It was the most unusual thing. (no photos)

[Major Weenie]

Sort of extraordinary really,

So the club uses 'The Rules with No Name' for its Wild West Shoot-outs.  And the membership seems to enjoy setting the scenarios at the time of 'La Gran Revolucion,' rather than during the more conventional cowboy period.

Everyone familiar with the rules set will know that the least experienced level of combatant is categorized as a CITIZEN.  They are largely useless in a gun fight, and most members bring them along to pop off one round, flee the table, and qualify as the next highest level (GUNMAN) in the next game.

Well, the club president set up what seemed to be a balanced scenario for a bank robbery just south of the border.  The northern 10% of the table was the US, with the southern 90% being Mexican territory where most of the game would take place.  As one proceeded south, through the very nice terrain which I managed to take 0 photos of, players passed; a cantina, the bank, and at the south end of the table reached the Federale barracks.

The plan was that any 'noise' (perhaps gunshots ?) arising from the bank robbery would rouse a squad of non-player Federale infantry from the barracks to pursue the fleeing, and loot encumbered, robbers.  Then a squad of Federales would emerge from the cantina to act as a sort of obstacle that the robbers must overcome to escape.  For each bullet passing north over the border the umpire would roll 2D6 determining if a US Cavalry squad would appear to lay down rifle fire protecting the US citizens.

Mathematically it all seemed pretty balanced, but it didn't work out that way.

Not a single Federale NPC ever fired a rifle north into the US.  All the shooting seemed to go East or West.  The Federales coming north from the barracks didn't really do much.  Well, they put pressure on the robbers, but no actual killing.  The really stunning part of the game was the 'behavior' of the Federales coming out of the cantina.  It was thought that the robbers were too heavily out numbered to face off against two full squads of infantry.  So it was decided to make the figures exiting the cantina all DRUNK.  The Rules With No Name actually has something to cover this.  You roll a dice, check the chart, and see just which undesirable characteristic the figure will display.  That way, it was thought, the Federales between the robbers and the USA would pose less of a threat.

Well, it didn't quite work out that way.  CITIZENS move poorly, and shoot worse.  If they do anything other than just stand there a rifle shot tends to become what the rules describe as 'a lucky shot.'  (The shooter rolls 3 dice, and if he gets 2 sixes he has a hit.)  Citizens also test for NERVE-Morale at the slightest provocation, and only get 3 dice with which to roll the six they need to pass.  The robbers were expected to stroll right through them as they weaved about, and fell over.  That's not quite what happened.

All the drunks suffered from substantial shooting minuses, which reduced their chance of a hit to a Lucky Shot... But that's the way it was for most of the Federales in the game.  On the other hand, ALL the drunks had an inflated opinion of themselves, and benefited from an extra 3 dice when ever they took morale tests.  It was an extra ordinary game, completely unexpected, and an appalling surprise to the players who lost some high quality cowboys in a quite unexpected fashion.

I mean robbers, who are crack shots, on a roof, behind hard cover - and a bunch of weaving drunks in the street blaze away at the roof top (again, needing 2 sixes on 3 dice to hit) and get; a 6 a 6 and a 6, a 6, a 6 and a 5, a 6 a 4 and a 6.  But it should have been OK, because when the target draws his 'Wound Chit' (from the vermillon bag of death) only results hitting the chest or higher would have an affect.

The results were; Fatal Head Shot, Sever Wound on Right arm, Fatal Chest Shot.

Two major characters out of the campaign.

Then, as one of the robbers stumbled whilst crossing the bridge back into the US, another drunk clubbed him with a rifle, and took back the purloined bearer bonds.

Years ago the club ran a Wild West game and discovered that Chinese tong warriors with swords, but no guns, were far more deadly than gun slingers.  (At least the way we seem to play things at The Bengal Club).  Now it appears that drunken, NPC figures have all the power of Marlborough's shock troops.

Funny thing life.

[mysteriousbill]

My friend Mark refers to this as the Atlantic Wall Syndrome (AWS). Atlantic Wall was one of those old uber-boardgames with millions of counters, hundreds of charts, and dozens of maps back in the 80's when those kind of games were popular (imagine setting up a board game and playing it for several hours a week over the course of several months - ah the good old days). The problem with this game was it had a variable weather table. If you rolled good on the table (as the allies) you got plenty of troops and supplies and won, if you rolled bad you ran out of mena and supplies and lost. The whole game, with millions of counters, hundreds of charts, and dozens of maps, came down to a die roll on one table. AWS says that if it is on the chart, no matter how unlikely, it will be rolled. Sometimes several damn times in the same damn game.

[Galloping Major]

Great stuff, them's the risks of the bank robbing busuness 







www.gallopingmajorwargames.com

[v_lazy_dragon]

Sounds like a good game - unless you were the bank robbers!

[Major Weenie]

With regard to boardgames,

Years ago, down at the local hobby store, a group of us set up a board game for the invasion of Crete.  I think that the game was named 'Operation Mercury.'

Anyway, we started out not with the complete campaign scenario, but with one of the smaller games.  The Germans won 'as soon as at lest one counter moves into the hex holding Maleme airfield.

The game had a 'parachute dropping turn #00' immediatley preceding the beginning of the game on turn #1. The dice generated, random direction, wind was very strong that day, and more than half the Falschimjaegers were blown off target.  Most went into the sea.  One drifted over 5 hexes, and landed directly on Maleme airfield.

So before the game started, the German player had met his victory conditions.  Game Over.

The British player wanted to keep going, after all we'd spent so much time setting up the board, and the puzzled German player (me) agreed.

So we finished turn #1, and checked the victory conditions "Has a German unit been on Maleme airfield = Yes" and the Germans had won.

But the British player wanted to keep going.

So we played turn #2, and checked the victory conditions "Has a German unit been on Maleme airfield = Yes" and the Germans had won.

But the British player wanted to keep going.

We repeated this process for around 5 turns.  After which the British player said, "Well, that's about it.  I guess the Germans have won."

Now whenever someone is crushed in a game the club members say something like, "Yeah, he really got beat bad.  But it was no Operation Mercury... Beaten on turn zero, before the game starts."