The Annals of "Cedar Gulch", in Tremayne County, Southern Arizona (1870-1875)

Time to resurrect a little project from way, way, WAY back.. 😏

1st Edition of the Western Gunfight Wargame
Rules (February 1970).

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)

..from Wargamers Newsletter - July 1975 😏

..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.. 

Western Gunfight Wargame Rules, second edition (1971)
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 also 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

Source [clicky]
Barely 10 years after Southern Arizona became a U.S. possession as a result of the Gadsden Purchase, the mining town of "Cedar Gulch" popped up almost overnight in the desert landscape of southern Arizona. 

It came into being in about 1864 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 - despite that 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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 Key Characters and Locations

..a work in progress... 😏
  • Long Bute Farm; lies just outside town,  abandoned during the war (the Father and older sons had gone to fight for the Union, leaving the mother and smaller children to go and live with her sister, who lived in a far safer location) and the family never came back, having reunited and then journeyed west to California after the war
  • Corp, Seth and Zack; Corp was an NCO and is considered the leader of the group - ex-Union cavalry from the war
  • Zeke (who was also an NCO), Robbie and Buck; ex Confederate cavalry and good friends of Tex from their days in the 7th Virginia Cavalry
  • Tex's Livery Stables; horse hire, basic veterinary work, livery - located just out of town (nothing to do with Dexter's)
  • "Old" Tex; ex-Texas Ranger and Confederate cavalry good friends with Zeke, Robbie and Buck
  • Dexter's Corral and Livery Stable; situated at the far end of main street
  • Wes and Jimmy Clanton; junior members of the Clanton Gang (see Feeling Livery'ish game)
  • Black and Cole Biggs; junior members of the Biggs Gang (see Feeling Livery'ish game)
  • The Jones Gang; Dave (an ex Jayhawker who has the singular success of having died in each of the two games he's played in - perhaps I need to rename him "Lucky" Dave?), Eddie (RIP) and Frank (see Jailbreak and Rebel Gold games)
  • Andy, Bart and Charlie (RIP); gang members who try to rescue Bart from hanging.. and fail (see Jailbreak Game)
  • Sherriff; not given him a name and a back story yet.. 🤔
  • Hank and Gus (RIP); two concerned citizens (see Jailbreak Game)
  • Wes Alsop; owner of the Sierra Corral a stage coach stop situated just outside the town  (see Shootout at the Sierra Corral game)
  • The "Lazy C" ranch
  • Chaz Bishop; senior hand on the "Lazy C" ranch  (see Shootout at the Sierra Corral game)
  • 'Deadeye' Cooper and Fred Early; local bad men (see Shootout at the Sierra Corral game)
  • Gus Farley; a saddle tramp (see Shootout at the Sierra Corral game)
  • Zebadiah/Zeb; the old timer; Zeb runs a still, the proceeds of what he sells to the local Saloon make him enough to live on, but also ensure he is almost always mildly and happily drunk. (see Rebel Gold game)
  • Pancho, Abe, Donnie and Cal; cowboys (see Pancho sees stars game)
  • Jedd, Jim, Blake, Fred, Zack, Billy (RIP), and Pat (RIP); "a few bad guys leavened with a whole number of bar flies and town 'low life's' looking to make a quick buck" (see Pancho sees stars game)
  • Cactus Wells; flyblown frontier staging post located twenty miles south of Cedar Gulch and location of a livery/office/cantina/come general store (see The Noon Wagon Job game)
  • Jim Mullin (known by everyone as 'Shotgun'); wagon driver/guard (see The Noon Wagon Job game)
  • Marshall Adam McCall; (see The Noon Wagon Job game)
  • Deputy Luke Travers; (see The Noon Wagon Job game)
  • The Hardin Gang; Clay "The Boss" Hardin, Jeb "Hotshot" Carden and "Long Tom" Weaver (RIP) (see The Noon Wagon Job game)
  • "Nugget" Turner (Joe to his mom 😁); miner and prospector, owner of a small claim in the hills behind Cedar Gulch (see Copper on the Scales game)
  • Ma Kelly; owner and proprietor of the local house of ill repute upstairs at the saloon
  • Jesse Cassidy (RIP); the town deputy (see Copper on the Scales game)
  • Wyatt Parker and Waylon Garret (RIP); Assay Office Guards (see Copper on the Scales game)
  • Colt Edwards, Emmett Williams, Joe Barton and Bart Johannsen; Edwards Gang - Colt ended up being captured by Nugget (see Copper on the Scales game)
  • …

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Rules and Games

I played a few games using the 1st edition Western Gunfight Wargame Rules, as they are simpler and had everything I wanted:
...but then Blogger The Disgruntled Fusilier [clicky] mentioned a set called "Ruthless" 
..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 really driven this project to the point we're at.. 
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):
  • 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
  • as the characters don't have a deck of five to play cards from:
    • to allow the "get the draw" 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)
    • to allow the "recovery from unconscious" action to work 
      • I allow any character on the same side to exchange cards 
      • I also give the unconscious character one roll per turn to recover (D10); 1 or 2 and they recover.
    • to allow the "Get your Courage Up" 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!)
    • to allow "Fisticuffs" to work - I have a couple of options..
      1. each character pulls 3 cards from the deck and selects highest - then highest wins. Tomahawk and 'Yella Belly' character traits mean either pulling 2 more or 1 less cards respectively
      2. roll a D10 each with the difference in toughness values of the two characters going to whoever is tougher of the two. Tomahawk and 'Yella Belly' character traits are applied as per the rules..
    • to allow the “DIRTY CHEAT” character trait to work, I allow the character to add +1 to the "get the draw action" or "fisticuffs", or in any situation where it might apply
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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