Do you like the Old West combat system

[Terrible Tim]

I played a game of Old West last night with a few new people to the game. Their gaming experinece ranges between 10 and 30 years. We played a High Noon game. I only have the basic rule book.

A common comment was about the close combat system. These guys believe that there is more benefits in engaging in close combat than shooting. If it looked like the side with the Drop was preparing to shoot, the others side just charged into to combat to avoid being shot first. This is a understandable tactic except the game ends up being about fist fighting and less about shooting and I believe shooting is more the style of a western game.

How does everyone find the fightin system? Has anyone modified the system?

We play fightin as d6 + fightin stat to see who wins combat. Rerolling ties. It seems to be a better system than the highest dice wins.

Please comment.

TT.

[Westfalia Chris]

Well, thatīs a bone of contention, indeed...

I personally like the close combat system as is, as it gives fast results without the need to do much arithmetics (me getting old these days, in fact a year older tomorrow). Of course, itīs down to Olī Lady Luck, but I think thatīs rather western-style.

On the other hand, our group is rather trigger-happy, especially with the Fanning ability of the sixgun (but I still want my gatling-armed robots!), so fighting is usually down and dirty when inside buildings, say jails. My gang got a rather ruthless reputation as bad-ass knifejocks, but now everyone has seen the merits of a sharp-bladed hand weapon, even though it doesnīt beat a well-handled Colt (always remember Indy!).

We also try to game "movie style", rather than gaming for winning, so itīs mostly about shooting - especially since my posse has some crack shots nowadays.

[Poliorketes]

The core rules should be shootin' and little else. Close combat is always an option, but you can easily avoid this. If you have the drop, just stay outside charge range. What weapons did you use? Some heavy pistols or longarms and you have more shooting than with only sixguns.

Close combat gets important with indians. They're not that shooty.

[Terrible Tim]

Because it was an intro game, members of our posses had sixguns, shotguns, knives and rifles. There where 6 miniatures in each posse.

TT.

[Westfalia Chris]

Nothing bad about that!

Of course, once you go down the campaign trail (which is great fun!), most players will want to gear their posses towards their preferred game style.

[Chris Steadman]

There was some considerable discussion on the LOTOW yahoo group about fighting. Someone else had decided to include the fighting factor in every fight, instead of how it is intended to be used to only decide ties. Mark Latham came back and explained that they had play-tested this but had decided against it. I cannot recall his reasons.

However, if you do decide to use the fighting factor every time you are going to make fights more likely. If you play the rules as they are written, everyone knows that it is going to be a 50:50 chance of winning and losing. If you include the factor one side is likely to have an advantage and will want to engage in hand-to-hand.

Also, keep in mind that anyone who is charging must be within 6" and within sight. This means that in the previous turn, practically always, they must have been a ligitimate target for fire from the figure they want to charge this turn.

We've also found that as the campaign progresses and characters acquire skils the initial impressions of the game - including the thought that fighting seems better - are dispelled some what. For instance, after six games, three of my heroes are now 3+ for shooting and two of them can fire twice. It is a brave posse that is willing to expose themselves to that lot in order to charge next turn.

[Terrible Tim]

Because we played a basic game, the fightin stats where either 2,3 or 4, so didn't really effect the rolls that much - only 2 points different from the best fighter to the worst. I think in the next game we will play the fightin as it written.

You make some good points there Chris. It would be interesting to know why the designers decided on the existing combat system, but I am sure they play tested the rules (or the LOTR rules) before printing them. I hope it was not because they where aiming the game at a "younger" gamer like LOTR, so simplifed the rules.

TT.

[Westfalia Chris]

I had the same gripe with the fighting rules when they were first published in the LotR game, being too simplistic and unpredictable.

Iīm still not sure whether itīs good or bad for the Ring, but I think it works out pretty well in the small scale or action that is Legends. Itīs immensely tense, especially if cornered in the Saloon by two of my buddies Rowdies, then rolling a six, beating their meagre rolls and ripping one open with my trusty bowie knife... ahem. Violence Issues, me? And it assures, as has been said, that the main focus remains on shootinī...

... usually we manage to blast away at each other without hitting (you know, the proverbial "Elephant behind the barn door vs. flame thrower" thing), then have to resort to fisticuffs and knifes to sort it out, especially in those "Civilian-heavy" scenarios, where my opponentsī Outlaws always seem to be more keen on hostages than old-skool RAF terrorists.