"So Carnehan weeds out the pick of his men, and sets the two of the Army to show them drill and at the end of two weeks the men can manoeuvre about as well as Volunteers. So he marches with the Chief to a great big plain on the top of a mountain, and the Chiefs men rushes into a village and takes it; we three Martinis firing into the brown of the enemy".
Kipling "The Man Who Would Be King"
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What was not so generally well known, because he didn't choose to tell anyone, was that Tex was once a Texas Ranger in his previous life, and before that had served with the Confederate cavalry during the war. After one too many close shaves with the bad guys on the Mexican border he woke up one morning and figured he'd ridden his luck enough, upped, saddled, and rode west without a backward glance, before finally settling in Cedar Gulch - bottom line, he could look after himself.
Rumours of the money had spread, however, and so it was that the junior members of two local outlaw gangs - the Clanton's and the Biggs Boys - decided that it was time that money got 'redistributed' - preferably by them, and also preferably over the bar at the local saloon, and after that with the girls upstairs in Ma Kelly's Bordello.
So it was that one quiet Sunday morning - clearly no rest for the wicked - Wes and Jimmy Clanton, and Black and Cole Biggs snuck up on the Livery from different directions, neither aware of the existence of the other, nor that Tex was no pushover, but all four of them fired up at the thought of those lovely 'ladies' and oceans of rotgut whiskey... not that any of them had ever seen an ocean...
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| Dramatis personae - Back row (left to right) - Tex, then Wes, and then Black - front row; Jimmy (left) and Cole |
Scenario specifics:
- rules used were "Ruthless" with all the solo amendments - see here [clicky]
- Tex is armed with a repeating rifle, the bad guys all have (single) six guns
- the money is under the floorboards in Tex's cabin -
- this will take a number of turns for the bad guys to find... throw a D10 per turn and a score of greater than or equal to eight will reveal the hiding place
- the player searching can take no other actions while doing it, always goes last in the turn whatever card he turns up, and cannot be under fire (successful or not) - if they are fired at, they forfeit the search for that turn
- whoever is in control of the money at the end of the game is the winner
- Tex has experience and will not be surprised at the appearance of the bad guys - he also has friends in town who have told him that certain wild young men have been heard boasting what they plan to do - but he will still need 2 turns to react to their appearance.
- Tex starts the game in the cabin - he is eating breakfast so is in the front with a clear view from the veranda window
Starting positions:
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| Tex is in the cabin by the window next to the chair - Wes and Jimmy top left, Black and Cole bottom right |
Move 1:
Full of expectation and six gun in hand, Wes [who moves first courtesy of
his higher card] dashes forward [the 7 allows 3 actions, so he moved three
times], and reaches the veranda by the cabin door ready to burst in. Jimmy is
not far behind him [one move to be precise 😏].
Across the other side of the Livery, Black and Cole are dumbfounded to see
their rivals but know immediately what they're up to, both of them snap shoot
at Wes on the veranda [I allowed one turn to react to the surprise, so an
aimed shot wasn't possible] - it's long range for a revolver, and neither of
them hit.
In the cabin Tex, looks up from his coffee at the sound of the shots..
Move 2:
Wes whips round at the sound of gunfire and sees
Black and Cole across the yard - smoke still clearing from their last shots.
Ducking round the corner of the cabin, and into cover, he returns fire and is rewarded with the sight of him ducking down behind the scrub.
Wes goes first as he has the Ace his shot at Cole grazes him and then Cole failed his Toughness test and became "Lily Livered" or in
non-Western speak "Shaken"😏.
Jimmy takes a snap shot at Black and runs for the cover of the cabin just behind Wes. Across the yard, Black curses and grabs his
arm before ducking down out of sight ...
Black also fails his Toughness test and
became "Lily Livered".
Black and Cole look at each other in disgust as they lie in the dust behind
the bush and as one crouch, aim and fire a fusillade of shots but all of them miss...
They were
lucky, the face cards give them an automatic recovery from Lily Livered and
allow them to act as normal but the abject failure to hit even the side of a barn door was to be a feature of
the game, none of these guys could shoot worth a damn! 😁
Tex picks up his rifle from where it is leaning against the wall behind him,
and moves to the window...
Move 3:
As you can see activation is fairly straight forward so no further explanation needed I think.. te order they activate drives the narrative..
Cole fires twice at Wes and misses, and while Jimmy moves round the back of
the cabin for a better shot Wes returns shot for shot causing Cole to again
drop for cover. In the meanwhile, Black see's Jimmy coming round the
corner of the cabin and fires twice but also misses.
Cole was only grazed, but again fails his toughness test and becomes lily livered...
At the window of the cabin Tex has spotted where the threats are coming from,
but as the best shot he has is the Biggs Boys, takes a bead on Black, aims, and
fires, and then snap shoots again hitting Black in
the arm again
Tex's 7 gives him 3 actions, and although he hits, Black passes the toughness test, but one more arm wound and he's
out of the game.
Move 4:
All in all, the Biggs Boys don't believe this is going quite as well as
planned and are on the verge of a decision to retire gracefully to fight
another day but decide to wait it out and see what transpires - there may be
scraps to be hoovered up.
Jimmy Clanton realises he and Wes also have a dilemma - until they can
get the Biggs Boys to scarper, he and Wes can't risk a frontal attack on the
cabin - and that is even before they have to deal with Tex..
Taking a bead on Black, Jimmy fires twice but misses. Black snap shoots back,
and ducks down to reload just as he sees Jimmy grab his leg and curse. Besides
him Cole also reloads, prepares himself, and also snap shoots at Jimmy but only
grazes him.
In the cabin - Tex aims and fires at Black - he can see he's badly wounded and
if he can put him down it's one less threat to worry about, but misses.
Wes is wondering how the hell they managed to get into this mess, and snaps
off a shot at Black that misses, before ducking back and out of sight to allow
him to reload.
Move 5:
Cole takes careful aim at Jimmy but cursing, still misses. They're too far
away but crossing that open ground could be a recipe for disaster.
In the cabin Tex, crosses the cabin to the window behind Wes and
leans out of the window for a single snap shot at him - Wes turns, sees him
and beats him to the draw throwing off two hasty shots both of which pepper the window frame, Tex's shot hits Wes but only grazes him.
Jimmy and Black exchange shots with equal lack of success.
Move 6:
Jimmy realises that he is just wasting time and ducks back round the cabin and kicks open the back door. At the same moment Cole
realises the same, and seeing that Jimmy has gone from sight, and that he can
here rifle shots the other side of the cabin meaning Tex is also busy, runs
towards the cabin. Pausing only to thumb 3 shells into his Peacemaker, Black
follows him.
Wes is empty - he ducks back from the window and behind some scrub and starts
to reload - Tex leans out and cracks off two shots at him missing with both!
Move 7:
Wes finishes reloading and runs over to Jimmy ready to back him up as required
- Jimmy in the meanwhile barges through the door, spots Tex across the cabin
and fans off all three remaining bullets in his revolver peppering the walls
and floorboards but missing Tex, who struggles to get his
rifle up in time.
Cole meanwhile has reached the window the other side of the cabin and also
takes a quick shot at Tex - things are getting a bit warm. Tex is hit in the
arm and drops his rifle - there's no way he can handle a repeater one handed, and holding up his hands in surrender he moves backwards
to the corner of the front corner of the cabin and slumps to the floor - shouting out that they
can have it, he'll not stop them...
Move 8:
Time to switch to the floor plan 😏
 |
| Black A♦,Jimmy Q♣,Cole 5♦, Wes 2♦, Tex top right |
Jimmy is out slugs and needs to reload - seeing Cole at the window he ducks
and runs, pausing only when out of sight to thumb 3 bullets into his gun.
At the front of the cabin Black pushes through the door, sees Tex slumped in
the corner with his arms up, clearly out of the game and and scans the room - Cole sees him enter the cabin from the window
- runs round the front and joins him in the cabin.
At the back door Wes is fully loaded - springs through the door and fan fires
at Black - all six shots miss!! Black snap shoots at Wes
also missing.
The rules allow characters to do what we would call overwatch ie. save actions for later in the turn, so Black saved an action after entering the cabin for possible use later - good job he did.. 😏
Move 9:
 |
| Black 7♣,Jimmy J♣,Cole 6♣, Wes 10♣, Tex top right |
The way he's shooting today Wes reckons he may as well walk up and hit them
over the head with the damn gun! He's empty, faced by two opponents, so heads
for the door and safety - two shots ring out
I played the 'jump the gun' rule for both Cole and Black and they both won - but I only allowed a single snapped shot as he would be through the door by the time a second shot was fired
Both of them hit and Wes grunts in pain, he is hit in both chest and arm and
stumbles through the door.
The games up and Jimmy can see it - grabbing Wes under the arm he limps off
into some rough ground where they tethered their horses, mount up and escape to fight
another day.
In the cabin, Black and Cole start their search for the cash eventually
finding a small bag of silver dollars under a loose board behind the
range - looks like Ma Kelly's girls are going to have a moderately hard time
of it, but not before they've had Blacks arm seen to.
Without a glance at Tex they leave the cabin, recover their horses from where
they are hidden and light out for the gang's hideout.
Post match analysis:
- Meat bill..
- Wes and Jimmy definitely came off the worse, in both cases another wound in either leg or chest would have finished them off, so almost certainly flight was the better decision. Tex was badly outnumbered by the time the bad guys were up to, and in, the cabin, just better to live and fight another day.
- I need to get myself out of the 'WW2 machine gun' mentality when playing these rules 😏 - it's difficult to hit with a six gun in these rules, even at short ranges - Black and Cole should have closed on the cabin far earlier than they did - not only for cover, but also to improve their chances of hitting anything (at all)
- Fan fire - beloved of the Hollywood cowboy movies - is a fantastic way of wasting bullets 😁
- the tinker-ability quotient of these rules is immense - if you get stuck just think what might have happened in real life and apply it within the very flexible framework the rules give - such was the case with Tex and his arm wound, in theory he can take 3 of those before the arm becomes useless in game terms, but I preferred to have him survive - that's also why he wasn't shot by Black and Cole as they left the scene 😏
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Just finished reading the last (currently 🙏) of the Jonas Merrick books by Gerald Seymour which for this one focusses on the Chinese security services, and he mentioned this picture as being on the fictional Jonas's wall.. time flies. I can't believe this was over 25 years ago! 😦 |
| A Chinese man temporarily blocking a line of [Type 59] tanks on June 5, 1989, the day after demonstrators were cleared from Beijing's Tiananmen Square. Photo : Jeff Widener/AP Images |
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Laters, as the young people are want to say...
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