Legends of the Old West

A brief report today, mainly because I forgot my camera, so had to resort to the old iPad...!

We've been playing about with scenario-based 'Legends of the Old West' games, mainly so I could make sure I was happy that the system was suitable for large multi-player games at the club, and would be easy enough for new players to pick up.

I intend to write it up as a generic skirmish system, lifting elements  from the 4 Legends of the Old West books, together with Legends of the High Seas, and also the Lord of the Rings: Strategy Battle Game set upon which LotOW was based. Once written, I will just produce army/weapons lists for whatever floats my boat (i.e. whatever I fancy painting!) - on the list at the moment will be more Darkest Africa, Border Reivers, Pirates and Indian Mutiny.

Anyhoo, to get people used to the rules, we've gone back to smaller 1-on-1 tournament style games for a few weeks. There were 4 of us (myself, Steve, Bob and Dave) - so we each played two games, the second game being the two winners and 2 losers of the first.

I was using a Lawman posse...

First game I played Bob - Bob gave himself a good defensive position, but given that most of his Cowboys had six-guns, and I had armed mine with Heavy Pistols, I out ranged him...so just sat outside of six-gun range and picked him off until he had to come out into the open.

I took down all bar his Leader, for the loss of just 2 figures...

We did get a couple of rules wrong (relating to the use of Fame and Fortune) which may or may not have made a difference, but as it was a learning exercise, it didn't really matter.

Second game, I played Steve (he beat Dave in his first game). This was a little more cagey as we manoeuvred for position...Steve had 3 troopers (from a Texas Ranger Posse) with rifles/muskets, and up close, all his figures were using knifes - something I hadn't thought of - so had the edge in close combat.

However, as he approached and stole initiative, he rather astonishingly missed everything in front of him....you know that scene in Pulp Fiction....well that was me, looking around as the hail of bullets whirled around...!

So pulling out our Heavy Pistols we took him down.

 

On My other flank, Steve was having more success as he had made it into close combat and started taking me down. A lucky shot caused a Head for the Hills test, and against all the odds, he failed it...so victory was mine, rather luckily I think, because had he hung around I was surely toast...!

Excellent set of games, enjoyed by all!

Observations: my initial concern was that close combat is a tad too random, and though I may still look at this, Steve proved that there is an edge to be found...and it does make a difference, so I will give it some thought.