Shelia's Lair

“It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to.”  - - J. R. R. Tolkien

Shelia is a grass spider that has set up shop under our bird bath.

At least I think she's a grass spider. Never got a good look at her. How do I know she is a "she"? Males don't get that large generally.

Thought it would be a shame to let such a good "set" go to waste.

Mind you I would have moved the figures closer to get a more dramatic effect but I didn't want to spoil the old girl's web.

Hope you enjoyed the photos and thanks for dropping by!

Gunfight!

Today's post takes a third view of the Outlaws on a Balcony theme.  This time we look at the incident in the context of an Encounter generated by the Six Gun Sound: Blaze of Glory rule book.

This encounter is called Gunfight 2 (GF2) and represents an unexpected fight between two groups of figures. Either the posse and outlaws have been having a "conversation" and have reached an impasse, or neither side was prepared for the appearance of the other.

Nerves are taut as each man goes for his gun!

As this is a full encounter the first thing I needed to do was to see was where the fight would take place. Rather than rolling for it I decided to have it take place on our friendly local balcony.

Next up was to determine who and how many were on each side. This was also easy. Our two outlaw friends would square off against our posse. As for how many...well the rules would max out the posse at four characters in this case and so I gave Mudslide Sam the day off.

Next was to determine how many saddled horses were about. El Indio wisely had his mount saddled and right out front. The posse had their mounts saddled and in the livery. Poor Nino had his mount unsaddled and in the livery.

There were an additional five saddled horses at the  buildings adjacent to the fight.

In this sort of show down the first thing to do is to check everyone's nerve by rolling 2d6 versus their Sand.

As it happened every man jack of them Flinched, which essentially canceled this handicap out and all started on nearly equal footing. Nearly equal because when it came time for the draw, El Indio, Unca Bob, and Ling Ho were penalized for carrying long arms.  Nino and El Indio were also penalized for being outnumbered.

The Draw broke down to El Indio versus Unca Bob and The Captain, while Nino faced down Ling Ho and the Swede. Dice equal to Rep plus or minus modifiers were rolled and successes tallied as below. Note that here the dice simply show the number of successes and not the actual dice rolls for the test.

The Captain with four successes scored the highest and as he had scored 3 more successes than El Indio, the Captain got the drop on the outlaw chief. El Indio took a Got the Drop test and in a surprisingly cool headed fashion lowered his weapon and surrendered peaceably.

This left Unca Bob devoid of an opponent and he relaxed accordingly. 

Nino on the other hand scored two more successes than both of his opponents ans shot them both dead! The big man emptied his revolver in the process.

So ended turn 1.

Activation for turn two was a tie so Nino managed to reload before the action continued.

The lawmen got the edge on turn three and both the Captain and Unca Bob fired at Nino.

Nino suffered a total of three hits to his gun arm and dropped out of the fight.

The shooting was over and it was time to move on to the aftermath.

Both outlaws had to undergo the Captured test with a negative modifier for having killed Ling Ho and the Swede.

El Indio was shot while trying to escape.

Nino was taken into custody for trial.

Before Nino be could tried he needed his wounds seen to. Unfortunately for him the town doc had a skill rating of 3.

Nino's gun arm was amputated.

Nino's trial was a short one and the one armed bandit was sentenced to 3 seasons (9 months) in jail. Guess he had a good lawyer or his boysish charm won him some sympathy.

And there you have it, a full encounter from Six Gun Sound.

Hope you enjoyed it and thanks for stopping by.

SGS: Outlaws on the Balcony 2

Same situation, different approach from the baddies...

This is the same scenario and participants set forth here. This time, however, El Indio decided that both he and Nino should act as a single group and both badmen rush out onto the balcony to confront the posse more or less simultaneously.

 Whereas last time the outlaw leader tried to use his sidekick to soak up enemy fire, leaving El Indio with a better chance of facing enemies with empty guns, this time the idea is to split enemy fire and hope that one or both outlaws can get off telling shots before their opponents.

The game starts with the outlaws appearing on the balcony. This results in the posse members taking "Got a Shot" tests.

Mudslide Sam, The Captain, and Ling Ho all pass their tests with both dice and will be able to fire before the outlaws.

The Swede only passes one dice and, if any of the outlaws are unharmed by his three companions fire, the outlaws will have a possibility of firing before he does.

Old Unca Bob passes no dice and so does not get to fire at all.

Mudslide Sam fires and misses both outlaws. Actually that is not quite true as El Indio would have been hit but for the cover provided by the balcony.  In his haste, Mudslide has fired off his ready ammunition and will have to fumble for cartridges and reload when next able.

The Captain fires at both outlaws and grazes El Indio's head. The wily outlaw recovers from the blow but will be unable to fire before the Swede. The Captain has done a better job of ammunition conservation and will be able to fire when next called on.

Finally Ling Ho fires a shot at Nino and misses!

Nino now gets to roll to see if he can fire before the Swede. He can and does, firing at both the Swede and the Captain. The Swede takes a hit to the chest and falls dead! Nino misses the Captain though and the Captain has to take a Been Shot At test.

The Captain passes and returns Nino's fire, hitting the big outlaw in the gun arm.

Nino's wound is such that he is done firing for this turn. El Indio on the other hand recovers and is able to fire. He fires at Ling Ho and the Captain missing them both.

Both men pass their Been Shot At tests with both dice and return fire. Ling Ho misses but The Captain hits El Indio in the chest.

El Indio dices to recover and while he does not drop out of the fight, he is now saddled with a -2 to his Rep when firing.

This ends the first turn. The Swede is dead. Mudslide has to reload. Nino has taken a hit to his gun arm that gives him a -1 penalty to Rep when firing. El Indio has taken a hit to the chest that gives him a -2 penalty to Rep when firing.

The outlaws are in bad shape but a lot depends on who gets to fire next.

The activation dice are rolled and...

...exceed both sides' Rep. There is a pause in the action and the activation dice are rolled again.

This time its a tie. Neither side can act with the exception that both sides can reload. As only Mudslide needed to reload this benefits the posse.

Activation dice are rolled again.

This time both sides pass but the posse gets to act first. As all figures are in sight of one another, there is no need for any Got a Shot tests and the posse opens fire on the outlaws.

In the hail of fire that follows Mudslide would have hit El Indio but the shot was blocked by the balcony.

Unca Bob hits El Indio in the head and the outlaw drops out of the fight.

The Captain hits Nino in his gun arm. This second hit renders the arm useless and Nino is unable to return fire this turn.

Rather than have Nino try to continue the fight in his condition I decided to end the game.

So how did charging out together compare to the one at a time approach?

I suppose the outlaws did better having killed on of their pursuers, but anytime you go up against 2 to 1 odds or worse in SGS without benefit of higher Rep and Sand scores you are facing long odds.

Hope you enjoyed the report and thanks for stopping by!

SGS: Outlaws on the Balcony 1

I can't find a saloon with balcony so the Mercantile is standing in.

The situation that sparked this series of posts was a seemingly simple one, and yet one that provides a great range of play options to explore. Paraphrased it is something like this:

"Five members of a posse are approaching two outlaws in a saloon. The outlaws know the posse is  out on the street and move out onto the balcony to confront them.

In what order do events unfold?"

Now this post is not about "should the outlaws move out onto the balcony", rather it is about what happens when they do. Now five against two is long odds. If it were me, I'd either duck out the back and make a run for the horses, or move in such a way that I can at least start firing out of window rather than from the limited cover provided by the railings. So let's begin!

The Captain and his men approach the outlaws

In Six Gun Sound: Blaze of Glory, characters have three main stats plus a profession that determines which Reaction table they use. Characters are rated for "Rep", which is essentially their combat skills, "Toughness", used to withstand damage, and "Sand", representing their coolness under fire and determination to win. Most characters will also have a stat for equestrian prowess, but we can leave that out for now as no horses appear in this example.

To keep things simple for the example, all character stat's are rated 4, and all use the Outlaw/Ranger reaction tables.

With the posse deployed we can presume that the outlaws have the opportunity to act or else they couldn't move out onto the balcony.

Now here is the outlaw side's first decision. Should they move out onto the balcony one at a time or both at the same time? It says in the rule book that players have to decide how they want to group their figures together at the start of play. These days we allow figures to be grouped together and separated on an ad hoc basis, with the decision being made at the start of each activation. Game works just as well either way but I digress.

In this first encounter, El Indio has decided to chuck Nino out the door first in the hopes that the posse men will exhaust their ready ammunition on the big guy, and not be able to shoot El Indio when  he comes out later.

Nino comes out to start the ball

After Nino steps out on the balcony, the posse men each roll 2d6 against their Sand in a "Got a Shot!" test. This test will determine if they are ready and able to shoot, or if Nino is faster. As all of the posse see Nino, he will have to wait the result of all their tests before he gets to fire.

Got a Shot test scores

 Unca Bob, Ling Ho, and the Swede each pass both of their dice and so will fire immediately. Mudslide Sam and the Captain passed only one dice each. If Nino is still standing after the others a done shooting, Nino will test to see if he can fire before Sam and the Captain.

Opening shots

Unca Bob empties both barrels of his shot gun at Nino. One shot misses and the other does no damage, mostly hitting the railing. Unca Bob will have to reload before he can fire again.

Ling Ho fires a shot from his Trapdoor Springfield carbine and misses. Fortunately he has kept some additional rounds ready and will be able to shoot again when the chance arises.

The Swede blazes away with his six gun, hitting only the railing and emptying the gun in the process.

Nino now rolls two dice against his Sand to see if he can fire on the Captain and Sam before they fire at him. Nino gets to shoot first. Sam and the Captain are too far apart for Nino to fire on both of them so he fires at the Captain and Ling Ho. Firing wildly, Nino empties his revolver like the Sweded before him.

The Captain is hit in the leg but remains standing and game.

A veritable hail of lead...

Now the Captain and Sam get to fire at Nino. The big outlaw goes down with a slug from the Captain's pistol in is gun arm and drops out of the fight.

Sam has emptied his shotgun, but the Captain has shown some fire discipline and is ready to fire when next able.

Nino is down but El Indio's plan seems to be working. Only the Captain and Ling Ho are holding loaded weapons when El Indio makes his move!

When El Indio appears the Captain and Ling Ho take another Got a Shot test.

The Captain passes both of his dice and fires!

The Captain fires!

His bullet creases El Indio's skull. Having been hit he is in no position to fire and Ling Ho gets to fire next, missing his target.

El Indio is wounded

 Now El Indio has to try to recover from his wound. While he avoids unconsciousness, his nerve is shot and flees!

El Indio shows his colors

And with that the game is over. Technically I should see if the posse can catch El Indio before he flees the scene but frankly as he is upstairs and is not going to offer any resistance it's just as easy to call him captured.

End Game

So ends case 1, moving into view singly. Next up we will see what happens if the two badmen step out together.

Hope you enjoyed the post and thanks for stopping by!

Six Gun Sound: Blaze of Glory

Well school is back in session and the gaming season has come round again. I have recently been asked some questions about how Six Gun Sound: Blaze of Glory plays, and always willing to take any excuse to talk about games, especially my games : ), here goes.

The next few posts with cover some situations and encounters that come up in "Six Gun Sound: Blaze of Glory" (hereafter just SGS) available published by Two Hour Wargames.

This first post will just introduce the characters that will be used in the coming examples.

The Good

 These five gentlemen are a posse led by a Texas Ranger on the trail of a couple of desperate badmen.

 Captain Cole Calhoun

Captain Calhoun is an Old Glory figure in a nice, dynamic, pose. One of my favorite lawman figures. He doesn't have much back story, not that it matters to game play, but he is often at the forefront of my Lawman and Ranger detachments

Unca' Bob

Bob is an old timer who lost his leg at Glorietta and lost his family in a Comanche raid. Since then he has been a fixture of Texas frontier protection forces. When the Rangers were officially reconstituted after the War, Unca' Bob was one of the first to volunteer. Due to his age and infirmity he is only an "honorary" member.

Unca' Bob is a figure from Over the Wire Game's "Wanted: Dead or Alive" or "For a Few Cents More" packs.

"Mudslide" Sam

Sam is a pal of Unca' Bob's. They used to Ranger together but these days spend most of their time playing checkers in front of the Mercantile and arguing over everything from politics to weather.

Sam is also an Old Glory figure.

Ling Ho

Ling was travelling from Mexico up Texas way when he and his family were bushwhacked by owl hoots. Captain Calhoun and his troop were able to rescue Ling but were too late to save his family.

Since then Ling has been a faithful follower of the Captain and although not an official Ranger, Ling always has Calhoun's back.

This is yet another Old Glory figure, this time from the Boxer Rebellion range. It's been a while but IIRC he is meant to be a standard bearer and I armed him with a Trapdoor Springfield from Foundry's Seventh Cavalry range.

The Swede

The Swede is from a ways back East, further East even than New York City. A baker by trade the Swede has set off in search of the American Dream dressed in the best cowboy clothes Sears could provide.

He may be a greenhorn but he's brave and civic minded to boot.

The Swede is also an Old Glory figure from this pack.

The Bad

Captain Calhoun is on the trail of these two desperadoes after their failed attempt to rob the Bank of El Paso.

Now SGS is a historical western game, as opposed to a "movie" western game, and movie heroics will more often than not leave you with a dead or seriously injured character.

However I just could not resist these two figures, depicting my two favorite spaghetti western villains.

El Indio

When I first laid eyes on this figure, Gian Maria Volonte immediately sprang to mind. Mr. Volonte was the main villain faced by Clint Eastwood in both "Fistufl of Dollars" and "For a Few Dollars  More", although he played a different character in each film.  I preferred him in the latter film in which he portrayed the rather insane "El Indio" (the Indian), leader of a very vicious band of thugs.

This is another Over the Wire Games figure IIRC.

Nino

Sadly I cannot figure out how to enter special characters. This character's name is the same as "child" in Spanish.

Mario Brega is my favorite Italian character actor. He cut an imposing figure in many a western back in the day and I looked long and hard to find a figure worthy of him.

This piece was available from  Ral Partha  a while back. He is just as imposing on the table as Mr. Brega was on screen. My only complaints are that his hat is a bit strangely off center and his pistol is HUGE compared to the weapons held by the other figures in my collection.

Nino was El Indio's right hand, man. When El Indio eventually abandoned his gang he made sure to take Nino with him.

The Ugly

That would be my painting!

Next up will be a look at what happens when two owl hoots step out in sight of five folks aiming to bring them in...

Thanks for stopping by!