One Hour Gunfight

I bought John Lambhead's 'One Hour Skirmish Wargames' back when it was first published, but up until now had never managed to get around to trying a game of it. Part of this is that I don't have much in the way of figures for gunpowder and gun-era skirmishing. That was until recently, when, of course, I put together some Western gunfighters. Today I finally matched up my modest figure collection with the rules, and gave them a try.

I played a variant of the first scenario in the book, which has a force of British soldiers defending a gun against a raiding force of French in the Peninsula. In my variant the law of Mayor's Income, NM are protecting a load of gold on a broken-down wagon (wagon not represented). A posse is riding up from town, so they just have to cover it for five turns. They are:

Sheriff Collins (Shotgun, Leader (2), Tough, Lucky)
Betsy Collins (Pistol, Quick Shot)
Martha Bischoff (Pistol, Crack Shot (1))
Webster (Pistol)
Gerard (Rifle)
The Orinoco Kid (Pistol)

But looking to grab the gold is the gang of Creed 'Scarecrow' Morrison. They are:

Creed 'Scarecrow' Morrison (Pistol, Leader (2), Tough, Quick Shot)
Dorothy 'The Widow' Carson (Shotgun, Lucky)
Donal McTeague (Pistol, Quick Shot)

Lewis 'Scar' Simpson (Pistol, Tough, Crack Shot (1))
Isabella Gomez (Rifle)
Jose Gomez (Rifle)
Ella Carfax (Pistol)
'Buck' Carfax (Shotgun)

There's a couple of things there that aren't in the core rules. I'll cover them at the end. 

This was the setup. The gold is that random pile of stuff in the centre. The forces of law were mostly spread across the centre. The bad guys enter from the foreground. In the foreground you can also see the two decks of cards that are used to run the game. The left one is for the Law and the right is for the Outlaws. 

The marked areas were soft cover, and you could see up to 3" through them. Isolated rocks and terrain were soft cover, but could be used as hard cover if a figure spent a movement action to duck down. However if a figure fired they lost that status. Generally, then, most cover counted as soft cover. 

The entire game is diceless and is driven off teh card-decks. At the start of a phase both players draw a card and teh highest has initiative and goes first. Then the other player acts. When a player acts they draw a card and its value fives them a number of action points (Ace = 1 up to King = 13). Movement and firing cost points, you can do multiple move actions (at an increasing points cost) and you can't move after firing. Melee happens as part of movement. It's all pretty simple. At the end of a phase you test initiative again, so it's possible for a side to get two activations in a row. 

Isabella moved up and took a shot at the Orinoco Kid. But he was ducked down behind hard cover at this stage - he only has a pistol so needs to get in close to be effective. Shooting is a simple matter of drawing a card for your shot and teh target drawing a card for their defence. If the shooter's card is higher they have hit the target. Both sides get bonus cards for being good shots or for being in cover, and use the best card. 

The law took their turn and Betsy Collins came up. She took a shot at Isabella, missed and was downed in return. Being downed by shooting is not necessarily the end, though, as you will see later. 

The Law brought over Gerard, and his rifle, to provide more firepower. 'Scarecrow' moved up too. 

And at that point the Outlaws pulled a Joker. 

If, at any point, you pull a Joker the current turn ends. So a turn may have a few phases or, if you are unlucky, may end before the first phase is over. 

At the end of a turn you draw a card to test morale, with sides that have lost figures having a chance of breaking. At this point no figures were lost, so that didn't happen. But you then test for each figure downed by shooting. On a red card they are out of action. On a black card they were just stunned or ducked down and come back into action. I tested for Betsy Collins - a red card meant that she was out of the fight. 

On to a new turn and Martha entered the fray, shooting down Isabella.

But 'Scarecrow' returned the favour with some rapid shots. 

He then left his cover and finished Martha off. If you move into contact with a downed enemy figure you can dispatch them; they don't get to come back. 

He them moved over to the hut and gunned down Gerard. Things weren't looking good for the Law. 

On the other side of the table the Outlaws had made use of some good action point draws to moves up 'Scar'  and 'Buck' Carfax. Sheriff Collins came out to meet them, unlading his shotgun at them, but missing. 

'Scar' shot the Sheriff. 'Buck' then moved in and finished him off. 

Jose Gomez shot The Orinoco Kid.

The good guys now just had Webster left. He'd been lurking further back in reserve, but rushed into the fray, confronting 'Scarecrow'. He missed. 

Close combat in OHSW is decisive, but risky. Rather than shoot with 'Scarecrow' to finish off Webster the bad guys sent Jose Gomez into close combat first. 

The process produced a Joker, immediately ending the turn. You don't finish resolving any combats if a Joker is pulled. 

This brought The Orinoco Kid back into action, but Gerard was permanently down. For the bad guys Isabella also didn't make it back. 

A new turn (turn 3) and Jose Gomez went in again. 

Another Joker!

Each time the turn ends, both sides had to test to break. Neither did, but with four people down and no leader the Law wasn't looking healthy.

Third time lucky? Jose closed in once more. 

Webster went down. And in close combat it's permanent. 

The Orinoco Kid shot Jose in retaliation. 

To win the Law had to end with a figure within 6" of the objective. So The Orinoco Kid - only survivor of their side - moved across to some rough ground and took cover there. If he could hold on he could still clinch an unlikely win. 

He didn't. 'Scarecrow' shot him, and then in the next phase moved across and put him out of the fight. With no opponents left the outlaws had won.

So the mechanisms of this game were fun, and the turn-ending Jokers are a great mechanism, making for a wild finish to the action.

I enjoyed this game, but with hindsight it's not the set of rules for this size of action. One Hour Skirmish Wargames is really best suited for 12-20 figures a side, so there will never be enough actions to go around for everyone to do something every turn. With only 6-8 figures a side there was a lot of scope for multiple actions per figure, making each figure more dangerous. And, of course, the brutal combat system meant that an individual loss was more significant when it's one of six of eight. 

So the verdict? A great and interesting set of rules but not a set of rules that work for this particular scenario. 

I did throw in a few rules of my own. The rules have you only reshuffle the decks when they run out, which does lead to the possibility of a player drawing from a deck where they know both Jokers have gone. I modified this by having a player completely reshuffle their deck once both Jokers had appeared. It does have a small effect on how many actions you get in a turn, but probably not significant.

I think I described my addition for cover above. It's easy enough to mark a figure as ducked down. You can see the brown markers if you look closely. 

Most of the character traits and weapons are in the core rules. I added the following:

Quick Shot - A character with a pistol (and maybe a rifle) with one shot normally can opt to fire a second shot. If the second shot is the same colour card as the first then the character goes unloaded (mark the figure). Their next fire action costs two action points as they must reload first. 

Shotgun - Range 8". Up to 4" - 1 shot but a hit from a face card automatically puts the target out of action (not downed). 4"-8" - 2 shots, but the target draws an extra card. Basically they are dangerous at close range and have low impact spread at longer ranges. 

I might see if I can get a club game of this and maybe co-opt some members' Bolt Action forces.