More Mounties at Tring

I ran another 1920's skirmish game at the club this week, unfortunately this time my Mounties didn't get their man!

I used the same scenario as the last game LINK , but this time with only 4 players.

 The set up at the start, clockwise from the top left, Frenchie's gang, Tony "No Nose" and his hoods, the Mounties and Lumberjack's gang.

 Tony's bunch of low life.

 The heroic officers of the law.

 Lumberjack and his men.

 First blood to the Mounties! One of Tony's gunmen is dead and another has been knocked down with a minor graze.

 Frenchie rapidly advances towards one of the trucks, whist his men start shooting at anything that moves. Taking on all three other players at once was not going to prove to be the best plan in the long run!

 Another of Tony's minions falls to the dead-eye RCMP.

Some of Lumberjack's men try to out flank Frenchie.....

 ....and take out one of his goons.

 Two of Frenchie's men get into the truck and start the engine, but one of them is shot down my Lumberjack's men.

Caught in a cross fire Frenchie drops along with most of his gang (that will teach him to start a fight with everyone else at once!).

His last minion attempts to drive off with one of the trucks, but is riddled with bullets by the Mounties.

After their earlier successes, one of the two Mounties picking off Tony's men is taken out by the gangster's return fire.

The final situation. All the Mounties are now down, one of Lumberjack's men is racing off in one of the trucks and Tony's last gangster had just got his truck over the bridge and across the border into the USA.

Other games on last Friday:

A Congo game.

A 6mm Black Powder game set in the War of the Spanish Succession.

A Dystopian Wars naval battle.

And a game of the new Necromunda, which unfortunately wasn't set up by the time I went to take a picture!

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.

1920s Pulp and WW2 Malaya at Vanquish Show 2018.

Tring Wargames Club attended the Vanquish show at Bourne End on Sunday with two games. Vanquish is a small event, held in the Bourne End Community Centre, with about 15 traders and half a dozen demonstration and participation games. It also offers basic, but good value refreshments (my breakfast bacon roll had 3 rashers of good quality bacon) and a bar serving some excellent Rebellion ales from the Marlow Brewery.

It was a fun day, both games went well, although the Mounties didn't always get their man in my pulp game.

I was particularly impressed with the mix of traders, there was an absolute minimum of duplication in the stock on offer (in recent years I have often wandered around some of the larger shows and felt that I've seen the same stand 4 or 5 times!). I was quite restrained compared some other club members, I picked up a couple of mdf inserts for Really Useful Boxes from Commission Figurines, a few nice resin scenery bits from The Square and a few paints.

Our two games were:

Winter War 1920. A pulp games set in a fiction border war between Canada and the USA using The Men Who Would Be Kings (I really like these versatile rules which I've used for Colonial games, the 1912 Balkans War and various pulp-style scenarios).

The Long and the Short and the Tall. A WW2 game set in Malaya based on the play and film from the 1960s. This used a set home brewed rules specifically designed for a kids participation game using old 54mm plastic figures by Airfix.

I also continued my tradition of running a game appropriate to the foreign visitors to the show. A couple of years ago I was running a 1912 Balkans War game at Warfare and had no sooner laid the game out when a Greek couple came rushing over, having seen the Greek flags from halfway across the hall. This time, almost the second I put the mounties on the table a Canadian couple wandered over!