'Kidnap at Netzahualcóyotl Junction'
As I’m running so far behind writing up the game reports things are getting a little hazy in my mind. I’m not sure if it’s the fumes from Mescal drinking Jack Daniels or just being around old people so much.
Netzahualcóyotl Junction.
There’s a full write up of the game scenario by the erudite Mad Lord Snapcase on page 5 of the thread but I’ll just paraphrase it here.
For some reason The Jack Daniels Gang had kidnapped someone important in the rail company and probably wanted a ransom to return him. The skinflints who run the railway decided it would be cheaper to employ Sheriff Snapcase to rescue this person of importance. Cheap and the Sheriff go together like, dog and bone, so they’d picked the right man for the job.
Oliver Standish will be along shortly to claim that the Gang’s name is actually the Leaping Standishes, but they are a Norwegian circus act not western gunfighters. Snapcase will probably want to call them The Arthritis Gang which he seems to find childishly amusing, but the intelligent reader will realise by now that Jack Daniels is the driving force, especially when running on Rocket Fuel, or as some call it – Mescal
Here follows a completely unbiased and true account of events.
(As I remember them)
The game opened with The Kid - Molly Daniels, Jacks only daughter, trying to buy Doctor Vagabond’s elixir of life. This elixir was promoted as a bringer of long life, freedom from rickets, a cure for rattlesnake poison and in extremis can even be used to remove those stubborn chewing tobacco stains from your lower lip beard and granddad vest.
Meanwhile The Flying Standish was hog-tying the Railroad President, with the intention of leaving him in one of the 1st story rooms in the Railway station as we fended off the rescuing posse of law and dissorder. To avoid confusion, the Ground floor is the one on the ground and the 1st floor is above it.
Leaving Standish to his unusual pastime, Jack Daniels was setting up an ambush; he intended to bushwhack the bushwhackers.
Sure enough, Snappers Bushwhackers; comprising the dregs of society that Sheriff Snapcase seems to attract, are moving slowly forward through a jumble of boulders.
Cowardly Cartwright was in the rear, his apron and shotgun primed and loaded. In front of him was the notorious green clad Melon and to his left the dangerous Deputy; Misty Meaner wearing her trade mark blue hat. She’d stepped in a pile of horse manure when passing the coral and they made a pretty noxious trio as they skulked along.
Sheriff Snapcase as usual, is no where to be seen.
Oliver Standish might appear to be ready to join the Arizona High Dive team, preparing to do a double pike with a half twist followed by a loud grunt as he hits the hard earth instead of water but in reality he’s just climbed onto the roof for reasons he wouldn’t divulge.
An overview from our side of the board, Standish is on the roof of the station, and hoping to get a better line of sight on any enemy approaching. The Posse of miscreants are in the boulder patch over to the left of the big butte and behind the blacksmiths, (the blue building).
The cunning of Standish pays off and he takes a long shot at Misty Meaner but she dodged that bullet, as with so many others.
Jack Daniels is in one of the rail carriages, waiting for the enemy to come into view. Some of you might be thinking “isn’t an ambush pretty similar to bushwhacking” and the answer is NO…..It’s a tactical thing you might not understand.
Also they’re spelt differently.
The Melon puts on a spurt and has a short conversation with the blacksmith before being shot at by The Kid.
Being bold, young and fit The Kid has run a long way, she jumps up onto the train, opens the carriage door and takes a pot shot at the Melon. Unfortunately she is a little out of breath and he manages to dodge behind the hen house, (with the other chickens) and she misses.
Jack springs his ambush and fired in the direction of the slippery Sheriff, who being slippery, dodged out of the way.
Misty Meaner and the Coward Cartwright had finally reached the far side of the street but instead of walking out to face Jack and Molly ensconced on the train, they hid in the Blacksmiths shop.
Jack and Molly decided to make a fighting retreat to the station, before the forces of evil out manoeuvre them and they are caught in a cross fire from front and flank.
Douggers has a jolly fine phrase for this sort of action but most everyone else calls it running away.
Mellon and Loco, the man in the blue shirt had a bit of a shoot out. At this point Loco came off worse, dodging behind a cactus and getting pinned in the process, a prickly situation.
Standish had come to the realisation that there was no cover on the roof of the station and so climbed back inside. However he then decided to climb out onto the roof of the veranda, yet again for reasons that he didn’t divulge but was able to take advantage of the cover from the carriage.
Of course he didn’t stay on the veranda but made the leap onto the carriage roof. I think he needed to roll 4 on 2D6 to achieve this famous feat but rolled 1+1. There was a loud gulping sound like a fish out of water, followed by a triumphant shout of “Bonanza” which allowed him to re-roll the dice in exchange for his Bonanza token.
Note the action photo that Snappers took, catching the Flying Standish in mid air. How he managed to throw the figure and take the photo at the same time I’ve no idea. It reminds me of the scene in one of the Indiana Jones films where he steps off a cliff over a gorge and there’s the path, hidden until he makes the leap of faith.
The re-roll was 5+5 and he made it onto the roof of the carriage, only to find there’s no cover there either. Whoops.
Misty Meaner (blue hat) shoots him, before running back into the Blacksmiths.
Molly has moved through into the office and was able to fire a couple of shots at Melon, but he dodged again, you will appreciate he’s a dodgy character.
She then decided to barricade the door but couldn’t lift the chair, apparently anything in Netzahualcóyotl Junction not nailed down gets stolen. Someone then suggested that the door might open outward and so there would be no point in barricading it. We rolled a dice and sure enough….it opened out.
I imagine it was Snapcase who had this bright idea!
A ménage a trios, Molly in the station, Melon on the hill and Loco behind a cactus, which are behind the rocks that you can see.
That shadowy figure between the coal car and 1st carriage is Sheriff Snapcase doing a magnificent impersonation of someone hiding.
A better view of Snappers pretending to be brave, his two henchmen are still hiding in the Blacksmiths having traded shots with mad Ollie Standish, who’s still teetering on top of the carriage.
He took a bucket load of lead and adopted a prone position behind the skylight on the roof, from which position his figure kept rolling off and falling unceremoniously to the ground, but he was able to claim some cover from this manoeuvre.
Just a gratuitous shot of some very nice luggage, because there is a dearth of photos of the action on Main Street which included.
Meaner running out onto the street and firing her revolver. Jack Daniels running out of the station and shooting at her. Meaner running back into the Blacksmith’s….again.
Someone else shot at Jack and he ducked back out of the far side of the carriage. Even the Sheriff fired and was fired upon before he ran away and hid. Or dodged for cover, if we’re being charitable.
I had to go for a call of nature and when I came back, Cowardly Cartwright had run out from the Blacksmiths, all the way down the inside of the carriage and shot Jack. “How did that happen” I enquired, “well I threw exactly the right number of dice to be able to run so far, climb into the carriage, run again, shoot Jack and give him a wound” said Snapcase smugly.
“Oh it’s not a wound”, my partner and ally Standish gleefully said, “it’s a critical wound”.
I hadn’t realised he still carried a grudge. You might not remember the trivial incident in the first game when Jack was so drunk on Mescal that he shot Standish in the back. Exactly……it could happen to anyone, and why was Standish standing between Jack and his target!!!
Serves him right, but a grudge is a grudge, so this was payback.
Tension is high.
A normal hit produces shock, well it would, wouldn’t it but a critical wound is a little more dangerous in these rules. Usually it’s led to gunslingers hopping about on 1 leg, which doesn’t seem to slow them down much. Various other penalties can be rolled, unless you throw a 6 then it’s Boot Hill and no Get Out of Jail card either.
Pic20
I rolled a 6 and Jack Daniels is dead.
Mad, bad, Raving Jack Daniels is dead. There was a stunned silence across the airwaves as we contemplated a world without The Mescal Fiend himself.
“Oh jolly bad luck” was the insincere comment from Snappers, my reply was blunt and to the point but Snappers said he wished he could. Maybe in his youth but not now, what with his bad back and all…..no….he was apologetic but it just wasn’t physically possible to comply with my heartfelt request.
Standish was lying on the roof, taking as much cover as possible, and unbeknown to us, he was shot to pieces. We realised this when he only rolled 1 dice for activation, instead of the original 6, the cat was out of the bag, oh, oh he’s in trouble.
Sheriff Snapcase had climbed into the train cab, (possibly dodged there) he had to remove the roof to accommodate the size of his hat and I wondered what new devilment he was up to. I imagine he was thinking of driving the train along the track but it turned out he just wanted to polish the brass work, make steam whistle noises and keep out of the action, no change there then.
After committing the heinous murder of gentle Jack, the villainous Cartwright dithered in the carriage. He’s following his leaders lead, by keeping out of trouble, this general cowardlyness in the Snapcase posse is seen as good tactics by their leader but we all know it for what it really is.
Loco was now hiding behind the rocks instead of the cactus, they’re obviously better cover. He and the Melon were still exchanging desultory shots but neither was getting the upper hand.
Incensed by the cold blooded murder of her father, Molly – ‘The Kid’ fired at Cowardly Cartwright from the station window, before running over to the carriage and shooting again.
He retreats from the sprightly hellion but can’t escape out of the carriage, and the 8th turn ends. He’s dead meat now.
We both had to take a Ride for the Hills test, us because Standish was lying in a pool of blood, and our hero Jack was dead. The Snapcase ruffians had to take the test because they’re a bad lot.
We rolled good dice and could carry on fighting, but Snappers rolled bad dice and his band of miscreants ran away.
Don’t tell Snappers this but the game had reached the point and we were losing, I was going to voluntarily Run for the Hills, Standish would have already gone, except with 1 dice he couldn’t do much at all. However with their final cowardly act of running away, the Snapcase Cutthroats obviated the need for us to make a tactical withdrawal. Victory is ours.
I’d like to say victory is sweet but in this case it’s bitter sweet, after only 2 and a half games I’d grown very attached to Jack Daniels and I miss the banter around his character, this was developed mainly by Snappers trying to be insulting to him and me but it ended up with one of the most colourful characters I’ve ever used in a game.
R.I.P. Jack.
We buried him with a cask of Mescal……well you never know!
We played this out over the internet and finished around Christmas, Doug, the retiring one in the lower right has figured out how to take screen shots but not how to include himself full size. Win-win for everyone.
The Mad Lord on the right is still trying to carry out my suggestion after the killing of Jack but with the pom pom on his hat and I’ve had a few too many glasses of Mescal.
So a final note to thank Snappers and Douggers for their company during a game I thoroughly enjoyed, apart from Jack dying and as you will appreciate my barbed comments are meant in fun, well mostly.
Thanks also to anyone who read this far….Kudos.
So, the Daniels-Standish gang have won 2 out of 3 games but this was a close run thing and Sheriff Snapcase should never be discounted. Unless he’s in the Black Friday sale of course.
We’ve played out the next 2 games but no spoilers here, although I’ll try and get them written sooner rather than later for any sad souls who are reading this.
Note - the buildings, terrain and figures are all in the collection of the Mad Lord, none of them are mine, even if I wish they were, so plaudits for these go to him and to Hu Rhu who built the terrain boards, and well deserved they are too.
Cheers
09 January 2011, 09:13:30 PM
