Time to resurrect a little project from way, way, WAY back.. 😏
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1st Edition of the Western Gunfight Wargame
Rules (February
1970).
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Around about 1974 or '75 for a short period of time I attended a
Wargame Club in Portsmouth which in those days used to meet at the YMCA in
Penny Street, Old Portsmouth (now long gone)
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..from Wargamers Newsletter - July 1975 😏
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..I seem to remember a lot of older teenagers, and older adults, and
found it all a bit overwhelming if I'm honest - only went a couple of times,
but on one of the two or three occasions I went, I happened to notice a copy
of this (next) lying on a table..
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Western Gunfight Wargame Rules, second edition (1971)
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Now at the time I was a subscriber to Wargamers Newsletter, and was hugely
taken by the game reports from the fictional Pima County in New Mexico
Territory (not to be confused with the county of the same name in Arizona!)
which was the location for a campaign, featuring the exploits of the
characters “Botch” Blake, “Kid” Colwill and “Long-Haired” Steve Curtis who
were the alter egos of the writers of the rules, so I recognised immediately
what they were.
As a penurious minor, barely in teens, I was as poor as a church mouse and
spent all available cash on boxes of Airfix, Wargamers Newsletter and
Military Modelling, so buying rules was a bit of a challenge (in fact it was
40 odd years before I got my own set of the rules as a result of an eBay
purchase 😏), and just not something I ever seemed to do - I was a
Featherstone acolyte, so tended to use his in the books (which I had on
permanent loan from the library) or write my own. Having asked if I could
borrow them until the next session though, I took them home and then wrote
them out by hand in a big, A4, blue backed, note book... and so
the "Annals of Cedar Gulch" started.. I added game reports,
interesting bits and pieces I found, pictures from magazines, basically it
was a scrap book - it was lost ages ago but I wish I still had
it..
I guess I played the period for a few years, some school mates were
interested enough to have a go and they contributed figures, time, and
cassettes of Wild West movie themes which were played while we played
(😁).. but I remember it to this day as a lot of fun - 54mm, cardboard
buildings and wagons, gunfights, bank heists, posses, rustling, and bar room
brawls... but in the end it died a death - other
things/periods/beers/girls intervened..
..all in all, then, time to revisit!
Contents:
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Cedar Gulch
Barely 10 years after Southern Arizona became a U.S. possession as a
result of the Gadsden Purchase, the mining town of "Cactus Creek" popped
up almost overnight on the desert landscape of southern Arizona in about
1864.
It came into being as a result of a small lode of copper being found
locally - the mine is still producing, and although the lode is mostly
played out it still provides income and work for a small
community of miners who live both at the mine and in the town.
Spanish and Mexicans were ranching in Southern Arizona for centuries
before it became part of the the US, due to its abundant grasslands
and rivers - incursions by the Apache, however make it a dangerous
occupation - that aside a few ranches also came into being in the area
raising longhorns and providing work for a number of ranch hands and
cowboys. The Southern Pacific Railroad wasn't to reach Tucson until 1881,
several years after the time our stories are set (early to mid
1870's), but with the markets of the East Coast not yet an option, the
town still sees occasional cattle drives heading west to the boom
towns of California.
Following the war, Fort Williams was built about 5 miles or so from
the town to provide protection from Indian raids for the ranches and
mines. Since the fort was built, Apache raids have lessened but not
completely died out.
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Rules and Games
I played a few games using the 1st edition rules, as they are
simpler and had everything I wanted:
..they're free gratis, but more importantly they drive a fantastic
narrative, are simple, and intuitive, and easy to modify and I was
bitten well and truly - I've had a few games now and found them so
enjoyable it's triggered this project..
Solo amendments and experiments for "Ruthless":
1/. Rather than deal a hand of 5 cards per side (or in this case
per character, as I am using the rule writers suggestion to allow
individual activation, rather than everyone on the same side
activating on one card):
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at start of turn just turn over one card from the top of the
deck and place it by each character, then action in sequence
as normal
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as the characters don't have a deck of five to play cards from
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to allow the "jump the gun" action to work I just used an
opposed D10 roll - if the guy being shot at rolls higher, he
gets to fire first if his weapon is loaded (NB. Snapshot/Gunfighter skill trait adds to the die roll)
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to allow the "recovery from unconscious" action to
work
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I allow any character on the same side to exchange
cards
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I also give the unconscious character one roll per turn to
recover (D10); 1 or 2 and they recover.
-
to allow the "Lily livered" test to work, I just get the
character to roll a D10 and score over their toughness
value without bothering to add a card value. In theory this is much harder than the test in the
rules (in fact I can't see how you would fail the test in
the rules as written!)
2/. Rather than a D10 to decide firing hits, I
use 2D6 as I think it gives a more reliable/stable result - in
the rules you're hitting on a 6+ or 8+ depending on weapon
range, but there are modifiers to this for aiming/cover/morale
etc. so the mean of the 2D6 is on, or about, the same value as
to hit - I'll go with the modification for a few more games to decide whether
the outcomes are too bloody or not. If it's too bloody then an
increase of 1 to each of the "to hit" values will resolve the
problem
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Le Mat pistol.. 9 shot cylinder firing normal bullets,
but the thing underneath is a shotgun barrel firing buckshot!
The Confederacy took delivery of 1500 of them during the
war.. more here.. LeMat Revolver [clicky]
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Figures
The first few games I played, I used some dismounted cavalry that I had
spare from the American Civil War project - I even used them unpainted
before I finally stirred my bones and put some paint on them..
The Union boys.. quite pleased with the corporals stripes on Corp
at the back (#1), then Seth (#2) and Zack (#3)
...and the Confederates.. Zeke right (#1), Robbie centre (#2) and
Buck (#3)
That yellow trim and cuffs on grey makes for a handsome uniform...
...and a few horses required for one of the scenario's..
The ACW boys were Newline Designs 20mm's - but I wasn't sure I didn't
want to go a little smaller in scale as Peter Pig did a fine range in
support of their house rules, so a quick purchase later and I had the
following..
Wagon..
...and ten cowboys painted in a couple of sessions..
The Mexican is my favourite..
..but then I noticed that Newline also had a pack of gunslingers!
Paint has been splashed and the little lead Magnificent Eight are ready
to throw errr... lead.. 😏
This (next) guy's a dandy, a card sharp, a gambler..... gold
embroidery and twin six guns.. looks a bit like Wild Bill, or
perhaps Custer..
...and this guys I think is one of my favourites of the poses.. a
concerned citizen looking to protect his property?
Clearly modelled on Clint..
So I had to do some patterns on the poncho from memory..
Close enough.. 😂
This guy looks like an amateur despite the twin holsters.. I
have in mind another concerned townsman, called up in a posse to
counter some kind of incursion..
This guy puts me in mind of a miner so I gave him some of those original
Levi's.. 😏
...and this one looks like a youngster..
Saloon or hotel owner in his lavender shirt.. this is also a
favourite..
Next, a cowboy come into town in his best duds to celebrate the end of a
cattle drive, perhaps?
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