A Western Adventure - Hold Up At Skull Rock

Bill intends to rob the Stage going to Little Whiskey, his plan is to jump out in front of it and yell for it to stop. Well good luck with that plan Bill.

He was never the shiniest spoon in the drawer, direct action was more his forte and this plan reflected years of perfecting his preferred method of stagecoach robbery. That’s what he told his men and they were very dull spoons compared to Bill and believed him.

In fact this was his first stage hold up and he was not really sure how to go about it, but practice makes perfect so they say.
Unless you get shot to death at which point there is no more practice.

Here is the stage jolting along the main road to Little Whiskey, road is a bit of a misnomer as you can see, it’s just a dirt track, mostly clear of boulders and brush, but this is what passes for fast communication out west at this time.

As usual a general overview of the board, the Stage has to exit this end of the table, or maybe even turn round and go back, it doesn’t really matter because the losers are the ones who are dead and the winners are the ones who aren’t.

I like to keep my winning conditions simple. None of this 5points for this plot point, 3 points for that one. You are either dead or alive, this is the wild west after all.

The Stage is being driven today by Chester because Rose is having a day off.

I know he could do with reins to the horses but that involves a lot of work so just imagine the stage bouncing along, the dust, the heat and the lack of space inside and then you will have forgotten the lack of reins.

Riding shotgun is English Bob you may remember him from the last episode in Little Whiskey he still has the star but it’s under his big coat and he’s grown a moustache.

Undertaker Haulage Company have employed a young boy, a kid really, Henry McCarty to run a mule train bringing supplies into town, so far he only has one horse in his mule train but the west is expanding as is the mule train. For some reason he’s always been known as Billy, maybe he didn’t like his given name of Henry.

And yes, that is a coffin on the roof. (Bryan don't start getting excited)

Eduardo if you happen along, this is the best I felt able to do cutting the horses bases off.

The ambush – On the left is Bill Samuelson in his trademark black coat, white hat, they all have bandana's as masks except Charlie who figures there are so few left handed outlaws he's fairly easy to recognise anyway.

Nick here has been delegated to hold the horses. I think this is because he is developing quite a name as a gun man and Bill doesn’t like the competition.

He is also wearing a new duster, I really didn’t like the army painter quick shade and have tried to lighten it without doing a complete re-paint only partially successful but quick to do.

I hope you have noticed the cactus, and if not why not. I don’t know if I've mentioned this but I've been doing stuff with DAZ and this is some of it.

This is just to place all the outlaws, so you can see Bills cunning plan in all it’s glory, and to let you know that the hold up is taking place at Skull Rock a well known landmark on the road to Little Whiskey. In fact this will go down in history as the Skull Rock Holdup.

I picked up Skull Rock off a beach in case you were thinking I had been spending money on terrain.

Turn 1 – The stage is coming. Bill doesn’t step out into the road and yell stop. He fails to activate.

Turn 2 The stage is coming and just for a bit of drama a head on view, but Bill still doesn’t step out into the road and yell stop. He fails to activate - again.

At this point I’m thinking one more failed activation and this games over before it’s even begun :-(

However Charlie (on the right) decides to act, he can see Bill has frozen, well would you jump out in front of a stage and four horses, - neither would I.

He gets an ambivalent brains test, so not sure what to do, he wants to shoot the stagecoach horses.

I don’t really hold with back shooting, and so I make my lead men pass a test before they can do something really bad. Charlie passed!

He can’t see the horses because of Billy and so his choice was 1,2,3 shoot English Bob riding shotgun on the stage or 4,5,6 shoot Billy’s horse.

He shoots Bob and hits him twice, right leg and left arm, not bad for a lefty. Roll 1D6 - 1,2 Bob has the shotgun in his left hand, 3,4 in his right, 5,6 it’s in a boot holster on the coach. Bob rolls a 1 so shotgun in left hand, as he’s shot in the left hand he drops the shotgun, it’s not going well for him, fortunately he dropped it in the foot well of the coach.

It doesn’t really matter because Bob is Out of the Fight OOF and slumps down. Same again 1,2 out of the coach 3,4,5,6 into the seat. Rolls a 1 again and falls out of the moving coach and lands on his head which would also have put him OOF but he already is, if you get my drift.

Billy reacts to the shot, turns in the saddle and draws and shoots in one fluid motion, Charlie takes lead in the head and is down. Not dead but he’s not going to get up soon.

Chester reacts to the shooting and wants to get the hell out of here, flap the reins and go, but he realizes the dope who set up the stage didn’t give him reins. No - actually he got a bad roll for him on the affinity check and couldn’t leave English Bob behind. Especially after he had fallen from the stagecoach, there will be questions. So he pulls back on the imaginary reins and the horses slow and finally grind to a halt.

Steve on the far side of the coach also wants to shoot the horses to stop them but a similar bad roll means he is too soft hearted and so shouts to Chester to stop, which he is doing anyway.

Chester has halted the team and the stage has stopped. Bill finally activates – steps out and yells his famous line “Stop and keep your hands where I can see them”. Chester is braver than he is smart and so goes for his gun. He’s fast, for an old man but not fast enough, they fire together, damn Chester’s gun jams but Bills doesn’t and he hit Chester in the right arm Chester is OOF and drops his side arm as well.

Billy passes his Brains test and so was going to ride off and fast but he must have some affinity for English Bob (another bad roll) because he can’t leave him hurt and lying in the road so climbs off his horse to see how Bob is.

Steve sees Billy climb down and snap fires at him but misses, Billy returns the bullets in spades. Sparks fly off the rock close to Steve’s head and he ducks back into cover.

Billy standing over English Bob ready to defend him to the end.

Bill moves up to the stage and pokes his pistols in through the window and in a savage drawl says, “get your asses out here”.

The stage is carrying 5 passengers inside and here are three of them, all on their way to Blonde Edna’s Saloon and Brothel in Little Whiskey.

Climbing out of the off side is the rest of the working crew. In the distance Billy is trying to pull Bob to the safety of the big rock, he just doesn’t have enough strength. Bill fails to activate.

The girls all walk round to Bills side of the stage, Bill fails to activate again, probably stunned by the ladies approaching him.

Then there is a creaking and a clattering followed by a dull thud as the coffin lid falls from the coffin on top of the stagecoach and a figure stands up. Slowly and carefully, it weaves about a little, almost like it’s drunk, eyes blinking in the strong sun light.

Bill looks up in shock, the figure looks down. “What you doing making so much noise, you woke me up” it drawls in a deep southern accent.

Bill lifts both his pistols and points them at the figure and for something that appears so uncoordinated the figure reacts swiftly to the threat and pulls a gun and they both fire together. I'd like to say simultaneously but I couldn't spell it.

There is a crack of gun fire followed by the squishy sound of bullets striking home, followed by another crack and the figure on the stage drops his revolver, blood coursing down his right arm, but Bill is already on the ground – gut shot and OOF.

At this point Steve recovers his nerve and slides around the side of the rock. Billy and he dance the dance of death, firing bullets and jumping around shouting and screaming like you do, but both miss and Steve ducks back behind the rock, he is out of ammo and needs to reload.

At this point two of the ladies turn, pulling short, stubby but very deadly derringers out from the recesses of their clothing. Pointing them at Steve, they indicate he should drop his gun and reach for the sky. Which unsurprisingly he does.

It’s all over, Nick holding the horses decides he is going to win the game. Yep he is not going to mix it with these serious looking working girls and he's going to stay alive, so he rides off into the sunset, leading the other 3 horses.

A quick introduction to the coach party from left to right.

The Kid is Henry McCarty, calling himself Billy. Dora DuFran in the grubby pantaloons, Pearl De Ville in the elegant crimson dress, the owner of Blonde Edna’s Saloon and Brothel. The blonde lady in yellow and red is Mollie Johnson, then Mary Ann Conklin with the red sash in which she keeps a supply of stones, and finally Eleanor Dumont wearing a nice black corset.

I will do a full and formal introduction when the ladies reach Little Whiskey.

The driver and shotgun guard are not well enough to have their picture taken.

The figure on the roof of the coach is Doctor John Watson, he was drunk and asleep, hitching a ride in the coffin, travelling 3rd class as you might say.

Whiskey has been his ruin, he was a surgeon of some renown back East but now has been struck off in more states than he can count on the fingers of both hands and some toes as well. He maintains that drink helps steady his hands when operating, but when you are weaving around on wobbly legs you do need something to steady your hands, I imagine.


If you are still here – thanks for reading and let me know that you passed this way.
Cheers

Rescue The Pilots

BANG, SMASH, CRASH. We’ve been hit announced the calm voice of Pilot Officer Driver, everyone out now, I can’t hold her steady and we're going down.

The plane carrying the new Resistance Liaison Officer (RLO) from SOE has been hit, just as he was about to make his jump.
Miraculously no one was injured and the whole crew bailed out with him, the good news is that they were in roughly the right area to meet with up the French Resistance, the bad news is that they would have to walk home.

So instead of 1 man the resistance were collecting a Pilot, co Pilot/Radio Opp and Navigation Officer as well as Liam O’Rorke the RLO.

Overall shot of the area, The Pilots and O’Rorke have made their way to the old disused barn on the east (right hand side) of the board, they are to wait here to rendezvous with the French Resistance.

The Resistance would enter from the road on the west (left hand side) of the board, cross the board collect the airmen and return the same way. Their objective was to leave by the entry point as this was the shortest route back to town, but they could leave by another road although there was a greater risk of running into enemy troops on the way back to town if they did that.
Secondary objectives were to blow up the gas and fuel stores, but I never expected to be able to do that.

The main problem was that there was a known German Garrison in the concrete bunker, the building surrounded by wire to the North West, the gas storage tank was located there and the number of the garrison was unknown. There was also a probable garrison guarding the fuel dump at the new barn in the centre of the board. There were expected roving patrols in the area as well.

So - not too much to worry about then.

In this shot you can see the strong point and new barn a bit more clearly. A very fertile part of France lots of cover, good for a night action.

A close up of the disused barn that the airman are hiding in, the pilot can just be seen by the tree. The green counters are some of the encounter markers. There are 14 in total and they move in a random direction and distance and may move off the board.

As usual these represent any number of things, from wind in the trees (nothing) to German troops or a flock of hens, but usually nothing good.

It is night time and so visibility is only 12” but hearing is 18”, sound travels further at night or maybe loss of sight makes it seem so.

Text relating to the pictures is always below it and I will endeavour to write the German sides names in red to try and make it comprehensible, OK make a cup of tea, buckle up and settle down at the back.

Pilot Officer Honey Driver – reflecting that when she joined up for the RAF Women’s Delivery Service (WDS) she thought that meant delivering planes not spies – hey ho it certainly makes life interesting.

She keeps a lonely vigil waiting to be rounded up, either by the French or Germans, straining her ears for the slightest sound, although lifting up the flaps on her flying helmet might help a little.

The French Resistance move stealthily along the hedgerow, this all female group have at point Barbara Vasseur with her deadly shotgun, she can shoot the pips out of an apple, mind you there was not much left of the apple last time she tried it.

She is at point because not only can she shoot, she is like a cat in the night with razor sharp reflexes and a 7th sense, much better than a 6th one, however she is a bit scared of the dark and very likely to run away at the slightest noise.

There are two encounter markers up ahead and she sees 2 groups of figures, the 1st seen here are a couple of Italians - the officer is Silvano Bertone he has none of the brains and guts of Vito Pasquetto the soldier with him, but he does have a noble family lineage that goes back 100’s of years and that counts for more than brains in this man’s army.

The other group are 3 dark uniformed figures, fortunately they are both moving away from our Heroines of the Resistance.

Barbara freezes (failed activation) and just before the 2 groups move out of sight in the dark she recognises the dreaded uniform of the Gestapo.

Honey is surrounded by encounter markers, one turns out to be chickens, one is the wind rustling through the leaves in the tree she is sheltering behind and the last she doesn’t see. Honey it’s behind you!

The Italians and Gestapo join together but continue down the road towards Honeys hideout.

Here is the full Resistance team. Sister Assumptia is in charge – she might be as clumsy as a bull in a china shop but she understands small unit tactics and details 2 of the girls to remain behind to watch the German strong point and provide cover for when the team need to return. Lorretta Salerno from Italy is a crack shot with her American produced tommy gun, as is Maria Radomira with her Webley revolver.

Yet again Sister A makes a noise but there is no reaction from the far side of the road, is the sentry asleep?

Is there even a sentry?

The Gestapo and Italians continue down the road, talking loudly, Honey hears them early and freezes, they don’t see her. Sister A makes no noise this move, the 1st and they continue following after the enemy. Maria and Lorretta make themselves comfortable watching the German strong point.

The Germans halt for a couple of turns, the Resistance catch up to them.

This was quite tense because the Germans saw no one. Barbara still at point saw the Germans but also saw Honey’s airman’s helmet and so was sure she was a pilot, so far so good. Honey had already seen the Germans but also saw Barbara’s beret appear over the hedge however she was not sure if she was the Resistance, fortunately she held her nerve and made no rash move.

I had been using a variation on my random movement rule once a marker turned in to an actual encounter, and so for this group there was a greater likelihood of continuing in the same direction or veering off, rather than a totally random 360’. However now as they had been stationary for 2 turns I gave them a 360’ random move and they turned around and marched back up the road the way they had come. Bugger just when I thought they would march off the board, out of the equation.

The Resistance had taken up firing positions along the hedge and were all set to open fire. Honey meanwhile has recognized Sister A as a nun and has decided they must be the Resistance rather than trouble.

Here the enemy are moving back up the road, they have still not seen the Resistance who have been really really quiet, Even Sister A.

Honey gestures that she will fetch the pilots. Everything else is calm and still.

Inside the old barn are the rest of the W.D.S. - Navigation Officer 1st Class Hazel Arnesen from Norway, she stole a small sailing boat and a German Officers pistol after Norway was invaded and crossed the North Sea to Britain. She had no idea about sailing or navigation and that trip made her realise how important navigation was, after spending 7 days on what should have been a 2/3 day trip and she was fortunate to see the Orkneys, before America.
She consoled herself with the thought that the Vikings had gone that way before and knew very little about navigation but it was a close run thing.

With her is Amelia Eckhardt (in another incarnation) as co-pilot and Radio Operator. The 3rd man is Liam O’Rorke SOE and no one knows much about him.

This is now turn 19, very slow due to all this creeping about trying to remain undiscovered, but very tense all the same.

All was going well until Meinhard Wenke decided to move off the road and into the fields (probably needed the toilet). He moved within 12” of Maria and Lorretta, saw them in the gloom and shouted it’s the Resistance, everyone went for their guns, and as they say “all hell broke loose”.

Wenke ducks down behind the fence (failed guts test) but draws his pistol. Vito Pasquetto the Italian soldier cannot see what is happening but being brave and foolish runs forward and takes cover. Maria of the Resistance reacts next and calmly shoots Wenke and in spite of the cover from the fence he is hit and OOF. Karmilla Altmann the Gestapo officer remains in cover pulls her pistol but does not fire. Gerda Nerlinger the Gestapo Soldier sees Wenke go down and can’t see the enemy so ducks back into cover, bumping into the Italian Officer Silvano who also can’t see the enemy and retires a way back. Lorretta of the Resistance reacts last, holds her nerve and sees Vito as he runs forward opens up with the Tommy Gun and he goes down OOF.

Karmilla now fires but misses, Maria ducks back from the shot but Lorretta fires the trusty Tommygun and hits Karmilla who is OOF from the 1st shot, just as well because there is an ominous click and Lorretta is out of ammo.

In the dark everyone is now out of sight and it goes very very quiet.

This is the situation just after Karmilla Altmann got shot, she is behind the wall. Wenke in the foreground down, Vito shot and laying in the road Gerda’s hat middle right ducked down in cover, and Silvano on the right out of sight bringing up the rear.

Sister A and Barbara move into the old barn area and meet up with the pilots and O’Rorke.

The Resistance and Airmen are at the far end of the board and you can just see Maria’s head at this end, it’s a long way back. At this point Sister A decided her plan of action. Well I decided it for her and she agreed. She has a strong party of 9 combatants, she knows there has been fighting but the last sound was the distinctive Tommy gun so it’s likely the 2 girls are still in play and some of the 5 enemy between her and escape are almost certainly down. She has a lot of faith in Lorretta.

While making this decision (inactive for 2 turns) Silvano follows behind Gerda to see what has happened, they see Karmilla dead and the other 2 moaning and groaning but they don’t have the guts to rescue them, or was that, they do have the sense not to go further forward and into sight of whoever has the Tommy gun.

The gun firing has roused everyone else and the 1st to appear are Horst Dankers and his squad who were out patrolling the perimeter of the strong point. They are under strength and are missing the squad LMG but they all have SMG’s and so are a formidable force. I also rolled for the forces in the strong point and barn.

Horst leads his men to the hedge, you can’t see them but Lorretta and Maria are across the road. Horst couldn’t see them either but his men had made too much noise and Lorretta had heard them and was ready.

Silvano had left Gerda to look after the wounded and he had gone to the new barn for help. There is a small squad of 3 men led by Dieterich Amlinger, Dieterich had a sentry posted – Walter Breckt but he had fallen asleep. Walther will be on a charge if he survives the night. Silvano is screaming at Walter that he needs to go and help the wounded and shoot the enemy. Unfortunately he is screaming in Italian.

Walter doesn’t speak Italian and he will only leave his post if he receives orders from a Teutonic officer. Preferably with blonde hair.

I just love this picture sorry.

Horst has a decision to make, should I stay or should I go (The Clash in case you didn’t know). Fails brains test so goes into the road to find the source of the firing. As he pushes his way through the hedge and into the road he sees Lorretta at the same time as she sees him but against the odds he reacts first and fires, 1 shot and there is that clicking sound again, out of ammo, he misses. Lorretta returns fire but is a bit flustered and also misses, Horst and all of his team duck back through the hedge.

A massive firefight ensues, Horst loads while the other two fire at Lorretta and miss, she returns fire and hits Michaela OOF, Eckehardt who is a lousy shot returns fire but misses and runs out of ammo. Lorretta returns fire and he drops dead. Horst with 2 men down runs back to any cover that is further away from Lorretta. (wise man)

Sister A starts to lead her men through the fields and towards the shooting.

Albrecht Stahl finally gets his men dressed and out of the strong point.

Horst recovers his nerve and creeps back to see how his men are but trips, making a lot of noise but Lorretta is confused in the darkness and doesn’t fire.

Sister A has heard Silvano shouting at Walter and so has three of her team guarding her right flank as the rest move through the fields, sadly they are spotted by the guards in the new barn.

Walther fires first, hitting Honey who falls to the ground. Nichole in the blue hat ducks down and Hazel using her German Pistol fires back, misses and runs out of ammo. Walther returns fire and she is hit and OOF.

Everyone takes cover.

Over by the strong point Albrecht leads his men down the path between the wire and gets in a firefight with Lorretta and Maria, he goes down dead and his men run back into the bunker. Horst sees this and decides to pull back completely.

The Heroines of the Resistance had kept their heads down (poor reaction tests) but then advanced to the cover of the wall and hedge lined road and a fierce gun battle erupted with the Deutch Afrika Korps (DAK) by the new barn. Walter and Silvano fire at the very pretty Nicole in the blue hat and miss, Sister A snap fires at Dietrich and he is OD, Nicole wounds Gotfried but he is also hit by Barbara with the shotgun, remember the apple, well the apple is now Gotfried OD. Silvano ducks back, Walter fires and misses and everyone in the Resistance fires back, he is OD.

Silvano shouted Mi arrendo, Me arrendo in Italian and no one understood him, but when he threw his Beretta out they got the gist.

Gerda of the Gestapo (remember her?) meantime was hearing gunfire all around but couldn’t see anything other than gun flashes. Passing her brains test she decided to pull back out of the way of anything coming her way.

The Bunker proved very comforting for the other group of DAK and they stayed there.

Final moves of the game the Resistance passing the Bunker, the DAK finally came out but didn’t venture far from the door and the Heroines escaped, with Hazel wounded, and Honey presumed dead but everyone else unharmed and ready to drink a little wine in celebration.

The Enemy lost 4 dead 4 wounded, 1 ran away (Horst), 1 hiding (Gerda), 1 quivering (Silvano) and 3 guarding the Bunker. A resounding success for Girl Power, I mean the French Resistance.

The game lasted 34 moves, and I hope it’s not been too confusing for anyone reading this far. Take heart it's nearly over.

The Blue Eyed Girls from the Women’s Delivery Service and the man from SOE.

Some of the Heroines from the Resistance - Barbara of the Apple, Nicole of the blue hat and Sister A, you can see why she may be a little clumsy at times. Lorretta and Maria are staying incognito, photo too blurred.

The Gestapo. Boo Hiss.

The Italians

This glum looking group were from the new barn and all got shot. Walter may get shot again for being asleep on duty.

The other squad from the DAK and the Army wouldn’t stand still enough for their photos which also came out blurred, I blame the cameraman!


A bit of a mammoth sitting but if you're still here - thanks for reading and let me know what you thought.
Cheers