Pirates and Cowboys but definitely no Zombies

 It's been a funny old month; attendance at the club has been down and I don't think we have had a full turn out of the usual suspects all month. Despite that we've still had some cracking games.

First off, Elliot put on a game of Bloody Barons with his very nice collection of Peter Pig 15mm figures. Apparently, we were playing Game of Thrones but thankfully it was devoid of any fantasy elements. Not that I'm against fantasy, I just don't understand it; I'll happily read or watch it but gaming it is another matter. In the end I just put my WOTR head on and everything was fine. We were playing the first version of the rules, so it was nice to revisit an old friend. I was left with the impression that this version has slightly more narrative, as you're dealing with individual units, but version 2 is far superior for the army level feel. Version 1 also has more friction and is more subject to the vagaries of the dice. As a whole, I think I prefer version 2 for WOTR but GOT .....hmm dunno really.

Unfortunately, as I wasn't putting the game on I didn't take any photos. I can't even say who won, unless it was Sean Bean - but probably not. Great fun nevertheless.

The following week, I was finally able to bring my pirate collection to the club. Apart from some lockdown Zoom games this was to be their first proper outing. I managed to put together 4 forces, even if it did stretch my figure collection to the limit.

We played the land Raid scenario with Spanish and French Caribbean Militia defending against English Buccaneers and Brethren of the Coast. This was partly a test to see how the game would play with multiple players and to experiment with the number of units and unit size. Each force had about 6 units with the typical unit size being 4 figures.

Thankfully, there wasn't any problem with playing with multiple players and the rules worked fine, although 6 units per force, whilst ensuring that there were plenty of decisions to make , did lengthen the game timewise. That said, it still played at a decent pace and I was so engrossed that I forgot to take any photos and almost even forgot to crack open the beer!

Spanish and French militia deploy to defend the objective

The next game was another pirate game but this time I had the luxury of adding in some of Alan's Dutch to the mix. This allowed me to play around with unit sizes a bit more and this time each force consisted of 4 units of 6 figures each. I actually think this was something of a sweet spot and 4 units each worked really well.

This time we played the Take and Hold scenario with both sides fighting over a central objective. Spanish militia teamed up with Dutch privateers to take on French militia and English Buccaneers, in another great game.

English Buccaneers with French in the background.

Spanish supported by Dutch

The English Forlorn Hope advance through the palms

Forlorn Hope lob grenadoes at prone Milicianos Indios

Dutch begin firefight whilst Spanish advance in lines

Firing along the line

English Sea Dogs press the Spanish back

Freebooters and militia join the fray

As it turned out, this was to be a game of two halves. On one side of the field, the English under yours truly were successfully putting pressure on the Spanish but were let down by their French allies, who were horribly shot up by the Dutch. In part this was due to Elliot's infamous dice rolling, which on this occasion was frankly pants! The net result was enough casualties to give a Strike Point. All the Dutch / Spanish needed, at this point, was to seize the objective to give the English / French a second Strike Point and potentially end the game. Sensing their opportunity, the Spanish Lanceros made a charge to end within the required 4 inches of the objective. Luckily, I had planned for just such an eventuality and, with what was to be the last move of the game charged out with the Forlorn Hope and unleashed a volley on the Lanceros who were now in the open. Two hits needing 9+ to save, what could go wrong? A saving roll of two tens that's what - so no casualties for the Lanceros but at least we were contesting the objective.

Lanceros charge forward

Unfortunately, we had to end there, having played 5 out of 6 turns. Everything was still to play for and it could have gone either way. A cracking game nevertheless.

This week it was out with the cowboys, as I wanted to demo the rules (Gunfighter's Ball) for our upcoming Christmas game.

Yet again we were down to 3 players but we had a blast anyway. We played 2 games, nothing fancy as the idea was to learn the rules mechanisms. The Knuckles McGurk gang won both games but more importantly it was great fun with much hilarity. My favourite moment was the Mexican pincer movement on one of the Pinkertons. Two shots were loosed at the hapless Pinkerton, with one shot wounding him but the second missed .............only to hit and kill the second Mexican. Perhaps, best not shoot towards your friends! A later shot at the same Pinkerton missed and hit Prospector Roberts; drawing a card from the much feared Black Deck we discovered the shot had in fact hit a personal belonging - hit in the prospecting pan no less!

Mexicans show off, riding hither and thither

The Pinkertons close in

A lucky escape for Prospector Roberts whilst the dastardly Mexicans employ a human shield.

I'm really looking forward to the Christmas game now - fingers crossed that we get a full turn out.