What a Cowboy – A Tale of Two Games

 Game 1: Scenario 5: “Scorched Earth”

Their names would have gone down in the halls of Wild West immorality, if someone had not rubbed out the Character Dashboards! Anyway, Rob & Simon’s characters were defending their homestead, with a team of one Gunslinger, two Shootists and one Greenhorn. Chris, Tony & Phil controlled a team of one Gunslinger, two Shootists & 3 Greenhorns, intent on burning down the barn of these darned homesteaders.

Tony’s Shootist & Greenhorn, plus Phil’s Gunslinger went right, but quickly ran into Simon’s Shootist & Greenhorn, holding out behind the privy. Initially, all both sides seemed to be able to do, was chip bits out of the woodwork, despite both having brought along a rifle! However, Tony’s Greenhorn did manage to work along the fence, to flank one of Simon’s men, sheltering behind the privy. Shock & wounds started to accumulate here and it wasn’t long before both of Simon’s characters were taken out of the fight.  

This then freed up Tony’s Shootist & Phil’s Gunslinger to pick-on Rob’s Greenhorn, who was trying to protect that side of the barn. Rob’s Greenhorn had been trying to stop Chris’s characters from coming up the trail, to the barn, but was now forced to duck back around behind the barn.

This left Rob’s Gunslinger as sole operational defender of the barn, facing off against 3 Greenhorns. These Greenhorns formed their own little firing line, forcing Rob’s Gunslinger to take shelter behind the right side of the barn. But Phil’s Gunslinger made a dash across the trail, to the barn and started trying to set light to it.

This forced Rob’s Gunslinger to come out and deal with this threat to the barn, despite the bullets now pinging around him, but to no avail, the barn was soon blazing, so Rob’s Gunslinger ducked back into the ruin next door to the smoking barn.

Things looked bleak for Rob’s men! With the Greenhorns now closing in on his own position, Rob’s Gunslinger heard his Greenhorn go down to a flanking shot from Tony’s Greenhorn. ‘Ride or Die’ test!! Rob then rolled his traditional three 6s, but decided that discretion was the better part of valour and quietly slunk off into the shrubbery! This did not stop Tony’s Shootist from attempting & failing, a stunt of jumping from a window, onto some stampeding cattle (that he caused by leaving the gate open!), collecting a crushed rib cage in the process!? A victory celebration gone awry!

A good first game. We got a few little rules wrong, but overall, everyone grasped the concepts quickly and the game provides a nice balance of jeopardy, while still keeping players involved in the game, with plenty decisions to make.

Game 2: Scenario 6: “Vendetta”

Evil Chris’s and Deadpan Dave’s gang’s clash, over some petty feuds. Apparently Deadpan Dave had shot Chris’ dog and Evil Chris’s sidekick, “The Kid” had been having extramarital sex with a female relative of Deadpan Dave’s gang?! All very confusing, but someone was going to pay, in blood!!

Evil Chris wasted no time in dashing off to confront Deadpan Dave, leaving his support, Deadly Phil and Big John trailing behind. Soon a gunfight between Evil Chris & Deadpan Dave was raging around the barn.

Over on the left, “The Kid” was trying to hold off Terrible Tony & his sidekick. The Kid had hoped that his rifle would hold off these two varmints, but Terrible Tony’s feet seemed to carry him at impossibly fast speeds, right up to point blank range of the Kid! However, The Kid proved crazily capable of dodging bullets, rolling back & forth among the scrub! Terrible Tony then drew his knife and tried to ‘cut’ The Kid. Fortunately for The Kid, Terrible Tony proved to be pretty terrible with a knife!

Back on the right, Deadpan Dave looked to be in real trouble. He was facing off the Legend, Evil Chris to his front, while Deadly Phil had snuck around his rear! But then Deadpan Dave’s sidekick popped up out of the scrub and shot down The Legend ‘Evil Chris’, stone dead!!

This left Deadly Phil to try to take shelter in some nearby rocks, but to little avail. Phil had hoped that Big John would come to his assistance, but Big John appeared to be distracted by what was happening to The Kid over on the far side of the table.

By this time, despite some more frantic dodging, The Kid was thoroughly pinned down, sheltering behind a large rock, with Terrible Tony & his sidekick coming around either side of the rock! His dodging luck had finally run out! A .45 slug putting an end this phase of the feud!

{Note: Some of the names involved in this event have been changed, as they are now involved in a witness protection scheme. Nothing to do with the failing memory of the reporter!}