Gunfight In The Snow

I'd arranged to host a 6-player gunfight game at club this week, so I decided on a change from the normal Wild West game and set it on the Canadian border during Prohibition.

“Frenchie” Le Rus has been running moonshine across the border for the last 12 months or so, but now he has heard that “Lumberjack” Watson is trying to muscle into his patch. Word is that “Lumberjack” is doing a deal with a bunch of Yanks at a deserted farm near the border, so “Frenchie” is going to crash the party and teach that Angie a lesson!

“Lumberjack” Watson has met up with Tony "No Nose” Calzonne to sell two truckloads if finest moonshine at a deserted farm on the border (at least it’s deserted now, after the owner was “persuaded” to take a vacation for a couple of days). 

An informer has offered details of a illicit liquor deal going down, so Sgts Smith and Miller of the RCMP have been tasked with catching the criminals. To prevent then escaping across the border, Sgt O'Grady from the Chicago PD will move in from the south and support the Mounties. 

At the farm everything was going well until a lookout spotted men moving in from all sides………..

and then all hell broke loose!

The cast:

Frenchie's gang

Lumberjack's gang

Tony No Nose's gang

Sgt Miller's patrol

Sgt Smith's patrol

Sgt O'Grady and CPD's finest

The players got Victory Points for escaping or capturing a truckload of booze, killing/arresting a particular gang leader (or in Tony's case, if he escaped). Law enforcement players would also share VPs for any unattended trucks at the end of the game. Law enforcent players lost a VP for every casualty, gangsters lost 2 VPs for each character (partners or henchmen) lost, they could always hire more minions.

The start of the game. Sgt Miller is coming in from the left, Sgt Smith from the right. Tony "No Nose" and his boys are by the house in the middle of the table and Frenchie's gang are in the big barn. Lumberjack and Sgt O'Grady are out of shot, entering from the near and far edges respectively.

Things started bloody around the barn, two of Frenchie's men came out shooting and each downed a Mountie, but only inflicted light wounds so they would be up and back in the fight next turn. The return fire was deadly and both of Frenchie's minions would be dead by the end of the turn.

Meanwhile Lumberjack and his gang move in on the trucks.

No Nose seemed to forget his objectives completely and rushed onto the nearby rocky hill to take on Sgt Smith in a firefight. They took down a Mountie, but Tony was wounded by the return fire.

Sgt O'Grady had drawn the short straw and was the farthest away from the action by the bridge. As none of the criminals showed and sign of making a break for the border, he decided to lead his men forward to get stuck in.

As the Chicago police caught up, they spotted Tony "No Nose" on the hill. Their orders said to bring Tony in for trial, but as he was responsible for the death of several CPD officers, O'Grady wasn't fussed about the trial. The police lined the fence and poured fire into Tony's men on the hill. Tony was hit again, but only a slight wound this time.

Sgt Miller split his patrol to advance on the barn from both sides. Frenchie tried to make a run for it from the back of the barn before he got surrounded, but the minion he sent to grab a truck was shot down and he found himself in a crossfire between the Mounties and Lumberjack's men.

O'Grady's men keep up the hail of lead on Tony, who tries to make a break for it but is cut down.

Both one of Sgt Miller's men and one of Lumberjack's minions climb into the cabs of the two trucks and drive them off. Lumberjack's man heads for the edge of the table, but the Mountie just parks up in a safer place and returns to the fight. This decision will have an important effect on the final results!

Over by the barn Frenchie and his junior partner are pinned down. They knock Lumberjack off his feet, but with no serious damage, and kill one of his minions, but Frenchie is wounded by a Mountie and finished off by Lumberjack's henchman.

The forces of the law now move in and riddle the shack Lumberjack has taken cover in, wounding the boss man. Leaving one of his men to provide cover, Lumberjack and his junior partner get out the back door and run after the departing truck. Tony's junior partner and henchman also make a run for it, the junior partner escapes but the henchman is dropped, wounded, then jumped on and handcuffed by one of the CPD officers. Both Frenchie's junior partner and henchman are  down and wounded and easily scooped up by Sgt Miller's Mounties as Lumberjack and his truckload of booze disappears into the distance.

The final situation.
Frenchie (Me) -6VPs
Tony "No Nose" (James) -4VPs
Sgt Smith (Colin) 0VPs
Sgt Miller (Bill) 0VPs
Sgt O'Grady (Martin) +7VPs
Lumberjack (Mark) +13VPs

If Bill had left one of his Mounties in that truck he would have gained an extra 8VPs and the other law enforcement players would have been 2VPs less.

Cruel Seas Convoy Game

A chance to try our my house rules for Cruel Seas at club this week. A German convoy commanded by Mark, escorted by 3 little Kriegfischkutters, is jumped by two groups of British MTBs (Henry and myself). Help is at hand for the convoy, a Type 24 torpedo boat is steaming up and, as they are close to shore, there is a possibility for air support turning up.

Three Vosper Mark IIs waiting with engines off....

 ......for the prey to arrive!

Two Mark IIs launch their forward tubes whilst the third breaks off.

The convoy move forward into the torpedoes path and a Kriegfischkutter peels off to engage Henry's Vosper Mark Is which are trying to flank them.

 Now in front of the convoy the third Mark II launches his first fish.

From the British captain's point of view.

At the end of the turn Mark (the German player) rolled for availability of air support and got a 1, success, an aircraft would enter the table in the next turn. Rolling again for what aircraft was available and he got a JU87 Stuka, which he promptly used to dive bomb the Vosper Mark IIs. All three boats were within 20cm of the Stuka so threw up a barrage of flak.

A lucky hit with a twin 20mm and I rolled three 6's for damage, BOOM! the plane nose dived into the sea just in front of the Vosper.

Enter the cavalry, the Type 24 Torpedo Boat to the rescue, but it's first salvo missed!

My first torpedo finds it's target....

....BOOM! The damage wasn't enough to sink the merchant, but I scored 3 critical hits using our new rules. I got a double engine hit (taking it to 1/3 speed), additional structural damage and then a Crippled result. This meant another engine hit (so the ship couldn't move), a rudder hit (random direction if  she could have moved) and taking on water (extra 3d6 damage every turn). This last was enough to sent the ship to the bottom, but rolling a 6 meant that the wreckage would remain in place for 3 turns.

Coming round the other side of the island, one of the Mark I's looks like it's torpedoes are on target.

A bit of frantic manoeuvring by the German ships lets the merchant avoid the torps, but one catches the tanker.....it's a dud!

But avoiding Henry's torpedoes and missing ramming the sinking ship put the merchant in the path of one of my torpedoes, and it was a BOOM!

Looking good for the British, we had lost two MTBs (one of Henry's Mark I's went down to a crossfire from the three Kriegfishkutters) but sunk the two merchants and I had a boat with two torpedoes left lining up on it. But at this point the Type 24 sank that MTBs with a direct hit from a 4" gun.

There were still a lot of fish in the water, including two that Henry had chucked in the direction of the |Type 24 to try and put it off. Another torpedo hit the tanker, but failed to go off and another of Henry's boats went down. We decided to call it a day and head for home, both my surviving boats got off the table but Henry's last boat was riddled by the Type 24 and finished off by a Kriegfischkutter (with a 35mm and a twin or quad 20mm these little boats have quite a punch!).

The final insult and luckiest move of the game, was when Mark somehow managed to turn the Type 24 in between the two torpedoes coming at it! We had to check twice with laser pointers to be sure, but somehow he'd managed it.

We called it a draw, two merchants for 4 Vospers wasn't a good exchange. We had all had a lot of fun and laughs and agreed that the new torpedo rules worked mush better (when they hit). Henry had really bad luck with his fish, all three that had lined up with a target had either missed or was a dud!

Other games on that night;

A 40K game with the Space marines fielding an impressive bit of kit.

And a 4-player Chain of Command game set in Burma.