How the West wasn't won

A change in pace and scenery with gaming this weekend.

We've been keen and have been talking about doing a small Legends of the Wild West campaign of and on for a while now.

This time it's for real. We've actually got our posse's organised and all ready to go. 'Til Rob came down with the dreaded lurgy (get well soon Rob! :-) )

So instead of starting the campaign today, we played a few games to remember how to play the game. Always a good place to start.... :-)

Phil had his Outlaw's. Mark and I are both fielding Lawmen.

My posse is:

Sheriff Bullock (repeating rifle + six-gun)
Deputy Blondie (repeating rifle)
Deputy Wild Will (repeating rifle)
Vigilante Tuco (six-gun)
Vigilante Cheyenne (six-gun)
Vigilante Sol (shotgun)
Citizen Ol Timer (six-gun)
Citizen Morton (six-gun)

Can anyway guess where the names are from...? :-)

Mark and Phil were already playing a game when I arrived (I have no idea of what their posse's consisted off).

A few shots of their game/posse's:

Their game took forever, but it was finally High Noon when Phil and I lined up for the next game...

Until we realised all the extra rules that the actual duel at High Noon had.... so it was back to setting up for a standard High Noon mission. My Lawmen trying to run Phil's Outlaws out of town.

Both of us positioned riflemen to cover the road. Phil's Outlaws trying smashing through the buildings to utilise the cover whilst my Lawmen skirted through alleyways to gain cover...

In the end the better aim of the Lawmen won the day as Outlaw casualties mounted. They quickly broke and headed for the hills, a few less in number now.

What I didn't know was that one of the Outlaws was the brother of another Lawmen. Mark's Lawmen now had a Vendetta to settle..... no amount of reasoning that the law had been broken was going to suffice. They were out for blood!

Sheriff Bullock quickly ordered his Lawmen to barricade the store and the men took position.

Soon, the shootin started. First blood to Bullock and his posse. Mark wasn't mucking around though and moved his Lawmen in closer for the kill....

One of my Deputies falls and my Lawmen posse start collapsing their defense back to the store. This was it. All or nothing. All guns blazing!

The amount of firepower being expended is amazing! But can I kill anything!? Nope. A few enemy Lawmen are knocked out, but they're still closing and starting to flank the store.

I'm forced out and have no choice but to bring the biff. Again, I'm winning the fights, but can I cause a wound!? Nope. Mark is though and my numbers are starting to thin.

And thin past breaking point now. Sheriff Bullock is tough though and he's gonna go down fighting rather than just give in to this unjust vendetta. Even surrounded, he refuses to break and still fights back...

Only to have Mark's cowardly Lawmen bring him down....

Who will protect the town now!? 

Fair play to Mark. He made his hits count where I couldn't. The game should have been won a few a turns earlier, but I just could not convert hits to wounds to get Mark past his posse's break point.

All good fun and good practice for the real campaign.

Sheiff Bullock and co will be back! :-)

Tombstone

Well... not quite as Wyatt was having a day off, but the rest of the Earp's were here with Doc.

My Lawmen were also on hand to help out against a large band of Cowboys.

A nice big Wild West game using the Legends of the Old West rule set to start the day off. Mark and I would be on the side of the Law. Garth and Phil were trying to run us out of town with the Cowboys.

The Lawmen and Earp's moved up to take commanding positions in the buildings on their side of the street. The Cowboys did likewise, but they were going to have to move closer. A few started moving over the fences to close with the Law...

Mark and I were quite happy to stay where we were and use our range and better shooting ability to start picking of the Cowboys. 

The Cowboys were going to have to move and they did. As the Earp's were so tough, the Cowboys decided more numbers were needed them to try and take them out. As they re-positioned, my Lawmen were able to remind them who was still in charge of this town.... the body count of dead Cowboys start to rise and rise quickly.

Neither Cowboy gang had many members left by this stage. The Lawmen had only lost a couple of upstanding citizens. The Earp's (i.e. Mark :) ) had had enough, so they burst out of the building they were in and were determined to finish things. This left the Cowboys with one last gamble... trying to stick Doc with a knife in hand to hand combat...

The Cowboys fail to finish off Doc and having lost so many of the gang.... they loose their nerve and flee from the town. So, thoughts on the game? The Earp's are tough. Real tough. Glad they were on my side! Possibly a bit too tough for a one off game like this. Would be interesting to see how they fair against a gang that has earned experience across a campaign as I think the special rules made a big difference. 

As for the rest of the game though..... the Cowboys were spread out across the table. I think this played into our hands as we could just sit and use our better shooting ability to pick the Cowboys off (some good rolling also helped!). Had the Cowboys used their own rifles (they would have out ranged my repeating rifles) to keep us pinned and then used their numbers to work around the flanks... then I think things would have been quite different. A group of them heading round one or both flanks would definitely had got me worried. Although it still probably wouldn't have worried the Earp's. Maybe next time, the Cowboys should have a couple of characters of their own to keep some balance.

Where did we go from here? Well, we decided to play another Warhammer Historical game. This time with Gladiators! Garth, Phil and I would each have 4 gladiators. It would be last Gladiator standing wins. This was going to get bloody.....

Each player could field one gladiator at a time. Each time your gladiator died, another could be enter the arena in the next movement phase. 

I won't go into too much detail, but in the end only one of Phil's gladiators remained. Bloodied, but alive.

As per the rest of the Warhammer Historical rule sets (same mechanics as LoTR), the game play and rules are simple. Nets and what happens there feels a bit odd, but I think that's more about getting the hang of the rules. It does feel like it is missing something. I do think a gladiator getting the initiative and successfully charging into a combat should get some sort of bonus, but I also guess a gladiator being charged will know exactly how to handle it. It doesn't feel like there are any tactics in this rule set.... it's more about whoever can roll higher. A campaign might give it a much better flavour though.

Finally, Mark and Phil had a game of X-Wing to finish off the day. I would have had a game after them..... but they were too slow.... to much chit chat! :)

I had some fun taking some pictures though.

Mark fielded the Rebels (YT-1300 & B-Wing). Phil had the Imperial forces (Tie Fighters & Tie Advanced). Lot's of shooting and damage from both sides followed by collisions at crucial stages made things hard for both players. It came down to the wire with both Rebel ships only having 1 hull point each. The Tie Advanced had full hull points and the one remaining Tie Fighter had 1 hull point left..... the Rebels choose a good time to shoot well having struggled all game.... finishing off both Imperial ships before they could return fire....

I suspect that at this moment Phil is checking up on the X-Wing FAQ/forums in regards to a certain YT-1300 combo of Han Solo/Gunner/Target Locks.... quite a few re-rolls were had in a couple of turns.... but as it stands. The Rebels won the day.

Finally, Happy Birthday Mark! Was a bit of a quiet day, but hope you enjoyed (2 wins... how can you not be happy :) ) and do enjoy your actual birthday on Tuesday.