Misc., The Wild West, Legends of the Old West, 28mm

“The League of Gentlemen Wargamers” is the rather self-important title for a loose collection of like-minded wargamers who gather every few months, for a weekend of wargaming. This time we’d decided to do a Wild West game, and during the course of the weekend most players displayed singularly ungentlemanly conduct! We gathered in the Heugh Hotel, in Stonehaven, a small town in the north-east of Scotland. As you can see, we were virtually snowed in, as that weekend the north of Scotland was hit by a blizzard. Still, it all added to the cabin fever mentality in the wargaming room, and to the need for warming whisky in the bar afterwards!The first day was spent playing a series of five games, each pitching a player and his gang against a single opponent. Six 3×3 foot tables were available, ranging from small ranches or open badlands to towns, one of which was Mexican. There was also a train game, where one side had to defend a safe on a stopped train against a horde of bad guys, while the rest of his posse rode to the rescue. My posse consisted of lawmen, led by Sheriff Rollo “Daddy” Hill, who was assisted by a couple of well-armed deputies, and a handful of upstanding citizens.During the day I took on Andrew Nicholson’s Apaches (sneaky little buggers, who have a special stealth ability – Draw); Dale Smith’s Cowboys (far too well-armed! – Lose);  Kevin Calder’s Chinese Tong Gang (a turkey-shoot in open ground – Win); Barry Hilton’s Comancheros (a stand-up town-fight – Draw), and Peter Nicholson’s Outlaws (the train game, where he saw off my sheriff, but didn’t manage to steal the safe – Draw). These games were all different, and all far more fun than most of us expected.Between each round we had to fill out paperwork, to see which of our lost figures survived, who gained advances through gaining experience, and how much revenue we’d generated. This was used to buy more figures, weapons or other goodies. As for the rules themselves, they were standard Warhammer fare, with an awful lot of die rolling for little result! They also suffered from the other Warhammer problem, where the rules writers produce a relatively simple basic set, then bring out a series of glossy supplements, each of which contain special rules for things like Apache shaman, Chinese martial arts and US Cavalry bugle blowers. It all conspires to make a simple system a lot more clunky than it really needs to be. Added to that is the business of re-rolls using Fortune cards, figures with special abilities, and other such bolt-on extras. I don’t know how a simple cowpoke can keep track of it all!On the second day (Sunday), all the tables were joined together, creating a big Wild West landscape, with an Indian reservation at one end, a Cavalry fort at the other, and several towns in between. Gaps were filled with homesteads, badlands, and a railway track, along which an unsuspecting train wended its way from time to time, being assaulted by just about anyone within rifle range.What followed was utter mayhem, split over two gaming “days”, each of about ten turns. During the game the US Cavalry were mown down by Comancheros, Apaches captured the town liquor store, the Mexicans harangued passing rolling stock, and Billy the Kid was gunned down by lawmen. It was even more bizarre in the afternoon, when Charles Grant’s Mexican peons and Peter McCarroll’s Apache braves slugged it out in the streets of the main town, both sides sniped at for most of the game by the Sheriff who dubbed himself “the equalizer”. The mayhem continued across the board, and this time it included a pugilistic bear  run by the Chinese Tong, a deadeye outlaw armed with an elephant gun with telescopic sights, and a big shootout between the much-accosted US Cavalry and local Indians, where both sides seemed to wipe out each other!Everyone had a thoroughly good time though, and while the Wild West mightn’t be “proper wargaming”, at least it kept everyone entertained. That said, two Wild West games in one month is far too much for me, and I think I’ll be hanging up my holster and sheriff’s badge for a few months, to try my hand at something else.