Time for another update.. and a game this time...
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In summary, in the film Gable is hired by Ryan to help him drive his cattle from Montana to Texas, and along the way they fall in with a wagon train (that among other people contains Russell) and there then ensues the usual Hollywood ménage a trois (which we can ignore), because one of the scenes concerns what happens when the herd arrives at the state line, and is met by a bunch of 'concerned local citizens' stroke vigilantes, demanding a 'duty' paid per head to carry on, pure extortion.... cue gun battle - and scenario...
Going to use the 15's for this game as it means I can utilise the cattle from the Marlburian project as long horns.. 😊
Scenario/specific rules:
- a herd of cattle heading for the stock pens at the nearest rail head have encountered a block to their progress in the form of a 'gang' aiming to make a profit from their passage in the form of a per head "passage fee"
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there are seven in the gang, and the herd is being driven by a smaller number of cowboys (just four). Clearly an unequal tussle, but to even up the sides the cowboys will be significantly tougher than the members of the gang (who are in any case actually just a few bad guys leavened with a whole number of bar flies and town 'low life's' looking to make a quick buck)
- the cows
- block line of sight and provide cover, and always move last in every turn.
- by their nature they will stick together - they need one of the cowboys, either in the wagon or not, within 6" of them to maintain their direction and progress (which is up to 8" per move); when there isn't anyone within 6" throw a D10 (and repeat every turn this is the case)
- 1 - 3 : move half a D6 (rounded down) in inches in the direction indicated on a direction dice
- 4 - 9 : they will just stop in their tracks wherever they are and not move
- 10 : they stampede D10 inches in the direction indicated on a direction dice
- the chuck wagon
- blocks line of sight and provides soft cover for anyone behind it, or in it,
- moves up to 8" per turn
- is steered/controlled by (a minimum of) one of the cowboys (decision to be made at game start)
- whoever is the designated driver (so Guinness Zero rather than rotgut whiskey!😏) pulls their own card, and this decides when the wagon moves in the turn
- stops in it's tracks whenever at least one of the cowboys on board is not conscious/present
- the cowboys win if they manage to drive their herd off the opposite side of the board, the gang win if they stop them
Dramatis personae:
The Cowboys:
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| Pancho, Abe, Donnie and Cal - left to right |
The Gang:
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| The Gang - Jedd through Pat - left to right |
Move 1:
Zack gets the draw and moves first - twice - into the rough ground - if the herd comes north of the central rocks then he has a good covering position. Across the way, Cal on board the chuck wagon with (as the designated driver), takes a shot with his Winchester at Zack [long range, hard cover - throws a 10, -2 for hard cover, scores a hit!], but only grazes Zack who ducks down out of sight [failed his toughness/morale test and went what Ruthless calls 'lily livered', or 'Shaken' in other rules😁]
In the center, Donnie runs across and takes cover in the patch of rough ground and rocks rocks, that Blake has also just occupied - going to be "busy" in there! Pancho meanwhile runs to the edge of the same cover and snaps off a shot at Zack, missing by miles..
The rest of the bad guys also run for cover looking to cover the ranchers - but reacting last, Abe moves, shoots and hits Billy in the leg [who then passes his toughness test]
The herd moves forward, south of the central rocks, chaperoned by the chuck wagon and accompanied by the curses of Zack and Jedd who picked the wrong side of the pass.. 😏
Move 2:
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| Start of Move 2 - with initiative cards - red dice are markers for ranchers, blue for the bad guys - the number corresponds to the names below - that central rough ground is a cowboy magnet! |
Pausing only to take stock and make sure there isn't a better target, Abe shoots at Billy again hitting him in the leg again [and Billy passes his toughness test again - tough hombre!]. Donnie meanwhile is so close to Abe that rather than shoot he takes the hand to hand option and launches himself at him but is battered in return and retires hurt [an arm wound, but he passes toughness test]
Over in the rocks - Jedd snaps off a couple of shots at Pancho hitting him in the arm [Pancho passes his toughness test] but Pancho in turn fires at his closes target, which is Pat in the rocks to his front - hitting him twice in the leg and arm, despite the hard cover - Pat immediately dives for cover [failed his toughness test and becomes "lily livered"/shaken]!
In the wagon Cal shoots twice at Billy - hitting him twice (in the chest both times) and killing him outright - before urging the wagon team forward. First blood to the cowboys
In the rocks Pat is still cowering [he fails the test to recover from being lilly livered/shaken] but leans out and takes a couple of return shots at Pancho - one of which is severe and knocks him unconscious! [I gave Pancho a bonus for being in cover, and Pat was penalised for being lily livered, but fair do's he hit, and then scored 10 on a D10 to knock him out with the severe wound!]
Blake runs into the rocks and throws himself at Donnie who's only just recovering from the last battering, but Donnie clearly recovered enough to give him a battering this time [each character draws three cards and the character with the highest wins - Donnie drew three Aces!! 😲]
In the rocks Fred snaps off two shots at Cal in the wagon but misses, Jim also snaps off a couple of shots at him with a similar lack of success..
Zack meanwhile leaves his cover and runs over to Pancho's prone figure [uh oh!]
At the end of the turn, each side tests on a D10 to see if they "skeddadle" - they have to score equal to or higher than the number of characters who are dead or "lily livered" - the bad guys pass the test, the cowboys don't test, as only one of them is down..
Move 3:
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| Start of Move 3 - yellow pins designate characters currently lily livered - red pin for unconscious |
Pancho recovers from unconsciousness, pulling himself groggily to his feet.. [I allow unconscious players to swap cards with anyone else on their side, Donnie had the 'magic card' - a two - so he swapped with Pancho]
Jim moves round the rock and takes a shot at the now partially revealed Donnie, but misses, but in doing so presents a prime target to Cal (in the wagon) who takes two quick shots at him, hitting him twice - Jim scuttles back into cover [wounded and also failed his "lily livered"/morale test]
Over in the rocks, Jedd doesn't have a clean shot, as his compadres are partially blocking his view of both Pancho and Donnie, but takes a chance and sends off a couple of shots at Donnie who is clearest.. he misses with both, he's almost out of ammo - just one bullet left..
Zack is next to Pancho, recovers his nerve, and attempts to grapple him but Pancho gets the draw on him and shoots [interesting passage of play.. Pancho hadn't yet activated this turn so had the option to fire what Ruthless call a "Snap Shot", but a WW2 player would probably call "overwatch" 😁 - given his recovery from unconsciousness I only allowed him one shot), hits him, but with little effect - Zack gets angry and grapples Pancho again, but this time Pancho wins the tussle, wounding Zack in the arm and pushing him back - Zack is shaken and heads for Jedd's cover, helped along by a couple of shots from Abe who hits him twice more [not Zack's finest hour.. but he survives it..😁]
In the rocks Donnie has been scanning for other threats, but finally shoots at Pat - hitting him twice and killing him outright [two chest shots will do that - even in Hollywood..]
With two of their men down, and three cowering cover, it's no surprise that the bad guys decide enough is enough and scoot [failed their 'skedaddle test' this time], leaving Pancho and the boys breathing heavy, and surprised at their escape - it was a bit close at at times!
Post match analysis:
- First the butchers bill - the cowboys got off remarkably lightly all things considered
- I need to revisit the "fisticuffs"/hand to hand rule - I play solo so the implicit mechanism in Ruthless of playing cards from your deck is not an option. The other mechanisms I have workable alternatives for, but for hand to hand in this game I was allowing each character to pull three cards and whoever got the highest won. It's always seemed a little off kilter that in 'Ruthless' the toughness value is really only used for morale checks so I'm thinking I may move to an opposed dice roll where the difference in toughness values is added to whoever is the "toughest's" roll, so for example when Zack (toughness 7) attacked Pancho (toughness 3), Pancho would get a +4..
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Laters, as the young people are want to say...
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