I had been
planning to post about a Sunday game at Barry’s using my War of 1812 figures
but unfortunately family drama intervened at the last moment and I was unable
to attend. Mark will have posted a report on 1866 and All That about what I
missed…..:(
So instead,
here are a few images from our final game at Lake Tarawera, traditionally a
short duration affair as we need to pack up after lunch and head off home. This
year, we chose to do a Western Gunfight game run by Rick, who supplied all the
terrain and figures, using the Knuckleduster Gunfighters Ball rule set.
There were
seven players plus Rick as umpire. Chris and Paul fought out a separate little
duel in the town, with Paul playing some professional killers who had been
hired to kill Wyatt Earp and his brothers.
Barry and I
were the Clanton gang, Mark and John were another group bringing a herd of cattle
in to the railhead – our aim was to ambush them and steal the cattle. Julian
was a bunch of law enforcement officials (not quite sure who they were –
possibly one was Honest John Behan who was a nemesis of the Earp’s according to
the Kevin Costner movie…) and he was there to arrest or kill almost everyone!
I wont give a blow by blow account as it was three weeks ago now and I had enough trouble remembering which figure was which character on the actual day! Basically, almost everyone got shot – Julian’s guys were up on a water tower taking everyone out with rifle fire, whilst Barry and I killed a few of John and Marks figures and they reciprocated! The cattle herd ended up stampeding through the town, California Kate appeared from the town and shot Behan in the back – it was all the usual western gunfight drama!
Above and
below – the railhead town
Above and
below – the character cards for my three figures
The remainder of the images are various incidents throughout the game, which ended up with most of the non lawmen dead. I think I may have had one dismounted figure left at the end of the game. All good clean fun but as Mark noted elsewhere on his blog, its not really the best ruleset for multiple players, two or three is a better number.
Your town looks great. It is always something I fancy doing as it looks fun, I am part of the 'westerns on TV' generation and it has a low figure count, but it is the thought of the storage for another trug of dedicated terrain that has put me off.
ReplyDeleteIs this the perfect antidote to re-capturing a mid-week evening game I wonder?
Hi Norm - yes, we are lucky that Rick has taken it on himself to get most of the scenery. I have bought about twenty figures but that's it and another guy in our group Julian also has twenty or thirty figures, so we have three times as many as we will ever need to fight these little skirmish games - about six weeks ago, we had three games in one evening session.
DeleteSuperb buildings, very atmospheric!
ReplyDeleteThank you Phil - I agree, Rick has done a great job bringing these mdf buildings to life and they make all the difference to the look of the games!
DeleteNot my sort of period at all, but a lovely looking game nonetheless:)
ReplyDeleteThanks Steve
DeleteI agree with Norm in that I would like to give this a go, but it is fairly well down the list of priorities so, like yourself, I'd be keen if someone else were to invest in the terrain. We did have a group member who was starting to get this together for Dead Man's Hand (I think it was), but family and grandchildren has meant we haven't seen him for a while.
ReplyDeleteYes agreed..we are lucky Rick got all enthusiastic about this period and got all the buildings. You should definitely give it a go Lawrence
DeleteHi- Very good gaming is the Westerns - Cowboys, Gunfighters- Lawmen...all good fun...terrific job there by Rick. Regards. KEV.
ReplyDeleteThanks Kev...yes Rick made a huge contribution to this years extravaganza...as he also provide all the figures for both sides in the WWI game
DeleteA Western gunfight is a perfect, light-hearted way to end a Wargaming week. Looked like a very enjoyable week for you all. Thanks for posting your Wargaming week activities.
ReplyDeleteThanks Jonathan and I totally agree. I have been happy to record and post about the event and already planning for 2021!
DeleteNicely looking game! I guess you had a really great week dedicated to the hobby.
ReplyDeleteThank you Dmitry. Yes it's a fantastic experience and we all realise how lucky we are to get such a great experience
DeleteVery cool looking Gunfighter game. Sorry to hear you couldn't make the 1812 game. Hope all is well.
ReplyDeleteThanks Dean. My father in law, who I posted about re his WW2 service, had to go into hospital (again) and can't go home, so we had to help mother in law sort out a room in a retirement village. It's been on the cards for six to nine months but still a traumatic time for my wife and her mum and brother....
DeleteGreat looking western game, not my thing but my nephews are doing dead mans hand,maybe I'll get a game after lockdown!
ReplyDeleteBest Iain
Thanks Iain...you definitely give it a go sometime. All the best for the renewed lockdown
DeleteA nice looking game Kieth...
ReplyDeleteMy friend has a large Dead Mans Hand collection...
I have had a few games...using the only gunfighter figure I own...
I have found that I get shot a lot...
All the best. Aly
Thanks Aly...getting shot a lot tends to be a common feature of western gunfighter games!
DeleteHow much fun does that look! That looks superb, the town is amazing. I'm toying with the idea of getting into Western games. I think that the Too Fat Lardies are about to bring a Western supplement out so I shall look out for that one, though I have yet to read any rules for Western games yet. It does sound a lot of fun.
ReplyDeleteBest wishes,
Jason
Thanks Jason, I would definitely recommend Western gunfights for a quick, fun game. Our group played some games several years ago using The Rules With No Name, which worked quite well, and now we are using Gunfighters Ball. The mechanics of them all are pretty similar so I imagine the Lardies version will use their ideas from Chain of Command etc but just transfer them to the Wild West - should be a nice set of rules when it comes out!
Delete