Babel Expanded and Second Game of Ruthless

Six of us got together for a second game of Ruthless, riding off the success of our smaller first game.

To accommodate six players I had to increase the table size from 4' by 3', to a 6' by 3', which also meant adding quite a few more buildings.

The six factions were: Lawmen, Bounty Hunters, Pinkertons, the Durham Gang, Duke's Gang and Banditos. These were then roughly divided into sides, the "Good" guys (Lawmen, Bounty Hunters and Pinkertons) and the "Bad" guys (Durham Gang, Duke's Gang and Banditos). Alliances were pretty loose, especially amongst the "Bad" guys.

Each faction had their own goals and ways to achieve victory. The basic premise of the story is that the two outlaw gangs are robbing Babel's bank. They have a loose agreement concerning sharing the loot. The Pinkertons have arrived on a stagecoach in town to escort some passengers and their wealth, along with collecting some more cash from the bank. The Banditos know that the Pinkertons are carrying a small fortune on the coach and plan to rob them. Meanwhile, the Bounty Hunters have descended on Babel knowing there is a smorgasbord of bounties to be collected and the Lawmen are of course trying to prevent all of this chaos.

The game was fast and furious with a lot of blood being shed. The Durham Gang and the Banditos took the brunt of the early game casualties, allowing the Lawmen, Bounty Hunters and the Pinkertons to descend on Main Street and the Bank. The Durham Gang (played by me) were brutally gunned down (mainly by VERY unlucky dice rolling) while simultaneously trying to rescue the youngest Durham from the Jail and bravely (stupidly?) making escape out the front door of the Bank. The Mexicans faced a similar fate when two of them started shooting at the Pinkertons guarding the coach. With assistance from the Bounty Hunters the attempt was quickly thwarted and the Banditos hunted down.

This left the Lawmen to freely pursue Duke's Gang, who with hostages in tow and a good haul of loot were heading for their horses. Duke's Gang escaped out a Bank window and then into other buildings to avoid the hell, that was Main Street. A climatic battle took place in the graveyard which thwarted the gang's escape but also cost the Marshall his life.

Some of the highlights (more like lowlights) were; a mounted Bandito running down the Bounty Hunter boss; the Marshall taking on Duke's Gang in fisticuffs (because he couldn't shoot at them until shot at); a Bounty Hunter taking a hostage just before he was shot at and the poor hostage was killed instead; the deadly accuracy of the Pinkertons; the Durhams turning on Duke's Gang over loot; and last but not least the Bounty Hunters trying to claim the Durham as a bounty while he was already locked up in jail.

In the end the Pinkertons and Bounty Hunters came tied 1st Place and each of the other factions achieved only a single victory point each. A great game with a great group of guys. Can't wait to do it again.

Here are some random pictures of the game:

 

 

These are some of the cards that I made, including the faction "mission cards", character sheets and Bounty cards.

First Game in "Babel" playing Ruthless

Our group has been trying to arrange a war gaming weekend since just before the first Covid lockdown (March 2020), but since then just about everything has stood in our way and prevented us from achieving it.  Finally, yesterday the stars aligned and a good friend who used to live locally drove down for the weekend. Even though there were only three of us, instead of the intended four, and the heavens threatened to open up on us, we finally managed to play a game!  

This was the inaugural game for my wild west town of Babel. A table I have been working on for the last two years. It was intended for a 6'x4' and a lot more buildings didn't get to the table because we ended up opting for a 4'x3'. Most of the buildings are Sarissa Precision but there are a couple from Warbases sprinkled throughout.

My intention was to play test the new Too Fat Lardies game, What a Cowboy!, but for our first big game in well over two years the group opted to go with the original plan and use Ruthless, a free set of rules from Mark Fastoso. Besides I had already prepared a home made scenario that I had put a bit of effort into. Ruthless was streamlined enough and played very well. It required a bit of house ruling and we had a few issues with the timing of playing some of the special cards but apart from that it achieved what it claimed to be "The Fastest Rules in the West". In saying that the body count although was much less than we had expected and we had quite a few cowboys harboring a whole array of wounds having been literally shot to pieces.

All in all we had an excellent time and it was just so good to roll some dice again with good friends. The scenario involved the lawmen getting a captured outlaw to the Sheriff's office to face a proper trial. The outlaw's older brothers showed up and had to try and get him back. While this played out a low down gang of banditos who had been driven out of Babel a few days before decided it was time for their revenge and tore into Babel guns a blazing, not caring who they shot at. It turned out to be a pretty intense game and fairly well balanced. There was a fourth bounty hunter faction that did not get used. In the end the lawmen did get the outlaw to the Sheriff's office, winning the game, but for some time it looked like the outlaws were about to make the rescue, until they failed their Skedaddle test and called it a day. The Mexicans, played by me, generally caused havoc to both sides, not caring who they targeted. We have promised to get back to Babel again soon.