There's Going To Be a Hanging

My first visit back to the club after my sojourn in Italy and I had a request to bring along my cowboys. I don't know why but when I have to organise something for the club I always seem to have a struggle finding the time, yesterday was no exception, I had to do some jobs around the house, some map amendments then sit in the shop while the missus was out and then prepare my famous Salmon and Tuna fishcakes along with finding a scenario. There are a few scenarios in the Dead Man's Hand rule book but they are designed for two players and there may be more on a club night, I also think that although the three 'scene' set up works for 1v1 it limits multi-player games. To that end I have written some scenarios but this time I jumped online and found SAD Wargamers and borrowed one of theirs.

The set up involved the hanging of a notorious criminal and his gangs efforts to save him, this was made more exciting in that the trapdoor was pulled at the beginning of the scenario and the baddie took so many turns to die, his boys had to cut him down before it was too late. Lucky for Dangerous Dan he threw high and would take nine turns to croak, talk about a stiff neck. I was the Law and chose a Sheriff, Marshall and five Deputies, Simon, the bad guys, went for quantity over quality, he had one boss with about six henchmen and had recruited a rather dodgy but supposedly inexperienced bunch of Mexicans, around six or so, the lawmen were outnumbered nearly two to one. There was also a bunch of onlookers whose movement would be controlled by a scatter die and who would start running as soon as the bullets started flying, the lawmen could not shoot if a civilian was in the way.

The crowd gathers.

The baddies duly arrived at the end of the street just as the trapdoor was sprung and promptly split into two groups, one going straight up Main Street and the Mexicans sneaking through the alleys as befits their characters. Outnumbered as I was I left a couple of guys to hold off the Gringos coming up the street while the rest made for the alleys to quickly see off the Mexicans, quality would win through thought I. It started well as I caught them in the Undertakers yard trying to enter the building, one went down to a shotgun blast but my useless deputies missed two other sitting ducks, I also had civilians in my way so was limited with shooting positions. Thankfully the return fire was just as bad and my boys survived, I was sure I would get the drop on them next turn and put them down.

The Mexicans live to fight another day.

For a second time my posse shot holes in walls and old coffins while the enraged Mexicans managed to down two of my guys, one of them my Sheriff, was it Stalin who said quantity has its own quality? On the other side another deputy bit the dust as he and his companion tried to withdraw from the firefight. Although I did manage to kill two more Mexicans I was down to three guys, my Marshall made a gallant effort to stop Dan being cut down but he had to break cover and paid the price as he bit the dust in a hail of bullets. Choking and half dead Dan's crew nonetheless had saved their man.

So, my thanks to SAD Wargamers for a terrific scenario idea and Simon for a great game, an excellent way to pass a few hours. We had two other games going at the club, one a Pike & Shotte ECW game with oodles of lovely figures and the other a different zombie game called Last Night on Earth. If anyone is interested the club meets every Tuesday night at Lancaster Grammar School from 1900 - 22.30 ish, a very welcoming bunch who although small in numbers play a vast array of games and periods.

I almost forgot, I came upon this by pure accident and even if you are not a Napoleonic wargamer this is well worth a look, it is the Battle of Waterloo put on by the Falkirk Wargames Club and two of my old Scots wargaming buddies take part, I thought it was fantastic.