Wild West Bloodbath

I ran another of my Wild West gunfights using my home-grown rules on Friday.

Mark ran the posse of lawmen who had captured the notorious outlaw Stinking Pete and was es courting him to the local town marshal's office to be locked up until he could be transferred to the State prison. Just before being captured Pete had robbed a gold shipment and only Pete knew where it was stashed.

Colin, Bill, Martin and Henry all had rival gangs of outlaws who wanted to grab Pete and "persuade" him to reveal where the gold was hidden. I umpired and controlled the townsfolk, which included the marshal and his two deputies, in the Marshal's office. They would be activated once some entered the Marshal's office, if the shooting had already started they would be on Wait (overwatch) and able to react, otherwise they would be taken by surprise.

All Mark had to do was get Stinking Pete into the jail, all the others had to do was either take pete off the table, or else be the last man standing!

 The lull before the storm! Peaceful citizens go about their business, unaware of the chaos that is about to start.

 Hell breaks loose! As one of Mark's henchmen leads Stinking Pete down the street, two of Colin's army deserters broke in through the back door of the general store. Startled, the storekeeper blasted them with his 12 gauge, but missed. The returning fire knocked the storekeeper through his own window to land in the street in a pool of blood, to the shock of the passers by. Townsfolk statter and one man starts running towards the Marshal's office to get help.

 Things start to heat up as one of Martin's minions also breaks in through the back of a shop. This time the shopkeeper is a better shot and the outlaw is cut down. outside Martin's henchman has been knocked down and wounded by fire from the army deserters.

 Bill's Mexicans move up across the back of the shops, rather than show their face in the main street.

 Mark's minion guarding Stinking Pete is shot down and Pete makes a run for it down an alleyway. Mark's lawmen rush in pursuit but Marin's gang try to intervene, starting a close range gunfight.

 One of Bill's Mexicans decides breaking into the Marshal's office would be a good move. Alerted by the sounds of gunfire, the three lawmen are ready when a strange Mexican waving a gun around bursts in through the door....

 ...and is riddled with bullets!

 Martin's gang is losing the gunfight with Mark's posse, but Mark loses another man to fire from across the street.

 A view of the carnage so far.

 Now the Mexicans and the deserters get stuck into each other in another gunfight that is close up and personal.

 A view down the deserted main street.

 AS the Marshal and his deputies rush out of the jail, one of them is shot down. This just makes the marshal and his last deputy angry and they proceed to make their feelings known, Wild Bunch style!

 The aftermath of the Mexican/deserter gunfight! Both gangs have decimated each other and got no nearer to freeing Pete! Mark had holed up in the saloon and the last two deserters were cut down when they tried to rush the place.

End game! Although the Sheriff had been shot, Mark's senior deputy had managed to get Pete into the jail. There were only three bandits left on their feet from the four gangs and two of those were wounded.

It was a lot of fun for all the players. 

Other games on that night:

A 40K game.

And a Chain of Command game that seemed to only be using the opposite edges of the table?

Western Gunfight 3

Mark and Colin joined me in a Wild West gunfight game at the last club night. Using my home brewed rules we got two games in and had a lot of laughs.

The first game was a straight forward "Who's the Boss Around Here?" game. Three gangs fighting to the last man standing. Mark got into character with his Mexican banditos, his boss left his men to do the fighting while he crept around the back of the town and his henchman dodged down the middle of the street from civilian to civilian, using the startled passers by as human shields! Despite this Colin won the first game.

The second game was a treasure hunt. We were all former members of the same gang who had been double crossed by our old gang leader. He had made off with the loot and hidden it about the town before getting himself killed falling over the whorehouse balcony whilst drunk. We needed to search the buildings and find the loot. If a character tried to enter a building through the back door there was a 50/50 chance it was locked. Entering a building by the front door was OK, but if you can in by the back there was a chance that an angry householder would take a pop at you, the chance increasing if you had broken in. One on my minions was the first into a building, when he broke into the back of the hotel. In so doing he woke up the barmaid, who rushed downstairs in her underwear and blew his head off with her trusty winchester! In the end three of the first four kills went to angry townsfolk! But I managed to grab the bulk of the loot and escape, chased by my former gang mates.

 The east side of town.

 And the west side.

 The banditos close in on my gang.

 Colin's gang adopt a cautious approach.

 When searching the saloon, one of the Mexicans takes a break. 

 My encounter with the barmaid!

Other games on that night:

 A Napoleonic naval battle.

 That British ship looks ganged up upon!

Opps, where did me masts go?

 A Dragon Rampant bash.

 A 40K game.

And a 4 player Congo game.

Western Gunfight 2!

An alternative view of the action!

The Kidnap of the Bank Manager in Grahamtown

This game was played on 21 July 2017, using Graham’s scenario and his homebuilt rules.
A few pictures depict the action:-

Mark and Alan were both running Mexican bandido gangs, but in a spirit of total lack of cooperation, they quickly started a duel which lasted the entire battle and spelt doom for both sides. Here, Alan’s gang are headed by Vittorio in the centre and Esmeralda, his sidekick; both Vittorio and Esmeralda already have wound markers, and only Esmeralda will survive the battle.  Meanwhile, the henchman Il Brutto fends off a long range attack from Colin’s faction of armed hookers.  Colin’s shooting was phenomenal throughout; his faction accounted for no less than four of Alan’s alone, and also succeeded in holding off both Graham and Bill.

Mark’s bandidos duel with Alan’s, from the other end of the alleys off Main St.  At this point in the fight, Mark’s gang boss has run out into the middle of the street to get a clear shot at Esmeralda, and then fumbled his weapon. Unsurprisingly, Esmeralda took exception to this behaviour, and promptly shot him down.

Another view of Mark’s gang boss, standing alone in Main St outside the Chinese laundry. This end of Main St itself saw very little action until late in the battle;  Mark and Alan’s bandidos were busy duelling in the alleyways on one side, and Mark and Bill on the other.

Here you can see one of Mark’s minions attempting to sneak into a firing position against Bill’s faction.

Meanwhile, at the other end of town, Bill and Graham’s gangs are shooting it out across the side street, near the undertaker’s.

Colin and Bill’s gangs also got into a fire-fight across Main St, by the hotel. Almost incredibly, a couple continued to pose for a portrait photo throughout the battle, despite the bullets whistling by their ears. You can just see one of Colin’s gang in the hotel doorway, using the couple as human shields.

At last the stage arrived, bringing the banker into town. By this time, there weren’t many left of each faction to do much about it. Bill’s gang got the drop on Colin and Graham though, and almost the only figure still standing managed to hold up the stage driver and “persuade” him to drive off the table, for a convincing win.

Western Gunfight!

We played a 5-player shootout at club last week using my homemade rules. The scenario was that a rich banker was due in town on the noon stage and the local bad-boys have decided to kidnap him. They ride into town just before the stage is due, only to discover 4 other gangs have had the same idea. The object is to get control of the stage when it arrives (randomly rolled for after each turn after the third. Unfortunately, no-one knew whether the stage would stop at the hotel first, or one of the livery stables at either end of town. Once the stage was on the table, we would roll to see where it stopped, 1-5 and 16-20 for the respective livery stables and 6-15 for the hotel.

It was a bit of a bloodbath, everyone started off with a gang of 6 and by the time the stage arrived (turn 5) most of us were down to 1 or 2 men left! Colin's shooting was phenomenal, I think he only missed 3 shooting rolls the whole game.

A couple of high points, one of Colin's men jumping onto the back of the moving stage, in best Hollywood tradition, only to be shot off by Bill's last surviving gunman before he could make the driver stop. Then Mark's Mexican gang leader rolling a 20 (jammed gun!) whilst standing in the open, then being shot by Alan to the comment of "What do you expect, standing in the middle of the street fumbling with your weapon!" Cue schoolboy giggles all round.

In the end, the stage stopped by the first livery stable, Bill shot my last gunman as he ran for the stage, used a wild card (everyone got three one-off event cards to use) to frighten the horses so that they moved down a side street, out of view of the other players. He then jumped on the stage, stuck his gun in the drivers face and made him take the stage off the table with the startled banker still inside.

 I'll add some more pictures when I get some close ups from Alan.

Also being played at the club that night were 5 other games.

                                                  10mm Napoleonic using Black Powder.

                                       28mm Napoleonic skirmish in Spain using Chosen Men.

                                                   20mm WW2 using Rapid Fire.

There was also a Warhammer 40K game, but when I got home I realised I hadn't taken a picture of that!