Dardenell County

[Westbury]

Many years ago I gamed western gunfight in 54mm with the originators of 'The Old West Skirmish Rules' and then later at a local club where we set the various adventures in a fictional county. Time moved on, collection got sold, a couple of stuttering starts at doing it again but nothing. However the group has had a burst of enthusiasm for the period recently, figures have been painted, random buildings purchased, and various rule sets play tested; then our friend Jamie decided he was going to sell his complete 4Ground town so taking a leap of faith I bought it and we had our first game on the streets of Mal Paso.

[Westbury]

The basic scenario was, two local ranchers, Old Man Gordon and John Murdoch have been feuding over water rights and on a fateful day both were in the county seat with some of their hands; words were said, guns were drawn.......

[Westbury]

Murdoch kicked it off, challenging Gordon and opening fire.
In typical wargaming fashion the players sent their characters scuttling down side alleys or heading for cover on the street.
Murdoch, Blue Johnson & noted gunfighter Cherry Valance stood their ground on main street while Irish Bob took up a position with his rifle & Juan Nogales sneeked off with his shotgun.
Old Man Gordon, his brother John and son Matt exchanged shots on main street while Cookey took cover by the hotel with his rifle and the gunfighter Billy Cody ran off down the side streets.

[Westbury]

There was some deadly shooting, some appalling shooting and some comedy moments.
Noted gunfighter Cherry Valance lost his nerve at the first near miss (Pinned) and never got back into the fight, the other gunfighter, Billy Cody was blasted in the back by Nogales and died instantly - Nogales later snuck up on Matt Gordon and badly wounded him with two shotgun blasts.
On main street, John Gordon was wounded and Cookey ran away and it was looking good for the Murdoch clan but then stupidity set in. Aroused by the gunfire Sheriff Will Rogers & Deputy Ernie Jones ran out on the street to fire a warning shot and order everyone to throw down their guns, but not the Murdoch's, they decide to open fire on the law! In the ensuing gun battle, at fairly close range, Murdoch and Blue Johnson were both killed and Irish Bob and Deputy Jones wounded.

[Westbury]

So, the Murdoch ranch is up for sale - no known relatives and Old Man Gordon is thinking he might be expanding his range; just this one small game and there is already a possible follow on.
Rules were Fistful of Lead, being the 5th set we've trialled, final decision yet to be made.
Stay tuned 

[has.been]

Nice to see a good shoot-out, also nice to see Jamie's wonderful
work staying locally. Jamie's valiant work on updating my old map
of Dardenell County should be with you by now Ian.

Are we going to see a rebirth of your Newspaper?

[Westbury]

Cheers Pete.
Yep Jamie and I came to a mutually agreeable sale price - now I need to start getting rid of some of the buildings we already had 
It would be fun to do the newspaper again but I'm not sure I want to get to grips with Microsoft Publisher 

[has.been]

It would be fun to do the newspaper again but I'm not sure I want to get to grips with Microsoft Publisher 

Rather than a whole edition, how about the odd article.
Done in the style of one that has been cut out of the paper.
Clippings?
Could be used to 'set the scene' as well as to briefly mention
the highlight(s)  of the action.

[Westbury]

Another game from the county and the final one in our 'choose a set of rules, damm you!'

In this one, local personality, Willian van Hee is held in the Rummy Town jail, victim of a frame up say his crew (busy getting fired up in the local saloon), brought to justice for land swindling say the local town committee. Whatever the truth, the mood is getting ugly at the saloon so Sheriff Pete Noonan & Deputy Rance Edwards head out across the street leaving citizen George Duffy guarding the prisoner. On the boardwalk of the saloon, Bill Sykes shouted over his shoulder to Pete Sanchez, Curtis Bailey & Bronco Lane and then headed out into the street with 'Fast' Billy Clint, both drawing their guns. Death was coming to Rummy Town.

 

[Westbury]

In the opening seconds it seemed like the lawmen had a plan Deputy Edwards raced off down a side street and around the back of the general store while Noonan faced down Clint and Sykes who had now been joined by Sanchez and Bailey. In the initial crash of gunfire Noonan put a bullet in Sykes and was himself nicked in the left arm, everyone else missed 
Noonan now knelt in the street and in the next round of fire Sanchez took a light wound. This coolness under fire rather unnerved the van Hee boys so Sanchez and Bailey sprinted along the boardwalk heading for the cover of the bank while Billy ran across the street heading for the store, Sykes stood his ground.
In another round of gunfire Noonan had his left arm shattered and fell back but given he had 3 men shooting at him (Bailey was heading up the bank staircase) this wasn't too bad 
Then the law's plan unfolded; Deputy Edwards came round the corner of the store behind the shooters and fired 1 barrel of his shotgun at Billy, the shot just missed but an unnerved Billy dived for cover and lay trembling. Realising the danger, Sykes whirled and opened fire on Edwards, wounding him, but Edwards put Sykes in the ground with the 2nd blast of the shotgun.

[Westbury]

Now it was getting desperate.
From the balcony of the bank, Bailey put a bullet into Noonan's chest and a triumphant Sanchez stood over the bleeding lawman ready to finish him when, boom! George Duffy put a shotgun blast into the van Hee man and he collapsed to the dirt.
The fight was far from over though, Edwards had now dropped his shotgun and drawing his pistol shattered Billy's gun hand with one shot and the boy fled screaming, Duffy continued his civic duty by blasting Bailey who collapsed out of the fight but from the top storey of the saloon Bronco Lane put a bullet into the glass above Duffy's head and he sought cover. The lawmen now focused on Lane who after a brief exchange of shots decided his boss would have to serve out his time and fled the scene.
 

[Westbury]

And that was it.

Sheriff Noonan had entered Cole Younger territory, hit 4 times he was still alive but retirement was now his only option, looks like there's going to be a new Sheriff in town  Speaking of which, Deputy Edwards took a couple of light wounds but a few days of recovery and he would be back on the streets.

In terms of fitness, the van Hee crew were definitely unfit; Bill Sykes was dead, Pete Sanchez was unlikely to recover from his, Curtis Bailey would recover in time but his hard man days were over, and Billy Clint would never be the gunman he dreamed of being; as for Bronco Lane, he was last seen heading east on a fast horse.

We had a great time, plenty of lead flew, characters got to act as you suppose they would and there were no annoying distractions.

[MaleGriffin]

Great looking game! Thank you for sharing!

[FifteensAway]

All well and good (or not so good for some) with the second game.  But!  You didn't tell us which rules you used for the second game - was it FFoL again or something else?

[CapnJim]

All well and good (or not so good for some) with the second game.  But!  You didn't tell us which rules you used for the second game - was it FFoL again or something else?

My sentiments exactly!  Have you declared a winner in the "Which rules to use" sweepstakes?