Overrun!

This was the first multiplayer game of Legends of the Old West since the train robbery back in 2015!  We played the Overrun! scenario from the Alamo expansion volume, although we played it as a big skirmish game rather than a battle with armies and companies that the expansion introduces.

The US Cavalry (Stuart) and Texas Rangers (Adrian) with 15 figures in total were being pushed back by the Mexican Army (Andy) and the Mexican Rural Police "Rurales" (David and James) with 19 figures.  The outer fence was about to be breached and the first turn saw the defenders drop back and take up defensive position ahead of the fort, as the Mexican attackers pressed up against the fence.  Subsequent turns were ordered by random player order (drawing our usual colours from a set of cubes in a bag) rather than by side which worked well and introduced more uncertainty.  Fame points were also used effectively to get the shooting advantage when desired.

There was no "Head for the Hills" morale check in this scenario.  The attackers had to kill all the heroes to win and the defenders needed to only have heroes of their own side in the fort at any time after the twelfth turn, but it was essentially a fight to the death.

There was one gate to the compound but each Mexican posse was equipped with a ladder to enable them to scale the walls.  Andy moved his Mexican Army up in smart formation to fire their rifles but left their ladder behind.  David had First Blood with some mighty fine die rolling on the right flank as he battled with Adrian's Rangers.  In the centre, James' Rurales tried to find what cover they could.

Shamed by the Rurales bold break from cover, the Mexican Army paused their long-range but limited impact shooting to press on the left flank.  A lot of bullets fly in this game but not many find their target, so a rush across open ground to assault defenders can be worth the risk.

Stuart and Adrian defended from behind cover dropping back as their opponents neared assault range, and the Mexicans started to take up terrain previously held by the US, piling on the remaining Ranger in the area.

On the other flank, Adrian had a poor run of luck (his six-gun fanning being more of a fandango) and his large group of Rangers were starting to fall to David's Rurales, and the shoot-outs were replaced by a series of fist fights.

Adrian had posted a couple of Rangers with rifles on to the firing step within the compound to cover the middle ground - "she's got good range but sadly nobody is in it".  Eventually James' Rurales were in range as they engaged the Cavalry captain and Hired Gun US Marshall in the centre of the table.

About to throw his stick of dynamite, James learned that a fumble (a roll of 1) would result in it exploding in his character's hand.  This is definitely not worth the risk when several allies are within the blast radius.  As the figure stepped away from his colleagues, he was shot by one of Adrian's Rangers.  Another Mexican picked up the dynamite and was also promptly killed.

James' General escorted the soldier with the ladder right up to the wall on the left flank, with David doing similar on the other flank the following turn.  Both managed to climb over the walls whilst Andy's ladderless soldiers swarmed around the remaining US Cavalry outside the compound, taking them out.

We played the last turn, the 11th, at 11 o'clock. With half the Rangers lost and all but one of the cavalrymen, but still a fair few Mexicans in and around the compound, we judged it was a win for the Mexicans even though the specific objective hadn't yet been achieved.

It was great to have a big game again and get figures and mostly new scenery out on the table, along with the bespoke character cards.  Although each time I use the cards, I notice more mistakes which is frustrating.  I think I need to print out some errata stickers for now but in due course, may get some more printing done.  Scaling up a two side scenario for multiple players worked well and I think will enable us to play these sorts of games more often, rather than my trying to formulate different objectives for every posse.

Hang 'Em High

Andy and I enjoyed a Wild West game this afternoon.  First outing for the cards I made as part of my COVID-coping strategy.  Andy's outlaws were trying to rescue one of their own before he was hanged by the Lawmen at high noon.  This was one of the rulebook's scenarios with special rules for moving bystanders, and cutting/shooting the rope.

The Lawmen started scattered around the town.  Andy split his Outlaws with the 2 stronger characters taking the top route and the other four along the bottom.  The four soon met a couple of Lawmen and took them out straight away.

Across the square, there was a sustained fistfight - one Deputy was lost and the Sheriff took out one of the outlaws.  The Lawmen wobbled over their "Head For The Hills" morale check but put their duty above their own lives and continued the fight.

At noon (turn 10), the guilty man dropped, taking his first wound.

The other Deputy emptied his sawn-off shotgun into the Outlaws attempting to rescue their friend but managed to miss everyone.  Shots continued to be exchanged but the Sheriff singlemindedly continued the fistfight, knocking the Outlaw nearer and nearer the john, and eventually taking him out.

As the game neared the end of the 12th turn with the hanged man about to expire, three of Andy's Outlaws took a bead on the rope and two of them managed to hit it, freeing the fugitive, and winning the game.

The Duke on the John

I haven't bought any Wild West figures for years (I am not short of them!) but I couldn't resist one at Warfare last year.  Produced by Colonel Bill's, it's a single figure called "True Grit - the Duke on the John", and I painted it up yesterday and "installed" it today:

It's a pretty good likeness to the actual character played by Marion Morrison but he's not painted as an exact match so that Andy wouldn't think I was being disrespectful to Duke.

Another building... almost

My break from MDF buildings didn't last long!  The cardboard Wild West town has now been completely replaced by MDF (see here and here) but a kit from 4Ground caught my eye at Salute.  It's a building under construction and so will look a bit different on the gaming table.

The roof is removable so figures can be placed inside.  Don't think the walls should provide much cover though!

Payroll raid - 24 January 2019

A belated write-up of the first quick game with the paddle steamer (now with added - but removable - bow wake and stern wash).

James' US Cavalry were escorting the quarterly payroll on the Louise Marie.

Andy's band of Mexicans launched two small boats to intercept the paddle steamer.

We modified shooting from a moving deck to another moving deck to make it a little harder, but still some shots hit home.

Andy's Mexicans started to board the paddle steamer and engage in hand-to-hand combat.  The fat Mexican leader failed about three times in a row to make the jump over the side.

Eventually, everyone was on the paddle steamer for an almighty scrap.

The US Cavalry lost their first Head for the Hills morale test and the surviving soldiers promptly jumped overboard and swam for the shore.

Leaving the fat Mexican to crack the safe and escape with the payroll.

Final(?) Wild West buildings

I completed the final two Wild West buildings today.  A church...

...and a railway station, with personalised "Highwood" town sign.

Time for a break from MDF for a while, I think...

Paddle Steamer - full steam ahead!

I thought I'd use some off-cuts from the Paddle Steamer kit to create wakes for the bow and stern to simulate movement of the boat.

The white froth on the waves is formed by pulling apart a cotton ball and varnishing it into place.  There are some very skilled ship modellers who use this technique - this video was my inspiration.  I'm nowhere near that but I'm quite pleased with it as a first attempt.

Jailbreak - 4 January 2019

First play with the new Wild West town.  Stuart's Lawmen had jailed José María Flores, leader of a gang of Mexican bandits, and were due to hang him at noon.  The objective of James' bandits' was to break Flores out of jail and save his neck.

Three of the Lawmen started at the Sheriff's Office where Flores was incarcerated, with a further three entering the town from the southern edge.

The Mexican gang entered on the northern edge - in the distance in the next photo.

James' cunning plan was to dynamite the side of the jail and whisk Flores away on the a horse rather than entering a drawn-out gun battle with the Law.

The single stick of dynamite was planted and the rules were consulted... the dynamite exploded with a whimper rather than a bang, but even if it hadn't been a dud, a few more sticks would have been required to demolish a brick wall.

So the gun battle was on.  Especially after Stuart shot the horse the Mexicans planned to escape on.

Stuart had one of his Lawmen up on the water tower and the others crept around the corners of the Sheriff's Office.

The Mexicans burst into the Sheriff's Office ready for a fight...

...which they got, being rather swiftly knocked out in succession:

Round the back of the office, the Mexicans had better luck, including shooting the deputy off the water tower.

With both posses at their breakpoints, they needed to pass a Head for the Hills test... and the Mexicans failed.  They scarpered from the town, leaving José María Flores to his grisly fate:

Stuart had won the scenario but we had time to play out an alternate ending pretending the Mexicans hadn't run away.  This time, the Lawmen were overrun and Flores rescued from jail to fight, rob and steal another day.

Paddle Steamer

I completed today the paddle steamer that Andy got me for Christmas.

This is another excellent MDF kit from Sarissa.

It comes with a large number of sheets, four of which have to combined and compressed together to form the hull.  Here's how mine spent a night...

The kit goes together well but a lot of care is needed with the thinner pieces that form the barriers and struts around the deck.

This is where I made my first modification.  The side roofs for the promenade deck were designed to be removed.  Instead I glued them which provided the strength to allow me to remove several of the roof struts where they crossed the internal rooms.  This improves access which I think will make playing with figures on the steamer a lot easier.

There are pros and cons for whether to paint before or after constructing MDF kits.  I prefer to do it afterwards but that meant a lot of masking as I wanted to keep the planking looking like wood.

You can also see in these images where I cut out the internal roof struts.  You can also see my second modification - I added some stairs between the decks and cut out access holes in the floor of the first deck, framing them up with some spare window frames from another kit.  Again, for playability, I wanted it clear where figures are going to move from one deck to the other.

After a session in the spraybooth and removing the masking tape, the lower deck looked like this:

I sprayed the paddle wheel bright red, painted the railings a similar red and painted the deck with shellac.

The kit came with a cardboard funnel which didn't extend to the lower deck.  So my third modification was to create a funnel in three parts from 14mm dowel and install them at each level.  This means that when the roof is removed, the funnel is represented on both decks and playing figures could be positioned appropriately.

I also glued an old poker game set of figures to a piece of planking which would fit nicely into any of the rooms on the steamer, or indeed in the saloon or hotel Wild West buildings.

To finish it off, I glued some string around the capstans and surfaced the roof with black vinyl sheeting, and made some nameplates to show off the name I gave it... Louise Marie.

This is a really nicely designed kit, lots of fun to make, and I'm looking forward to playing with it in a future Wild West game.  It is also available for hire for colonial games!