Daylight Robbery

We played a three-player game of What A Cowboy last night. Stuart surprised us with a pile of terrain and table clutter he'd printed and painted, so we filled the board with as much of it as possible.  With Caesar's flat-roofed buildings what we ended up with was something that looked like a town on the New Mexico/Virginia border. But we went with it.

The large building in the centre of the table was a railway station and in the railway station was a bag of money ripe for the stealing. Four desperados led by the infamous 'Scar' Johnson strolled into town to collect it. From left to right they were Tom English (Greenhorn), 'Scar' Johnson (Gunslinger), The Orinoco Kid (Shootist) and Mario Gonzales (Shootist, with a rifle).

The law was waiting for them in the person of Sheriff Collins, a gunslinger with a shotgun.

And running from the other side of town was hid daughter Betsy, the town deputy and a Legend.

I set up the game to try, once again, forces with disparate numbers but also to have a Legend on the table and a rifle. Spoiler: the rifle never got used.

Initial moves by the robbers; in the foreground you can see The Orinoco Kid, in the middle is 'Scar' Johnson and barely visible in teh enclosure at the top of the picture is Tom English.

The animals were just for show and had no effect on the game.

The station. The bag of money is inside the big building, on the first floor.

Sheriff Collins popped out of hiding and blasted Tom English with his shotgun, inflicting a nasty wound.

A second shot saw the robber out of action, with a face full of buckshot.

Mario Gonzalez moved up with The Orinoco Kid. They would operate as a close pair for the rest of the gunfight.

In blasting Tom English the Sheriff now found himself caught in the open. 'Scar' Johnson punished this mistake with two shots which down the lawman with a fatal gut-shot.

However Betsy Collins had come up from behind the station and drew a bead on The Orinoco Kid and Mario Gonzalez, forcing them to duck for cover.

But all it did was pin them; she couldn't inflict any real damage on them.

Meanwhile Scar had made it into the station and had grabbed the money.

Betsy was obliged to use up her legendary supply of Bonanza tokens to zip past The Kid and Mario to try and catch Scar before he escaped.

She chased him down, and pinned him. But now she was out of ammo and had to spend critical amounts of time reloading.

Mario Gonzalez caught up with her and shot her in the back, seriously wounding her.

The Orinoco Kid finished her off.

So a convincing win for the bad guys who were able to bring their numbers to bear against the two officers of the law. No matter how high a grade a gunfighter is, they are as easy to shoot down as a novice, with only the ability to get the jump on your opponents a couple of times each game able to save them. 

Here's some photos Caesar took. He ran Scar and Tom English, whilst Stuart ran The Orinoco Kid and Mario Gonzalez. I ran the law.

Tom English pinned by Sheriff Collins.

Gonzalez and The Orinoco Kid

The station, with some civilians idling outside it.

Scar shoots the Sheriff (but he didn't shoot the deputy).

Betsy Collins stalks Scar.

Thanks to Caesar and Stuart for a fun game, and especially to Stuart for the lovely additions to our Wild West terrain and figure collection.

Gunfight At La Bonita

I've been on holiday for the past few days, so this report is somewhat delayed. It also means that I will have almost certainly forgotten a load of key details. For that I apologise.

Last Thursday five of us played a game of What A Cowboy. This was quite ambitious since some of the players had never played before and the rest of us are still learning the game. However we kept it fairly simple and it actually rattled along OK.

I set up two nominally equal forces. 

On one side were 'Scar' Johnson's outlaws:

'Scar' Johnson - Gunslinger - Revolver
Angel Eyes - Gunslinger - Two Revolvers
Clem Vernon - Shootist - Shotgun, Revolver
Tuco - Greenhorn - Revolver

Against them were the ladies of Mayor's Income, NM

'Calamity' Anne - Gunslinger - Revolver
Miss Daisy - Shootist - Two Revolvers
Belle Starr - Shootist - Shotgun, Revolver
Miss Peach - Greenhorn - Revolver
Daisy Jane - Greenhorn - Revolver
Pearl Hart - Greenhorn - Revolver

So one side had experience and the other had numbers.

The ladies of Mayor's Income were raiding the Hacienda La Bonita looking for stolen jewels that Scar's gang had stolen from the town the previous week. What were the men of Mayor's Income doing? Who knows. Not raiding La Bonita, that's for sure.

Here's the setup. The ladies would be entering from the top of the picture. A couple of Scar's gang were deployed in the town; Angel Eyes on the roof of the building in the foreground and Tuco on the roof of the right-hand building. The rest of the gang would enter at the bottom. We tried townsfolk in this game and you can see several of them scattered around.

On the roofs of four of the buildings you can see coloured counters. These marked the buildings where the jewels might be. Caesar and I were playing the gang and chose which one of the four represented the real jewels; the others were dummies. The ladies would have to enter each building with a counter and search to determine if they were there or not.

A closeup of the setup.

The first group of ladies entered along the right edge (from the point of view of my pictures). Daisy Jane (in the yellow skirt) moved up quickly and took cover next to one of the buildings. Calamity Anne lived up to her name; she was further back but took a shot at Tuco on the roof and missed. The shot went wild and hit one of the locals. Not a great start for the ladies.

Tuco was now spotted by three of the ladies - I made some numbered counters to put next to whoever a character was currently spotting.

There was a reasonable amount of gunfire coming his away but he escaped with nothing more than a little shock.

Calamity Anne moved up boldly and inflicted a light wound on Tuco.

Sensibly Tuco backed off out of sight. Below him Clem Vernon popped out from behind the building and popped off two full shotgun loads as Calamity Anne, causing her some shock and a light wound.

Unfortunately Clem also accidentally hit another bystander. Neither group was endearing themselves to the locals.

A wider view of the action. 'Scar' Johnson was now in position by the shacks bottom-right. Angel Eyes had boldly moved to the plaza (centre of the picture). Tuco was still skulking on the roof. 

Daisy Jane had entered the building at the top right and discovered that the jewels weren't there. To the right of the building is Belle Starr with her shotgun and chicken. Two more ladies - Miss Daisy and Miss Peach were tucked behind the central building (with the yellow counter).

Angle Eyes scooted to the right and downed Pearl Hart. 

Miss Peach appeared from behind a building ...

... and Scar shot her stone-dead.

Things were going rapidly downhill for the ladies - Angel Eyes killed Calamity Anne with a single shot.

Clem got into a shotgun shootout with Belle Starr. Lots of shooting saw no damage on either side, but a certain amount of diving for cover.

Miss Daisy entered a building and found the jewels!

Scar rushed up to the window looking to shoot her, but she got the jump on him and did a runner out of the door and down the other side of the building. Scar clambered through the window and chased her, getting in a shot but missing.

However at that point the ladies had to take a morale test, and ran for the hills, abandoning their loot.

The ladies were unlucky that two of their group were taken down by instant kills rather than simply being wounded. Their third loss - Pearl Hart - was wounded and simply ran out of action dice, which puts them out of the game.

This writeup is brief; I'm sure I missed several incidents. Everyone felt they'd had a good time and the game ran pretty smoothly in a couple of hours of play. We had around 45 minutes of setup and explanation as well. 

As for the names - I've learned that after putting together a list of figures people are going to use that it's best to name them as well.

Gunfight Teaser

A quick teaser photos of the setup of tonight's game of What A Cowboy. 'Scar' Johnson's gang are holed up in La Hacienda Bonita with a haul of valuable jewellery stolen from the residents of Mayor's Income, NM. The ladies of the town are coming to get it back.

Find out more in the next post!

(I'm away for a few days so won't be posting until next week)

The Final Five

Here are the final batch of five gunfighters from the Great Escape Games Gunfighters and Gunfighters II multi-pose plastic figure boxes. I had two left from the male box and three from the female.

These two you saw in the recent gunfight report I posted here, representing Joe and Ella Carfax. 

On the left is a proper villain with a shotgun, whilst there's a nice lady to the right (or a well-dressed proper villain)

This is my favourite of the batch. When I'm putting these figures together I generally don't have a clear plan in mind, I just make quick decisions and try not to overthink what I'm doing. This figure's pose came out as one just using confidence and badassery. Halfway through painting her I promoted her to a sheriff or deputy because she deserved it.

So here's the final group shots. First up is Box II - the ladies:

And here's the gentlemen from the first box:

From each box I did six figures with one or more revolvers, two with shotguns and two with rifles. All bits are from the boxes themselves aside from one figure where I skipped the second pair of kneeling legs and used some spare legs from a Napoleonic infantryman instead.
 
(If I can make a nice body from Milliput then those kneeling legs will give me a 21st figure; I have heaps of arms and heads left over.)

"I've Come Fur Ma Ma!"

Matriarch of the notorious Carfax family, Ma Carfax, has been apprehended by the law! Sheriff Collins and his loyal deputy Donal McTeague are taking her back to town for trial. She calls for help!

Her children rush to her aid. From left to right they are Wilson Carfax, Ella Carfax and Joe Carfax. The siblings have also recruited gun-for-hire The Orinoco Kid.

After Thursday's game I wanted to try one of the scenarios with an objective, and picked The Rescue. In this one there is an object or person near the centre of the table to be grabbed or rescued. Once side defends it and the other is out to grab it and escape.

I also thought it would be interesting to try forces that weren't equal in number; quality vs quantity.

The law had two figures:

Sheriff Collins - Gunslinger - Shotgun, Revolver
Donal McTeague - Shootist - 2 x Revolvers

The Carfax Family consisted of:

Ella Carfax - Shootist - Revolver
Wilson Carfax - Shootist - Rifle, Revolver
Joe Carfax - Greenhorn - Revolver
The Orinoco Kid - Shootist - Revolver

Sheriff Collins started on table with Ma Carfax. He stashed her in a cabin then moved nearby to defend against the approaching villains.

The Carfax family would be approaching from the right. McTeague would appear from the left. Until then the Sheriff was on his own. He hid behind a rock and waited.

The Carfax family arrived. Ella moved to the cover of a rock ...

... and fired. Her shot wounded the sheriff. Not a great start for the law.

Wilson Carfax took a shot with his rifle and the sheriff was hit again.

(At this stage I was thinking I should cut my losses and set it up again, but I kept playing).

Sheriff Collins vacated the dubious cover of his rock and Ducked behind the cabin. But he was still in danger of being outflanked and would have to hold out until McTeague could get across the table.

McTeague was moving fast to his rescue. He aimed for the cover to the south of the cabin, but on the way took aim at Wilson Carfax who was lurking behind the second building and seriously wounded him with a gut-shot.

Ella Carfax also moved to the south and took a shot at McTeague. The two ducked into the cover of the undergrowth around them as they exchanged shots.

Ella came out the other side and made for the Sheriff, but he was too fast for her ...

... One shot from his shotgun took her down, stone dead.

Now things were looking better for the law. One Carfax was dead and another seriously wounded to the point that he would be of little use in the rest of the action.

Joe Carfax now came up to the cabin, protected by covering fire from The Orinoco Kid. Collins was forced to duck inside the building.

McTeague was wary of running across the open ground to the cabin whilst Joe was there, and sought to drive him off. He emptied his revolver in Joe's direction and managed to miss with every shot!

Sensibly Joe took cover though. I added a small floor plan to show the inside of the cabin.

McTeague kept up his fire, and still couldn't hit anything.

Collins peeped out of the door and forced Joe back into cover with a second shot from his shotgun. 

The Orinoco Kid sneaked up to the window at the back of the cabin and took the Sheriff under fire from there. Collins was now rather trapped and not in a good state.

McTeague had fired off almost all of his shots and was frantically reloading.

Joe Carfax ducked into the cabin, fired twice ...

... and the Sheriff was down!

The Orinoco Kid climbed in through the window and rescued Ma Carfax, dragging her back out of the window to make the run for home.

But with Sheriff Collins down, McTeague decided to call it a day and bolted to the south.

So the Carfax family had won! Wilson was very badly wounded, and Ella was dead, though. So it wasn't as decisive a win as it had originally looked.

I'd probably not allow a rescue via the window in another game. Get in? Yes. But taking the prize out through the door would be a requirement. 

With hindsight setting up Sheriff Collins that close to the enemy arrival edge was a silly thing to do, as the activation sequence meant that he had to stand there and take several shots before he could act. A position that covered the door to the cabin would have been better. McTeague started well, taking out a Carfax very early (and the dangerous one with the rifle at that). But afterwards he couldn't hit a thing. He scored two hits with twelve shots during the game.

Still, this game showed that an objective is the way to go in order to get a decisive fight.