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Sunday 11 February 2018

A Western Adventure - Horse Thieves in Little Whiskey


Little Whiskey is growing fast, this is the new building in town. Maybe two if you count the new s**t house around back.

Whiskey Jack has done a deal with Wells Fargo and they have provided finance so that Jack can expand his way station. Mr Wells and Mr Fargo have built a small office to sell tickets on the stage and at some point they will provide banking facilities.

This is the 2nd episode in the building of Little Whiskey, the 1st is HERE

An overview of the growing town, this is the back of the Wells Fargo office which is currently being run by Lucille but this arrangement is just temporary because she and her partners are involved in the next new business that will be opened next door.
Lucille is also her middle name because I haven't come up with a good one yet :-(.  if anyone can think of a suitable name for her I'd be interested.

Ebenezer “Sweet Sticky Fingers” Douglas – you remember Mr Douglas, well here he is inspecting the load of cut timber for the new building. This has been transported by Waggoner Shawnee Mary, who is in cahoots with the other reprobate in this picture The Undertaker, a small time bounty hunter with a penchant for big hats and scary names.

Jim is still working for Jack and he's still not happy about it, here he is showing off his new pump and horse trough to Rose, she’s about as impressed as any girl would be.
She's still driving the stage but is now working for Mr Wells and Mr Fargo, the pay is not as good but more regular and she is not so likely to get shot defending her new bosses, at least that’s what she hopes.

Her arm has healed well and doesn't impair her use of the shotgun or handling the reins. Poor Marshall MacAlister is still bed ridden and no one is sure if he will live or die, especially the Doc.

The horses in the coral belong to Shawnee Mary and Mr Wells and Mr Fargo.

The view down Main Street as three strangers walk into town, I don’t know why it’s got such a high sounding name as it’s the only street in town but – there you go.

The strangers are from our left Snake Eyes Pete, Frank MacCaulay and Dangerous Dave Davis. All the two bit punks have nicknames.

They are walking into town because they have lost their horses, they never said how and no one asked, they are in Little Whiskey to get replacement mounts.
They don’t have any money and as Father Christmas doesn’t live here anymore they are going to have to steal them.

Inside the Wells Fargo Office Joe Tucker has just bought his ticket for the next stage out of town. They are still waiting for the office furniture to arrive, but hopefully it wont be too long. Lucille is the one selling him the ticket.

Frank and the boys carry on walking down Main Street as Joe comes out of the ticket office. He might not be too happy if someone takes off with the horses due to pull his stage.

Just a gratuitous picture.

Texas Red leaves the Livery headed for the saloon and a shot of red eye.

(There were 3 rogue characters in town and I used a randomised move and direction to see where they would go. So this is totally coincidental but it couldn't have worked better)

This is not good news, you may remember there is bad blood between her and Frank, she goes for her gun but Frank is faster. Boom – Frank misses. Boom - Red fires.

Texas Red’s shot is deadly and Frank goes down like a sack of cabbages.

Pete fires his Winchester, Red is fast though, and she is ducking back into the shelter of the Livery stable, he hit's the door, wood splinters fly everywhere but he's missed. Before she is completely hidden though Dave’s shotgun rings out, BOOM BOOM both barrels, pellets spit like hailstones.

Red is hit in the chest and arm and collapses in a bloody heap.

The sleepy town is rocked by gunfire, it’s Jacks town and he’s the first to move. He grabs the sawn-off shotgun and opens the door a crack, seeing this scene outside.
He doesn’t recognise the men but he knows the type. Shouting “drop your guns you sons of bit**es” he pokes the barrel of the shotgun through the gap in the door.

Ruben White the barman picks up his shotgun from behind the bar but stays put. It’s not his town and this ruckus sounds like it might be above his pay grade. The man drinking at the bar is Mississippi Sam Shaw and he hails from Missouri so just carries on drinking his lukewarm beer.

In response to Jacks shouted command Dave looks round, quickly realizes they are surrounded and he has unloaded his shotgun into Texas Red and so drops it to the floor, throws his hands in the air and shouts, “don’t shoot me I play the piano” Humm should that be - don’t shoot me I’m only the piano player, why would they want to know that anyway. Shut up Dave.

Basically he failed his guts test.

Pete didn’t and spins round to fire at Jack but gets both barrels from Jacks shotgun.

He was just too slow, and too stupid, now he is lying in a growing pool of blood and wondering if they have a Doc in this hick town.

Rose holds her shotgun aimed at Dave as steady as the proverbial rock, Dave doesn’t blink, he just remains as still as the proverbial rock.

Final shot of Texas Red – still clutching her colt lightening. She’s been in two gunfights and been shot in both, will she pull through this time? Does she have a future as a gunfighter?

Tune in next week for another thrilling adventure way out west - The Showdown.

If you are still here - thanks for reading and maybe leave a comment to let me know you passed this way.

41 comments:

  1. Great follow up. You've got a very impressive set up. Love the buildings. The idea of the black backdrop is really starting to grow on me too. Good way of hiding the rest of the room and focusing the attention on the table.

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    1. DEW cheers that's good of you to say so. I don't know if you saw but a few posts back I put up a picture for Frank that shows my table in the corner of the room. To one side are shelves full of books and they are really distracting when looking at the pictures.
      I would like a painted background but this will do for now and it's universal for all genres.

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  2. Looks cracking. I can appreciate the clear bases your figures are based on. They are very hard to see both on the general table and within the buildings themselves.

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    1. Hi Simon thanks for dropping by. I've only done the clear base on my western figures, they are resin and so easy to convert. I don't see much crossover with these and my other figures so was prepared to give it a shot. I'm pleased with the outcome because I'm trying to get a table that doesn't look as though I've plonked houses and fences on a base board but that they are grounded in it, if that makes any sense.
      Appreciate you letting me know you were here.:-)

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    2. I hate removing tabs and integral bases. I tend to just cover them up with putty. Yeah I know what you mean about integrating the buildings with the base board. My own Post Apoc Buildings are like that. I need to make or invest in a good wargaming mat. Just not seen the 'one' as yet.

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    3. Some of the Deep Cut Studio mats are pretty good, especially the mouse mat material.
      The board above I made last summer but didn't get chance to use it until I got back home in Oct. I intended to add loose sand to try and cover the gaps between the building base and the board, but when I tipped the board up to get the sand off at the end of a game it went everywhere and I've not done it since. :-)

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  3. Damn, but that was another mighty fine batrep! I rather like Texas Red, so I hope she pulls through. What with her and Rose, you have some tough females in town, and better shots than most of the menfolk.

    I have a question for you, John, where did you get your building signs and posters from? They are very effective.

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    1. Hi Bryan some of the black scorpion women are cracking sculpts and I really like the legend that Texas Red is building and well that Rose is just awesome.
      I use an average dice and do randomly for their characteristics, so no one is much more than average, although all my western figures seem to be below average, but I ment to roll for improvement but keep forgetting to do it.
      The signs are all taken from the internet, printed to size, black edged and stuck on. I've been impressed how much they have improved the look of the buildings.
      I have quite a few of the on excel spreadsheets. if you have Microsoft excel I'd be more than happy to send them to you, as I know you will be doing western builds some time.

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    2. Sorry Bryan predictive text doesn't half make a bugger of what I type, I should have read my post more carefully but you will get the gist I hope.

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    3. Bryan / John. I don't know if these signs/posters/table cloths/curtains will be the same as what you have, but I downloaded a number of .pdf with such as those I've described from off the Dead Man's Hand Old West Town (think that's the name) Facebook group. Don't know if they're still available on there, but if your able to access Facebook then it might be worth a look.

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    4. Cheers Roy, I sent Bryan 350 posters and signs but I had to put them on Google Drive or send them individually. There has to be a better way, but I don't know what it is.

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    5. Pass. I've done similar in the past; put stuff on Google Drive so people can download via the various methods it offers. I'm not, exactly, computer literate, so I have to Google instructions before I attempt to do things.

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  4. Excellent installment of the "Little Whiskey" series as I sit with a little whiskey nightcap, and like Bryan I'm hoping Texas Red pulls through.
    The new buildings in town look great and I've now got a new use for my old Wargames Research Group rules average dice! - Yet another of your absolutely brilliant ideas :-)

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    1. Hi Greg - the average dice seemed such an obvious thing to do when I created the character cards as I had so many characteristics to generate. What I didn't want to do was create the perfect gaming characters, you know - the sort of gamey gang where you look through the rules and design a gang that you think will win.
      So for example in the last Becky game I have about 18 bikers all different and when I threw to determine the number of bikers and got six I then randomly choose which bikers they would be.

      In the end I did create some rules for character generation, if you're interested I could post them up here.

      I think my antipathy to designing gangs comes from my time with wrg designing armies to win. I eventually gave up on this and went with my hack and bash men, otherwise known as Vikings. Line them up and go kill the enemy;-)

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    2. The use of average dice was so blindingly obvious that I never thought of it - even though they're in my dice box and I've repeatedly wondered what I could use them for!
      Your revelation of using them to create 'average' characters in ANY system that normally uses D6 rolls is just marvelous, but if you feel like sharing your rules for character generation (for THW's Reaction System?) I'd be more than interested :-)

      Back in the '80's I was posted to Celle in Germany for two years - as luck would have it my next door neighbour was a SOE wargamer, unfortunately (for me) his 'go to' army was Vikings, so I understand your comment EXACTLY ;-)

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    3. I've been wondering about posting something about characteristics to explain a bit about why my games go the way they do sometimes, I'll see if I can do something.

      SOE wargamer? I've not come across the acronym before.

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    4. Sorry, TMA (Too Many Acronyms) - The "Society Of Ancients" was all the rage back then, and we all waited eagerly for our copy of "Slingshot" magazine to drop on the doormat in that pre home computer / internet era.
      It was founded in the mid sixties and after a quick google, I've just seen that it's actually still running:-
      http://www.soa.org.uk/joomla/

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    5. Greg, you've done it now. You've just busted your cover as a former SOE agent. That's why your always away travelling, isn't it? Your still working as a double-0 agent!

      How did infiltrating the SOA go, then? Many dissident gamers with strange ideas about Western society and history? The rules are the rules and are there to be followed as written - hence why they're always presented clearly and with perfect explanations. Not! lol.

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    6. Greg I think Roy has outed you now, when I was in the SOA we didn't have any SOE members checking up on us, cause everyone knew we were barking.
      It was your use of TMWA that threw me ;-)

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    7. I blame the TMW (Too Many Whiskeys) combined with my one finger speed typing, of course, it wouldn't have happened if I still had my proof reader / carer ;-)

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    8. Ahh I remember the days of TMW, now it's calvados and just started on the last batch of Sloe Gin, which is the best I've ever made, although it is only the 4th batch, so not too much history of excellence yet.

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  5. Hi John, again a smashing bit of work mate, having the town grow as the tale continues is a masterstroke & really adds to things, your camera work & script where once again top notch & it comes across as you having a great time doing this which is so important .

    Looking forward to the next one : )

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    1. Hi Frank I'm glad it comes across that I'm enjoying this because that's very true.
      I spent a long time thinking how I wanted the western board to look and did consider doing it like a railway board, everything fixed in place so it looks landscaped, but there were too many issues to do that. The idea of having a fixed town though is what I'm after so that the store keepers and other fixed characters play a part in the game story line. I'm not sure how this will play out and what happens when they get killed!
      Maybe like most script writers I won't let that happen. Who knows?

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  6. I haven't had chance to read part 2, yet! I'll be back... (as some Austrian once said)

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    1. No rush - hope the show went well.

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    2. Yes, we had a good day trading at ROBIN. Personally, I had a good day from a gamers viewpoint: met some new people, arranged to meet again and play their games at Hammerhead. Bought some really cool (and great value for money) resin terrain from Dave Stone at Wargames Terrain Workshop - definitely worth checking them out in the flesh, if people can. Bought a couple of Osprey books (Ancient Chinese and Mughul Indian) from Dave Lanchester for my Play-by-Mail diplomacy/wargames. A decent show that sounds like it is improving each year. Might not have been as many manufacturer traders as there was at York, but there was plenty of selection of traders and games at ROBIN for me to want to go again. Only negative I would say about the show was that the venue was cold, but that was outside of the organisers hands. Other than that, everything else was a positive!

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    3. I'm glad it went well for you. There were a lot of traders at York but the games always seem a bit secondary to me. I did get to chat to one of the guys about wings of glory, but the fact that you have to buy their planes to make use of the rules is not going to do it for me, although it's saving me some money to spend elsewhere.

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    4. Finally found the time to read the post! Another good one, John. It's looking impressive and the photo's are really capturing the scene. How about these women's names: Elizabeth Lucille Baird - shortened to Beth. Or, Sara Lucille Haney. Just a couple of quick names grabbed off the Internet's rpg name generator sites.

      WW1 aeroplanes. It looks like I'm going to get some use out of the game, so I don't mind so much having to buy the official kit. I'm not going to go daft and buy in squadrons of models, but just enough for myself and a couple of others to play. Then if I meet up with the members of the official UK gaming groups I've also got some options for myself (set to meet them at Bournemouth and Newark shows - though only as a friendly introduction and playing with their participation games).

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    5. Sara - she's definitely a Sara, maybe a Sarah. I know it's daft but I like to name all my characters now, it must be a regression into childhood. No wait a minute I never left it. Must be some other regression.

      The base terrain they were using for the WWII air combat York, the one that's home made looks excellent if a little worn, you've probably seen it at one of the shows.
      Let us know how you go on with the games when you have played.

      I might need some more names, nearly finished some new figures for the western town.

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  7. Another great installment of the trials and tribulations in Little Whiskey.
    It read like a script from a B movie -great stuff and put medown as another that really likes the black backdrop too.

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    1. B movie indeed, we are trying to get some finance together to make it into the big time ;-) but I can't do anything about the script writer or director for that matter.

      I'm pleased that the £4:00 spent on some black card is proving a hit though.
      Cheers

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    1. A man of few words - well one word, but thanks.

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  9. Great AAR, scenery and brushwork, CONGRATULATIONS!

    Love the figures in the clear plastic bases! :O)


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    1. Cheers Eduardo, that's very kind of you to say so. :-)

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  10. Clear bases are great as i don't like my minis running around with grass bytheir feet inside houses, and whatnot. I have also rebased all my Wild West minis to clear bases, relatively easy with resin minis. Pondering whether to do the same for all figures, but there are quite a few... Maybe not. All new minis get clear bases (unless they are for some boardgames)
    Anyway - another really nice adventure. Thoroughly enjoyed it.
    Oh, and more info on how you stat your figures! :-)

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    1. Resin figures on clear bases are great, I'm not so sure I like the heft of metal on pvc clear bases, they just sort of feel wrong, but they look right. Mind you I put the resin figures originally on slotta bases and ended up putting lead in the base to get the right feel for the figure. It's a bit weird.
      I doubt I will change the rest of my figures - it's just too much work and because of that I'm still basing on slotta bases for consistency because I prefer them all to be the same on the table.

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    2. I'm using bases from Sally 4th and they are 2mm thick. Gives rater good stability , even for metals

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    3. It's not the stability it's just the feel of it, so I guess the 2mm bases are quite a bit heavier than my blister material.
      When I was a kid a friend had a plastic chess set and his dad had put lead fishing weights in the bottom of the pieces and then put green felt over that. They had a really good stable feel to them, much better than my wood set which was a much more expensive set. Some times things just feel right.
      Hope that makes sense.

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  11. I've seen a number of people going with clear bases these days. It does make for some versatility and looks good in illustrated adventures and scenes. But I have a LOT of figures based on plastic bases or on washers (with putty to hide gaps) and most are metal minis, so I don't see me rebasing them or putting new ones on clear bases.

    Anyway, just popping in to say I am enjoying your Westerns as much as your Becky adventures and your paleo hunters series, as well as the WWII pilot rescue. Lots of great terrain, miniatures, and stories all around! I also like the little tidbits about how you play these games. Plenty of inspiration! :)

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  12. Thanks Fitz, the basing thing is tricky, I like to have the name on the base, it means I can find the stat card easily and I don't have to remember their names, but I think the clear base looks better in the photos, especially if they are not on grass.
    There is quite a hight difference and I like the figures on the table to be consistently based, because the western ones don't cross over to other games this works for me.
    Glad you like the westerns, they are quite simple games so far, pretty much straight shoot outs, but I am enjoying how they are fleshing out the characters.

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