Thursday Night Gunfight

Hadn't played Fistful of Lead in awhile. It was time to dig the not-so-sleepy border town of Lesterville.

We had 7 players and 2 1/2 hours. Perfect for FfoL. The scenario: Johnny One-Leg, notorious leader of the Leftover Gang (so named because at the time I had run out of miniatures in which to create theme gangs) has been captured. He is being held in the Lesterville jail, guarded not only by the Marshal and his men, but by a group of concerned citizens (in reality the Society of Gentlemen Gunfighters).

Johnny's gang has teamed up with Dixon gang (so named because they are made up of Dixon miniatures) to spring Johnny. Not out of any kind of loyalty, but because Johnny's the only one who knows where the loot from the last job is.

Throw into the mix El Guappo and his banditos and Yellowknife ("Yellowknife cannot be killed by white man's bullets")and his Commanches also wanting Johnny for his gold.

And finally, waiting in the wings the cavalry, ready to ride in and help the outnumbered Marshal, but only when the player controlling them gets a "7" card in his hand.

The Marshal's men and the citizens set up first. Meanwhile, the people of Lesterville go about their work. All the citizens can be interacted with, and move after all the players have activated. Some are preprogrammed, Egg Shin is delivering his laundry, the miners are headed to the mining company.

Some move randomly. The drunk stumbles around d10/2" in the direction the die points.

The opening moves went quickly with no action, other than the player (John of Curio Clashes) lucked out and got a 7 right off. The cavalry would be early!

We also have a house rule. The people of Lesterville are a bit trigger happy after all the battles that have raged across their town. Entering a building is done with no hinderance until the first shots are fired. After that, whenever a previously unentered building is explored, any "bad guy" must face a shotgun blast at close range. Another player drops the die. After that , the building is clear to anyone.

An Indian finds out about the house rule.

Soon, the usual things happened. A Blood Alley appeared. Twenty years of this game and it always happens. Somewhere on the board becomes a regular elephant's graveyard of dead lead. Bad guys turned on each other. Hand to hand was quick and brutal and at least one fight that should have clearly been one sided wasn't. A wounded and down bandito was attacked by a healthy cavalry trooper. The bandito not only killed his assailant, but was up and shooting the next turn. 

Always a fun game that seems to write it's own narrative.

Lead Addict, Propaganda Architect , & Curio Clashes plot their moves

Fistful of Lead: Horse and Musket scenario Playtest...

... or "Bad Day for the Legion vol. IX".

Trying to be a good author, I thought it might be a good idea to make sure the scenarios I'm putting into Fistful of Leads first supplement for the Horse and Musket period actually works.

This was a tryout of ye olde take the bridge scenario.

It's written for any period but as I have an abundance of Maximillian in Mexico miniatures, that's where this one took place.

The Republican forces are trying to find a bridge crossing to outflank Imperial troops. They stumble upon a lightly defended bridge. They must secure the road beyond before nightfall.

The Bridge and its road is defended by the French Foreign Legion. They are obviously outnumbered and need to drive off the enemy before more arrive.

To keep the game moving and give both sides a sense of urgency added a Special Rule. Those familiar with Fistful of Lead will understand the mechanic how cards are dealt to players for Activations. Normally, the Joker is left out. This time one is put back in. It functions as the lowest suit Ace in all respects, except that when it is played by a side, they need to keep track of how many times it comes up for their side.

Things at the bridge get ugly

If the Mexicans play the Joker 6 times, night has fallen. If they haven't secured the bridge. They lose.

If the Legion plays it 6 times, Mexican reinforcements show, and the position becomes un defendable. 

I played the Legion. We never got a Joker, or a break. My fault. I spread to thin. The Republican troops came in one big mob. Half fired, while half charged. Good, historical tactics that paid off.

With 4 Jokers played by the Mexicans, I managed to kill about half before being overwhelmed. 

I think it worked very well and could easily be applied to other scenarios. One thing I might do is add the second Joker in about midway. As players lose models, there are less cards being dealt, and less chance of a Joker.

The last holdout in the bell tower.

A little skirmish

Over the break we played a little VSF skirmish. In our big GASLIGHT story arc, the Germans have been getting new weapons and technology from the alien Visitor. One of their not-so-secret bases is located at Castle Von Lowenbrau. An diversionary attack on the nearby coast by British forces has left but a skeleton crew to watch over the base. Now, British forces led by the legendary Sir Nigel Tuftnell 3rd earl of Spindletapp, are sneaking in. 

The German garrison stand ready

This Lady Hussar guards the lab at all costs

The British are assisted by an escaped scientist who has told them of a secret way under the walls. The British decide to send their Naval Landing Party right at the gates, while the rest find the secret way in. They must find the technology and destroy any new weaponry they can't carry with them.

From the start, the deadly fire from the German garrison is telling. Not a man makes it through the gate house.

Sir Nigel scouts the walls.

Sir Nigel's forces fair little better and only just make it into the castle before being slaughtered.

In hindsight, the Brits should have had more troops, but only a handful of folks made it out. Instead of GASLIGHT, we used my Fistful of Lead rules, which worked great for the small action.

Lady Hussars prove deadly accurate

Captain Pennyworth gets farther than any of his men

Corporal Hastings pays back the Ladies

The Allies were not successful at all. They even got the scientist recaptured. But fear not, a Norwegian observatory has spotted a strange light in the sky, headed directly for Earth!

Thursday Night shootout

Fistful of Lead. An oldie but goodie. I wanted to try out some ambush/hidden movement rules I'm working on for FfoL Horse and Musket and decided a Wild Bunch/Northfield Raid. The bad guys start in the bank and have to make it to the Livery Stable. The good guys start hidden, aware of the baddies in the bank. Unknown to the good guys, there are more baddies hidden around town. Recipe for a bloodbath.

At first, even though outnumbered, it looked like the robbers had the upper hand. The Marshal's men and the townfolk were dropping like flies. But, the bad guys got caught up in the shoot outs and rather than moving towards the stable, were slowly being overwhelmed by numbers.

"Well Bob, looks like a typical Thursday. I'll get the coffins ready."

The Robbers break out.

O'Mally drops two baddies from his perch.

"You go first."

"No. You go first."

Blood Alley. Almost 20 years of playing this game, and there's always a Blood Alley.

By the end of the game, a lone bandit was being slowly hunted down by the survivors. Best moment of the game: The Marshal stepped out into the street and was fired at "manual insertion range" by one of the bank robbers. Marshal brains all over the alley.

Tonight's game was fueled by a favorite:

Battle at the Ford

One again the Legion in Mexico braved the heat and superior numbers. This time, to get supplies across the river to an outpost under siege. It was a straight shot down the middle, but of course, rebels barred the way. 

The Legion tried to get tricky and head down one side, thus denying the rebels their full fire power. Indeed, some rebels spent the game criss crossing the table trying to get in the fight. 

Deadly fire from the rebel's "Green Die of Doom" quickly brought down more thn a few Legionnaires. But, it was when the Legion stopped to try and duke it out with the rebels on the catina roof that they effectively lost the game.

I'll try this scenario again with equal forces, or give the crack French troops a better bonuses.

Thursday night gunfight

I knew we were having quite few of the boys over last night, so I dug an old favorite, "Fistful of Lead". Every bit of scum in the territory showed up to steal the railroad payroll. 

Each player had their own objectives besides capturing the gold. The Leftover Gang and the Injuns started a skirmish right off, but decided after a couple of casualties, maybe a team-up might be better.

El Guappo and his banditos stated in a terrible place between to other gangs, and got chewed up pretty bad. Meanwhile, the Longriders and Stinky Dixon's gangs took advantage of cover and stayed clear of the sometimes violent citizens of Lesterville. (except when the Dixon's almost ran over local Egg Shin and got karate chop in return).

the Dixons steal a wagon

In the end, Injun Joe of the Longriders, was able (with the help of the Dixons) to steal the payroll and win.

Run El Guappo, run!

too slow

Fistful of Lead

The Marshal finally captured the notorious rustler and bandit, Johnny One Leg. Now its a simple matter of holding him til the cavalry arrives to take him away to federal prison.

Problem is, nothing's simple in Lesterville. Word is, Johnny's gang is out to spring him. Not because of any loyalty, but because Johnny knows where the gang's loot is buried.

Then there's the Dirty Dixon Gang. Oh, how they hate Johnny. They just want him dead.

And then there's El Guappo and his bunch from South o' the border. Seems Johnny got a bit "familiar" with El Guappo's sister. Now the Mexican bandit is out to make Johnny an honest man.

The Marshal's got his work cut out for him.

The mean streets of Lesterville

The Marshal could have locked Johnny in the jail, but that was too obvious, instead, he had him hidden somewhere in town. Manning the rooftops, the deputies had clean shots at most of the incoming groups. Johnny's gang took the first hit. Once the guns start going off, the people of Lesterville get a might spooked. They shoot at anything, that sticks there head in their businesses. (I borrowed this idea from one of the Yahoo Group. As soon as the first shot is fired, anyone entering an unexplored building, unless it's the Marshal's men, gets a shotgun blast at them. This keeps people from using the "hold up in a building all day" plan. It also helped the Marshal's men on the roofs. Anyone trying to get up at them was going to have run the gauntlet.)

"What're you lookin' at?!"

The Dixon's smelled blood and went after Johnny's gang. There was fierce shoot out in on of the alleys. Almost all of my games end up with what we call "Blood Alley". Don't know why it happens, but it does. In one section of town, the bodies just pile up.

After much gunfire, El Guappo's gang figured out Johnny was hold up in the Saloon. He managed to get one of his men in, but he went down to a deputy.

That's when the cavalry arrived. For a while they cut a swathe through town, but the concentrated gunfire from what was left if the combined gangs brought most of them down. In the end, only one cavalry trooper survived, but he got Johnny. And for once, Marshal Bill survived.

The infamous bandit El Guappo dies

Highlights of the game included one of Johnny's game fighting El Guappo's men in what amounted to a prolonged slap fight. Hand to Hand in Fistful of lead is notoriously brutal. Someone almost always dies. Not this time. One would knock the other down. Then next turn, the downed player would get up and do the same.

Also, one of the Dixon gang blasted away 4 times with a shotgun at one of Johnny's gang pinned on the ground . The poor guy missed every time. The downed player soon got the nickname "Lucky", only to bolt from town the next turn on a failed morale roll.

On a side note, I've had a jump in members to the Fistful of Lead Yahoo Group. We are a small but loyal group. Welcome to Lestervile!

Play tests

Thursday's game featured a playtest of Fistful of Lead: Wasteland Warriors. Full report over at Lead Addict.

This was prep game, not only for the rules, but for RECRUITS mid September. If you are anywhere near the KC area, make this convention. It's worth it. I have to work on preparation for my own game using the oft mentioned caverns. I'm leaning towards a Pirate or Viking game right now. As much as I'd like to do a retro SciFi game, I don't have the figs right now, or the money to get them.

Sunday I tried out the "in the Emperor's Name (or ITEN) 40k, non-sanctioed skirmish rules with the Boy. ITEN's been getting a a lot of good press and I had some old 40k figs laying around. It's about as simple as you can get, but still fun. Best of all they're free!

Individual pieces of the rules aren't new ideas, but they've been put together in new ways. We had a Chaos contingent vs some Space Marines. I need to try some other troops because its almost impossible for these boys to miss, and really hard for them not to save. So some turns there was a lot of dice rolling and no results. We played it twice, switching sides. The Boy won both. 

The legion in Mexico

I've been tinkering with taking my Fistful of Lead rules into new realms. One of those areas is pre-gunpowder eras. So, the hand-to-hand rules, which are simple and brutal, will have to be adjusted to give more flavor to a more HTH-centric world. To test some ideas, I used the regular rules, this time with the Legion on the offensive in Maximillian Mexico.

The Legion had the numbers for once. The Rebels got to set up first, but had to hold out against superior numbers until a relief column showed up to get the stolen gold the Rebels were guarding.

The locals don't look friendly

The Legion advances under heavy fire

I encouraged the Legionnaires to hold their fire and not take useless long range shots at the Rebels in cover. Instead, we should use our moves to cover ground quickly. But, the 5th and 6th grade Legionnaires didn't want to listen. They made good targets for Rebel snipers as they stopped in the open to reload.

First casualty of the day

I told them not to stop and reload

One of the Rebels teams had only machetes. They wisely stayed hidden throughout most of the game, waiting to ambush. Unfortunately, most were cut down after their long wait, before they could get in a hack.

Wounds mount

When the relief column did arrive, it was one officer and a wagon. The Legion had failed to find the gold, and with the night getting on, I called it for the Rebels. we did, however, play a extra turn. This turned the tide. The Rebels were virtually wiped out in a turn of great rolling by the Legion. But, as I said, I had already called it. Viva la Mexico!

The fight for the gold becomes fierce

Fistful of Lead-Wasteland Warriors

Oberon VI is a planet of steaming jungles and deadly flora. But it also holds the vast treasure of a lost civilization. Space pirates have long coveted this lost wealth and often send expeditions to retrieve it. A lone patrol ship of the Intergalactic Federation is tasked with keeping Oberon VI's cultural heritage intact (at least until they find a way to take the treasure themselves).

This was the second playtest of Fistful of Lead using the future combat mods. I wanted to try out the armor rules. Enter 3 gangs of Space Pirates vs the Galactic Patrol and two gangs of hired guns. Each side's leader got armor. For this scenario we didn't distinguish between ballistic and reflective armor (ballistic, of course, only protects against bullets while reflective only stops "frickin' lay-zers").

Overhead view of the carnage

First kill went to the Federation sniper who dropped a pirate heavy from long distance. Overall the game played like most Ffol games, mostly bloodless at the beginning then the bodies start hitting the floor. The Boy put down three guys at once with a shotgun blast. No kills, but put all three in pinned-land.

The armor rules worked pretty seamless. I think there's a lot of fluff here athat could be thrown in with different weapons and effects. Lasers were effective but not completely unbalanced, so I might give them a longer recharge time (out of ammo).

Next up, vehicles! The challenge with them will be to make them fit into the ease of the FfoL game without making them too unrealistically mobile.