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Thursday 8 February 2018

A Western Adventure - Big Iron

Big Iron – the game is based on a song I heard sung by Johnny Cash whose version I prefer to the classic Marty Robbins one.

I posted this on the LAF early last year and so if you've read it and can remember then your memories better than mine. I now have two more follow on games that I want to "follow on" so anyone interested probably needs to read this first.

Whiskey Jack had bribed the Wells Fargo Agent responsible for route planning on the new trail over the Desperate Mountain Range in Montana. This would now go through Big Whiskey and Whiskey Jack was in the process of building a way station for changing the horses on the stagecoach as it stopped at his place.

There had been a couple of log cabins here when Jack conceived his grand plan, he had paid the trappers who lived in the larger cabin more than it was worth and had moved in Jim Smith as a roustabout to do the work while he made the money. The Saloon also an old building was almost refurbished, it only needed tables, chairs, a bar and a sign over the door, maybe a veranda, but it did have whiskey and a few barrels of rather shaken up beer and a bar keep.

The way station of Big Whiskey, the first stage has just arrived, and the passengers have disembarked. Rose is the combined driver and guard, a high risk strategy to save money on the new line as there is a strong box on the stage. The passenger list is also bit of a worry to her, there is Sheriff English Bob escorting his prisoner the notorious outlaw Bill Samuelson, along with the local Indian Agent and his wife. (Shades of Hombre)

Jim Smith has just come out of his cabin (centre left) to change the horses, and J.J.Tucker an Arizona Ranger is riding in from the left hand side. 

In the Saloon (centre right) there is the barman Ruben White, with the only drinker The Undertaker a small time Bounty Hunter with delusions of grandeur. The dilapidated cabin (lower right) is inhabited temporarily by Texas Red, wanted in 3 States, but not Montana.
 
Another overview of the station.

Game objectives
J.J. the Arizona Ranger is here to take back Texas Red, dead or alive – it really doesn’t matter which.

Texas Red has to get away on horse back, a saddled horse, not one off the stage coach, J.J. has the only saddle horse.

Rose has to protect the stage, strongbox and passengers.

English Bob has to keep his prisoner, and leave on the stage.

Jim Smith has to change the horses and has to stay alive firstly, but will protect the stage. He is unarmed but has a shotgun in his cabin.

Bill Samuelson the prisoner has to stay alive and also escape. His gang of outlaws will be a help.

The Outlaws have to rescue Bill Samuelson. Secondary objective is to rob the stage and the Indian Agent.

The Indian Agent and wife have to stay alive, with their money and leave on the stage.


A slightly out of focus shot of the saloon and stagecoach.

 J.J. Tucker has dismounted and asked Jim is he knows the whereabouts of Texas Red, some money changes hands and he has the information he needs and is on his way to the dilapidated shack. Meanwhile Rose leads the passengers into the saloon.

J.J. walking down the street, shouting “Red get out here, I don’t want no trouble - come quietly and they will go easy on you, trust me”

Red can just be seen lurking in the cabin, thinking “That’s easy for you to say lawdog but I ain’t doing time (or worse) and why should I trust YOU”

At the same time Bill Samuelson’s gang of outlaws arrive. From left to right Snakeyed Pete, Sneaky Steve, Frank MacAulay their leader until Bill takes his rightful place, Dangerous Dave with the shotgun and Nick Nasty. They look grim and gritty but that is the Army Painter Gloss Varnish, I think I was a bit heavy handed with it, so the only time I used it.

Texas Red emerges from the cabin. “You ain’t going to take me alive lawman” and they both go for their guns. There is a slapping sound as two pistols leave their holsters simultaneously followed by shots, loud in the quiet mountain air. J.J. falls to the ground – gutshot, - and out of the fight. Red takes a bullet in the left leg. A flesh wound – she stays on her feet but it will slow her down.

Ha I bet you didn’t expect Texas Red to be a girl did you. Well I can tell you she's one tough hombre.

Inside the bar there is stunned silence following the gun shots. No one sees the outlaws walking past the window. Lousy dice rolls. Jim who is unhitching the horses decides that this is a good time to carry on working and not get involved. Note the absence of furniture in the bar, it’s on the slow wagon from the nearest big town, days away.

English Bob levels his shotgun on Bill and he stays in the saloon with his prisoner but Rose and The Undertaker go outside to see what is happening. Neither of them recognise Red otherwise The Undertaker would have gone for the bounty (poor dice again) “He drew first” shouts Red and J.J. just groans in agony.

Rose responds “We have a sheriff here in the bar, we need to see what he says” but just then Jim shouts “look out there’s Samuelson’s gang behind you”

Rose swings round and takes cover behind a barrel of beer, Red legs it away from the street towards J.J.’s horse, Jim jumps behind the stagecoach and thinks that shouting a warning might not have been a bright idea. The Undertaker jumps back into the Saloon and English Bob glowers at Bill.

Red looks back as the outlaws come round the side of the saloon, everyone reacts but she is fastest and recognises Frank MacAulay, there is bad blood between the two that I forgot to mention earlier, she gets off a couple of shots and he goes down, also gut shot and also out of the fight.

The others are all a little slower, Dangerous Dave with the shotgun didn’t react at all but the other 3 outlaws and Rose all fired together. Jim is there by the horses thinking I’m never going to go to work without a gun again.

Rose unloaded both barrels into Dave. At short range with a shotgun - that had the desired effect, he was dead before he hit the ground. Pete and Steve both fired, fortunately the beer barrel provided enough protection for Rose but not for the beer, spurts of beer hit the ground and were soaked up by the dry earth – what a waste. Nick Nasty’s gun misfired and he was out of ammo.

With two of their number down including the boss the outlaws took to their heels, running quickly back to their horses and off down the trail. If they hadn’t failed their bottle test things would have gone badly for Rose as she only had the empty shotgun and a boot knife.

Texas Red hobbled over to J.J.’s horse and made an escape.
English Bob now has 2 prisoners, and Whiskey Jack has a wounded Ranger on his hands.
 
 The men and women either on the stage or working at the way station.

 The outlaw gang including Bill Samuelson.

The Undertaker, Texas Red under her Confederate cavalry hat and J.J. the Arizona Ranger.

If there's anybody out there please let me know and if you are still here - thanks for reading.

28 comments:

  1. Hi John, there's nothing like a good Western & that was a mighty fine one Partner : ) everything look great so credit to your cameraman (I'm having trouble with mine ) was it your usual ruleset you where using for this game ?

    I can't tell you how much I enjoyed the AAR & just to let you know I didn't guess Red was a woman, bring on the rest of the tale : )

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    1. Hi Frank - I've found with camera men that if you just sack em then eventually they learn and do what you want. You are the director after all.

      Rules - yes they are the same ones. I know this is probably heresy but hand to hand combat has been the same forever and shooting is pretty much the same, different weapons and ranges and loading times but hell I shoot you and I hit or I miss. If I hit how much damage do I do? All the rest is either the same or not so important for me.
      The stuff I enjoy is - if you shoot me what do I do, if I can see your back do I shoot you, can I start this car, can I jump that gap, will that car run me down, you hold a gun on me what do I do. This we can work out for ourselves making up impartial rules as we go. Yep I think it's heresy when there's all these companies ready to take our money for rules that end up on the shelf.

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    2. The joys of Solo gaming John is making rules to suit what your looking for & not having to agree them with someone else, if what you say about the points you made above is heresy then I'm more then willing to burn on the bonfire beside you mate : )

      Something I meant to add in the last comment mate is I noticed our studio's seem to be using some of the same actor's, it's always good to see models you have painted up in a different way.

      I know you posted I was partly responsible for you starting this blog John & that is something I'm very happy about as you've taken to it like a duck to water & for me it's up there with the best of them : )

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    3. Cheers Frank - that's very nice of you to say so, I appreciate it.

      The thing with the figures is very true, I often look at how someone else has painted a figure and think how come I didn't see it that way.

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  2. This time I do remember seeing this on the LAF, but my memory being what it is, I had forgotten how it ended. As such I enjoyed reading it just as much this time around as I did the first time. I wouldn't want to mess with Texas Red - what a gal! Mind you, if it had been Durham Red, you'd have had me hooked even more!

    Terrific scenery and beautifully painted miniatures really brought this game to life. Once again, I salute you, John, for a thrilling tale told well, and photographed well. Your cameraman deserves nothing but praise this time.

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    1. Bryan I'm sort of sorry, I did look to see if you had commented on the game and you hadn't, so as you've been kind and commented on most of my games I thought you might not have seen it.
      The thing is that I've just played 2 follow on games over the last few nights and want to post them and I thought I needed to post this the first game before the 2nd and 3rd ones.

      Durham Red - I've never heard of her so googled the name and just burst out laughing - you and Dinohunter are so predictable, in a very nice way. I obviously didn't have such a miss-spent youth as I thought I had - what a disappointment to learn this so late in life.
      Mind you I think Texas Red might give Durham Red a run for her money - if she survives many of my games.
      Take Care

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    2. If you see the banter between me and Dinohunterpoa on the LAF, you'll realise we are very much alike, with the same tastes in most subjects but especially female vampires. Durham Red is my favourite character from the 2000 AD comic. When I saw Texas Red, I was immediately reminded of her vampire namesake.
      I can't tell you how much I'm looking forward to your follow scenarios to this encounter.

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    3. Female Vampires hum I came across the Twins of Evil on youtube the other day, I got quite nostalgic for the old days of Hammer :-)

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  3. You had me hooked from the strat to the finish. All my initial skirmish games were westerns, using Airfix figures (Wagon Train and Western Civiilans or something like that iirc) before I moved on to 54mms (Timpo mostly). Great buildings, terrain and general 'clutter' too. I'm really looking forward to the additional write-ups you mentioned, my own memories of games past have already come flooding back.

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  4. Hi Joe I wonder if it's an age thing, we were brought up in a diet of westerns and they make such good fodder for a skirmish game. I was always in awe of the 54mm western game that went round the shows,I think it was the guys from Halifax that did them, but the best I could manage was 25mm minifigs.
    Since painting some of the black scorpion figures I've refurbished some of my old buildings and spent a long time trying to decide how I want the table to look. That's why I went down the clear base route for the figures but I've extended that idea further, hopefully you'll see that in the next game. Clutter is also one of the things that I've spent a lot of time developing over the last few years, just ask Mrs Vagabond she'll agree with that ;-)
    The final thing (I do ramble on sorry) is that writing up the games gives them a life of their own, your current adventures in Jimland show that.

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  5. Another beautiful game to see unfold - the terrain, the minis all just perfect! Cracking story too, brilliant John

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    1. dGG - thanks mate, I've been working on the terrain for a while now and the town is coming along, hopefully you'll see it soon, my plan is to try and set a story line around the growth of the town, so the games and the town will have history. Very much a flight of fancy I'm afraid.

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  6. As much as I've loved every one of your AAR's, this is easily my favourite write-up so far John :-)
    Brilliant little back story to set up the plotlines, great terrain and mini's (as ever), and your usual engaging writing style had me rivetted to the action as it unfolded.
    Great inspiration for my own faltering steps into the Wild West, which is currently just a collection of unpainted mini's and unprinted pdf buildings. More tales from Big Whiskey will definitely be pushing me to make a start!
    REALLY looking forward to the next installments :-)

    BTW, Johhny Cash was the first of the 'big' country music artists I ever saw in concert many years ago, and probably one of the main influences on me now earning a crust with my guitar "on the road".

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    1. Hi Greg - thanks for your encouraging comments, I thought I might have upset you as your post casting aspersions on my palm trees has been deleted and as it wasn't me I assumed it was you.
      Maybe you are just covering your tracks so no one finds out you can't tell a Palm tree from a pine cone :-)
      I've always been a fan of Johnny Cash and there are some absolutely cracking tracks on his later albums, although for me they are interspersed with some not so cracking tracks. I came across the Highwaymen relatively recently, at least to listen to rather than know about if you know what I mean. Their signature song - the 1st verse - there has to be a game in there somewhere.
      I've been meaning to ask you about the music, if you play both sorts of music - Western and Country but the Blues Brothers beat me to that joke!!!
      Oh I almost forgot - Big Whiskey was burned down by some Jay Hawkers, it happened late one night and there's no record of it that I can find. :-(

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    2. Well that's odd! T'weren't me guv - I've certainly not deleted ANY posts apart from 'spam' on my own blog, and in any case, I openly admit to my ignorance regarding Palm tree recognition (though I have a 'date' with a specialist).

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    3. Sounds like a case for Miss Marples

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    4. Becky will be up tomorrow, not much in the way of scenery I'm afraid.

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  7. Hey John. Just discovered your site mate. You've got some great terrain (I've just been going through a few of your older posts). It's good that you've had a relapse and are back into wargaming. I love your table set up too. I'm feeling a little jealous.

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    1. DEW it's the story telling in your blog that I find exciting and you and a few others are the impetus for me starting my blog now. As you can see I've only just started blogging so have a lot to learn. I hope you will find something entertaining here because I have enjoyed reading what you are doing.

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  8. Its a cracking looking set up. And I'm definitely rooting for Texas Red (us red-heads need to stick together!)

    I definitely like the fact that the models in the saloon failed to react to the passing outlaws. That the shoot-out on the road was over with so quickly. Then the sudden loss of two of their crew saw the outlaws flee. A lot of rules would have seen all these events either not happen, or escalate into something not realistic. I'm going to have to take a good look at the free download from 2HW, and give them a try or two.

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    1. Hi Roy - I don't know if you've heard the song Big Iron but it's Texas Red the outlaw who gets shot, so a bit of a turn around in the game.
      I've expanded on the basic Chain Reaction Rules where every throw is against a single Reputation Characteristic, I have expanded this to 13 characteristics, most which play no part in most games but mean if I need to make an impartial decision I have some data to make it against for each individual figure. So I may dice against their Brains to see if they do something sensible or not and then against their guts to see if they will carry out that action. In this one when the outlaws passed the window I threw dice against an Awareness characteristic for the figures I thought might have noticed the outlaws. The other thing is I expected they would be concentrating on the gunfire outside, so not actually looking out that window.

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    2. Cheers for the further info, John. I've copied and pasted what you've written into a document I've got saved on the laptop (with various ideas, methods, techniques of other gamers) and will certainly be looking at them all when I do get around to playing.

      No, I'm not familiar with the song. Is it played on ClassicFM often? :) [the most frequently listened to radio station in our household]

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    3. No I shouldn't think so but it's on youtube, listen to the Johnny Cash version and you can see the possibilities for a game. ;-)

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  9. Catching up a post at a time... :-)
    A great adventure in a great setting. Really liking what I see, all those little (and not so small) details.
    Sounds like good and realtively simple (as in easy to use) solo-rules. Just what I'm looking for. So, basic 2 Hour Wargames' Chain Reaction with a twist? 13 characteristics... tell us more!

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    1. Hi Joakim once you reach the latest western adventure there is a picture of the character cards. Every thing is D6 and you roll equal or under a characteristic to "pass" dice except shooting where you add the characteristic to a dice. Because I'm mainly solo anything not covered by the rules I can pick a characteristic and throw some dice to make a decision on what they will do.

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    2. Great. I'm halfway through that.

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