Showing posts with label Western. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Western. Show all posts

Wednesday, March 2, 2022

Back to the "old place" for Old West Miniatures

    The balcony of Andy's MDF Saloon was where Mike W's "Gamblers" set up to gun down all comers
It had been awhile since we did miniatures gaming on Sunday night at our regular spot (which I call Wallace's Brewpub). With Covid dialing down, host Mike W felt good about us gaming in persons again at his place. His basement is spacious, well-lit and includes two of his home brews on tap -- so, I missed gaming there for more reasons than the camaraderie! 

    Joel's gang set up a couple doors down from the saloon in Andy's Old Western town
The game for the night was Old West miniatures, run by Andy S. He's been collecting buildings for 28mm Old West and has a good selection of miniatures already painted up. We kind of nudged him into running a bit earlier than he was planning. Keith promised he'd bring along terrain to supplement what Andy had so far, so the slight arm twist worked. Andy set up a very intro level scenario with each of us controlling three figures from a faction -- townsfolk, in my case. Mike W played the Gamblers (or as Joel called them, the professional assassins!), and Mike S the Ranchers. Now that I am writing my report, I don't remember what Joel and Keith's factions were called! Andy had given figures the weapons the miniature had cast on and a skill for one or two of the miniatures in the faction. Everyone was basically equal, though.

    The last mistake Mike S's Rancher made was peeking around the door to shoot at the Gamblers!
We talked about it and decided to have Andy secretly write who each faction had a score to settle with. Two of the other four opponents were written on your roster, and my Townsfolk were supposed to go after Mike S's Ranchers and Mike W's Gamblers. This didn't necessarily mean they were out to get me, though. We had no idea who was gunning for who. In the end, the only other faction I ended up shooting at was Keith's because it seemed obvious to me that he was coming after me. Mike S's faction wasn't deployed far from mine, but he went out of the other entrance of the barn onto the main street, fairly far away from Ma, Pa, and Jeb's house my figures were deployed in (I felt I had to name them!).

    Another dead Rancher - this one the lone figure killed by accumulating three wounds
The main street was the location of the Swingle Saloon (yes, Andy had the MDF sign made for him!). Upstairs, the Gamblers were deployed and immediately stepped out onto the balcony and began blazing away at Mike S's Ranchers. Mike earned his "assassin" nickname honestly, quickly taking out two of Mike S's figures. Andy was running Fistful of Lead rules, which are a fast, beer and pretzels set. When you hit an opponent's figure with a shot, you roll another 1d10. On a 1-5, you pin the enemy (which they have to roll to recover from on their turn). On a 6-8 you wound them (three wounds and you're dead). On a 9-10, they're killed immediately. Want to guess what Mike W was rolling a LOT of...??

    Jeb peers around the family home sensing trouble as furtive shapes are seen moving his way
I thought the rules worked out well, but I was a little bothered by the high amount of insta-kills that we had. What's the point of having a rules mechanic where you take three wounds if all but one of the figures gunned down were killed by a roll of 9-10? I think the rules show good potential for a quick skirmish, but I was a tad concerned whether this was a die rolling anomaly for the evening or how most games of Fistful of Lead progress. Ever the wiseacre, Keith replied to my comment that it was an anomaly, kind of like the way I roll dice but in reverse!

    Poor Ma...she spent the entire game dashing around trying to draw a bead on someone but never did
On my turns, I sent Jeb and Ma to sneak alongside or through the buildings to get an eyeball on the action in the main street. By the time we got close, most of the Ranchers lay bleeding in the street and the Gamblers had pulled back inside the building from the balcony. Two of Keith's figures were headed my way, so I pulled Jeb back to help Pa. Pa was my "Deadeye," but I think Andy meant to write "cross-eyed." As Keith had mentioned, my die rolling was poor and Pa's shots were going alarmingly awry. Keith felt so confident that he could rush up on Walleye Vision Pa that he ran right up to the first story window of Pa's house. Pa dashed downstairs (without falling) and blazed away through the window (pronounced "winnder"). To everyone's shock, Keith's gunfighter fell dead. I theorized that the distortion of the window pane meant Pa hit where he wasn't aiming and actually nailed the guy. With an "immediate kill," of course, as the theme was for the night.

    "Walleye Vision" Pa finally hits something -- one of Keith's gunfighters through the window
That was most of my action. Ma was having a hard time getting into position to take a shot and ended up never firing the entire game. Jeb fired once and missed -- proving that he was his father's son. In other action, Keith traded gunfire with Joel for most of the evening with (I believe) each losing one. Keith had deployed in the Gentleman's Club, and we assumed when his remaining guy withdrew from the fight, it was actually his "turn." He put away his pistol and pulled out his...well, you can figure out where our banter was headed.

    Another look at "Swingle's Saloon" as the action unfolds, and guns begin to blaze away
I think everyone enjoyed the game. It was great to be back together pushing minis across the tabletop and rolling dice. I can normally take or leave Western games (not my favorite type of movie either), but Fistful of Lead is quick and simple. I like that there is enough chrome to customize figures and give them some personality. I will probably end up buying the PDF from Wargame Vault, just so I can tinker with them, too. I have been wanting to find something to play some beer and pretzels Pulp style games with, and these may work. We'll see. Hopefully, we will also see if the immediate kills were an anomaly or if that is indeed how the rules play out. It would be easy enough to adjust the rolls down to 6-9 is wounded, and only a 10 is a kill.

    These were the rules we used for the evening and they provided a fun, fast game
In the meantime, it gives me fresh incentive to work some more on my post-Apocalyptic rules. I even came home Sunday night and fished through my drawer of unpainted lead and pull out the figures for the next faction I plan to paint up. So, maybe look for those soon on here, along with another batch of Saga Mongol cavalry that is nearing completion!

Wednesday, May 30, 2018

Head West for a Western Game


Mike's MDF buildings that were our town we had to defend from claim jumpers
One of our regular Sunday night gamers, Mike S, drives over from Springfield, OH, pretty much every weekend. So, we thought it was time to return the favor and headed west out to his place this past Sunday. I think most having Memorial Day off the next day convinced them that the extra drive time to get home was okay, but we started early to be on the safe side.
My leader Dakota (spitting image and grandfather of the Pulp character in our games) peeks around a building
Mike has been wanting to do Westerns for awhile, and has been collecting and painting 28mm characters. Still he asked Keith and I to bring along some of ours, so we had plenty. Each player had two gunfighters -- one was the leader type who had two action cards in the deck, and the other was the follower type, with only one. Mike was using Gunfighters Ball -- the intro version being a free download from Knuckleduster Miniatures. We had played games with it the previous weekend at Drums at the Rapids in the Toledo area. Mike adopted the rules modifications that two GMs there recommended. In hindsight, we decided to back off the modifications next time and play the rules "as is."
Joel's man in black also peeks around a building to take a shot at Steve's claim jumpers taking cover in the trees
There were eight players, three of which (Joel, Allen, and myself) were the townies -- defending our settlement from claim jumpers, who accused us of cheating them out of their proceeds. Things looked bleak for us when a couple random deadeye "head shots" from Steve V and Jason S took out one each of Allen and my characters. At that point, the other five must have felt sorry for us and began shooting at each other. This turned it into a free-for-all on their side, while us three never took a pot shot at each other. In the end, with bodies laying all over the table, the claim jumpers skulked off into the woods and we had held onto our (ill-gotten or otherwise) gains.

Monday, August 11, 2014

Black Hats have a 'Bonanza'

Mike S had a hankering to do a 28mm Cowboy game, so after raiding Keith's Old Glory Western terrain, he set up a White Hats (good guys) vs. Black Hats (bad guys) scenario. This episode feature myself as the Cartwrights seeking to chase off some outlaws who have been trespassing on our ranch. Joel was the Texas rangers, come to help us round up the scofflaws, while Keith and Tom played the bad guys.

Mike had made some changes to Ganesha Games' "Flying Lead" rules to better reflect the Hollywood Western. Essentially, every character was "Tough," which meant taking a wound merely worsened their Quality by 1 to 3, depending on how badly they were hit (beaten, doubled, or tripled). Once a character's Quality rose to a "6", he was out of action, or dead. In general, the rules worked well, though Mike had some changes he'd like to see, and we had some we suggested, as well. One odd feature -- more of a random aspect of cards and dice -- saw 5 of the first 6 turns the player whose card was drawn last had his drawn first in the following turn. The infamous "double move" before your opponents can respond is one of the reason I dislike card activation games. I prefer an established turn order, and feel you should win or lose based on your tactics (and dice, perhaps) -- not a fluke of the cards.
"Pa" and Cain find good firing positions near the fenced-in chicken coop
We deployed first, and I foolishly focused only on where my own troops were, ignoring where me ally Joel had deployed. Both Tom and Keith deployed near one corner of the battlefield, directly across the table from me. I had my Cartwrights dash across the field to take up good firing positions and fill the bad guys with lead as they attempted to cross the battlefield and escape into the mesas on the opposite edge from them. I was successful in putting Pa and Cain inside the fenced-in, chicken pen, while my other three dashed into a two story house that overlooked the bad guys. I was the first to benefit from the "double move," so blasted away at Keith's gang of outlaws, all of who were named Bob. Since an abnormally high number of my hits were "retreat" outcomes rather than wounds (depended on whether my die score was odd or even), we laughingly called them the "Running Bobbs." Even worse, they lined up for cover behind the outhouse, which provoked howls of laughter saying they all had the "runs" and were scrambling for the outhouse.
The rest of my gang find a great firing position in the two story house overlooking the bad guys' position
What I had not noticed, though, was that Joel deployed his troops "a fair piece" away from mine. In fact, they couldn't have been in a worse position to support my attack -- they were hidden away in the mesas, and it would take a number of turns for them to advance to where they would be a factor in the battle. We have a saying on Sunday nights, and it proved true again this night: "Tom's winning!" Tom cleverly deduced they could gang both of their forces up against mine, and he proceeded to move his entire force into the house I'd holed up in, or blasting away at me through the windows. My three Cartwrights inside were cut down relatively quickly.  And when Keith woke up from his die rolling slump ("crapping out" twice in a row on activations, early on -- which meant none of his troops were able to act at all for two turns), the Cartwrights began to drop like flies.
And here's why it wasn't such a good idea...Tom's entire gang uses his "double move" to race around the side of the house and rush it, outnumbering my guys 6-3...
The Texas rangers did race in impressively when Joel got the double move, firing at the hip as they came. However, with my men whittled down to essentially just Cain -- and he was bleeding badly -- it was now Joel's turn to ganged up on by Tom and Keith. Tactically, the White Hats blundered this game. Joel deployed too far away, but worse, I stuck my neck out too far and the Black Hats were only too glad to slip a noose around it. We went down kicking, though, and shot up Keith's "Running Bobs" fairly heavily. However, it was obvious that the Cartwright Ranch would be under new ownership come sundown.

The game worked well enough that I'm sure we will see another Western episode on Sunday nights. Hopefully next time the good guys will prove to have a little more between their ears than a big white hat...!