The Mabel Street Mob To The Rescue

If you are expecting Thanda The Grim, sorry she's not here.

Following the intro in the last post.

The Mabel Street Mob start the long drive towards Agua Fria, down towards the fireplace that can be seen in the distance. This is just an atmospheric shot to show off the trucks and trees.

Not so atmospheric but is more useful and also shows how long the table is at Snapcase Hall, that’s a river or the sea in the distance.

The seasonal monsoons had arrived in New Mexico and Arizona as usual, the river Agua was high with 30' of water in the deepest part of the river. Anyone who thinks there are not deep and constant rivers flowing through the deserts of New Mexico has a vivid imagination and not read Higginbottoms Flora, Fauna and River Life in the American South West, published 1863 :)

I lied about the table being able to seat 40, but it’s got to be 20 and it’s the longest table I’ve gamed on in 30 years. When I do these road games I have 1’ square tiles and move them along, at Snapcase Hall we just used the table. I started getting cold feet about now, because most of my road games never get off my initial 3’ square table. I’m hoping this one goes further.

Immediately the lead car gets a puncture, this is going to slow things down, note that Isobelle, Ruth and Mad Patsie are changing the tyre. Random dice roll gave 3 turns before being back on the road. The other two pickups carry on up the road.

Another moody shot when the next encounter turns out to be an escapee from the local insane asylum. He runs across the road and the driver swerves to avoid him.

And ends up in the hedge. The following cars driver is alert enough to brake before ploughing into the back of the lead car. That would have been game over before it had even started.

I was starting to get worried, have I made this too hard, The Mad Lord and Sir Douglas are going to expect something a bit better, after all when I write up my solo games they probably appear to go without a hitch. The power of the re-write button.

We roll for damage and there is none, the driver gets the pickup started again. Phew!!!! A relief for me.

All the other encounters on the road into town turn out to be blanks, I am now thinking I have made it too easy, never thought it would be so stressful laying on a game for other people.

The two pickups park up behind Blonde Edna’s. Pops and Granny were waiting for them and they all start unloading the hooch. Notice how Isobelle, Ruth and Patsie seem to have managed to go from the sedan with the puncture to the pickups. This never happens in my solo game, I can only blame one of the others involved and they know who they are. I was thinking of suing,  you know we live in a blame society.

Any one easily offended by gratuitous sexual images – please look away now.

Just another moody shot of Ruth’s stockings and suspenders, anyone easily offended don’t look.

You've probably already zoomed in on the photo I expect.

Here comes the sedan with the rest of the gang, Lian in the form of Doug was driving and he completely threw me by deciding to block the road into town and stop the State Troopers getting to the jail. I had just assumed we would do the business and get out of Dodge, well Agua Fria as soon as possible.

His move actually made a lot of sense, but don’t tell him I said so.

Doing a 5 point turn in the narrow road, they drop Barbara off with the intention of hotwiring the brown truck and using that to block the road. The rest of the crew are still offloading hooch.

You can just see Barbara's blue beret by the truck.

Lian and Loretta jump out of the sedan so that they can go in through the back door of the jail (the building on the left) at the same time as the others go through the front.

Lian and Loretta had moved to the back door of the jail, and the rest of the mob were at the front. There was some mad plan to hoot like an owl so that they could enter the building at the same time. Don’t ask!!!

This is where it started to get complicated. Barbara who was going to hot wire the truck could hear vehicles coming down the road, she threw the right dice and got the truck engine turning over. The Mad Lord who was controlling Barbara or Babs as he began to call her, started to reverse, his plan apparently was to reverse straight into the lead vehicle, no wonder there are dents all over his Roller.

BANG - the big truck hits the little truck, the little truck goes careering off left, Babs holds it together and doesn’t loose control but keeps going.

BANG - Big Andy who was driving the 2nd truck fails to stop or swerve and ploughs straight into the truck Babs is driving. He loses control and there are injured State Troopers all over the place.

Mean while Isabelle toting a German Smg followed by Ruth burst into the jail and open fire. There are bullets going everywhere. The police fire back. There could have been as many as 5 cops in the jail house but a good roll for us meant there were only 2. No one goes down. Lian is struggling to get the back door open, well at least that’s what she said, could be she was leading from behind as usual. Good middle management technique.

I haven’t made much in the way of furniture for the insides of the buildings so we assumed there was a desk that would give the cops a bit of cover.

Isobelle fires 2 or 3 times and misses with each burst but Ruth is a bit of a crack shot and hits Juanita the young female cop in the leg and Big Jim immediately throws his hands up shouting don’t shoot. What a wimp.

At this point Lian and Loretta finally get through the back door.

Not a good photo but is sort of shows what we had all forgotten. Nicole is in the jail behind the cops.

Yes the cops that Isobelle has been spraying with bullets, yes and missing all the time, where have the bullets gone?

We decided that on a roll of 1,2,3 or 4 seeing Isobelle coming through the door Nicole knowing what a lousy shot she was would hit the deck and fortunately that’s what happened. The bullets went every where but the desk saved Nicole.

In the distance you can see three of the mob still outside the Sheriff’s office.

About this time Major Maddaford in the Tailfeather Saloon across the road had decided to support the local law enforcers and shoot at the Mob. This was a BIG mistake as he was shot to death by one of them but I can’t remember who, and there appears to be no photo of the event.

This led Mary, his woman, who had been hiding, to come out of the saloon firing. She was going to avenge her man like they do in the Country songs. Dorothy waiting in cover behind the police car is a crack shot with her pocket pistol.

She was just in range and shot poor Mary down like a dog on the highway, like they do in the Country songs.

The result of the two collisions, 2 State Troopers down - injured and out of the fight, Big Andy still on his feet and another Trooper hidden by the small van is also active.

Babs continues to go backwards and it looks like she has reversed into the Trooper who was behind the van and killed him, but as they say in Congressional Hearings “I have no memory of that event”

The final truck in the convoy narrowly misses the pile up in front of him, swerves off the road, does not get stuck in the sandy soil and pulls up in front.

Up until that point we had deemed it plausible that the Troopers would just think it was a possible accident, but now it was deliberate and they both rushed towards the cab shouting put your hands where we can see them.

So she did – her hands were on the shotgun - she held it out of the window - and fired at them, missing and running out of ammo. The return fire left her injured, unable to offer resistance when they cuffed her to the wheel.

While the car crashes had been going on Nicole had been released from jail and the 2 cops replaced her in the cell. The next stage of the game is underway. 4 of the gang have gone next door and broken in to the Bank, John and James Watson offered no resistance. Pathetic. It was just going to take a few turns to empty the safe, the money was being transferred into the police car at the front of the sheriffs office.

I’m not sure what that alien thing is in the bank, Doug said it was a counter but it didn’t work, we had to turn it.

You just know that the Mad Lord was not going to leave Babs behind (I think she was his favourite) Patsie and Ruth have moved behind the Mobs sedan.

Isobelle has moved down the road and is hiding behind the green van, and Big Andy has left Babs handcuffed to the van and is starting to move forward towards the Jail to see what he can do. He doesn't see Isobelle.

She sees him though and opens up with her SMG and of course misses, but this is the final straw, shouting “lets get out of here” he takes to his heels, followed a little bit more slowly by his last Trooper.

Loading the loot into the police car.

Leaving Isobelle to uncuff Babs, Ruth and Patsie come back up the street to rob the Wells Fargo Office. Yes we had decided to try and out do the Daltons, going for 2 banks in broad daylight. Well you knew we had to do that.

Patsie jumps into the Office, trades shots with Jack Handsome, he’s too good, fires back and her nerve fails so she ducks back out of the door, the lead from Jacks gun is just too hot for her to handle.

Of course this leaves Ruth with a clear shot from the doorway - that's Ruth the crack shot and poor Jack doesn't stand a chance and goes down OOF.

There is no one left to interfere with the robbery or the getaway, so they have time to carry out the Mad Lords final scheme. I think it was Doug who said in one post “He is mad you know”

The Mob steal the police car and make their getaway on the Marie Anne that was tied alongside the jetty.

Just for your information the Marie Anne is a scale model of the launch the Mad Lord keeps on the lake in the grounds of Snapcase Hall.

The Mob pose outside the Sheriff’s office with their new ride. The photos were getting more blurred as the game went on.

The ever so slightly out of focus townsfolk. It could have been the beer, or maybe the wine that was causing them to look in focus at the time I took them.

The even more out of focus law enforcement. It could have been the whiskey, I have heard of this phenomena, but I have no recollection of this event.

That's got the 50th post out of the way without too much fuss.

I knew I had a photo of the morning after the first night and this is it.

These were just the tipples Sir Douglas consumed in the evening, but it was hot and thirsty work for him umpiring Frostgrave or Lukewarm Grave as he called it. Maybe we helped out a bit in the creation of this glass mountain.


Well if you are still here - thanks for reading and C and C's are greatly encouraged.
Cheers