The opening phase of the Little Whiskey Bath House and Brothel War took place in 1875, in a small and very dangerous town in the New Mexico Territory, the town was called, - surprisingly - Little Whiskey. Unhappily for the town’s inhabitants the outbreak of the war coincided with various other events that occurred on the same day. This culminated in the mayhem on Main Street and the only person who could have benefited from this would have been the Undertaker, but so far he’s not been seen in Little Whiskey.
Stories of the various events abound, some true, some not true and some so outrageous that you would find them hard to believe even though they were true. This impartial account of the blackguard outlaws, back shooting gunmen and of course the heroic Lawmen and citizens of Little Whiskey, will lay to rest all the rumours and fabrications you may have heard in the low dives and saloons you might frequent.
Questions will be answered, questions such as:-
Did Pearl de Ville and two of her girls really beat up Captain Snapcase and his band of ex Confederate soldiers or were they just negotiating bulk rates?
Were Joe Turner and Temperance Jenkins really estranged lovebirds or was it just a one night stand – again?
Did Poker Face Fitz-Badger the Wells Fargo Office Manager, really face down the Embroidery Sewing Circle gang single handedly, then dive through a window and live to tell the tale, or was someone embroidering the truth?
Had bounty hunter Dougal Emfore set up an ambush in the Saloon to capture Texas Red, or was he just in there getting drunk?
What happened to the Stage coach carrying the silver bullion and did the bank get robbed or was it an inside job?
Why did Sheriff Tarot stand tall in front of four desperate Desperado’s on the Jail House steps, when he could have had another cup of coffee in his nice warm office?
How many prisoners would they get into the Jail before they couldn’t shut the door, and indeed how many would escape?
Would Drunken Donna get her man or was the bottle the only solace she would get today?
Why didn’t the Snake Oil Salesman arrive in town driving his new wagon and what happened to little Dolly Brown, she should have been pushing her pram along Main Street as the mayhem was taking place.
Don’t forget the stampede, stampede you say, - yes - there’s always a stampede in a western, not usually along Main Street but then again this ain't no ordinary town.
These are just some of the questions that have been asked and there will be others, such as “what were these three guys drinking and can I get a bottle of the same stuff”, the answer to the last question is - no - we drank it all.
My idea was to set up something different to the normal western shoot out, you know the sort of thing, 3 gangs ride into town and shoot each other for no apparent reason. I wanted to introduce some uncertainty into the game and avoid players seeing the overall table and reacting to it. Almost all the figures were placed on the board before they arrived and many of the characters were in buildings out of sight but even when they could see figures they wouldn’t know if they were friend, foe or just didn’t care, until it was revealed. This would also apply to me because quite a lot of the reaction was dice controlled, so there were various options but no certainty.
To shake things up a little, there were 22 separate groups of individual characters, all with a different objective or task to accomplish, group size varied from one to five characters but there were only three players, Captain Bertram Snapcase a veteran of the Civil War, bounty hunter Dougal Emfoure, just a veteran and Johnny Vagabond, just civil – mostly.
This is the town looking down MainStreet before it all went to rat s**t.
The full game is over on my blog but it goes on forever, best make a cup of tea first if you decide to mosey on down New Mexico way, or better yet a glass of whiskey might help you see things clearer.
This link should take you there, but a word of warning, if you don't like blood soaked streets and the sight of dead and wounded cowpokes is not your style, I would avoid clicking. Sam Peckenpah's films are like Goldilocks and the Three Bears in comparison.
https://vagabondswargamingblog.blogspot.com/2020/01/the-little-whiskey-bath-house-and.htmlIf you're interested my previous blog post details the various groups objectives, just skip through the duplicate rubbish that's above.
Hasta la vista