The Siege of San AugustinA Shoot N’ Skedaddle Battle ReportIntroduction The following battle report was inspired by a few things. I had realized I had never played a game of SnS using my nice Crescent Root Studios adobe buildings I had gathered. I also had spare time and a nice table set-up and I figured I’d take advantage of it. The report should serve as light entertainment and should provide an insight on how the Shoot N’ Skedaddle game works.
Background San Augustin is a small town just South of the border. It is walled in, bordering a small creek. It features several horse corrals and a small well (used when the wash runs dry six months out of the year). By sheer circumstance a small posse of lawmen find themselves accepting the hospitality of San Augustin when the trouble starts. A local group of wild outlaws prepare to descend on the town, intent on horse thievin’ and pillaging. The lawmen have other plans.
San Augustin 
San Augustin
Scenario This game will pit five Lawmen against a gang of ten Outlaws. The Lawmen will begin the game inside the town of San Augustin, while the Outlaws will begin on three random board edges. One board edge will be nominated as the Lawmen’s board edge – their escape route and location for reinforcements.
Lawmen Objectives The Lawmen must prevent the Outlaws from looting valuables or stealing horses. Any valuables or horses destroyed by the Lawmen count toward an Outlaw victory. If the Lawmen choose to exit one Lawman off of their table edge (as he makes a run for the nearest telegraph station) they may increase the Outlaws objective goal from six items to eight items.
Outlaw Objectives The Outlaws must loot valuables (perform two actions on a pile of equipment to loot it and remove it from the tabletop) and steal horses (ride or lead a horse off one of the Outlaw table edges). There are eight piles of equipment and three horses, for a total of eleven targets. If the Outlaws loot or steal six of the target items, they have won the game.
Special Decks Normal Outlaw and Lawmen special decks are in use for this game. However, I have added three Objective cards per deck to add some variety to the game.
Lawmen Objective A: Two reinforcement characters arrive on horseback. Add their cards to the activation deck immediately.
Lawmen Objective B: The monsoon season arrives with a bang. The shallow portions of the creek are no longer passable, only the bridge.
Lawmen Objective C: Lucky day. The Outlaws’ cannon suffers a breakdown on the way to its position, or while firing. Ignore or terminate the Outlaw Objective B card.
Outlaw Objective A: A single character arrives, leading a pack mule loaded with weapons. Add this character to the activation deck immediately. Any character in the Outlaw gang may perform an action while adjacent to the mule to draw a single weapon card. Limit one per customer!
Outlaw Objective B: BOOM! The Outlaws have sighted in a cannon on a nearby ridge. You may add a joker to the activation deck. When drawn, place a template and scatter it 2D6”. Damage is dealt as per the cannon card. Two points of damage will destroy an equipment pile, which counts as being looted.
Outlaw Objective C: Paperwork! The Lawmen’s friends are held up at a border crossing by Mexican police. When the Lawmen Objective A is drawn, the characters must wait to enter until the next turn. If already played, this card is discarded.
Gangs and Posses Using normal Shoot N’ Skedaddle rules I drew out the five man Lawmen posse. Here is what chance handed me:
1) Bounty Hunter with a derringer and heavy sixgun.
2) Townsperson with a mare’s leg.
3) Townsperson with a shotgun.
4) Hired Gun with a knife and shotgun.
5) Cowboy with a lasso and sixgun.
The Lawmen Posse
This was a shockingly poor draw for the Lawmen and I immediately doubted the chance of these fellas holding out against anyone, let alone twice their number. I drew the Outlaw gang and the news became worse…
1) Pinkerton with a lever action rifle.
2) Cowboy with a lasso and heavy sixgun.
3) Townsperson with a muzzle loading pistol.
4) Indian Scout with a heavy sixgun.
5) Bushwacker with a lever action rifle.
6) Hired Gun with a stick of dynamite, derringer and a carbine.
7) Hired Gun with a stick of dynamite and a sixgun.
Thief with a disguise and shotgun.
9) Business Tycoon with a muzzle loading rifle.
10) Drifter (!) with a sawed off shotgun, knife, and heavy sixgun.
11) Pony Express Rider with twin sixguns (on a thoroughbred mount).
The Outlaw Gang This was a shockingly great draw for the Outlaws. Drawing the Business Tycoon had handed them an additional Hired Gun, and the Drifter is without question the deadliest character in the deck. Loaded up with dynamite and plenty of secondary weapons the Outlaws were cruising for a victory before the game even began. With the Bushwacker deploying early on the table, and the Thief in disguise and likely able to infiltrate the village…things were looking grim.
Deployment I assigned each table edge a letter (A-D) and rolled a scatter dice. The Lawmen board edge would be table edge A. I deployed the Lawmen in the town, mostly hidden in the bottom story of adobe structures (being outnumbered more than 2:1 meant being outdoors would be nearly suicidal!).
I then deployed the Outlaws, placing a Cowboy and Indian Scout with the disguised Thief on table edge B. I placed the Indian Scout, Pony Express and Business Tycoon on table edge C, and then placed a four man “power team” on table edge D as it was the closest to the town. This consisted of the Pinkerton, Drifter and both Hired Guns (a nearly unstoppable group considering the Lawmen’s poor draw of characters…).
The Bushwacker was placed on one of the adobe structures, on an outdoor stairway – within one move of a hapless Townsperson. If I was lucky he’d get the jump on them, and secure a crucial overlook position on the inside of the town before the Lawmen could react.
The Bushwacker is deployed in town right off the bat!
San Augustin – Table edge A to the left, B to the top, C to the right, and D to the bottom.Turn One In Shoot N’ Skedaddle each character is given two matching poker cards on which they activate. These are shuffled into the deck (the Drifter activates on three cards because he’s…well…awesome) and drawn by the player(s). Two aces are added for each side. When drawn I draw a single card from the respective special deck. When the activation deck is depleted, the turn is over – the deck is reshuffled and the next turn begins.
The game kicked off with the silence shattered by a shotgun blast. One of the Lawmen’s townies had run out, firing his shotgun at point blank range at the Bushwacker. Unfortunately he missed, blowing cracked adobe all over the stairs.
The Bushwacker is confronted by a Townsperson, but luckily survives
He hurriedly retreated, frantically reloading his shotgun. Nearby the Pony Express rider galloped up leaping into one of the corrals, prepared to steal one of the horses. One of the Lawmen’s Cowboys stepped out, firing his sixgun to no avail. Moments later he was gunned down by the sly Pinkerton, sitting in some scrub just on the outskirts of town.
The Pony Express Rider is already in the corral, stealing horses!
The Lawmen’s Cowboy attempts to stop him, but is gunned down. All around the board the Outlaw gang flooded toward the town and its hopeless defenders. The Thief snuck across the bridge, hopping over the barricade with ease, all the while looking the part of a lost resident of San Augustin who’d just found his way home…
The Hired Guns moved up and began looting one of the piles of equipment on the outskirts of the town.
A Hired Gun begins to loot the town’s goods. The Lawmen’s Bounty Hunter neared the Thief (by moving close he attempts to spook the Thief into blowing his disguise…unfortunately he holds his nerve). The Hired Gun working with the Lawmen slinked out of his adobe hut, seeking to find a location of advantage on the group of hardened Outlaws.
The first lucky card came up for the Lawmen. This special card allowed them to remove one weak willed opponent from the game. The only suitable character was a lowly Outlaw Townsperson, but this at least brought the game down to 10 vs. 5. Every little bit helps!
As the Outlaw Hired Gun was rummaging through some goods a Townsperson in the window above him stuck his mare’s leg out, firing wildly, hitting nothing. A moment later the Townsperson was joined by another Townsperson…this one toting a sawed off shotgun! (The Lawmen had drawn another special card allowing them to add a Townsperson to their posse – now the playing field was 10 vs. 6! If the Lawmen’s uncanny lucky in drawing cards from their special deck held, they might be in better shape.)
The wall under heaviest attack became a smoky confusing affair. Two Townies above firing their shotguns and lever guns as the Hired Guns below advanced, firing back into the windows. The Lawmen’s own Hired Gun entered the fray near the end of the turn, firing a slug into one of his opponents, wounding him. The sly Pinkerton kept to the trees, shooting and wounding one of the Townies who was silly enough to step outside his room. The Drifter even emptied his sawed off shotgun with no result. In the confusion three characters were wounded, and empty shotgun casings clattered to the ground all around.
The fight intensifies on the side wall. Nearby the Bushwacker recovered from the shock of his near death by shotgun, and ran up the stairs. He found a Townsperson frantically trying to break open his shotgun. The Bushwacker spat his tobacco on the floor and emptied his lever action rifle into him. He slumped over dead.
The Bushwacker hunts down and murders the Townsperson. With only a few cards to go in Turn One I realized that neither of the Outlaw special cards had been drawn yet…they would be in the last four cards of the turn!
As the result of one card, one of the wounded Townies pissed himself when he realized who he was fighting, becoming shocked with fear. The other card was Objective B. This meant the Outlaw’s cannon would join the fray in Turn Two.
The recent addition to the Posse pisses himself when he realizes he’s facing the Drifter.
The state of San Augustin at the end of Turn One.
Turn Two Turn Two started off badly for the Lawmen. They were already down two characters, with a third wounded. Now the Outlaws made off with one horse (the Pony Express Rider took one off the table – since the PER is not a strong combatant I decided I could spare him). The Business Tycoon mounted a second horse, leading a third. The Thief, Indian Scout and Hired Gun had all looted stock piles at least one action. The Bushwacker was in a commanding position in town and armed with a lever action rifle.
The Business Tycoon mounts a horse and grabs the reigns to another.
The Pony Express Rider makes off with a stolen horse. Then the pendulum swung in the other direction. Drawing both of their special cards in short order, the Bounty Hunter came out, found the Thief in the process of pillaging and shot him through the shoulder with a heavy sixgun, wounding him.
The Bounty Hunter pops a shot into the Thief at close range. Across town, the lowly wounded Townsperson used a free activation to load his sawed off shotgun and move out of harm’s way. The Drifter and Lawmen Hired Gun hid on opposite sides of a wagon, both loading shotguns.
The Drifter and Lawmen Hired Gun both reload, using the same wagon for cover! The Bushwacker in town spent both of his activations firing wildly at any Lawmen he could see – striking none.
Then it happened. One of the moments where a silly rash decision pays off. I had used a free activation to load the wounded Townsperson’s shotgun shortly after I had moved the Drifter to the wagon. Being shocked and unloaded, I had assumed the Townsperson to be out of the fight for the turn. I was wrong. Wounded (suffering penalties to all of his already crap stats…) the Townsperson stepped up…and fired his sawed off shotgun. The blast smeared the Drifter’s corpse all over the side of the wagon.
The lowly Townsperson delivers a brutal shotgun blast to the back of the Drifter’s head…
The best character in the game had been laid low by a wounded Townsperson (arguably the worst character in the game). All at the hands of a little sawed off shotgun. Perhaps the tide was turning?
Around the town, more Outlaws continued to loot, grabbing up one pile of goods. The cannon sounded on the hillside, exploding harmlessly in the center of town. The Outlaws set off some sabotage explosives, but they fizzled out before going off. The Outlaws then drew their Objective C card, meaning that whenever the Lawmen’s reinforcements arrived they’d have to wait until the next turn to enter the game.
The cannon fires into town, accomplishing little.
A Hired Gun catches several rounds in the back as he loots a pile of equipment… In town the Indian Scout and Thief both finished looting two piles of equipment (Outlaw Score: 3). The deadly firefight proved even more so. The Pinkerton calmly adjusted his aim, gunning down the proud Townsperson a moment after he had shot dead the Drifter. As the Pinkerton worked the lever on his rifle he was shot in the thigh by the nearby Hired Gun, hiding behind his wagon. The death toll was rising, bodies scattered around the building. The remaining wounded Outlaw Hired Gun had slinked off in search of loot, wishing to avoid any more gunfire.
The fight at the bloody wall gathers more victims.
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