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[Move 1]
As the sun slowly rose over the horizon, and a new day burned its way into the retinas, at the far end of town Andy and Charlie move stealthily towards the window on the side of the jail closest to them. At the other end of town Dave, Eddie and Frank move into cover of a dune between them and the Assay Office and General Store. In the jail, breakfast over and coffee in hand, the Sheriff spots Andy and Charlie's stealthy approach, puts his coffee down and draws his gun but holds his fire ["Law dog" trait - can't fire until fired upon].
[Move 2] It soon becomes clear that they really aren't up to any good as they move rapidly to the front and side windows
of the jail, smash the glass, and open fire at the Sheriff inside the jail hitting him in the arm [happily he can ignore the first wound, and then passes his toughness (morale) test].
Over in the hotel, Hank hears the shooting, and nervously comes out on to the balcony to see what's going on. Across the way he sees the Jones Gang members behind the dune, but then sees Charlie below and to his left at the front of the jail, and as he's closer, opens fire but misses.
In the jail the Sherriff his iron cleared, returns fire hitting Charlie in the leg [Charlie then failed his toughness test
and went "lily livered" (or Shaken)].
Eddie and Frank [Jones Gang] break cover and run across the street towards the Assay office,
they've seen Gus hovering in the window with a shotgun and recognise the threat - Gus sees them coming and gives them both barrels hitting
with both shots but, amazingly, doing them no harm [Gus threw two 7's on the relevant casualty table which is a non-wounding hit - on the plus side for Gus, both Eddie and Frank then failed their toughness tests - perhaps not surprisingly - and also became "Lily livered"/Shaken - so that means that at this point all three members of the Gang were shaken]
[Move 3] Frank gets the draw and fires at Gus [at reduced effect and also with cover benefits for Gus] hitting him in the leg [and causing Gus to become shaken], but Dave, who also crosses the street, takes a shot at Hank on the
balcony hitting him - Hank drops unconscious [Dave threw a serious wound on the relevant table]! The Jones Gang boys have reason to be happy..
At the jail meanwhile, Andy continues to fire at the Sherriff, hitting him but only
grazing him [the Sherriff then passes his toughness test] but the Sherriff turns, and fires back hitting Andy! Andy looks shaken and drops out of sight [failed his Toughness test]
In the street Eddy shakes himself down [successful toughness test and becomes unshaken] and races towards the Assay office to give Frank some support. He kicks the door open to get a look in the room, where Gus takes
one look at him and runs across the room and dives out of the side window into the alley
between the office and the hotel!
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| ...Gus takes one look, runs across the room and dives out of the side window into the alley.. |
Move 4 - While Hank remains unconscious on the balcony, at the Jail Andy
has finally managed to put his big boys pants on [passed his toughness test], ducks up, fires at
the Sherriff and is rewarded with cries of pain in the Jail.. he's hit him! [Twice in fact, in the gut and chest, and not surprisingly perhaps
the Sherriff also fails his toughness test and becomes shaken]
Bart shouts out to Andy and Charlie that "the
Sherriff is scared"!
Out in the street, angry that their prey may get rescued from under their feet, Dave fires twice at Charlie but only grazes him. [Charlie then passes his tough test]. Charlies shrugs it off, advances to the
jail door and kicks it open.
Over at the Assay office Eddie has seen Gus dive
out of the side window, but runs to the corner of the building and fires off a shot down the alley at Gus, he'd swear he'd hit him but Gus shows no ill effects and continues to run down the alley, turns behind the hotel, and holes up behind the jail..
Frank meanwhile is nervous and runs for cover in the alley between the Assay Office and
the General Store [he fails the toughness test again - he's still shaken from that failed shotgun hit!].
In the jail,
the Sherriff pulls himself together, it looks like this one is going to be to the death so he has no choice but to fight back and hope for the best. He fires at Charlie who is in the open door, scaring him witless [he fails his toughness test 😏] but only grazing him.
Move 5 - On the balcony, Hank groggily hauls himself to his feet (he got an Ace as his activation card!)
and fires at Charlie below, who is still outside the jail - unbelievably he hits him, and then watches him drop to the ground apparently unconscious! [two chest wounds will do that - I also diced for how many shots I'd allow Hank who had only just recovered from being unconscious - he rolled high, hence two shots]
With horror though he sees that the poetic justice is only momentary as Charlie gets straight back on to his feet [he had an Ace as well, just a lower suit than Hanks] and then shoots at the Sherriff hitting
him in the leg [he passes his tough test] but then Charlies luck runs out - the Sherriff fires back ... killing
him.
In the Alley, Frank finally recovers, and runs up the street along the boardwalk in
front of the Assay Office and the Hotel ending up near the corner of the hotel
and the jail where he skids to a halt as he sees Charlie, clearly dead, lying there.. Eddie follows him also ending
up in the alley between the Hotel and Jail.
Round the back of the jail Gus recovers his
nerve, reloads his shotgun, and moves towards the corner of the jail
nearest where Andy is crouched at the window on the far side. Andy is almost out of
ammo and seeing Charlie is down and done for, drops to the ground and reloads. In the street shots ring out as Dave peppers the balcony of the hotel where Hank is ducked down in cover.
Move 6 - It's difficult to know what was going through Gus's mind as he stepped out from round the corner - normally a fairly nervous guy, but either way he did it, and with Andy in clear sight and no more than six feet away from him gave him a barrel from the shotgun [tussled with this one in my mind a bit as I was aware from the set up that his key driver is that he shouldn't put himself in harms way unnecessarily, but with Andy's wounds and a +2 on close range I assumed a hit would be odds on]
He hit's him - but as the smoke clears can see Andy still standing there! [The phrase "chocolate teapot" is now joined in the lexicon of utterly useless things, by "Gus's shotgun" 😏] Andy is however looking very bloody scared [he failed the tough test] but though shaken, fires at Gus hitting him in the chest.
Elsewhere Eddie now runs out of the alley and into the jail, he grins as he sees Bart cowering at the back wall of the cell - he fires at the Sherriff hitting him
in the leg [but who passes his tough test - with a toughness of 4 he can pass 6 times out of 10 - one tough hombre!] Then Frank runs in as well, and also fires but misses! The Sherriff knows he's living on borrowed time and fires desperately at
them but misses - unheard of at that range!
On the balcony Hank and Dave exchange fire but while Hank's shots hit, Dave's miss, and with Dave out of ammo he runs to the boardwalk underneath the balcony.
Move 7 - The lead's been flying and there are plenty of guns that need replenishing..
In the jail the Sherriff is badly wounded and almost out of ammo - just two bullets, and he's a dead man.. "bugger this" quoth he, and snapping off a shot at Eddie, which only grazes him, he dives through the front window of the
jail, on to the boardwalk out front and takes the best cover he can.
On the balcony
Hank reloads.
Eddie, shaken up by the recent shot, does the same but having partially reloaded then climbs out of the window and into the alley between the jail and hotel.
Dave also reloads,
but in the jail Frank is ready, moves to the front door, leans out takes a bead on the Sherriff but misses!
Around the back of the Jail, Gus skedaddles [when tested he failed to recover his
nerve] he'd done far more than he'd been expected to, to be fair, he runs down the back of the hotel, stopping just in time to avoid being shot by Dave who's at the end of the alley!
At the jail Andy is beginning to think that he might have had enough, Bart is no nearer being free, and Charlie is done for - he fires off a hasty shot at Frank who he can see through the window, and
runs for cover away from the jail.
Move 8 - In the jail Frank begins to hope that they might get away with this, moves to the
window recently vacated by Andy, and fires at him in the brush across the way
hitting him in the leg.
Meanwhile the Sherriff snaps off a shot at Dave along
the length of boardwalk but misses, and then ducks into cover round the corner of the
jail. On the veranda Hank leans over, sees Eddie in the alley and fires, hitting him in the chest.
Now reloaded, Dave moves to join Frank
in the jail where he covers the front window. Behind the hotel Gus swallows
deeply and recovers his nerve, moving slowly to the corner closest the jail he
lets off his remaining barrel at Eddie who's hiding in the alley, hitting him in the arm - Eddie, outraged, returns fire
killing Gus outright... [😕]
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| .."time for the Jones boys to get out of there".. |
Move 9 - in the jail Frank opens the door of cage where Bart is now sobbing like a toddler and ties his hands together behind his back.
Out in the scrub, Andy reloads, it may not be over yet.
Hank, still on the balcony, again leans over and fires at Eddie in the alley, hitting him badly [in the arm and chest].
The Sherriff, sheltered against the wall of the jail, reloads.
Dave moves to the window that looks out on to the alley between him and the hotel, leans out, and takes a snap shot at Hank hitting him in the arm - with a grunt of pain, Hank ducks back into cover [failed tough test].
Move 10 - time for the Jones boys to get out of there.. the Sherriff eyes his options and makes a break for the livery yard across the street [I made an error here and forgot to factor in the damage to his leg and what effect it would have on his movement] taking cover behind the fence and some scrub on the corner nearest the jail.
Dave and Frank, with Bart in between them, duck down the alleyway between the jail and the hotel - time to get to their horses.
Andy runs round the rough ground and scrub to the back of the jail where he now has a clear line of sight on Dave and shoots, hitting him in the leg [he then fails his toughness test becoming shaken]. Hanks snaps off a couple of nervous shots at Frank doing nothing - he's now out of ammo.
Move 11 - Frank moves to cover the front of the group and shoots at Andy but misses. Dave fires shakily, and manages to hit Andy who returns fire hitting him in the arm.
On the balcony, Hank reloads.
Across the street in the livery yard the Sherriff has a bit of a quandary - he has targets in range, but one of them is Bart who is very close to both the Jones boys.. he shrugs and fires twice at Dave killing him outright.. [he's a bit of a Reacher! 😀]
Move 12 - As sure as eggs are eggs, neither of the bad boys are going to get Bart
away.. the Sherriff climbs through the fence so as to get a bead on Frank and fires
but misses.
Andy and Frank, the writing on the wall, run for it, leaving the Sherriff
and Hank to take charge of the still tied Bart - looks like the neck tie party
will take place after all..
Post match analysis:
- made a few errors on rule application - Ruthless are very simple set of rules but there are a few nuances that need to be applied - movement for characters with leg wounds was one of them
- a lot of shots were fired in the 12 moves, but as you can see a surprising number of them had no discernible effect - grazes, non-impacting hits, etc
- the Sherriff is one tough mother! 😀
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Laters, as the young people are want to say...
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