Quite a long break since the last post, because I have been going through one of my periodic changes of direction. My current theme is Pulp gaming, the classic inter-war stuff - rugged archaeologists in the back of beyond, gang warfare in the Prohibition times, that sort of thing.
I got into this from the Old West games I was playing, and there's clearly a lot of similarity - small scale skirmishes, with 28mm figures at 1:1 scale. Lots of individual figures rather than military ranks, and a fairly stylised (and not entirely "realistic") back story.
I was using the Two Hour Wargames western rules, Six Gun Sound, and the first rule set that I looked at was Larger Than Life - Directors Cut from the same publishers. I bought this (in pdf) and read it through, but I wasn't really inspired. It is very much oriented to reproducing a "film", with a Star, scenes and so on. The scenarios are very rigid in many ways - for example each scene is a 3'x3' board, split into nine squares. Each square is a "scene" and you can't see from one to the next, even if two figures are apparently standing a couple of inches apart in the open. Similarly you are constrained to enter at one corner and fight the big boss in a building in the other corner. No doubt you could use the rules flexibly to produce a wide variety of effects, but it just didn't inspire me. It also has the trademark THW multiplicity of tables for everything.
So I investigated another rule set which is getting a lot of discussion on TMP and similar forums. This is Pulp Alley, published by Phipps & Daughter (that's Dave and Mila). This turned out to be exactly what I was hoping for - your characters are formed into Leagues, with Leaders, Sidekicks, Allies and Followers (in decreasing order of power). You have half a dozen characteristics, with different dice sizes to provide variation. Combat is fairly simple, but not simplistic, and no-one ever dies - the worst that happens is you are knocked out of a scenario. Scenarios are driven by "plot points" - things the leagues are trying to get hold of (typically) in order to win. These may be anything from a secret letter to a person you need to talk to or capture. There is a variety of basic scenarios, which can be used for many different backgrounds, and they have put out two expansions - with extra rules and a connected set of scenarios making up an adventure. There's one for gang warfare in King City, and another called Perilous Island which covers lost world style adventures, including some supernatural effects.
I have played a few small trial skirmishes, but I am now in the phase of most of my enthusiasms when I am painting new models, and assembling scenery ready for the fights. I have picked up a fair number of figures, mostly from Pulp Figures, but including a variety of others which I bought at Salute. I've been painting away at these, and I'll post some pictures soon.
Showing posts with label Two Hour Wargames. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Two Hour Wargames. Show all posts
Tuesday, 2 June 2015
Wednesday, 8 April 2015
Mandingo the Sheriff
It is Summer 1876, and our hero Mandingo is now Sheriff in the tiny town of Sick Dog's Paw in Wyoming. It's not quite clear why he has not returned to his Ranger duties - perhaps something to do with the ambush by Apaches of a patrol that he should have been with. Be that as it may, he is now the Law in the Paw.
In his first serious encounter, Mandingo had to intervene in a dispute between two Greenhorns, one of whom was threatening the other. Mandingo teamed up with the innocent party, and they went out to search the town. The bad guy jumped out and there was an exchange of shots, then he ran into Daffodil's Place and emerged on the balcony above the street. Mandingo ran into the corral opposite and fired, causing the opponent to duck back. However he emerged again and fired at the other greenhorn on the boardwalk below, causing him to retreat. Mandingo then used his Fast and Agile abilities to race up the rear stairs and into the building, firing out the window and putting his enemy out of the fight.
The next fight was a classic one on one shootout. A cowboy with a lot of experience (5-5-5) took on Mandingo. Neither man Flinched, so the draw went ahead - the cowboy rolling five dice and Mandingo six. He scored three successes to his opponent's one, so he rolled for shooting damage, causing a gut shot and winning the battle.
Mandingo had recruited five deputies, and they were involved for the first time when a group of seven drunken cowboys started causing trouble in Rogan's Bar. Two deputies (Deke and Ernie) were at the other end of town - Mandingo and the other three gathered outside the bar.
Mandingo went in first and approached the nearest cowboy, asking him to leave quietly. On the Rep roll he passed only one out of two, so the cowboy started a fist fight. His Rep was 3 so he rolled that many dice against Mandingo's five. Mandingo won the first round by one, meaning a "Flurry of blows", depriving his opponent of one D6 in the next round. Down to two dice the cowboy again lost by one, another Flurry of Blows. Not surprisingly with only one dice left he lost by three in the next exchange, and that was that, he was carried out.
Mandingo now approached another cowpoke, and this time when he invited him to leave quietly, the drunk complied, unwilling to risk a beating. This also caused two others close by to walk away quietly.
While Abe escorted the three cowboys away, Bert and Charlie entered the bar, ready for trouble. Mandingo now tackled the most dangerous cowboy, with a 5 rep, with two others close by. However once more our hero passed both dice, and the leader left peacefully, followed by both his sidekicks. Mandingo had defused the situation without having to draw his gun
In his first serious encounter, Mandingo had to intervene in a dispute between two Greenhorns, one of whom was threatening the other. Mandingo teamed up with the innocent party, and they went out to search the town. The bad guy jumped out and there was an exchange of shots, then he ran into Daffodil's Place and emerged on the balcony above the street. Mandingo ran into the corral opposite and fired, causing the opponent to duck back. However he emerged again and fired at the other greenhorn on the boardwalk below, causing him to retreat. Mandingo then used his Fast and Agile abilities to race up the rear stairs and into the building, firing out the window and putting his enemy out of the fight.
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| Mandingo about to fire out of the window and end the fight |
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| Mandingo shows his cool at High Noon |
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| The lawmen prepare to break up the rowdy gang in Rogan's |
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| Mandingo tackles the first cowboy (in the blue shirt) |
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| Mandingo approaches the last three drunks |
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| The leader of the cowboys decides not to risk the fight. |
Saturday, 24 January 2015
Proper Shootouts
As I hinted in the previous post, I decided that playing a battle against 28 Apaches was not what I wanted from my Wild West game, whatever the dice suggested. So it turned out that Mandingo was sick when that patrol set off to the isolated blockhouse in the Wyoming desert, and Spring 1876 instead found him in the tiny frontier town of Sick Dog's Paw.
The first encounter was a Gunfight type 1 (G-1) which means a one-on-one shootout in the classic High Noon fashion. Rolling my opponent and the location I found that Mandingo had been challenged by an Outlaw in the Saloon. The outlaw had taken more redeye bourbon than was good for him, I assume. Rolling on the NPC table I found that the outlaw had a rep of 4, one less than Mandingo.
The shootout starts with a Draw test - each side rolls a number of D6 equal to their Rep, trying to get 1,2,3 as successes. As a Gunfighter Mandingo gets an extra die, so he rolled 6, Jake (the outlaw) rolled 4. Jake rolled just one success, while Mandingo got 4 - so he had three more successes. This means that the victor has "Got the Drop", and normally that gives the slower party a roll to see if he surrenders, or tries to carry on with the draw at a disadvantage. However Gunfighters (and outlaws) are different - if they get the drop they don't mess around with anything as chivalrous as letting the other fellow surrender, they just shoot. Furthermore, if any of their dice have rolled 3, as was the case here, then the opponent is Obviously Dead (which means what it says). So Mandingo emptied his gun into the upstart (and now late) Jake, and returned to his drink.
Later, we had another gunfight, and again we rolled a G-1. This time it was outside in the street, and the opponent was another Gunfighter. Indeed this would be a tougher test - rolling for the NPC we found that Mandingo faced an opponent with the same Rep (5) and Toughness (4) and a higher Sand (5).
So both sides rolled six dice in the Draw Test (Rep of 5 plus one for being a Gunfighter), and both scored two successes. This meant that they had both drawn and fired with no effect, and the game now proceeds to "normal" turns. In addition anyone who rolled a 1 on any of their dice would have emptied their gun - and this applied to Mandingo.
In the first turn they rolled for initiative, and both scored 4. A tie means that neither side can fire or move, but they can reload. This of course was exactly what Mandingo needed, and he duly did so.
Now on even terms, they rolled again for initiative. Mandingo scored 6, his opponent (Clint) scored 2. So Mandingo had the initiative, but it was not as simple as that. The winner can only take actions with characters whose Rep is at least as high as the initiative roll. In this case, with a roll of 6 and Mandingo's Rep of 5, that meant he could not take action, and it passed to Clint.
Clint now fired, two shots with his pistol. Adding his Rep to a single D6 he needed to score at least 8 for a hit, but two 2's meant two misses. Mandingo now needed to take a "Been Shot At" test, and being a Star (i.e. a main character) he was allowed to choose his reaction - so he chose to fire back.
As before there were two shots, adding Mandingo's Rep of 5 to a single die roll - and in this case adding another one because Mandingo has the Crackshot ability. He rolled a 6, and the total of 11+ meant that he could choose the hit location. He picked the head, but Clint had a "Been Hit" test with two rolls against his Toughness and passed them both, so it was just a graze. Mandingo rolled again, and again scored 11+. This time he picked the gut as the hit location, and Clint only passed one of his two rolls. That meant that he was out of action, and Mandingo had won.
After the fight Mandingo rolled for possible stat advancement and by scoring a 6 hs added one to his Sand score (Sand is effectively Nerve, or Coolness - a combination of courage and quick decision making).
My verdict on these fights? - "now this is more like it". Both of these engagements felt as they should, as simulations of the somewhat cinematic scenarios. In the first a foolish outlaw challenged the gunslinger and it was all over in a second - one roll of the dice, literally. In the second fight it was closer, two evenly matched opponents exchanged rapid fire until someone found the killing shot. All quick and clean - this is the sweet spot for these rules.
The first encounter was a Gunfight type 1 (G-1) which means a one-on-one shootout in the classic High Noon fashion. Rolling my opponent and the location I found that Mandingo had been challenged by an Outlaw in the Saloon. The outlaw had taken more redeye bourbon than was good for him, I assume. Rolling on the NPC table I found that the outlaw had a rep of 4, one less than Mandingo.
The shootout starts with a Draw test - each side rolls a number of D6 equal to their Rep, trying to get 1,2,3 as successes. As a Gunfighter Mandingo gets an extra die, so he rolled 6, Jake (the outlaw) rolled 4. Jake rolled just one success, while Mandingo got 4 - so he had three more successes. This means that the victor has "Got the Drop", and normally that gives the slower party a roll to see if he surrenders, or tries to carry on with the draw at a disadvantage. However Gunfighters (and outlaws) are different - if they get the drop they don't mess around with anything as chivalrous as letting the other fellow surrender, they just shoot. Furthermore, if any of their dice have rolled 3, as was the case here, then the opponent is Obviously Dead (which means what it says). So Mandingo emptied his gun into the upstart (and now late) Jake, and returned to his drink.
Later, we had another gunfight, and again we rolled a G-1. This time it was outside in the street, and the opponent was another Gunfighter. Indeed this would be a tougher test - rolling for the NPC we found that Mandingo faced an opponent with the same Rep (5) and Toughness (4) and a higher Sand (5).
So both sides rolled six dice in the Draw Test (Rep of 5 plus one for being a Gunfighter), and both scored two successes. This meant that they had both drawn and fired with no effect, and the game now proceeds to "normal" turns. In addition anyone who rolled a 1 on any of their dice would have emptied their gun - and this applied to Mandingo.
In the first turn they rolled for initiative, and both scored 4. A tie means that neither side can fire or move, but they can reload. This of course was exactly what Mandingo needed, and he duly did so.
Now on even terms, they rolled again for initiative. Mandingo scored 6, his opponent (Clint) scored 2. So Mandingo had the initiative, but it was not as simple as that. The winner can only take actions with characters whose Rep is at least as high as the initiative roll. In this case, with a roll of 6 and Mandingo's Rep of 5, that meant he could not take action, and it passed to Clint.
Clint now fired, two shots with his pistol. Adding his Rep to a single D6 he needed to score at least 8 for a hit, but two 2's meant two misses. Mandingo now needed to take a "Been Shot At" test, and being a Star (i.e. a main character) he was allowed to choose his reaction - so he chose to fire back.
As before there were two shots, adding Mandingo's Rep of 5 to a single die roll - and in this case adding another one because Mandingo has the Crackshot ability. He rolled a 6, and the total of 11+ meant that he could choose the hit location. He picked the head, but Clint had a "Been Hit" test with two rolls against his Toughness and passed them both, so it was just a graze. Mandingo rolled again, and again scored 11+. This time he picked the gut as the hit location, and Clint only passed one of his two rolls. That meant that he was out of action, and Mandingo had won.
After the fight Mandingo rolled for possible stat advancement and by scoring a 6 hs added one to his Sand score (Sand is effectively Nerve, or Coolness - a combination of courage and quick decision making).
My verdict on these fights? - "now this is more like it". Both of these engagements felt as they should, as simulations of the somewhat cinematic scenarios. In the first a foolish outlaw challenged the gunslinger and it was all over in a second - one roll of the dice, literally. In the second fight it was closer, two evenly matched opponents exchanged rapid fire until someone found the killing shot. All quick and clean - this is the sweet spot for these rules.
Thursday, 22 January 2015
Circle the wagons - both of them!
So finally I have painted up the Apache attackers, and bought and painted the two wagons I needed to play the holdup. I am using the Six Gun Sound (SGS) rules from Two Hour Wargames, though I have bolted on the In Sight reaction rules from the free Chain Reaction ruleset from the same company. That set is more recent than the SGS rules, and they say they plan to issue a new version of SGS soon. The Chain Reaction rules do seem to handle group encounters in a more understandable way.
Anyway my hero (or Star) is Mandingo, a Gunfighter character with stats of Rep 5, Toughness 3, Sand 4. In Spring of 1875 he is drifting in Wyoming, and has an encounter when a pair of wagons he is escorting is ambushed by Apaches. As well as Mandingo and two wagon drivers there are four Rangers in the escort, and the Apaches brought nine warriors with assorted weapons. All these things - type of encounter, size and number of each side and the detailed stats of each character, are rolled up on tables in the rules.
The Apaches were in three groups of three - in the picture one group is out of sight in the foreground. Mandingo was at the rear of the wagon train, with the rangers on either side. The Apaches moved forward under cover of the hills, until the group to the rear right of the wagons came over the crest and into Mandingo's sight.
One of the features of SGS is the exchanges of fire - two enemies don't just have a shot at each other - they blaze away and take reactions until one or the other has to stop - through being knocked down, forced to duck back or running out of ammo. This works well in small encounters, but can get confusing where substantial groups meet, as you have to follow one exchange down to a conclusion, and then go back "up" to run the next exchange. It gets particularly difficult when one man can fire at two or more opponents - this triggers "Been Shot At" reactions from each target. As I said I switched to the reaction tests for groups from Chain Reaction, which is a little simpler.
So, Mandingo fired at two of the attackers, and missed both. One ducked back behind the hill, but the other fired at Mandingo - and missed. Mandingo then fired back again and wounded him, knocking him out of the fight. Next the third Apache took his shot at Mandingo and again missed, and after another exchange the Apache was hit in the head and killed outright.
The second Apache group came over the rocky hill to the rear left of the wagons, and this time two of the rangers as well as Mandingo were involved. An Apache with a bow did some damage, killing one ranger and wounding Mandingo in the leg. In further exchanges the attackers were all killed, but not before Mandingo had been hit again, in the arm, and put out of the fight.
The fight went on without him as the third attacking group came over the hill, but despite losing one more ranger the defenders, including the two wagon drivers, comfortably finished off the rest of the Apaches.
The SGS rules include recovery from wounds, and it took until the following Spring, 1876, before both wounds were healed. Because he finished Out of the Fight Mandingo didn't gain any points towards a Rep increase. In the Spring phase Mandingo found work as a Ranger in Wyoming, and I have rolled an encounter with him and six companions attacked by 28 Apaches. I am minded to re-roll this - that is more like a small skirmish battle than a Wild West gunfight, and it's also not in the sweet spot for these rules, IMHO. (Plus, I only have eight Apache figures). So it may turn out that Mandingo wasn't in the Ranger platoon which fought the Apache after all, and we'll have a proper gunfight instead.
Anyway my hero (or Star) is Mandingo, a Gunfighter character with stats of Rep 5, Toughness 3, Sand 4. In Spring of 1875 he is drifting in Wyoming, and has an encounter when a pair of wagons he is escorting is ambushed by Apaches. As well as Mandingo and two wagon drivers there are four Rangers in the escort, and the Apaches brought nine warriors with assorted weapons. All these things - type of encounter, size and number of each side and the detailed stats of each character, are rolled up on tables in the rules.
The Apaches were in three groups of three - in the picture one group is out of sight in the foreground. Mandingo was at the rear of the wagon train, with the rangers on either side. The Apaches moved forward under cover of the hills, until the group to the rear right of the wagons came over the crest and into Mandingo's sight.
One of the features of SGS is the exchanges of fire - two enemies don't just have a shot at each other - they blaze away and take reactions until one or the other has to stop - through being knocked down, forced to duck back or running out of ammo. This works well in small encounters, but can get confusing where substantial groups meet, as you have to follow one exchange down to a conclusion, and then go back "up" to run the next exchange. It gets particularly difficult when one man can fire at two or more opponents - this triggers "Been Shot At" reactions from each target. As I said I switched to the reaction tests for groups from Chain Reaction, which is a little simpler.
So, Mandingo fired at two of the attackers, and missed both. One ducked back behind the hill, but the other fired at Mandingo - and missed. Mandingo then fired back again and wounded him, knocking him out of the fight. Next the third Apache took his shot at Mandingo and again missed, and after another exchange the Apache was hit in the head and killed outright.
The second Apache group came over the rocky hill to the rear left of the wagons, and this time two of the rangers as well as Mandingo were involved. An Apache with a bow did some damage, killing one ranger and wounding Mandingo in the leg. In further exchanges the attackers were all killed, but not before Mandingo had been hit again, in the arm, and put out of the fight.
The fight went on without him as the third attacking group came over the hill, but despite losing one more ranger the defenders, including the two wagon drivers, comfortably finished off the rest of the Apaches.
The SGS rules include recovery from wounds, and it took until the following Spring, 1876, before both wounds were healed. Because he finished Out of the Fight Mandingo didn't gain any points towards a Rep increase. In the Spring phase Mandingo found work as a Ranger in Wyoming, and I have rolled an encounter with him and six companions attacked by 28 Apaches. I am minded to re-roll this - that is more like a small skirmish battle than a Wild West gunfight, and it's also not in the sweet spot for these rules, IMHO. (Plus, I only have eight Apache figures). So it may turn out that Mandingo wasn't in the Ranger platoon which fought the Apache after all, and we'll have a proper gunfight instead.
Monday, 29 December 2014
Apache Dawn
As promised I had a go at a few little fights with Six Gun Sound, and enjoyed them. They are from Two Hour Wargames, and share an initiative system with a lot of their titles - perhaps the best-known being NUTS. This means that when someone comes into sight, the sighter has a "Got a Shot" initative roll, and he may fire, or the moving figure may fire first - they exchange shots until one is hit or steps back, then the move continues. A different take, and I like the feel of it for gunfights - some details were obscure but after discussions on the THW forum I downloaded their (free) Chain Reaction 3.1 rules. These have an updated version of the reaction system which clarifies it well.
Six Gun Sound has a career campaign mode, and I started on with a Gunfighter character. The very first encounter I rolled, he is escorting some wagons when Indians attack. After Salute I bought various western figures, including a pack of Apaches from Foundry - and guess which pack I have not yet painted. So the campaign was on hold until I could give the Indians their warpaint. Also, over Christmas I got a couple of 4Ground kits - a Stagecoach and a building. I built the stagecoach, though the ambush is of dull wagons, but it's quite a nice kit. No driver or passengers yet, but Dixon have an order right now to fill that gap.
Six Gun Sound has a career campaign mode, and I started on with a Gunfighter character. The very first encounter I rolled, he is escorting some wagons when Indians attack. After Salute I bought various western figures, including a pack of Apaches from Foundry - and guess which pack I have not yet painted. So the campaign was on hold until I could give the Indians their warpaint. Also, over Christmas I got a couple of 4Ground kits - a Stagecoach and a building. I built the stagecoach, though the ambush is of dull wagons, but it's quite a nice kit. No driver or passengers yet, but Dixon have an order right now to fill that gap.
Saturday, 13 December 2014
Law of the Gun
At Salute in the spring I picked up a copy of the Dead Man's Hand rules for the Wild West, and also a couple of the very nice 4Ground buildings released to match the rule set. I played a few games with these rules, but I never quite felt happy with them. The card-driven play is very clever, but there are too many special cases, it feels as if it is all chrome; also there isn't a very strong campaign/career mode - the Schemes mechanism from Legends is again quite clever, but it just didn't do it for me.
The buildings, on the other hand, are excellent. They are the pre-coloured laser cut mdf style which is increasingly popular. 4Ground have a wide variety of ranges, different scales, periods and genres, and I have made a few 15mm WW2, but I think this material really works best with Wild West buildings. It is after all wood, which is exactly what these buildings are made of. The mdf isn't quite convincing for brick, concrete or steel structures, but for wooden planks it's perfect. I also very much enjoy the process of actually building the models - they are very detailed, and the way they have been designed to use the pre-coloured mdf is very ingenious. There are lots of little features - opening doors and windows, options to build models with or without damage (or even adaptable during a game), pictures, notices and posters. The instructions are very detailed and clear, and while it is PVA glue I was reminded very much of making Airfix models many decades ago.
I came back from Salute and bought a 3' x 2' board, and landscaped it to form the base of a small Western town - one rough road and a T junction, a small pool and various bits of scrub. It was nice to do some realistic terrain for a change - for most wargaming I tend towards the representational, since the terrain is never in scale with the figures. However for 1-1 skirmish games it is different, what you see on the table is what's actually there - a house is a house, a tree (or a cactus) is a tree or a cactus.
So I was looking for some rules to use for encounters in my small but growing hamlet (Sick Dog's Paw). At Fiasco in October I had bought Chris Peers' rules, Law of the Gun, and I decided to get them out and have a go. I have to say I wasn't terribly excited with the actual games - reading them through they seemed quite promising, but in play they didn't quite work. The key mechanism for activation, shooting and a number of other things is rolling a certain number of D6s and trying to score 6s. A group of up to four figures rolls 3 (Townsfolk) 4 (Fighters) or 5 (Gunfighters) dice, and they all get an action for every 6. One problem here is that nearly half the time, four D6s will produce no scores of 6. And then all the members of that group can do nothing except fire wildly. Even professionals with 5 D6 will fail to get an action 40% of the time. And having a whole group acting, or not acting, all at the same time seems a bit unnatural in a 1-1 skirmish game. Maybe this would work better with slightly larger sides, with several groups there would be less chance of several turns going by with nothing happening.
I ran a small test fight, with a gang of four fighters on each side. I made an error with one gang, leaving the rifleman back to shoot while the other three moved forward - that meant the gang lost one D6, and they found it even harder to take an action. The two sides shuffled forward and met on either side of a corral, where they blazed away for some time. Eventually two guys ran forward round a corner in the open, weren't hit, and then got a gut shot on an opponent, killing him. At this point the enemy gang broke morale, and fled.
Chris Peers is a very experienced rules writer, and I am sure that for the right sort of fight these would work well, but they did not give me the feel I was looking for. After a bit of reading around the forums, I lighted on Six Gun Sound: Blaze of Glory by Two Hour Wargames. I have heard a lot about these people - I guess Nuts is their best-known product - but I have never bought any of their rules. Thanks to the glory of the internet, $10 through Paypal meant that I had a pdf of the rules in my hand within minutes. They look very interesting - lots of content (well over 100 pages), a very different turn and initiative sequence, and plenty of opportunities for careers, character development and so on. I'm going to give them a go soon to see how they work for me.
The buildings, on the other hand, are excellent. They are the pre-coloured laser cut mdf style which is increasingly popular. 4Ground have a wide variety of ranges, different scales, periods and genres, and I have made a few 15mm WW2, but I think this material really works best with Wild West buildings. It is after all wood, which is exactly what these buildings are made of. The mdf isn't quite convincing for brick, concrete or steel structures, but for wooden planks it's perfect. I also very much enjoy the process of actually building the models - they are very detailed, and the way they have been designed to use the pre-coloured mdf is very ingenious. There are lots of little features - opening doors and windows, options to build models with or without damage (or even adaptable during a game), pictures, notices and posters. The instructions are very detailed and clear, and while it is PVA glue I was reminded very much of making Airfix models many decades ago.
I came back from Salute and bought a 3' x 2' board, and landscaped it to form the base of a small Western town - one rough road and a T junction, a small pool and various bits of scrub. It was nice to do some realistic terrain for a change - for most wargaming I tend towards the representational, since the terrain is never in scale with the figures. However for 1-1 skirmish games it is different, what you see on the table is what's actually there - a house is a house, a tree (or a cactus) is a tree or a cactus.
So I was looking for some rules to use for encounters in my small but growing hamlet (Sick Dog's Paw). At Fiasco in October I had bought Chris Peers' rules, Law of the Gun, and I decided to get them out and have a go. I have to say I wasn't terribly excited with the actual games - reading them through they seemed quite promising, but in play they didn't quite work. The key mechanism for activation, shooting and a number of other things is rolling a certain number of D6s and trying to score 6s. A group of up to four figures rolls 3 (Townsfolk) 4 (Fighters) or 5 (Gunfighters) dice, and they all get an action for every 6. One problem here is that nearly half the time, four D6s will produce no scores of 6. And then all the members of that group can do nothing except fire wildly. Even professionals with 5 D6 will fail to get an action 40% of the time. And having a whole group acting, or not acting, all at the same time seems a bit unnatural in a 1-1 skirmish game. Maybe this would work better with slightly larger sides, with several groups there would be less chance of several turns going by with nothing happening.
I ran a small test fight, with a gang of four fighters on each side. I made an error with one gang, leaving the rifleman back to shoot while the other three moved forward - that meant the gang lost one D6, and they found it even harder to take an action. The two sides shuffled forward and met on either side of a corral, where they blazed away for some time. Eventually two guys ran forward round a corner in the open, weren't hit, and then got a gut shot on an opponent, killing him. At this point the enemy gang broke morale, and fled.
Chris Peers is a very experienced rules writer, and I am sure that for the right sort of fight these would work well, but they did not give me the feel I was looking for. After a bit of reading around the forums, I lighted on Six Gun Sound: Blaze of Glory by Two Hour Wargames. I have heard a lot about these people - I guess Nuts is their best-known product - but I have never bought any of their rules. Thanks to the glory of the internet, $10 through Paypal meant that I had a pdf of the rules in my hand within minutes. They look very interesting - lots of content (well over 100 pages), a very different turn and initiative sequence, and plenty of opportunities for careers, character development and so on. I'm going to give them a go soon to see how they work for me.
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| The Green gang - Jed, Jake, Josh and Jim |
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| The Reds - Tex, Ted, Tyrone and Tony |
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| An overview of Sick Dog's Paw |
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| View down the main street from the east... |
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| And the west |
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| The corral where most of the action took place |
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| The Red gang strung out to keep within 6" of each other |
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| The Greens have bunched up to have a better chance of rolling an Action |
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| In the distance Tyrone lies dead, while the rest of the Reds head for the hills |
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| The final scene at the corral |
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