is the only way that you can rescue someone, get influence without a charmer and the only way when you're wanted. This works well on everyone and most notably already bribed police chiefs. Get your kidnapper and order him to kidnap the person from the building. If the person is thrown out of the building and is running for dear life, you should be influencing the person now. But be careful when it comes to police stations, you could be throwing out THE WHOLE STATION FULL OF COPS as well as the police chief and they won't care if they are under your influence. They will nail or arrest quite quickly. (Bank robber) This allows you to rob banks in day light hours. Activate skill and walk in bank to rob. This skill works well with another gangster who can cracks safes as they work in a cycle day and night. Robbing a bank will give you plenty of cash flow (3000). Make sure you have a gangster that can rob banks or safe cracker as they can come useful in times of need. They are the only ones that can steal evidence and useful dirt on people at day time. (Safe cracker) Similar to the bank robber but they do their work at night. Works well in shifts with a bank robber. Can only steal dirt to persuade at night. (Spying) A mostly redundant skill. But it can come with its uses. Any business you spy in will allow you to see its cash flow and some more personal details. Some levels will require you to find dirt and the only way you'll get this dirt is by spying on illegal sites and discovering it and getting someone to steal it and return it. The spy is extremely useful on the last level as this can provide a lot of help in the fight against the murderers of your father. ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// [The opponents] During your travels you'll come up against numerous enemies. Some are natural enemies and should be dealt with in the harshest manner. Whilst others are only threatening when you do something they don't like (also should be dealt with in the harshest manner). Here is what you're up against. Other gangsters- Vary in skills and quality. As long as its not from your allies, terminate with discrimination. Sod which enemy gang it came from, you're going to kill them all anyway. Specialist and illegal site workers- they don't cause problems. Every time you throw them out they'll just flee and get blown to pieces. As for the illegal site workers, rarely do they fight back. Kill them indiscriminately as well as less cash would be generated. Police- has the same skills as muscles (2 stars in fighting and stealth). Carry pistols. Can harass you if you're wanted or causing trouble so its best to just shoot any opposing police till they're on your side. Any Police that's under your influence will help you in a fight as well. Which sometimes a help. Not that they'll last long of course... FBI- depending on the difficulty their gun skill can go up to 3 stars. They are incorruptible, carry pistols, do raids and are more dangerous then the police. Kill them as well. Every where you go nail them. Soldiers- Much more dangerous then the police or the FBI. Your best bet is to kill them as you go along. The damage delivered from their rifles is painful. They are highly useful if under your influence. Not that they'll spend many missions helping you. They also come with armoured tanks that will destroy you in seconds. Best bet is to kill the foot soldiers and leave the tanks alone or if you really, really must destroy them, throw a bomb. ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// [SHOPPING TACTICS] When you're able to buy guns, always issue all members with Tommy guns. They are cheap and can waste massive groups of people quite quickly. Ignore silenced pistols and twin packs. They are absolute rubbish and no good in fights. When you're able to buy cars, buy roadsters or armoured cars. Only if you're desperate will you need a sedan. An armoured car with a gangster with full muscle with Tommy guns can easily take on gangsters with the same kit but in a roadster quite easily one after the other and maybe both at the same time. ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// [BUSINESS, BRIBERY, PERSUASION AND CASH FLOW] Set up all your illegal businesses as soon as you claim them. Also try and monitor any places that the rival gangs trash, as they will always go for these places. Giving you a idea where to defend and where to nail as many of their gangsters as you can. Need a boost in cash? Try stealing cars from rival gangs and selling them. Some of them will sometimes drive outside your base, park them and go wandering off somewhere. Don't worry about your cars, they don't bother stealing your cars and the most they would do is steal back their own. If you want to take over businesses without trashing them order your gangster to take the building. But when he/ she says something that will mean they trash the place (like wrecking time! Or let's trash this place). Instantly tell them to get out of the building and then walk back in and claim the place. The shop will be instantly be yours and function without problems. As for illegal businesses, kill the guy who runs it and then claim the site as yours. Robbing banks are a very effective way of gaining cash with 0% APR. Remember depending on the time, only certain gangsters can rob banks. A safe cracker and bank robber can only rob banks but at different times. It's best that you use the bank robber in daylight and safe crackers at night. Also once it's robbed, hide in a local area and wait for the bank to be fixed and THEN REPEAT the process for unlimited cash flow! When it comes to bribes, get a gangster who can persuade (like TUX) but what if someone is already bribing them? Not to worry, In some cases, bribery is not needed, finding dirt on anyone will usually bring him or her to your side. Try brothels, casinos and speakeasys for evidence. Never illegal businesses where products are made or printing of fake cash or loan sharks. Always bring a spy if there are missions hinting the idea that evidence can be found. When putting a specialist into the illegal business, buy anyone from the newspaper, they tend to be more or less the same. But some special ones will come along and you should consider hiring them regardless if you need them or not. This prevents good manpower going to waste and stopping them gaining money. ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// [WEAPONS] Pistols- Weak, useless at all levels. Everyone can carry one and its free to have. Advice is to buy a weapon as soon as possible. Shotgun- Short ranged but can be deadlier then a pistol. Useful for early levels but when you're able to buy heavier equipment, swap it for the Tommy gun. Silenced pistol- Similar to the pistol only that it kills things in one shot. Expensive, weak when used as a standard fighting weapon. Avoid. Dual pistols- Very hard to master, expensive and the damage isn't great. Ignore this weapon as well. Avoid as well. Tommy guns - very useful. Good base damage, the fastest drawing weapons and should be carried around for everyday use in drive bys, assassination skills and general all purpose work. Rifle- can kill potentially in one shot. A great alternative if you're a bit short on Tommy guns. But not to be used as a primary weapon to equip all gangsters as it's slow to reload. Replace with Tommy guns when possible. /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// [MOTORS] Sedan- Cheap and cheerful. Not really well armoured and should be used only to provide transport for gangsters on demeaning jobs. Roadster- Fast and moderately well armoured. You'll only get a couple of these at the start. Always drive around at least in this type of car. Anything else is not worth the effort. Sell these cars when you can afford armoured cars. Armoured car- although slower then most cars, this car should be the car of choice in later levels. As its heavy armour make guarding muscle useless against your car. It's the only car with proper protection against heavier weapons from opposing gangsters. One car alone can destroy 2 roadsters in one go. Truck - Unless you're trying to take a lot of gangsters from one place to another, there's no point in driving around in this and should be provided as alternative transport to more useless gangsters. Prestige car - Can't be bought from a shop. This car usually comes with completing a secondary objective. Its fast and is the only car that'll come anywhere near the armour capabilities of the armoured car. If you get one, use it. ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// [FIGHTS] When targeting people on foot, try targeting the gangster in the middle of the pack and let the team do all the work. If you are a gangster with assassinate skill you can resolve battles easily, despite being on your own. Click on the assassinate button and click on the gangster (or his muscle) that you want dead. The trick here is that normally you have to clear all the muscle before you can get your hands on the gangster itself. With the assassinate feature you target the gangster first. Once he's dead, their muscle will desert and go back to where they came from. In drive by situations, you can maximise all the amount of kills done. When driving towards a crowd, pause the game and target the closest person, now unpause it and watch their colour square underneath their feet will vanish as you shoot them. Now pause again. This means muscle or gangster is dead so target some one else and unpause the game. Repeat process. You can nail far more people this way then driving in real time to nail each person. When you see cops around and they are not under your influence, kill them. They will become an annoyance to you when trying to do delicate things or doing street fights. But this is not a permanent solution. At a change of light, new cops will come along and replace them, but I do believe there's a limit to the number of people there. Kill the FBI as well because they can be just as much trouble as police under someone else's influence. If you are injured or your muscle looks in need of fixing, go to safe houses and your office till recovered. Or if you are no where near a safe house, just fire the weak muscle and hire new ones. Just make sure that you're close to a different muscle site that when doing this, as you'll just buy the same one if you stand near the same one you hired them from. Also wait a moment for them to move a fair distance or you would hire them again. When entering offices with the lead gang leader, get a bomber to throw a bomb into their office and clear everyone out and then kill the boss that runs out. Its much safer then throwing everyone out as you could be killed in the process. It should be important that you do as many objectives to help other gangs join forces with you to save time and money fighting them. Also provide a safe haven for you. Also the best gangsters will come to you for work. It's important that you hire them quickly, as they will help you in your mission. If some mission state that you can make gangsters submit by taking most of their land, it's probably best to follow this route of action. This is because you can claim the territory much more easily and quickly with minimum of cost to you, where as if you killed the gangster quickly, you'll have to buy each grey bit of land that you didn't claim but wanted which is costly. But remember, before the gang leader is about to submit I suggest you nick every stray car that you can before you become allies. It would be a waste of resources if you don't. If mini gangs begin to spawn (because the main leader is dead and there were gangsters left in his gang) its wise to do drive bys to clear them off as they will become a pain once they are free and roaming. Its best you target their leader who also comes out for walkies. No more then 2 cars should cover these little offices that spring up. Hitmen are not particularly advised unless their success rate is around 75 percent and above. Anyone with 90% is definitely worth a buy. Apart from one level, ignore what your advisor says when it comes to being wanted, the police are powerless to stop you and they rarely do raids on your place. Even if they did, you could easily kill them all. When hiding in you base, place the aggression really high so they will instantly begin shooting anyone who throws them out. Unless, you're in an armoured car or you have other gangsters long with you, you must not fight guarding rival muscle at 2 or 3 close business sites as you might get killed in the process. If possible try not to kill the muscle that patrol (the ones that walks around) certain areas, this muscle can be turned to your side, provided that you capture the district that their muscle site came from. Otherwise, it's pointless as there would still be plenty of reserves of muscle even if you killed everyone outside. Never let muscle guard sites, you can't arm them as the enemy can on the last level and they can easily get over run by gangsters with anything better then a shot gun. Its better off that you get gangsters with muscle (if possible) to guard sites as gangsters are far better skilled then muscle and also gives them the opportunity to obtain better weapons to defend the site. If you need to remove large crowds of people quickly and you're a bomber, throw some bombs to wipe out all/most of the enemy. You can also destroy tanks if you throw bombs at it. I have yet to find a way to destroy tanks in armoured cars. ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// [LEVEL TIPS] [ACT 1: RETRIBUTION] [Episode 1: THE FIRST PAYBACK] Town: Buffalo falls Right, Buy the shop and get that muscle. If you have any spare shotguns to buy, give them to the person who is going to take the muscle. You should consider waiting for the Gang leader to leave his car and sell off a lot of the muscle before attempting an attack. If possible, steal his car so he can't use it against you. Just make sure you've got a decent plan of escape or you'll die trying to steal it. The gangsters that roam around the area that are secondary missions you should attempt to nail them at their sites that they explore or when they make their journey to or from the site. If you happen to steal the car and one of the gangsters is heading your direction, kill him. Do not attempt to kill the gang leader until all his gangsters are dead. If you don't, you're letting go of several precious points for upgrading. [Episode 2: UNDER FIRE] Town: Buffalo falls Again, buy more shotguns and this time things will be a little harder as there's five of them in cars. You have a choice when doing this, either hide in a building and pick them off when they get out of their car or you single one after the other and send all your gangsters to blow away that one car. Buy all the muscle and give it to the best fighter. When your new gangster arrives, put him to work. But make sure that he isn't in trouble, as he needs to survive for the secondary objective to be completed. Furthermore, this will be the best bomber you'll get for a long time. If he survives put him in your family member's selection pool. [Episode 3: BUILDING POWER] Town: Buffalo falls Once you claim the brewery site, defend it. They'll send gangsters to reclaim it. Make sure the person guarding it gets a full set of muscle and the best weapons. Always keep a close eye on that place unless you kill the gang leader and everyone deserts. Just one thing, if you claim the brewery, make sure that the trucks are around because if you claim the site before the trucks comes back, you're screwed. As you won't be able to complete the mission. If you want to take out the enemy gang leader, I suggest you bring 2 gangsters (making sure one of them is Louisiana) and throw a bomb to kill everyone inside the building. Once you see him coming out of the building make sure you concentrate all your firepower on him. Just be aware of the fact that if you fail to kill him when he's running out of the safe house, he'll become extremely frustrating to kill him from then on. As he'll continuously run away whilst hiring more muscle. [Episode 4: THE CONTACT] Town: Buffalo falls/ Elmsvile This is very easy. All you need to do is set up the brewery as fast as you can. For now, bring the sedans or any roadsters and get 2 gangsters to drive across the bridge and mow the muscle guarding there. Claim the sites. If you want, heal up and claim all the land on the right site, which is mostly empty of guards. Again, continue to claim the sites and team up to take on cars. "Steamboat" will attempt to flee so therefore you need to kill him as you get close to his office. So the best thing is to steal all his cars and send one or two gangsters to wait for him to go for a walk and kill him. Claiming the required sites is easy and to cut off their lines of alcohol, simply capture it and set one up for yourself. [Episode 5: CAIN LANGHAM] Town: elmsvile/ Blackwick Set up all your illegal businesses except for the brewery and the dice game. As that's the entrances in which the gangsters will be coming from. Its recommended you hide several gangsters in the speak easy. You'll be under pressure right at the start. Gangsters will begin roaming around in your areas and trashing them. So the plan here is to play a defensive game with most of the gangsters and send 2 gangsters with cars to get claiming and remove those undesirable enemy gangster cars (which are poorly armed). Send those gangsters on different routes. Remember to give the best cars to those gangsters. Roadsters minimum but you can compromise with a sedan assuming the gangster is going up to the small village on the side. There is an opportunity to get extra gangsters without looking for them in the paper. All you have to do is claim the following areas for them To get "Nails" (the better of the 2 gangsters) take over the Department store. To get "toothpick" take the gambling den. Since both these sites are near each other, there is absolutely no reason for you not to get both of these gangsters quickly. Toothpick maybe some what substandard as a gangster, but you could always ask him to claim the sites whiles your top team go about their work of clearing the entrances and carve a safe corridor to "stoneface" Langham. Langham will begin to flee near the end of the mission. So you better be ready or close by to kill him when he tries to make a break for it. ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// [ACT 2: INTO THE MOB] [Episode 6: DIVIDED LOYALTIES] Town: Oakmont This one should be quite easy. Buy Tux bribe police chief and send several gangsters to hide in buildings close to the main bridge that that separates the 2 gangs (swap any spare ones in the office when those at work become weak). The attacks might not be frequent but they still happen and cause trouble. Set up the illegal business in your area at the start quickly and buy that specialist. He's skills are invaluable when money is concerned in this level. Make sure he survives at all costs. I would recommend taking on the blue gang first as he's is weaker of the 2 and also speed up completing the level. Also would be the easiest way of setting up cash. Yellow is slightly more vicious and should be suggested that you tackle them last and kill the gang leader instead of subduing him. [Episode 7: HOLLINGTONS LYNCHPIN] Town: Hollington This is always been a topic of concern as many people can't do the first bit right. First up, buy "hands on" from the newspaper, and give him a set of muscle and arm him with as many Tommy guns you can afford possibly. Now, hire him some muscle get in the fastest car (i.e. the roadster) and drive to where the hostage is. Eliminate all guards and claim the site. The hostage will be thrown out, so kidnap him quickly. Once you've done this, pause the game and set up a hide out or safe house there and place him in there. Not only have you got the mayors brother safe without travelling back to your office, you've also created a sort of beachhead to start claiming Kitsen's turf. Once you've captured the mayor's brother, be vigilant in your home turf, as they won't hesitate to send gangsters to trash your office or safe house in your area. Leave a gangster (2 muscle attachments should be fine) at these sites and send another gangster along with "hands on" to do some work now that you've got your prised prestige car. Once you're ready to get kitsen you'll need to bring all but one gangster to one side of the path leading to his office and the other side with a bomber. Now here is the trick: Bring all your gangsters with machine guns to start some suppressing fire and whiles they are distracted, get your bomber to lob a bomb into the large crowd to finish them all off. Send any one who is injured in the battle to flee and hire extra gangsters if you need more covering fire. [Episode 8: THE FARRELIS] Town: WATERPOINT Set up your illegal businesses, send one gangster to guard at the grocery store closest to the bridge leading into yellow turf and another by the brewery. If you start on blue or yellow, those will be the things they'll go for first. It's recommended that you tackle the blue gang as he is the closest and easiest person close to your territory and you need some cash flowing soon so a sustainable base is established. Once you've finally defeated the blue gang, take on the next weakest, pink and finally yellow. For yellow, forget attempting to claim all his land, its far too big and time consuming. You better off just claiming land leading to his office and killing him. Pink gang has a lot of cheap cars you can steal. Take all and sell them. Yellow has a tasty armoured car. Provided you see it unoccupied by their occupants outside their turf, nick it. Never take the armoured car that is close in their turf, as it's not the easiest time. In the blue gangs territory, the dice game and the grocery store next to pinks illegal business in MEW St. is always going to be under attack. Its best that you clear those areas out of any muscle and leave them till last. Remember: reduce each of the gang down to 3 sides to make them submit to you. [Episode 9: A FREIND IN NEED] Town: SEARSDON Defence of your sites is not an issue at this point. Therefore, send as many people out to claim sites. The first thing we need to do is protect Flynn. He's important and the only person who's going to get him is the blue gang. Therefore you should ignore the pink one till last. Claiming sites will start off being a nightmare (especially near the factory area) as parking will be difficult and will leave you exposed. You should claim brothels early or as soon as you can, as they will be a problem that should quickly be removed. If a little short on cash, here is the suggested areas to claim first of the blue gang: 1) The industrial island leading into the brothels 2) The far right side of Alford. Once you've got enough money for at least 2 armoured cars, head to their brothels and take them. Claiming the brothels is a challenge itself, but by selling any unwanted cars for better ones and getting those Tommy guns should help you prevail. Once you claim them, buy all the specialists but don't set them up till later on. As these sites will be where constant fighting occurs (especially around the loan shark area). If you don't hire those specialists and you lose one of the brothels to blue gang (who'll sets one up again), be prepared to kill one of those top specialists that was once in your news paper. As they would be now under the payroll of the blue gang. It's just tragic to see such good resources going to waste. Once you've claimed all of the blue gangs areas. Leave a gangster in a parked car outside his office and bleed him dry of all gangsters to make sure that he doesn't have the chance to trash your places or send people against Flynn. You might put one on both sides of the alleyway just in case they go in a different direction. When blue is subdued, now is the time to send all the remaining gangsters to steal the cars from blue and sell them for the better cars (if there are no decent cars to buy, sell the sedans and keep the roadsters.) When moving on to Pink, there are 2 things you can try. You can claim sites till you reach the desired target office and kill him or just drive to his office and mow the crowd outside his office and any other resistance. Toss bomb into office and kill gang leader If you intend to claim sites, don't claim the sites that have illegal business that are bordering the blue gangs once borderline, as he'll buy them. But the trick here is that you can easily claim them before he can put a specialist in. "ANGEL" pops up in the newspaper once you've taken out the pink gang. She might not be much at first but never the less; an extra gangster is useful and she can be a choice to be one of the permanent gangsters in the game. Once the pink gang is dead, kill blue to finish mission. [Episode 10: THE DIE IS CAST] Town: LANROCK Set up all illegal sites if they're not up and running. There's nothing hard about this level except for the start. Its best you prepare for an onslaught invasion from the enemy gangsters once you invade their territory. First up, bribe the police chief in your area. Put defences in the following places: Whore house The brewery The grocery store next to the brewery. Police station. These areas are vital double the gangsters at the brewery and the whorehouse as these areas are where most fighting will occur. Get one gangster into a car and drive down to the third grocery store close to the purple gangs place. By now, all hells broken lose and you'll have to fight to protect your land. When the fight commences, don't bother trying to repair any sites until its all over as you'll simply get them damaged when they come at you again. If you survive, take your gangster behind enemy territory to start taking each of the unguarded sites using stealth and hiding in other shops to dodge the gangsters that keep coming along. The path I recommend is as follows: 1) The third grocery store down the main road leading to the other side. 2) The grocery stores on Ramsey street 3) The stores on Salford St (don't claim the illegal site just yet) 4) Grocery stores on Brown Street 5) The illegal site on Salford street (there could be heavy fighting here as they'll attempt to reclaim the site back again. 6) The loan shark on Biddle street. 7) Take the illegal site on Booth street (ignore the brewery if you want). Return to car and continue claiming land into blue gang. At this point income should be reasonably high. If your gangster behind enemy lines can find another car other then the main car he came in on, take it. Otherwise make your way carefully back and continue claiming land in blues turf. Once you've set up your operations and an armoured car is available, it's absolutely up to you how you complete the level. I find it more productive just to claim each site and kill all gang leaders. But if you can't be tossed, just get the store near the top. "Speedy" in the newspaper would be useful in this level and would at least be a better gangster then those without special skills. Armoured cars help a lot in this mission, as this will reduce death rates and allow you to take on other cars much more easily. Giving one to "speedy" would be wise idea. ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// [ACT 3: OPEN INTENT] [Episode 11: RELIGOUS ZEAL] Town: WOLDRIDGE The key thing you'll find is that money is a bit scarce and gangsters constantly harass you from somewhere. Not to worry, get one gangster to go and claim the sites on the left side of the map. Claim the sites that are relatively empty of anyone first. Keep claiming as many of these sites as possible. By the end of it, you should have enough money to support yourself (only just). Begin moving onto guarded sites that are on the right and slowly moving left. Notice there's a bank in your area. Buy a safe cracker and rob the bank and claim the money at night. Since he's only a safe cracker, he would be no good at the morning as his skills are no use then. So keep him to do guard duty. Also arm him with a Tommy gun. This person will come in useful despite his lack of skill. A good member to choose as a permanent one. Any idle gangsters should be used as guards and used to deter other gangsters from doing anything silly. The priests are a big help here, they can provide some much needed cash from them. So rid them of those brothels and once you've done it for one priest and get your free money. But beware though, once you've done that, the enemy will send gangsters against him and will need protection around the clock at times. Since there are 4 of them, there isn't much chance of protecting all of them. So if one dies, just set up illegal businesses in that area. But setting up any illegal businesses when the priests are still alive will cut off funding from them and the FBI and police raiding areas. When guarding the priests, choose those that are the closest to enemy territory. The others will have to wait. Once you've claimed enough land, find choke points to guard instead. The best strategy really to protect them is to claim the areas leading to the main road to the north side and holding it to stop gangsters and then just wipe clean the other gangsters till around. But the bridge will be difficult to guard with so many gangsters coming In and the [Episode 12: IN THE ARMY] Town: PALFIELD At the start of the level, hire a gangster with the assassinate skill and drive him close to a site next to the bank. Now be prepared, your territory will be over run and you won't have much hope other then to fight them off and claim as much land as possible to curb your loss of income. They every so often bring cars to attack you, nick them and sell them away to have a boost in cash. The police chief will need to be eliminated for extra points. Therefore the normal drill is required. Just throw a bomb into the police station and bribe the new police chief. But to be honest, by that time the whole thing would be close to over. To get our target, it'll require timing and luck. Forget claiming any sites on the other side of town. Instead send a single armoured car with a fast driver skill and give him lots of muscle and drive and park close to where he parks his car. The trick here is to kill him when he's going towards the casino or leaving it. This is no simple feat. The other strategy is to rob the illegal site he keeps going to. But be warned, its heavily guarded and the tanks make their rounds often In that section. Even if you did steal it. Getting it back could be just as difficult. Those soldiers can pack a punch and if you get caught up with some of them in yellow areas, kill them without hesitation. Just don't drive into blues turf and get caught up with the tanks. [Episode 13: RIVER OF GOLD] Town: THORMANSTOCK Right from the start, Set up an illegal businesses (if they haven't been set up yet). Now we need muscle. The best thing would be to buy a store close to a muscle site. Try and find the best deal and buy it. One will do for now. But protect it, as it's pretty close to some rival turf. Bring a spy and a robber for this mission as they come in handy. We can save alot of time and effort by not fighting the other smaller gangs and merely persuading them. We can do the same with the police. You need spy and rob the following blue gangs places: The speak easy by the river The casino by the river To convert the police raid the following areas: The dice game The brothel The Cardsharp The gambling den If you're mean, or in need of cash, there is nothing wrong by claiming the lands of the 2 gangs that could be allies just to get to the sites to convert them. Just make sure you don't wipe them out. Its worth while to claim all the breweries first and then kill the enemy gang leader as "SWEETHEART" is a gangster with Multi skills (Fast driver and bomber skills) can be found in the newspaper. It's highly suggested that you hire her and keep her as a permanent member of your team. She might not be any good, now that the missions almost over, but never the less, kit her out with all those Tommy guns (or the best you can) for the next mission. A recommended tactic when claiming the breweries and distillers is to park close to the office and shoot all the guards that come out of the office until nobody is left to stop you. But if you're short on time, leave cars to block all escape routes whiles other gangsters claim all the areas. Move in on the gang leader later. [Episode 14:THE GATEWAY] Town: FENTON Time to take out "tornado" shank. Again, be prepared for assaults on your area, as they will continue non-stop until you curb the other gangsters. Since the FBI has a shoot to kill policy, impose one of your own on the FBI. As if killing the FBI wasn't enough of an incentive, if you kill the FBI commissioner (complete second objective) you get a prestige car. So do this early and you could be driving around in something faster or similar to an armoured car. Which would make claiming sites easier and cheaper cutting costs on replacing muscle. The bank will have to be your source of income near the start, as the businesses you have will not stay untouched for long. They will trash any areas with illegal businesses (especially the printing press near the bank) and the illegal businesses near the bottom of your turf. They will sometimes make a move at your office as well. Try and protect the immediate illegal sites in your area. They generate a lot of money (1200 an hour). Right from the start send gangsters to attack the enemies sites. Start with yellow. They are slightly closer to shank. As soon as the prestige car is up on offer, send another gangster, this time to blue. Anyone else still around, makes them useful by doing guard duty. Try and swap roles during runs. If the current gangster needs healing, send some one to replace him and use the injured gangster as a guard. Assassins make great guards. [Episode 15: INTO THE HEARTLAND] Town: BAYLINGTON This level is one of the most annoying levels there could be. First up, bring a gangster with the skill to persuade into blue gang's area and persuade the courts to set their gang leader free. This has to be done with some care and speed, as the muscle on the way will shoot you and it could go horribly wrong if there's a slip up. Don't bother trying to claim the blue gangs lands, they'll claim them back just as quickly as you took them and you could take considerable beatings before the battle has finished. But once you've got his alliance go and get a cheap bank robber or safe cracker and go to the bank in his area. Provide this gangster a sedan and park outside the bank and when he is able to take money, do so. When he can't just wait outside till he can. Repeat process for some income. You could also use the blue gang's area used for launching attacks into the yellow gang's deeper territory. Buy a gangster and arm this person with a shotgun and hide in a grocery store that's leading into the yellow gang's area. It helps as the yellow gang brings in a couple of gangsters to trash your sites every so often and when you least expect it. They could trash almost everything if you're not quick enough to kill them. Reason for the shotgun? That's only to scare them away and nothing more. The central area where the yellow gang and your borders meet up can be a problem. As there is an armoured car that patrols up and down that road and he'll come every so often to drive in your areas and could nail specialists going to work. If you take the card sharp and set a business up, buy the top specialist in that level. Just make sure he gets there safely as a roaming car killed my specialist when I played it. Set up the casino as well. This area is highly desirable. The yellow gang doesn't have to be killed if you want to complete the mission, as there's simply far too much to take. So the plan is to take as much land leading to the site and stay in an isolated area and wait for them. Bring a lot of gangsters when doing this as they will get away and things get hot when they get back in their cars. When they are out their cars nail them quickly and everyone should have armoured cars to ensure that we can out weigh the odds. If one arrives or something, wait for him to park his car and nail him. If that's not possible, kill that person in their car and wait for the other one if the other ones late. If both of them are inside the Casino, park your armoured cars in front of their cars or close by them and Wait and kill them. If you have assassins or spare gangsters, bring them close to the entrance of the casino and make sure they are looking at the doorways at all times and if you have a bomber handy throw a bomb into the casino and kill them all. Just make sure your people are no where near it when this happens or you'll wipe out your own men. Alternatively, if you're going for style and time isn't an issue, You could rig the target gangster's bullet proof cars with a bomb. Just make sure that when they get into the car, they all die. ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// [ACT 4: LEVELING THE SCORE] [Episode 16: YORKDALE DOCKS] Town: YORKDALE First up, start claiming land from the blue gang. Make a note of all the businesses that receive frequent attacks and place armed guard. You should destroy the blue gang before doing anything else. From there on, it's up to you how you could finish the mission. It would be faster to actually take on yellow and wipe him clean. The speakeasies aren't really worth setting up, as they need booze to generate real income. Which we don't have at this stage. You might want to start on all the other gangs as well. If you want to actually make sure that your trucks are able to make a shipment of alcohol out of town, you might need to create a safe passage. That would probably mean clearing a lot of land. You could save money by stealing the brown gangs armoured cars and using them for your cause. Just remember that you only have one shot at this and what you get in the first snatch is what you get and they will wage war on you soon after. The blue gang has a bulletproof car. There's a gangster in the newspaper that has lots of good skills but he's absolutely rubbish in all areas. Hire him/ her near the end of the level as he'll be invaluable asset to the team. When doing your attack into the island, bring all gangsters with armoured cars and muscle to attack one of the entrances. The key threat in this area are the roaming armoured cars so gang up on them and if none of the cars round the pack can't take pot shots at the armoured car, shoot the muscle that comes running down to shoot at you. Switch targets when your gangster is able to shoot at the armoured car. Don't drive too deep into enemy territory at the start or you'll be wiped out quite easily. If you are able to get to the purple gang leaders office, have no regrets to send several armoured cars with full muscle and Tommy guns to wipe them clean. There are plenty of potential gangsters who could leave the office to take back what you so badly worked for. Restrict them to guarding their office. You could throw a bomb into the office but the rate that they throw out gangsters to guard the office is far too quick to make the task easy. Do not kill the gang leader until a shipment has been made and all the other objectives are met. [Episode 17: THE BOOKKEEPER] Town: LENCHINGTON It seems pointless to say it now but its recommended that you bring 2 kidnappers or at least one into the level (Make sure they have decent guns) all action in this level must not be done by the kidnapper, we need their wanted levels low. Therefore, all fighting and guarding will have to be done by someone else. Use them only to kidnap key people and nothing more. But if he's become wanted or you have 2 by all means use one of them to kill. This one will require not only speed, but also a lot of brutal frontline action. The bookkeeper is the main concern here. Forget claiming all the land on the side where the bookkeeper and the FBI are in the town as its too time consuming. Claim all of it on your side and the land leading to the bookkeeper. There are these people who are walking around with patrols of muscle and they hold a lot of cash. So kill everything that isn't yours. we need this money to buy fast cars and decent bodywork. When kidnapping the priest, remove all the policemen outside his church and claim any sites surrounding the church. Then make the kidnap. This will prevent distractions from anybody from happening. But kidnapping the priest should be done early as nothing can stop a hitman from coming along to kill the priest. If you have the resources to spare or you need to heal up, go to the hideout that he's hanging out to heal. If you've only got one kidnapper, then the plan might be a little harder. Especially if you want to do all objectives, so here's the plan, since you've only got one and he's going to get wanted by taking the priest or the accountant, you might as well send him out to do some work. Kidnap the priest and take him back home for safety. Kidnap the bookkeeper and take him back home. You can't walk into the FBI place easily as you're wanted. So get yourself arrested and when he's not wanted and is travelling to court, ambush the truck and get him out. Make sure he can get back and take the bookkeeper out of the hide out (buy him some weapons as well he'll need to replace them) and send him into the FBI place. To make things easier get a fast driver speed things up and not get wanted on the way getting into the FBI place. When sending your gangster with the bookkeeper into the FBI, clear all surrounding areas with muscle, we don't want any screw-ups because of your gangster's aggression, love of fighting or enemy gangsters harassing you. Keep cars on roads to make sure they can guard the area and ensure your gangster can get to the FBI peacefully. [Episode 18: AN EYE FOR AN EYE] Town: ALEXANDRIA There's going to be massive assault on your land by numerous gangsters, so bring all gangsters and pack as many of them into cars (especially fast drivers). A bomber, assassins and anyone left over should go on foot, as we need their abilities and all the manpower we can get. To curb numbers. Send the gangsters in cars first (Especially those who have full muscle hired) and distract the crowd that comes down the road (If anyone is hurt or down to one or two muscle drive away). Now bring the ones on foot. The Assassin targeting any gangsters that are highly dangerous, running up the road or the cars aren't shooting. Now bring the bomber to throw a bomb into the crowd and kill them all. Once that's sorted bring any healthy gangsters in cars to mop up the last remaining gangsters that have dispersed. You'll notice that there is an empty plot in your area, don't bother with it, its not yours and you can't get at it. It's for Flynn who is trying to flee his area, which should get over run. Flynn will need your help getting away. So an armed escort or a buffer zone created should be useful. The cops in his area aren't under his influence. Either kill the ones on foot or bribe the police chief there. But be warned you could be throwing out a lot of people. Once Flynn gets to safety, "FLAMES" will be in the newspaper. He is highly useful as he has both Bomber and assassination skill and they both come in handy for the next 2 levels. Keep him as one of your permanent members. There are some warehouses full of all sorts of goods, so bring a robber (of any kind) into the level. He'll be able to steal the items in the warehouse and the evidence to convince the judge and DA. Just make sure you rob the place before you claim it. The rogue gang won't be much a threat, but as a secondary objective, you might as well kill him. Also notice that this gang has only a couple of cars. Which include 2 armoured cars as well. With this in mind, save money by stealing their armoured cars and selling off the other cars that might be hanging around. Once you're strong enough and stable to buy armoured cars (or you've stolen some) and the big weapons, split your gangsters in half and tell them to go in different directions to gain ground and removing the undesirable gang leaders. Make sure you've got a gangster with a bomber skill in each of the groups. It won't hurt at this point to buy more people to help, as this would make the killing spree even faster. Kill the impostor priest in the level with a Hitmen. So do this near the end of the level when you've got the cash to spend. Another gamer has told me that its possible to throw a bomb at him when he's running to his home. Killing Constantine's father is easy enough (provided you've destroyed everyone surrounding his areas and killed all the gang leaders), just kill the gangsters guarding his site. Bring 2 gangsters (making sure one of them is a bomber) hide one round the corner to cut off his escape and use the other to throw a bomb through his window killing everyone except Constantine's father. When he's outside, shoot him down like a dog that he is and complete mission. [Episode 19: THE FURY] Town: WRATHLINGTON A nasty and very time consuming level. The main issues here are the gangsters that guard each site as well as the muscle there and the large pack of assassins/gangsters that attack from the main road on the Right of your area near the start of the level. Bring all gangsters you can spare and all assassins to wait for them to come along the main road and set up the illegal site to get some income. It is highly suggested that you use assassins as they are very useful in claiming sites or you'll take serious beatings trying to relieve and take sites without them. The more assassins you can get, the faster they claim land before the enemy assassins begin to come along. I REPEAT: ASSASSINS ARE A MUST IN THIS LEVEL!! Here's how we counter the first assault. The Assassins should stand near the front of the force. Separate a gangster to keep on the pavement on the top. Have the rest standing at the lower half of the pavement, as this is where the onslaught will begin. Use the assassinate button on all the gangsters. All useless gangsters should provide suppressing fire. One side is cleared, make them join the rest of the fray. Any gangsters that are low on muscle should run away. Using other gangsters and assassins as covering fire. The tip here to clear any enemy sites is to assassinate the gangster guarding the site that's standing with the ordinary muscle that's usually guarding these sites and then leg it. That will remove the threat of the gangster and his Tommy gun welding muscle. Dodge any patrolling muscle is useful tactic so that they don't hinder escape. But to do this, you need to have good timing. If you need help to escape try hiding in buildings. Once they have been sorted, just mow down the muscle guarding it and walk in and claim the site. The guarding muscle shouldn't really put too many beating into your gangster (provided he has some muscle to accompany him) as you'll hit them first before they hit you. Once you reach their office, make sure you have the whole force of gangsters in armoured cars (Buy more cars and gangsters if you have to!) and full muscle to begin to assault it. As one person gets weak take them out and make sure you can park and stock up on muscle. Continue till crowd is destroyed or only a few remain (Always give each gangster a target. If one person from the crowd dies, tell them to switch to another target quickly). You need this amount of people to clear the front entrance of the base because they will send people out very quickly to protect the office. You could just throw a bomb at the crowd and then retire so that it makes the job easier, but the bomber on his own will be killed and you run the risk of going up in smokes if you let your cars provide covering fire. NOTE: YOU DON'T HAVE TO ATTEMPT TO TAKE THE OFFICE BUT THE POINT IS THAT IT OBVIOUSLY WOULD HELP IN THE LONG TERM. After they spawn out at a lower rate (a couple at a time), It's important that you leave several gangsters with full muscle and armoured cars to clear the entrance of their office as that is still active to send out gangsters to harass or guard the office. If you are able to plug up the surge of gangsters from here, the chances are your sites would be much safer. Remember to swap people doing this job so those on duty can heal. Hire extra gangsters if you have to just to stop this surge of people. Don't forget this is a real challenge and it won't be easy all the way. If the office is absolutely run dry of gangsters, send in a weak gangster to throw out all the specialists and kill them all! (this is not only entertaining but helps weaker gangsters to improve killing people). The police chiefs will have to be kidnapped to be persuaded. A charmer would be arrested before anything could happen. Make sure that you have cleared the outside of the office and saved your progress or things can get messy, as there's always (although not often) a chance that your kidnapper will throw all the police out as well as the police chief and pay dearly for it. There's a particular gangster with assassination skill and fast driver skill. Buy him and get him to do some work like claiming sites. He should also be given the treat of killing all those specialists. If you are able to kill the special gangster in the secondary objective, there's a Hitman you can buy. Depending on your situation you can instantly hire him and tell him to kill the gang leader. He'll always be successful when doing this, or you can just tell him to kill right at the last moment when all sites except his safe house and office are left or once you've done all objectives except to kill the gang leader. [Episode 20: END OF THE LINE] Town: New temperance There are several things you must do first. Bring all your gangsters to that little side entrance close to the factories. There will always be people coming down that pathway. Bring all assassins and any spare gangsters who aren't doing anything. You must always keep watch of this area as your gangsters can't react as early as you can and also they might run across the street to claim those sites and they could be killed by the nasty armoured car. Do not relieve most of these gangsters unless you've got resources to claim the road on the opposite side (or you need to heal people). Once that side of the bridge is claimed, leave a car to patrol there whiles any other gangsters need to heal or buy a new car to join the claiming. One gangster in a roadster at the start, the cars you have at the start are important to transport injured people away from the pathway that most of the gangsters will be guarding. Claim one site at a time and if possible heal up after each muscle you kill, as those muscle with Tommy guns will blow your men to pieces. Its best to give the claiming sites job to the spy, as the person can spy on illegal sites whiles they claim them it'll bring up dirt that can provide you very important info to help you (In this level there's a lot of dirt to be found). Oh, and don't claim the speakeasy close to the mayors office, there's stuff we need to nick there when you discover it. As soon as you are able to afford a armoured car, get one continue the claiming (sell the current car if you have to) If you discover the information and stolen it and given it to the proper people, Constantine will flee. As a result, he'll lose power over the army and the threat of the army is destroyed. However, that would mean that you have to take on the new objectives crippling any chances of you actually making a quick finish in this game. The sooner you can get the army to switch sides before you claim the other half of new temperance (where Constantine's office is located), the easier it'll be to claim their sites. The 2 gang leaders out of town will decline Constantine's offer if certain parts of their land have been taken. Therefore, claiming land should be done as quickly as possible. Its quite easy to claim the first gang leaders proposed areas, but the second one may require a little planning. But if you're too late to stop him arriving, not to worry, as he'll still not be quite established and therefore he can be contained. Send a load of cars to park outside his office and kill his gangsters and the gang leader as well (throw a bomb into office and kill him when he flees) The FBI will constantly raid this one certain area, claim the site but by all means don't set up illegal business there. When you've got a lot of land and close to claiming half of the city (which results in both gangsters leaving), you could try to send in lots of fast gangsters to do drive bys when Constantine goes out to meet the gang leader bosses. But it's highly risky and the point score will look very ugly when you do it. The police and priests are under Constantine's influence. As mentioned, they pose a threat to you so we need them persuaded and we need to do this the quickest way we know: Kidnapping them and when they run away, they'll be under your influence. The island with the priest is worth helping, as that tiny area will convert to your side once you begin claiming parts of his land. This will save you time to claim each site. But if he dies or you doing something he doesn't like then the sites will revert back to Constantine. If Constantine escapes, new objectives have been set. Forget claiming the other half of town, which hasn't got the 2 buildings as its now pointless to do so. Once you've taken them, its time to move onto the final battle with Constantine... [New temperance prt2] Finally, if you don't manage to kill him in the city, you'll have to kill him here. Buy all the cars and fit the fastest drivers and Joey Bane in them. Now head out to his site (anyone who hasn't got a car should set off on foot and clear all the gangsters or muscle around), Constantine is at the back of the casino with 2 muscle. Drive past the gangsters at the front Nail the first muscle to make Constantine ignore his armoured car and begin running down. Drive away and leave the rest of the cars to nail the other people or converge on Constantine (if you want the first gangster could carry on fighting till they die but it's not nice). Remember that this guy can take a lot of beatings so the more people with Tommy guns shooting at him the better. Once he's dead the mission's over and you own the state. Admire your empire.