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.

Wagon Train - 24 November 2018

Another Legends of the Old West scenario played with Stuart.  A lightly armed group of "innocent bystanders" had formed their wagon train into a circle...

...threatened by Stuart's band of Native Americans about to attack...

Fortunately for the civilians, help was at hand in the form of the US Cavalry, who entered the game if a 6 on a D6 rolled in the first turn, a 5 or 6 in the second turn, and so on.

And fortunately, James' roll brought them in on the second turn, and they split up to support the circled wagons.

The Indians rode up to the wagons and exchanged fire with the handful of armed civilians, losing a figure each.

After some disastrous hand-to-hand combats, the US Cavalry got wiped out pretty quickly, leaving the civilians at the mercy of the Indians.  The unarmed women put up the strongest resistance, battering the braves with their handbags, but eventually were overcome.  A clear win for Stuart.

Remember the Alamo - 14 July 2018

Stuart visited for a games day on Saturday and we played another Wild West game using the Legends of the Old West ruleset.  In the scenario, the wives and sweethearts of the Texian defenders killed at the Battle of the Alamo were hunting down the Mexican politician and general Antonio López de Santa Anna.

They had learned that he was holed up in a hacienda protected by a small number of Mexican soldiers.

The 3 feet by 3 feet playing area contained a hacienda, cantina, windpump and assorted scenery (cacti, rocks, well, stagecoach and barrels).  Stuart took the eight-strong Texan widow posse and entered at the bottom of the table.  James hid the General in one of the buildings, along with four soldiers with a further three arriving as reinforcements from the top of the table during the first few rounds.

The widows took up defensive positions around the stagecoach...

...out of range of the rifleman who climbed up the windpump tower...

...but within the sights of the rifleman who came out on the balcony.

Downstairs, a grenaderos opened the side door to get a bead on the Texan women but was swiftly gunned down - the first casualty.

There was then a long fistfight inside the building which the Mexican kept winning but failed to land the finishing blow.  Inevitably, he was knocked out cold the first time the widow won the combat.

The widows wouldn't get their revenge hiding behind the stagecoach so they started closing on the hacienda, taking several losses from the troops occupying the first floor.  But they eventually reached it, and started fighting up the staircase.

Having cleared out the cantina, they could also shoot across to the other building:

The widows had a lot of success in close combat, and the Mexican posse had lost half its strength by the tenth turn.  However, the battle continued for another five turns until James finally failed his "Head for the Hills" dice roll - the same turn that Stuart also had to make that check for the first time, but was successful.

At this point, we considered that the remaining Mexicans, including the General, had surrendered to their grisly fate, and so Stuart won the game.  But we were having fun playing so we let the General have a second chance.  With his faithful Capitan, Santa Anna climbed out of the window...

...and, pursued by the widows, managed to race off the board and escape.

Rob the Stagecoach scenario - 17 February 2018

Stuart visited today so another chance for a Wild West figures game.  This scenario saw James' defenders escorting a stagecoach across the length of the playing area, with Stuart's attackers attempting to slow the stagecoach to a halt.  The table was covered with rocky outcrops and cacti, plus a new MDF building - a minehead wheelhouse - recently constructed but not completely finished yet, so no close-ups of that building just yet.

The defenders:

And the attackers:

The stagecoach started the game moving 8" a turn so the rifle-wielding defenders struggled to keep up (they could only shoot if they moved half distance).

Stuart's bandits continuously fired off their weapons but nothing to worry the attackers too much.  James' rolls were slightly better and he had taken out two of the bandits by the fourth turn.  A couple of turns later, Stuart had his revenge, throwing a stick of dynamite at two defenders who had foolishly got too close together.  One character was pulverised but amazingly the other survived.

Stuart then turned his attention to the stagecoach itself - the scenario meant that adjacent attackers could roll to attempt to slow the stagecoach by 2", which he steadily started to do.

Finally, four inches from the edge of the table, the stagecoach was completely halted, giving the win to Stuart.

Bank Robbery - 30 December 2017

A visit from Stuart was a good excuse to put on a figures game.  These have often been big games with multiple objectives for different players requiring a lot of pre - and as a consequence are played very rarely - so I wanted to try and set something up quickly, using one of the in-built scenarios from the Legends of the Old West rule book.  We had played Bank Robbery before with four players, splitting the two posses into two halves.  This time James played the bank robbers and Stuart the lawmen.

The table was four feet square with MDF and card buildings making up part of Whitewash City:

The lawmen had to split their posse between two table edges - the second selected after the bank robbers had deployed and indicated the edge they would aim to escape across.

The bank robbers started in and around the bank, with a safe and two strongboxes carried by three of the characters.

Players were allowed to move three of the dozen townspeople (non-player characters) in each movement phase.  Stuart heartlessly used this to set up a screen between the lawmen and bank robbers but hadn't realised how ruthless the robbers would be - their "Life is cheap" characteristic means they will shoot at opponents regardless of whether they will hit friends or bystanders.  Which they did, taking out a barman and later a musician harmlessly playing a fiddle.

The bank robbers movement was halved due to the loot from the bank but they dropped their booty in order to rush into a huge fistfight that was happening between the rest of their gang and the lawmen.

The bank robbers were getting knocked out quicker than the lawmen, enabling Stuart to gang up.

Ultimately, all the bank robbers were taken out by turn 15 and their takings returned to the safety of the bank.  A few lawmen were lost but the game was Stuart's.

Getting stuff out of the loft and set up took a little while, but it was reassuring that this game could be done with less prep than I remembered, and played in about ninety minutes.  So a New Year's Resolution is to get more figures game on the table this year.  (Admittedly, we make this resolution most years but I will try harder this time!)