"Firing into the Brown" #94 - Christmas Dickens, “The Noon Stagecoach Wagon Job” setup, and stuff

"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"

Time for another update..

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

That time of the year again, and my regular reader will know that as Christmas approaches it is my want to read a Charles Dickens, so it's Dickens time again! 

Here's the 'Christmas Dickens' timeline to date...

• 2013 - "David Copperfield" (9/10)
• 2014 - "Nicholas Nickleby" (exceptional)
• 2015 - "Oliver Twist" (8/10)
• 2016 - "The Old Curiosity Shop" (7/10)
• 2017 - "A Tale of Two Cities" (7/10) and "A Christmas Carol" (9/10)
• 2018 - "Great Expectations" (10/10)
• 2019 - "Bleak House" (8/10)
• 2020 - "Little Dorrit" (retired hurt - no score 😏)
• 2021 - "Our Mutual Friend" (8/10)
• 2022 - "Pickwick Papers" - brilliant... (9/10)
• 2023 - "Dombey and Son" - hugely enjoyable.. (9/10)
• 2024 - "Barnaby Rudge" - very good.. (8.5/10)

My top four Dickens novels so far would be "David Copperfield", "Nicholas Nickleby", "Great Expectations" and 2022's absolute joy, "Pickwick Papers" - "worst" (it's Dickens for goodness sake, how can there be a worse?), so 'least enjoyed', was without a doubt "Little Dorrit" which was mawkish beyond extreme, but of which my opinion seems to be at odds with most other people - I may have to have another go at some point, as Dickens 'only' wrote 16 major novels (there were a few books of short stories etc), and I've now read 11 (and a bit) of them...

This years Dickens, however, will be "Martin Chuzzlewit"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

“The Noon Wagon Job”

The peaceful (😏) town of Cedar Gulch is just one stop on a stage coach route that wends it's way almost 200 hundred miles from Nogales on the Mexican border at Sonora in the south, to Phoenix in the north. 

Usually a stagecoach journey of three to four days depending on conditions en route, it's also used by other goods traffic of course, both private and 'government', wheeled or otherwise - if you've got the money or the authorisation, it's possible for non-stagecoach traffic to also enjoy the benefits of horse changes at the regular staging stops along the way.

So it was that one hot and dusty Tuesday saw a wagon with four tired looking horses halted outside the livery, office, cantina, come general store in the flyblown frontier staging post of Cactus Wells (plenty of the former, the latter, singular, now largely dried up 😁) located just twenty miles south of Cedar Gulch.

Closer observation reveals that the wagon is carrying a strong box in the wagon bed, with "government" seals on it, and that it's guarded by a US Marshall and his deputy.

The wagon has stopped in order to allow the men to eat, change horses, but more importantly make some running repairs..  the driver, Jim Mullin (known by everyone as 'Shotgun'), had spotted some pulled threads in the reins and had taken them off to repair while getting his food. Having eaten and completed the repair, the three are just leaving the cantina to return to the wagon to change the horses, reattach the reins and then resume their journey, when they are rudely interrupted...

Dramatis Personae:

Objective(s): 

• The outlaws need to steal the strongbox from the wagon and escape with it off the table (doesn't matter how many of them get off the table providing the strongbox does).
• The good guys need to stop them from doing that for 8 turns, or stop all the outlaws (dead or alive). We can assume that reinforcements will arrive on turn 9 and the outlaws will automatically disengage
• If both sides fail their goals, the fight ends in a draw

Scenario specific rules:

• The wagon cannot be steered as the reins have been removed for the repair.. the horses could be lead if required.

• The strongbox:
• It takes two actions to pick up the strongbox from the wagon
• Anyone carrying the strongbox must move towards the table edge and do nothing else
• If anyone carrying the strongbox is knocked unconscious or killed the strongbox drops where they fall.
• Anyone carrying the strongbox moves at half speed and cannot run.

• The Wagon Horse Spook - whenever someone fires within 3" of the horses, roll a die:
• 1 :  Horses panic: the coach jerks forward 2", possibly spilling the strongbox or knocking a figure down.
• 2–6 : No effect.

• The Outlaws start the game 8–12" from the wagon, the good guys start between the wagon and the cantina.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

 Laters, as the young people are want to say...