Category: Game Reports

Tombstone 2018

Tombstone at the end of the shoot-out

The end of year Society wild west shoot out for 2018 has gone down in the Annals of the West.  The town photographer captured the action!

This saw Sheriff “Frontier Steve” Walters defending the good citizens of Tombstone against raiding gangs led by Black “Texas Bob” Jang and Frank “Bexley Dutch Mike” Schmidt.  The Sheriff was later reinforced by a mercenary crew led by No-Eyes “Chairman John” Luke.  A motley range of citizens were controlled by the host and umpire, “Treasurer Mark” showing varying levels of commitment to help defend their town.

Bashful Baz heroically (and ineptly) confronts Frank “Bexley Dutch Mike” Schmidt

The gang led by Dutch Mike made a beeline for the bank, whilst the gang led by Texas Bob made a bee-line for the Drink n Drop Saloon.  Patrolling deputy Ted ‘The Lawman’ spotted Dutch, raised the alarm and opened fire with his trusty Colt,  while Sheriff Steve Walters moved round the general store to outflank Dutch’s gang, only to die in a hail of bullets from Quick-Draw Mc-Graw.  Several citizens waded in to help – the general store owner shot down Dutch from the window of his store before rashly coming out and in turn being gunned down by Quick-Draw.  Ted the Lawman fell to the shotgun of outlaw Heath Robinson.  The hapless citizen Bashful Baz placed himself squarely in the line of fire and then spent the rest of the game rooted to the spot and twice trying to unjam his Colt in a hail of bullets, emerging unscathed with only a few bullet grazes.  The only Deputy left standing, Camp Freddie, despatched outlaw Doc Savage through a window, having fled for cover in the bank.

Black “Texas Bob” Jang goes head to head with No-Eyes “Chairman John” Luke

At the other end of town Texas Bob went head to head with the newly arrived John ‘No-eyes’ and gunned him down in a hail of lead, then laying out his gang-side kick Jimmy Six-Shot with a ‘real-bad’ hit in the legs.  His rampage was finally stopped with a hail of bullets from ‘No-Eyes’ number 2, Yankee Seb.  Texas Bob’s side-kick, Stick-up Joe moved in to rob and recruit in the Drink n Drop.  Joe won over his secret admirer, saloon girl Rosie Williams and saloon ‘resident’ Whiskey Will.  All hell broke lose as the jilted and alcohol-fuelled Hallelujah Jones attacked Rosie.  Stick-up laid him out cold and Rosie completed her journey to the dark side by finishing him with her trusty Deringer.  However, as Stick-up Joe emerged from the Drink n Drop, he was gunned down by hired guns Yankee Seb and Ugly Trev.

Stick-up Joe and Rosie Williams emerge from the Drink n’ Drop to their doom

Meanwhile outlaw Sam Sharpshot went after town resident ‘The Butcher’ who had been gunned down after emerging from his livery stable and wildly shooting his shotgun at Texas Bob’s gang.  ‘The Butcher’ was heroically rescued by the town Doc, Sweeney Todd, but both were then pursued and ‘The Butcher’ was killed by the hard-bitten Sam assisted by Whiskey Will – Sweeney Todd was badly injured trying to save him.  Meanwhile last member of Bob’s gang, the outlaw Maximillian met a sticky end at the hands of Yankee Seb, Deputy Camp Freddie and hotel owner ‘Hurricane’ Higgins, who suddenly found the ‘courage’ to shoot him in the back as he faced Yankee Seb.

Crazed with grief Rosie dashed across the street aiming to gun down lawman Camp Freddie, who calmly turned and shot her down.

With this, the surviving outlaws headed for the hills.

Black “Texas Bob” Jang – during his gun toting rampage

The winner on the day was the gang of Black “Texas Bob” Jang, who scored 7 points after robbing the Drink n Drop and the Livery Stable (1 point each), recruiting two citizens to the gang (2 points), killing Legend ‘No-Eyes’ (2 points) and two citizens (half a point each).  The only survivors were Shootist Sam Sharpshot and the now infamous ex-citizen Whiskey Will.

No-Eyes “Chairman John” Luke moves up at the head of his hired hands

In second place was “Chairman John”, who scored 4.5 points after killing Legend Black Jang, Doc Savage, Maximillian and half a point for citizen turned outlaw, Rosie.  All of the hired gang except leader ‘No-Eyes’ survived, but Jimmy Six-Shot was ‘hurt real bad’.

Frank “Bexley Dutch Mike” Schmidt – killed by the unseen owner of the general store

A close third was “Bexley Dutch Mike”, who scored 4 points, his gang gunning down Legend Sheriff Walters, Deputy Ted the Lawman and citizens ‘Doc’ Walters and Ol’ George.  Only two gang members survived, Quick-Draw Mc-Graw and gang side-kick, Heath Robinson, who was ‘hurt real bad’, but caused mayhem with his shotgun.  McGraw becomes a legend after taking out the Sheriff and his marksman deputy without so much as a scratch before avenging his fallen leader.

Sheriff “Frontier Steve” Walters – a dedicated lawman to the end

“Frontier Steve” had an unlucky day with 3 of the 4 lawmen shot down stopping Dutch’s gang with the Sheriff and Chief Deputy killed and Deputy Billy the Bloke badly shot up as he emerged from the jail to help.  Their sacrifice will always be remembered.

Sheriff Walters gunned down in the performance of his duty. Bashful Baz is under fire from Heath Robinson and Quick-Draw McGraw on the other side of the store.  Dutch Mike has fallen near the bank.
Doc Walters proudly poses in front of his store on the day it opened. He is now remembered as a fallen hero of Tombstone

The citizens held a fine funeral for Doc Walters who fell defending his store and the town, killing outlaw legend ‘Dutch’ Schmidt.  Bashful Baz can spin a fine tale showing his bullet grazes having survived a hail of bullets and shotgun shells (probably leaving out that his gun jammed twice and he never hit anything other than the side of the bank).  The severely injured doctor, Sweeney Todd becomes a town hero after his selfless rescue of ‘The Butcher’ and attempt to save him from the brutal assault of Sam Sharpshot and the treacherous Whiskey Will.

Whiskey Will and Sam Sharpshot emerge from the Livery Stable after their savage pursuit and killing of the ‘The Butcher’

The tragic tale of the doomed love of Stick-up Joe and Rosie Williams enters western folk-lore.

Camp Freddie plans to stand for Sheriff.

The game used “The Rules With No Name” and 20mm figures and buildings from the collection of our late Chairman, Trevor.

The rules use a card driven activation sequence and make for an excellent, fast, fun game.

A random roll was used to drive the action of citizens, with the potential to defect to an outlaw gang under pressure, avoid action, or alternatively suddenly gain the courage to defend the town, with limited, or excessive enthusiasm, as events unfolded in their direction.

Grendel Stalks the Night

To kick off 2019 at the first meeting in January there will be a game of Dragon Rampant based on the story of Beowulf and Grendel. Stephen sets the scene…

“In off the moors, down through the mist beams, god-cursed Grendel came greedily loping…”

The game will involve two sides – Grendel and his marsh demon minions against Beowulf and the assorted heroes of Heorot.

All models and materials will be provided. Just bring yourself and a desire to roll dice in good company. There’s no need to know the rules either. Dragon Rampant is an easy game to pick up and, though it’s open to anyone, I’d be particularly keen to have players who’ve never played the ‘Rampant’ family of games before or new players to the club.

So if you fancy a go then join us on the 12th Jan for a bit of mythological dark ages fun.

“For a brief while your strength is in bloom but it fades quickly; and soon there will follow illness or the sword to lay you low, or a sudden fire or a surge of water or jabbing blade or javelin from the air or repellent age.”

Doom Riders of the Wasteland

John Lambert fills us in with the goings-on at the Christmas Gaslands game

Five Gangers set off from the city in pursuit of the two escaping War Rigs and their escort. Stephen was keen to get stuck in but slide out of control and was stuck in 1st gear at the end of the first move. It was going to prove a frustrating day as He tried to get back into contention.

The War Rigs were in good shape but the escort had managed to position themselves so that they were unable to provide cover for the rigs. This close escort was proving frustrating for the second War Rig and despite strong words between the rig driver and escort the escort failed to take evasive action and was hit by the War rigs side rams – Ouch!. Sometimes tough love is the only way to learn. This was to prove costly for the War Rigs too as hazard accumulation caused by the collision and the wide bends caused the trailing War Rig to wipeout. This separated the rigs and left Chris’s war rig vulnerable to attack from all sides. The folly of taking fixed position machine guns instead of pivot mounts was plain to see as Chris suffered attack after attack, particularly from Bob’s car armed with two deadly miniguns.

Meanwhile the Escorting vehicles took a well earned lunch allowing Andy to score significant hits on the second rig. Chris was lined up to smash through a road block but He never made it and had to respawn. After two and a half hours, the War rigs had become bogged down but were able to carry out some repairs on the move. The trailing war rig decided to cut across the desert to avoid the attentions of the Ganger pack as a Pell Mell battle developed around Chris’ rig. It was at this point that Stephen dropped a glue slick which was to prove pivotal in the penultimate turn.

With Bob still in the lead, there were two dark horses. Carefully and quietly, Jack was amassing points and by pretending not to have any interest in the game, Mark’s tally was increasing un-noticed. Stephen also managed to register some hits.

This was the moment to bring on the Gyrocopter with snakes as a dropped weapon. The snakes were duly dropped causing confusion amongst the Gangers which pushed Andy out of contention, made worse by a direct hit from a Molotov cocktail and Bob was not able to get in strike range of the Rigs, stuck in the glue. With the final turn approaching, Bob was still in the lead but only just. A ramming and boarding attempt by Mark failed and whilst Jack was able to score some hits, a fumbled gear change prevented further attacks or a ramming attempt on the Rigs.

In the end, Bob just about held on to win by a narrow 2 point margin from both Mark and Jack. Bob’s pre game preparation had proved decisive and He is now the proud owner of a 3 car Gaslands team. Well done Bob!

The Gesta Owaini

Stephen regales us with another saga of the SAGA campaign

There is safety in numbers. Mind, there is also cowardice and dishonour.

It happened that Fritjolf Erlandsson had been raiding the coasts of Britannia and his raids took him north, around the rocky shores of Cape Wrath, and down through the Hibernian seas and the Isles of Manannan. He took landfall at Anglesey before heading down the Conway and harrying the good people who lived in the fertile valley.

This news soon passed to the bishop of Bangor who called upon his bondsman, Owain the Wolf Tamer, to fall upon the norsemen and bring slaughter to them. Owain was pleased to do the bishop’s bidding and he said his prayers unto the Lord that he may prevail in this endeavour.

It was in the woods of Tal-Y-Bont that Owain found Fritjolf and his men lurking, taking camp amid a collection of hoary stones engraved with the symbols of the ancients.

Fritjolf bellowed out to Owain, challenging him to a duel. But Owain was known for his wisdom and canniness, and he knew the deceit of the Vikings, and he was cunning in his actions for he made the leader of the Norse think he had been fooled, but he knew that Fritjolf had hidden his men in the woods and would lay upon him when he drew near. In his turn, Owain had arranged his own warriors and loyal bondsmen, so that Fritjolf would be trapped and Owain could take him back in chains to the bishop in Bangor.

Owain drew his javelins and let a flurry fly at Fritjolf and such was the accuracy of his aim that he pricked the Norse leader terribly. At this Fritjolf showed his true self and hastily fled from Owain and sought sanctuary amongst his men, too cowardly to take the fight to Owain as man against man,as he had entreated. Oh no! This Norse warrior, who had boasted and goaded the bold Owain, soon hid behind his men whilst Owain stood firm, alone, without need of hiding behind the men he was responsible for. So much for heroics when this cursed raider could do nothing more heroic than use his own men, men who had come to his banner, as a shield to protect his own dishonourable hide.

Owain had long since inspired devotion and loyalty in his followers who willingly moved forward to engage the Norse raiders to protect their lord and land.

Many times did Fritjolf and his raiders know the bitter taste of Welsh iron and fell sorry sore at the points of their javelins.

Owain danced around the raiders, his knowledge of the land of his fathers playing into his hands, and the vikings were at a loss at what to do.

And so it happened that Fritjolf and his raiders were sent packing. Lucky them that they were not sent in chains to the bishop, but with their tails between their legs they were beaten off and they made for their longships and took to the seas once more.

They would have no joy in the lands of Cymru!

SELWG 2018

The club had another successful day at SELWG 2018, winning the Best Terrain trophy for the third year in succession. Here’s Phil looking suitably pleased with life 🙂

We’ve posted plenty of photos of the game in the past, but this is surely an excuse for a few more ! Photos by Phil and also courtesy of the official SELWG photographer.

The Age of the Wolf – The Last Rites

With just one campaign season left in our Saga: Age of The Wolf campaign we are reaching the climax of the struggle for Britain in 1070AD. It’s been quite a year, with famine, recrimination, and sorrow besetting the North.

Our campaign has six players (well, seven, since one player had to pull out and a replacement took over):

  • Andy – Anglo Danes
  • Jeremey – Anglo Danes
  • Tony G – Normans
  • John R – Normans (had to pull out)
  • John L – Norse Gaels
  • Stephen – Welsh
  • Paul B – Vikings

It wouldn’t do to say what the rankings are at this stage (not least because I don’t know!) but I am pleased to say that, like a school sports day, everyone has had at least one win so far!

We’d also like to take this opportunity to thank our friends at Gripping Beast who have very generously provided a discount on a prize for the winner – the Saga 2 rulebook plus the Age of Vikings! Very kind and very generous. So, by the time Christmas gets here, the winner will not only have bragging rights over the others for the following year, but will also have an early Christmas pressie.

Keep an eye out for Turn 6 campaign stories and we’ll also be following up with a ‘Spoils Of War’ post, with stories about war trophies gained, blood feuds, murder, and worthy victories.
If you’ve not started your own Age Of Wolf campaign then we heartily recommend you do!

Again – cheers to Gripping Beast.​

The Saga of Fritjolf Erlandsson

Paul B begins the story of his SAGA campaign…

Book one.

There was a man named Fritjof, son of Ake, and Eerika, daughter of Gudbrand the fearless; she was sister of Gull Half-aelf in Keflavik, and he the father of Kettle Hæing. Fritjof was a man so tall and strong that none could match him, and his bravery won him the hand of Gunborg; A volur, by the grace of Freyja. Fritjof sailed the ocean as a freebooter. On the counsel of his huswife Fritjof sailed his longships to the shores of Anglalond, seeking there wealth and renown in battle.

Fritjof and his forces fell upon the Angles and there was fought a great battle. Fritjof and the Angle lord fought manly, beard to beard, and Fritjof was sore wounded. The Angles saw victory and rushed to the fray, but the strength of Fritjofs huscarls pushed back the Angles and their lord was captured. An arrangement was made and kept, and much gold was exchanged for the return of the Angle lord who departed with little affection. Fritjof, his name feared amongst his enemies, turned north as the summer wore on, to other battles waiting for him.

Entrance of the Vikings.

Coming late to the campaign, I had a few strokes of luck. I got to roll a few times on the fate table as a way to catch up with the others in the campaign, and managed to avoid any negative results, picking up several new hearthguard recruits and nearly a full new unit of levy. I can therefore afford to be somewhat reckless with my warriors, which plays to the strengths of the viking battleboard. This, combined with the fatigue negating abilities of the faction allowed me to put in a good showing against Andy’s Anglo-Danes in my first battle, capturing and ransoming his warlord. All of this good fortune combined just about pushed my warlord over the threshold of 15 power points needed to become an aethling.

The vikings have landed, and are on the move…

Action off Horns Reef – 17th August 1915

The British force breaks off at the end of the action

The society is refighting all of the naval actions of WW1 as a long running campaign, initially focussing on British Home Waters in 1914-1915.

Scenario 10 covered a night action off the Danish Coast on 17th August 1915.

Ships used are 1/3000 Navwar, with the Princess Margaret and the Light Vessel scratch built, all from Mark’s collection.  Rules are Mark’s computer moderated rules written in Visual Basic 6.

British forces were heading in to the Heligoland Bight to lay a large minefield aimed at catching German vessels coming in and out of their ports.  The large Minelayer, Princess Margaret, was escorted by seven modern ‘M’ class destroyers of the 10th Flotilla.  The sun had recently set and the British force was using the light from the Danish Horns Reef Light Vessel to get a position fix before heading in to lay the mines.  These were commanded by Mark as umpire.

Co-incidentally five large German destroyers of the 2nd Torpedoboots-Flottille had been on a search mission to the north that day and were heading back to port, also using the light vessel to get a fix before their final run in.  This force was commanded by Jon.

Horns Reef Light Vessel

The British force was silhouetted against the afterglow of the sun and so at 8.13pm the German force was able to sight and close on the British unseen.  At 8.22 the British spotted the shapes of ships in the murk and after some hesitation about their identity, the closest Division of British destroyers opened fire.  A short fight at about 5000 yards ensued with the British getting off a couple of torpedoes.  Apart from a near miss on the British destroyer Miranda, no hits were made and whilst the British torpedoes crossed the German line they both missed.

The British had turned away and with the remaining light having gone, the two sides lost sight of each other.  The players now plotted their next actions on a map.

The British decided to attempt to resume their course for minelaying and at 20.40 the two sides blundered back into contact.  As there was no moon and the Princess Margaret reacted slowly to the new contact, the two sides found themselves very quickly at close range.  The British 1st Division raced forward to shield the Princess Margaret, with both sides opening fire as they closed to just 600 yards and the German commander ordered a flotilla torpedo attack.

The close range clash – torpedo markers show the salvos fired and Minos has a marker showing she cannot turn to starboard due to a heavy port list

In a few minutes of mayhem the British destroyer Minos and then the German B 109 sank as a result of shell hits.  The British were extremely lucky to avoid 16 well-directed German torpedoes which crossed the tracks of 6 ships including the Princess Margaret.

Moorsom and Miranda shield the Princess Margaret

The Mentor and Moorsom were also badly damaged and reduced in speed and the German G 103 stopped by a shell in her engine rooms.  She was able to repair her damaged steam line and get back underway at reduced speed after the action to limp home.

B 98 leads the German Flotilla

The British again broke off and this time headed west for their covering force.  The German boats gobbled up the lagging Mentor and sank her with gunfire, then also stumbled across the crippled Moorsom as they steered south for home, again finishing her with a couple of salvos.

The British destroyers had succeeded in saving the heavily loaded minelayer they were there to screen, but had paid a high price, with 3 of their destroyers sunk, for only 1 German boat lost.

In the real action the Germans used the light advantage to close, then fired 3 torpedoes, before the British saw them.  One of these hit and blew the bow off the destroyer Mentor.  The Germans and British then immediately broke off, leaving the Mentor alone.  Once shored up, she managed an epic journey to limp all the way home.

In all campaign games German losses count double, to reflect the fact that they were less able to absorb losses and to reflect their more cautious use of their ships.

Nevertheless this game was a German tactical victory as the tonnage of British ships lost was more than double that of German ships lost – 2805 tons to 1352 tons, a net score of 101 points for Jon as German commander and a loss of the same for Mark as British/Umpire.  This leaves the league table as follows:

Mark H +87196
Andy K +13060
Mike P +11339
Alan O +350
Mark W +307
Alex M +121
Colin C 0
Brian S 0
Dean L 0
David S 0
Ian F 0
Brandt 0
Andrew (visitor) 0
John Le -428
Jon R -1155
Barry -3995
Trevor P -9538
Craig D -14481
Steve T -30235
Bob C -52540

 

Chain of Command – and no Chain of Command

 

We had two games running at our last meeting.
The first was 15mm refight of the opening clash of the American Civil War, the First Battle of Bull Run. The second was a 25mm action using Chain of Command.
In the first game Andy and Jon led the Federal Army against Steve and Mark with the combined Confederate Armies of Beauregard and Johnston.
This used Steve’s 15mm figures and was a third playtest for his home grown, Brigade level rules.  One of the features of this action was the fairly chaotic command arrangements of the newly raised, largely volunteer armies, which arrived over the course of the action.  This means that units from the same command were set up to appear at different points on the battlefield, meaning that many brigades were hard to co-ordinate as they were out of their command radius.

We managed to reverse history with this one with the Federals seizing the high ground and seeing off all of the Confederate attempts to get it back.  Steve’s rules make for an enjoyable and fast paced game and after a few tweaks to fine tune things are ready for another outing!

In our second game fast forward to 1944 and Dave and Pete led their American paratroopers (with some help from an attached Sherman tank)against a position defended by German paratroopers under Alan and John.  Figures and terrain from Alan’s 25mm collection.  Alas the Sherman support was to no avail – picked off in an ambush by a Panzer killer team armed with Panzerschreck and Panzerfaust anti-tank weapons.  These rules can be the source of some nasty surprise if your opponents save up command points to deploy ambushes!