Wild West Weirdos

Over the past few weeks I've been looking for rules I can use for my Wild West figures which would allow a quick simple solo game at home. Ruthless is a great set, for example, but relies on a hidden card hand for each player. What A Cowboy plays OK solo, but you need a sheet for each combatant so it takes up a fair bit of table-space. 

The other week I tried out One Hour Skirmish Wargames for teh first time, and got a reasonable game as documented HERE. It gave a fun game, but I felt it needed more figures. I was looking for something that would allow me to use around 3-6 figures a side. 

Then fate intervened. A couple of years ago we played Sword Weirdos at the club and, off the back of that, I'd joined the Facebook group for it. So I sometimes see posts on my feed. Maybe teh algorithm had picked up on some of my online browsing for Wild West rules, but the other day someone posted about using the related game, Space Weirdos, for Wild West games. Realising that it uses a small board, a small number of figures and is solo-friendly I thought that it was worth getting Space Weirdos and giving it a try.

So I did.

Today I played a game.

I ran two 75 point gangs, based on the previous game, with 'Scar' Johnson leading his outlaws against Sheriff Collins and the forces of the Law. On the board were three objectives (marked with white counters in this photo only - a mine-shaft, a cistern/well and a woodpile (maybe with something hidden in it). Whoever controlled the most objectives at the end of four or five turns would win. 

The Outlaws. From left to right they are Donal McTeague, Ella Carfax, 'Scar' Johnson, Isabella Gonzalez and Buck Carfax. I won't post their stats here (something future me will curse current me for in a few years time), but basically 'Scar' was the leader and Donal McTeague (green jacket) his competent sidekick. The other three were pretty basic. 'Scar' had a heavy pistol, McTeague regular pistols and the others (left to right) a pistol, a rifle and a shotgun.

(Most of the sci-fi weapons of Space Weirdos translate to the Wild West - an auto-pistol is a regular revolver, a heavy pistol is a heavier revolver, the auto-rifle does for a regular rifle with the option of a heavy rifle for something meatier. And even the sniper rifle would work for a buffalo gun. There's a shotgun which works exactly as written for shotguns.)

The Law. Left to right they are Gerard, Martha Bischoff, Sheriff Collins, Betsy Collins and Webster. Sheriff Collins was the leader, and is fairly competent, with Betsy Collins as the main gunfighter in the group. Martha is moderately competent and the other two are filler. They have the same mix of weapons as the outlaws - Gerard has a rifle, Martha a heavy pistol, Sheriff Collins a shotgun, Betsy a revolver and Webster a revolver. 

The first actions centred around the woodpile, with Gerard taking a shot at McTeague who has taken up position in the cover of the objective. 

On the other side of the board Webster had moved to cover the mineshaft (mostly out of shot to the left). Three outlaws moved in on him. Ella Carfax was sent scurrying for cover though. 

She came back but ended up ducking for cover again when Martha (out of the picture to the left) provided covering fire. 

'Scar' fired a couple of long-range shots at Webster, causing him to staggered ...

... and then knocking him down.

Isabella Gonzalez rushed in to finish him off, but was staggered by a shot from  Martha. 

On the other side of the board McTeague cooly shot Gerard stone-dead. 

Betsy and Sheriff Collins started firing at the ruthless outlaw, but couldn't hit him. 

I think this was an overview at the end of the second turn. At the top pf the picture three outlaws are moving in on Webster and Martha. Meanwhile McTeague is holding off the Sheriff and his daughter, whilst 'Scar' is coming up in support. 

McTeague moved to better cover, but then shot Sheriff Collins, putting him down and staggered. 

He moved to the cover of the woodpile (since having figures near the objective was the goal), but Betsy moved up and shot him dead. 

Buck Carfax outflanked Martha, but then missed when he shot at her. 

She didn't miss him, leaving him staggered and on the ground.

Meanwhile 'Scar', who up to now had been providing long-range fire support, moved up to the wood-pile. 

He killed Betsy!

He then moved to engage Sheriff Collins, who had got up and was moving in with his shotgun. He missed. 

On the other side of the board things were hotting up. Ella Carfax, Martha and Buck were all down. Webster had moved back from the mine-shaft, whilst Isabella had moved to claim it. We were heading into a potential last turn, so control of objectives was important. 

'Scar' moved to cover his objective, but Sheriff Collins shot him down as he got there. The fighting on this side of the table had been particularly deadly. 

In a burst of 'last turn syndrome' everyone rushed the mineshaft. There was some firing, but a couple of the figures simply moved up to be close. The last turn ended with two figures from each side in control of it. 

Buck Carfax was within control range of the cistern, whilst sheriff Collins controlled the woodpile. So the fight was a draw. 

The outlaws lost Donal McTeague and 'Scar' Johnson. 

The Law lost Betsy Collins and Gerard. 

So even the losses were even. However the Outlaws did lose their leader, so if we're looking for tie-breaks I think the Law had a very slight claim to a winning draw. 

I really enjoyed this game. The only tricky decision as a solo player was when to use the two precious command points each side had for special actions or boosts. Sometimes it seemed obvious, and other times I used a 4-6 or 5-6 D6 roll (based on likelihood) to see if someone would take a possible response. It worked OK. 

I made a few minor mistakes, and did have some questions for the group, but otherwise the game ran very smoothly and was a lot of fun. 

Do you know what? I will post the stats! Here they are:

Outlaws
'Scar' Johnson (Leader) - S3, D2d8, F2d10, P2d8, W2d10 - Heavy Pistol, Melee Weapon
Donal McTeague - S3, D2d8, F2d10, P2d8, W2d8 - Pistol, Melee Weapon
Isabella Gonzalez - S2, D2d6, F2d8, P2dD6, W2d8 - Rifle
Buck Carfax - S2, D2d6, F2d8, P2d6, W2d6 - Shotgun, Melee Weapon
Ella Carfax - S2, D2d6, F2d8, P2d6, W2d6 - Pistol

The Law
Sheriff Collins (Leader) - S2, D2d10, F2d8, P2d6, W2d8 - Shotgun
Betsy Collins - S3, D2d8, F2d10, P2d8, W2d10 - Pistol
Martha Bischoff  - S2, D2d8, F2d10, P2d8, W2d6 - Heavy Pistol
Webster - S2, D2d6, F2d8, P2d6, W2d6 - Pistol
Gerard - S2, D2d6, F2dD8, P2d6, W2d6 - Rifle

I didn't use the optional Leader/Warband traits. A lot of them don't really have a Wild West vibe. 

Death Race

Our club game schedule moved round to Gaslands this week and we had three players. It used to be that we'd get massively over-subscribed for Gaslands games, but some players have moved away and personal circumstances have limited the attendance of others.

For the first time in a while we rolled a race!

The competitors were:

Caesar: Freeway Fighter - An Idris sponsored monster with two turreted mini-guns
Craig: The Beast - A Scarlett truck filled with desperados and guns
Me: Shine On You Crazy Diamond and Welcome To The Machine - Mishkin-sponsored performance car and car respectively, featuring some fun weapons.

The track was a simple loop; up to the top left, across the top, back across the middle, and finish. 

Even with only four vehicles  and virtually no terrain in the middle the star was still a mess. Craig's truck did a slide from the off, blocking me from doing an initial straight move which in turn prevented Caesar from doing one. No-one was keen to ram, so we swerved around avoiding each other for a couple of phases. Eventually Craig went off in completely the wrong direction ...

Whilst Freeway Fighter and Shine On You Crazy Diamond took an early neck-and-neck lead. 

Caesar got Freeway Fighter past Gate One. whilst I couldn't quite make it with my vehicle. I got the full brunt of his twin mini-guns and was unable to reply with my arc-lightning projector. 

Stuck chasing Freeway Fighter I just took steady fire from the mini-guns, and the result was inevitable; Shine On You Crazy Diamond ceased to shine. 

But whilst Craig tried to get his truck on the straight and narrow, my second vehicle passed Gate One and brought its Death ray into play, damaging Freeway Fighter.

Craig continued to bring up the rear, whilst Welcome To The Machine piled on the acceleration, took a short-cut through some soft sand, and overtook Freeway Fighter. Freeway Fighter wiped out, and suddenly the Mishkin car had a commanding lead. 

Craig was now in the running with The Beast, but still too far from the opposition to bring his full firepower into play. However he chipped away at Freeway Fighter. 

A nifty turn and slide from Caesar. 

It wasn't enough to escape being shot into a wreck by The Beast, though. Caesar had been blasting Welcome To The Machine with his mini-guns, but he'd rolled badly and I was still running, and running fast. 

Welcome To The Machine was now lined up on the Finish. 

And going at top speed. 

Caesar respawned Freeway Fighter, and it lasted just long enough for Craig to close up with The Beast and unleash the full firepower of a band of desperadoes with lots of guns. Freeway Fighter wrecked again. 

Meanwhile I crossed the finish-line for a comfortable win. The first time I've won a race with an intact vehicle in a while. 

The track was probably a bit open, but it did make for a quick game, which was actually pretty good; races can sometimes drag on a little and overstay their welcome. Maybe a couple more small obstacles would have livened things up a little, though.

Anyway, it was all lots of fun, and having two vehicles very much paid off for me. 

Ten Years Ago - November 2016

From time to time I photograph and do a writeup of one of my HOTT armies under the 'Army Showcase' header. Sine I spent a chunk of November 2016 on holiday I didn't do that many posts (although plenty by my current standards, sadly), so I thought for this month's trip back in time I'd feature of the the showcases. It's an army mostly made from stones. 

Here's the showcase of Asag and The Stone Allies

More HOTT

Daniel enjoyed HOTT so much last week that he wanted to play again. Geoff joined us as well.

Geoff and Daniel played the first game. Geoff used his Greeks and defended (right), whilst Daniel used my Renaissance Alexander The Great army (left). 

Daniel started well, outflanking Geoff in the foreground, and having Alexander slay Geoff's hydra in one of the first combats of the game. 

But Alexander now became exposed on the left flank, with Greek chariots threatening him. And the flank move on the other side of the battlefield was slowed by command difficulties. 

The battle settled into a spear shoving match in the middle, whilst Alexander fought off multiple outflanking attacks that would have been fatal ii successful. 

Is this the end for Alexander? Apparently not. 

Daniel pulled back troops on his right flank and moved to attack the end of Geoff's hoplites line. 

Meanwhile Alexander's cavalry made repeated attacks on the Greek stronghold. But Alexander eventually fell. Hi army kept fighting; Daniel has inflicted enough casualties on the Greeks to prevent his army collapsing. He kept fighting, and came close to inflicting enough kills for the win, but eventually lost 12g-10 to Geoff's Greeks. 

Geoff departed at that point. Daniel selected some Undead for the next game, whilst I used Asag and the Stone Allies. This was Daniel's first experience facing an aerial hero, and one that was a general at that. But he had a magician, so I have to be careful. 

Daniel rashly pushed his skeleton cavalry forward, and I charged it with beasts and destroyed it. 

On the other flank Daniel pushed his knights forward, but they were flanked by Asag and an element was destroyed. 

Asag then picked off some shooter in the main undead army. At this pint Daniel tried to use magic to bespell my demon general. He rolled a '1', making further magical attacks risky. 

I still moved Asag to the other side of the battlefield, away from the Daniel's Necromancer.

On his left, Daniel's shooters had taken out two of the three beast elements. Asag moved up to support the survivor, and more of the undead army fell. 

Victory for Asag came when his behemoth smashed up the second element of knights. I won this one 12-4.

The hordes of both sides never met. 

For our third game we used my Australian aboriginal matched pair. Daniel took the warriors, whilst I took the Horrors. 

Daniel brought on the god Baiame on the first bound. 

A bound later he attacked my flyer general, who was backed up against a supporting element. And that was it. A 2g-0 win for Daniel. 

We called it a night after that.