Steve's Random Musings on Wargaming and other stuff...: "Jailbreak!" .. preamble and setup..

Saturday, February 22

"Jailbreak!" .. preamble and setup..

" Tonight there's gonna be a jailbreak
Somewhere in this town
See me and the boys we don't like it
So were getting up and going down".

"Jailbreak" Thin Lizzy

Preamble..

As the sun rose over a sleepy Cedar Gulch every inhabitant of the (normally) sleepy town knew that it was going to be a hot one - not only because there wasn't a cloud in the sky, but also because today there was going to be a hanging..

Bart Johnson had never had much going for him, and when he'd been caught red handed following a shootout during a failed bank robbery, he'd also been seen to gun down an innocent civilian who was passing the bank as Bart and the rest of the gang tried to escape.

It was a sure fire bet that the Circuit Judge wasn't going to spend too much time pondering the niceties of the law while deliberating the sentence. Bart could shout to the Heavens all he wanted that "it was an accident", and he "hadn't meant to to kill him, just wing him!", but Bart was going to hang.

.. but it wasn't quite as clear cut as the members of the law would have liked ..

First, the civilian was not quite as 'innocent' as everyone had believed. He was actually one Seth Harkmann, second in command and a senior member of the notorious Jones Gang. Fresh shaven and redolent of Bay Rum following a visit to the barbers, Seth had been on his way to "Lily's Place" (TM) and with his mind fully occupied never even had time to reach for his iron before meeting his untimely demise. His boys though were far from happy, and a hanging wasn't going to be enough, they wanted a more painful revenge..

Second, the rest of Barts gang were also not happy, in their eyes the Judge was guilty of a huge calumny (if they could even spell it, never mind understand what it meant) in sentencing Bart to hang - it had been an accident, and rightly should have led to jail time rather than a neck stretching session..

So it was that on the morning of the hanging a number of additional people were on outskirts of Cedar Gulch - all of them armed with well polished and heavily used guns.. 'the boys we don't like it', indeed 😏

Setup..

Cedar Gulch - Jones Gang bottom right, the Rescuers top left

Rules will be "Ruthless" - see the Project Page for links to the basic rules and my solo amendments
Bart (#2) is held in the jail under the watchful eye of the Sherriff, who will also be doing the duty of hang man when the time comes. The Sherriff's sole mission is to protect Bart from either death or a rescue.
Bart's rescuers comprise two gang members - Andy* (#3) and Charlie* (#4) - their sole mission is to rescue Bart from the Sherriff's office, and then leg it, preferably alive and unwounded
The Jones Gang comprises three members - Dave (#6), Eddie (#7) and Frank (#8) - their sole mission is to grab Bart - if they can't do that then a painful death will also do, but not not at any personal cost to them as he's going to hang anyway..
While the rest of the population are largely unarmed and unwilling to take part in any gun play, there are two who are armed, and are "ready" - these are Gus (#5) and Hank (#1), who are in the Assay Office, and the first floor of the Hotel respectively.. their sole mission is to aid the Sherriff until it's time for Bart to swing, but as moderately unskilled gun men, and civilians, they will not do anything that puts themselves in harms way.
Bart is (clearly) unarmed - it will take one complete move inside the Sherriff's office/Jail for his rescuers to free him on 6+ on 2D6, and two actions to arm him (Andy and Charlie have bought him a replacement rig comprising belt, ammunition and two six shooters).
Horses for both gangs are just off table.
There is nothing specific in the rules for characters armed with twin six guns, so I'm going to say they can fire both but that's an action for each, and clearly if they are armed with two guns they can't fan fire before putting one of them away..

Orders of Battle.. (or rather, The Dramatis Personae 😏)

Character traits were either diced for or decided by me based on the role the character is playing.. just a reminder, the toughness value is between 1 and 10 and the lower the number, the tougher the character..