Pinkertons Foil Bank Robbers

I decided to do a game of Dead Man's Hand last night as I had not played in a while, I got three more volunteers and came up with a bank robbery scenario. The Pinkerton Detective Agency had got wind that two outlaw gangs had joined forces to rob a large gold shipment in Carefree's bank, so they duly informed the local law who got up a posse and along with the Pinkertons lay in ambush awaiting the bad guys. Carefree is my fictitious town in Arizona, where the only thing that flies is bullets. Sadly on the night we were down to two players and had to amend the scenario on the hoof, the basic storyline remained but we dropped two gangs and increased slightly the number of figures available, we continued with the Banditos and the Pinkertons.

The detectives split their forces between the jail opposite the bank and a local hardware store with two men keeping lookout on the boardwalk trying to look like normal citizens going about their business. El Arana (the Spider) sent two men to the bank along with two lookouts who waited nearby, he and the rest of his men watched from the Red Dog Saloon and the Majestic Hotel up the street.

The robbers about to enter the bank.

 On entering the bank the two robbers were shot at by a nervous bank clerk whose bullet hit the ceiling while he then hit the floor, the bank manager was told to open the safe and when he bravely refused the outlaws set about persuading him, but the courageous man held out for some time (three turns). As the shot rang out all hell broke loose, the lawmen started shooting from their windows as did the bandits, the first to fall was one of the Pinkerton lookouts, both sides seemed happy to blaze away across Main Street. One of the Mexicans made a move towards the jail which proved fatal for him as several detectives moved out and confronted him on the street.

Bullets fly across Main Street.

El Arana meanwhile took one of his gang members and made for the Livery Stable, hoping to outflank the store where the other detectives were shooting from. More bandito's hit the dust in a flurry of lead. The Pinkertons in the jail moved on the bank just at the moment the robbers inside had eventually emptied the safe, and were trying to move the gold with great difficulty out the back door. Again another of the bandits broke cover in an effort to stop the law at close range but soon regretted it as a fusilade of close range fire brought him down, a moment later the last bank robber hit the deck, the gold was safe.

Ooops.

With more than half his men gone and the Pinkertons holding the bank and knowing he was their priority dead or alive, El Arana, bleeding from several wounds decided to call it a day "Vamonos Muchacho's"

Psst!

How was the wargame, well something which did stand out was my very accurate shooting, for every man I lost Simon lost two, his own shooting therefore was dire, he started off well dropping the lookout but it went south from there, and I had one turn especially where I could not miss. I did not make it clear enough when we adjusted the scenario that his men should have been in the saloons next to the bank, so some of Simon's extra men were one building away from the bank and it had an effect on his ability to help the robbers although its windows commanded the street. I also counted my points wrong and had two men more than I should, in hindsight I don't think it mattered much as I lost two men at the start but I should not have had them anyway.

Despite the mix ups it was still a good game and we had fun, I'd like to try it again but take the bad guys this time.