Mal Paso Mayhem - A Dardenell County game

[Westbury]

This week we managed to get enough of us together for a multi player western gunfight game.
Basic scenario was noted bad guy Abe McQuown being escorted off the train (the 3:10) by a couple of marshals for incarceration at the county jail pending trial. Known associates are lurking around town waiting to spring him.
Two players took the law - marshals on the street and sheriff plus deputy in the office.
Three players took on groups of three outlaws each, with randomly generated start points

[Westbury]

The opening moves saw the marshals and the prisoner marching up main street while two groups of outlaws settled themselves into two local drinking establishments which conveniently looked out onto the sheriffs office - the random placement didn't work too well 
The third group however left its place at the Western Union office and planted itself in the street to face down the marshals.

[Westbury]

Guns were drawn, words were exchanged and then the shooting started!
In the initial exchange marshal Blaisedell seriously damaged his opponent, Tom Morgan's gun hand putting him out of action for a while.
The shots drew deputy Gannon out of the upstairs sheriffs office and then the shooting really started.
Veteran gunman Cherry Valance plugged Gannon and he fell back into the office 'bleedin bad'. Outlaws, Charley Prince, Buck Slavin and Fen Jiggs all opened up on Blaisedell from the safety of cover and either missed or inflicted minor wounds but out in the street it was Curley Burne who put Blaisedell in the dirt.

[Westbury]

So far so good for the outlaws but they hadn't reckoned on marshal Matt Morgan.
Using the prisoner as a shield to dissuade the outlaws - it didn't  Morgan defiantly exchanged shots with those in the building opposite, knocking Slavin down with a head wound and killing Charley Prince stone dead.
The outlaws in the street fared little better as Sheriff Will Rogers opened up from his office window, wounding Valance and dropping Morgan and Burne.
In the chaos, McQuown broke free of the marshal, who frankly was a little busy, and made off down an alleyway, free for now. Realising the prisoner was a lost cause marshal Morgan sought cover down the street and exchanged shots with Jiggs who's greater range with his Winchester carbine paid off and he dropped the marshal.

[Westbury]

The most epic shootout of the game however came at the close as Rick Belden and Ben Nicholson stormed up the stairs and into the sheriffs office hoping to gun him down and secure their dominance over the town.
First in was Belden who fired and......a dud! Rogers quickly put a bullet into the outlaw and shattered his gun arm but the outlaw gamely tried to grapple with the sheriff ("it's only a flesh wound!") but was quickly subdued.
Slightly behind Belden was Nicholson who came in blazing but now Rogers had his 2nd gun out and Gannon had recovered enough to haul out his 2nd weapon and in the confined space shots crashed out. When the cordite cleared Nicholson was down.

[Westbury]

In the silence that followed a dog barked and some of the outlaws snuck out of town, circling round to find their boss and remove his cuffs, but it would be a smaller gang than before; Valance and Slavin were bleeding but still walking and Jiggs and Bob Nicholson were unhurt; however back in the town the seriously wounded Morgan, Burne, Belden and Ben Nicholson were behind bars being tended to and then would stand trial, Prince would be buried unmourned.
Sheriff Rogers resumed his duties with the assistance from a couple of upstanding citizens until Gannon was back on his feet; Matt Morgan grieved for his friend whilst recovering at the docs.
All in all a fun game, plenty of action, some very lucky rolls and enough loose ends to foster another couple of stories.
Many thanks to, Pete, Bob, Dave and JC for making it an entertaining foray into the wild west.

[has.been]

A few pictures & my two cents on proceedings that morning.
70, 71, 75, & 78 = The Town, peaceful, a little too peaceful.
                             The train pulls in & somewhere down near
                             the Station a dog howls.
76 = A bird, a large bird, Vulture maybe? Circles over main Street.
72 = This is the watering hole my three desperadoes chose to wait in.
73 & 74 = Prisoner & Escort

The plan, it was a nice plan it was a bodacious plan, was to wait IN COVER
until the Marshals were right in front of us. Then shoot them down like the
Sons of Bitches that they are.

Fen Jiggs rested his carbine on the bat-wing door to steady his aim. He had
the Marshal on the left covered. Closer...closer, a few more paces & he would
have fired, but...
from the Telegraph office three more of the gang walked out right in front of
my guys!!!!!!
Jiggs called for the one blocking his shot to move. This distraction was ill-timed
for it was just as the Marshal fired!
After that all HELL broke loose.
(Our intrepid Photographer moved to cover & took only two more (hasty) pictures.

[has.been]

His, the Photographer's, only other prints (several glass negatives were lost
in the mayhem) were:-
Rick Beldon crossing Main Street on his towards his shoot-out in the Sheriff's office, &
Last sight of the escaping prisoner as he disappears into the rough land behind the town.

A jolly good shoot up played in the right spirit.
Well organized by Ian, who is so rich he bought the whole Town.
Commiserations to Dave who played the hopelessly out numbered Marshals
I thought it was a good plan of Flatpack's, but what happened to the
stampeding  Cattle?
John was...well just unlucky & lucky in equal measure. Unfortunate to be
distracted by my call, just as the Marshal shot hit him. He was the first to
shoot a Lawman DEAD!  (02 on a per-centage score!) 

Thanks to Ian's wife Lyn for all the food, also Dave & Bob who both brought
biscuits. The Hot drinks though were most definitely on...John

[Mad Lord Snapcase]

Great report, looks like a superb game on an excellent layout.   

[flatpack]

We freed the boss.
Nuff said.

[Grumpy Gnome]

Such gorgeous photos, what an amazing looking table… and it sounds like you have been having a grand time!

[FifteensAway]

What others said - and - I really like that it was a two sided affair not some random free-for-all.  Though I suspect each group of outlaws might have (should have?) had their own goals. 

Well done.

[flatpack]

Some more photos from the game.






All good fun.

[FifteensAway]

Took a few minutes to look a bit closer at the photos and believe I count six wagons scattered about town, very good - though I didn't see any horses or other animals to pull them, maybe a quiet day and they are all in the stable or out to pasture somewhere.  Did I miss any in my count?

Did spot a couple of hitching racks and possibly one watering trough down a side alley. 

Only critter I saw was the dog - and maybe a single horse but too distant in the photo to be sure.  But a good quantity of scatter terrain. 

And it just occurred to me, I don't recall a wargaming town that included a line of telegraph poles, most likely along the train tracks (and I did spot a train on some tracks in your setup).  I guess I'll want to add that to my setup when I get that far.

Again, nice setup.

[Westbury]

6 wagons? I only remember 3
Yes horses were in the livery, everyone knew trouble was brewing, except the 2 dogs obviously. Telegraph poles were out of shot.