High Noon at the KO Coral

For our final scheduled monthly game in GHQ Paul had requested something light-hearted and fun. My thoughts naturally turned to a game not often seen out on the tabletop battlefield here in GHQ, namely  a Western Gunfight game set in New Paddock City. 

I thought a few of you might enjoy seeing the collection of buildings, figures and ephemera out on show and so without more ado here we go ~

Even western town feel the need of a name board delineating the civic boundary, so I scratch built this one back in the day. The skulls are from Dixon Miniatures and the cacti I brought back from my first Historicon. For any interested folk I painted them green and then it coated them in PVA and immersed them in static grass so they look the part.

Let's take a look then, starting with a view down Main Street, New Paddock City, 1884 towards the infamous bordello known to all as Madame Moustache's.

My figure collection is a mix mostly of Dixon Miniatures and Wargames Foundry - showing my age there I guess. The buildings bar one were from Battleflag, not sure who has them now though. I washed the frontages with various inks and made some signs while downloading others. The odd one out is an original HGWalls building I received as a Christmas gift from Dave.

All the buildings have lift off roofs so I added interiors using the resin sets from Frontline and papered some walls with downloads of Doll's House papers resized to look right.

As in this example showing the interior of the Aces High saloon, though it's obviously not papered.

Every western town needs a stagecoach and New Paddock City is no exception. 

Less attractive is the need for a seemingly ever expanding Boot Hill to keep up with all the carnage on the streets! The stage is from Dixon Miniatures while Boot Hill is made using Frontline graves set and MDF bases.

A new piano is delivered to the Aces High saloon! Let's hope the pianist lasts longer than the last one.

The Reverend Jeremiah Bykleigh rails against the sins of the flesh! Of which there is plenty on show it seems courtesy of the girls of Madame Moustache's bordello. Madame herself looks anything but impressed by his words!!

The peace will soon be disturbed though as the Dusst gang come into town aiming to rob the bank. They dismount on the outskirts and encouraged by the patriarch of the clan, Jed Dusst, they head on up Main Street.

They find their path towards the bank blocked by the forces of law and order, Sheriff Watson and his doughty deputies supported by Judge Paddock, the Hangin' Judge! Mind, with two wounds in the early exchanges he may not live to see them swing!

Ol' Stumpy MacFarlane, Watson's most loyal deputy,  has worked his way around behind the gang. He has the drop on Jeremiah Dusst and gives him both barrels at close range. One Dusst bites the dust you might say!

Further up Main Street the lead is flying thick ' n fast. Judge Paddock has three wounds, Deputy Aston has two and Sheriff Watson one. More Deputies hurry to their aid lest the remaining members of the Dusst gang reach the bank.

It may all be down now to the draw of the cards for activation as to who gets off the decisive shots as wounds have mounted on both sides.

Stumpy has to reload his shotgun having loosed off both barrels to account for Jeremiah Dusst. Darn it, he misses the opportunity to get Jed.

No worries though as Sheriff Watson guns down Jed Dusst despite being wounded himself. Stumpy has reloaded quickly and the remaining bandit  Obadiah Dusst gets both barrels. He will not rise again!

It's all over, the Dusst gang are all accounted for and on their way to Boot Hill. Sheriff Watson and his Deputies can get their wounds dressed. Leaving just Judge Paddock to ruminate on the lead robbing him of watching them swing...

Still he thinks, there's always another day and another low life to swing on his gallows. But, to finish on a more genteel note so you don't have nightmares a few more general shots of the collection.

Plenty of business no doubt for the town's undertaker and never a slack moment at Madame Moustache's!

Business is usually pretty brisk in Byk Li's Chop House too. A gunfight sure seems to whet a man's appetites.

Meanwhile back to more mundane matters, even Home on the Range a man needs to eat. Beans...again? Now, which way is the wind blowing I ask?

Madame and her Girls just hope it's not in their direction!

Twixt the mountains and the sea

For reasons which will become clear later the West Africa Coast had to be quickly transformed to the Old West for today's game. The town and the associated figure collection had not been out for several years since GHQ relocated. On top of this Phil had a set of skirmish rules based on Neil Thomas's Introduction to Wargaming which he wanted to try out. Two happy coincidences coming together for a light hearted bash in GHQ! Firstly, the town of New Paddock City ~

My group of eight figures represented the good guys, the town Marshall, his Deputies and a posse of townsfolk. Phil as El Loco lead the bad guys. As the home team I disposed my group of figures to cover a number of possible options for El Loco's men to enter the town. Phil wrong footed me by choosing only one entry point!

 First blood to the good guys! One Bandito goes down to the blast of both barrells!

 As I said though, El Loco's men have the local advantage outside the Undertakers, 4 to 2 infact. A hail of lead and the first of my chaps is ready for a wooden overcoat!

 Using Bolt Action dice to determine the order of figure actions meant I really needed a bit of luck. Well, you know me and the dice gods by now. I have three men down now! One more and morale checks would kick in.

 While El Loco and his henchmen dash towards cover by the photographer's I ponder my next move carefully from the window of Arkwright's store.

 I decide to step outside quietly and get a shot off at El Loco. I miss! Again! Meanwhile, two of El Loco's henchmen have crept up behind me. It looks like another one way ride to Boot Hill!

 Of course I should have known Phil would oblige! They miss and we break for lunch!

  On the restart our hero has reached the scene of the action. He fires off four shots in rapid succession but clearly his aim is affected. Perhaps his overlarge white hat has slipped over his eyes?

One shot though is all it takes and El Loco bites the dust! An immediate morale test is called for on the remaining Mexican Banditos! All but one oblige by skeddadling leaving only Juan to fight it out.

 His dice is first out in Turn 7 and he gets off two rifle shots at Our Hero, who now has only one wound marker remaining. Given my dice luck of late I might still loose this. I needn't have fretted, Juan goes down in a hail of lead and the good guys triumph! Well, it is the Old West of cheap pulp literature and Hollywood after all.

Great fun and rules that both have legs and will stand some tinkering! But now the real reason why I chose a Western Gunfight game today.

William is really keen and always ready to try a game. He'd discovered the cowboys in their storage draw and I'd promised him we'd have a game before he started back to school. He won of course...

The Nefarious Dr Byk Li

A recent addition to the cast of New Paddock City sees the arrival of the nefarious  Dr Byk Li{李医生}, seen here carried on his Jade Throne by his loyal henchmen, Yin and Yang {燕和杨}, accompanied by his eldest daughter, the beautiful but sinister Blue Orchid{ 蓝兰}. The figures are from the latest Pulp Miniatures' release, 'The Palanquin of Dr Koo'.~

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Jade Throne bears the symbol of the Dragon Tong, much to be feared by those who fall into their hands ~

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Of course, all villains really need a cover story, and Dr Byk Li's is already in place in the town in the form of Byk Li's Chop House, a cheap eating  place for low life passing through the town and up to no good ~

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For those who missed it the first time around its a Battleflag MDF kit which I customised for the chop house. The figures are from Pulp Miniatures once again. The interior is furnished with resin pieces from Frontline and the paper on the walls is a web down load of Dolls' House patterns I found, suitably scaled down ~

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Of course, the table hides a trapdoor in the floor leading to an underground lair where evil plots are hatched and villainy planned!

"Dusst you were..."

Phil, Jon and I recently played a Western Gunfight game here in GHQ; a three handed game in which the bad guys ~ Phil and Jon ~ tried to intercept and make off with a mysterious 'shipment' due into New Paddock City. No one was quite sure what it was, but if it was 'mysterious' it was bound to be valuable they thought. I took the part of the forces of right and justice in the form of the Sheriff and his trusted deputies...

The peaceful town of New Paddock City

The Dusst clan, lead by their patriarch Jedediah Dusst rode into town, skirting Main Street and moving behind the buildings to take advantage of the cover provided. Perhaps unfortunately Jed had not got his bearings and ended the move right behind the Sheriff's Office! The card draw did not favour him and he found the Sheriff and one of his Deputies overlooking him from an adjacent window. While the Sheriff's shooting can be glossed over, the Deputy hit his target, leaving Ol' Jed with 4 wounds...

Jed and the Boys take shelter from the hail of lead

Meanwhile, El Blanco and his Bandidos has dismounted behind the Liberty Bell and made straight for the establishment of Madame Moustache. The building's balcony gave a good view over Main Street towards the jail and bank.

El Blanco and his men overlook the Noon Stage

As in all good Gunfight games there was much lead flying and bodies dropping all over as the game developed. While Jed's boys fought it out with El Blanco's henchmen and the dwindling band of lawmen, Jed entered the bank by the rear door...

Sadly for Jed, El Blanco had beaten him to it!

Jed had used two actions to enter the bank, meaning he could not shoot straight away. In a tense draw of the turn cards El Blanco came out next! Two shots saw Jed gunned down! While mayhem reigned on Mani Street and lawmen and the bad guys were carried off to Boot Hill, El Blanco calmly made his exit with the strongbox from the bank's safe and rode away into the sunset...

"...and to dust you shall return."

We use Astounding Tales for our gunfight games, with some in house additions. I made the turn cards myself using mostly period images I found from the net ~

The Turn Cards

My figures are mostly Dixon Miniatures and early Foundry figures, with some from Pass of the North which I bought a long time ago at Historicon. The buildings are all bar one by Battleflag, the exception being a Herb Gunht wooden kit I received for a present one Christmas from Dave Paddock. Some extras are by Gamecraft. In all the game lasted 17 turns and was a great exercise in fun and tension with Jon running out a close winner, Phil coming a close second and myself, well, we'll draw a veil over that I think for now...

Action Cards for New Paddock City

I am managing quite a few displacement activities here in GHQ as an antidote to painting the six armoured Samurai I was 'gifted' by Phil. Its not that I'm ungrateful for his kindness, nor is it the case that I don't want to paint them; its just that they are rather more complex than all the other figures I have completed for the game and I find it dispiritingly slow and complex, allied to which I'm making too many eyesight related errors! I will finish them: I have completed the first pair; have all the basic colours on the second pair of the six and have done the flesh areas on the third pair. But, I still find it hard to sit down at my desk and get on with them!
So, today's displacement activity was making a set of 'Action Cards' for our Western Gunfight games set in and around my new town of Battleflag MDF buildings ~ which have featured in several earlier posts as I'm confident you will have seen. We are using a home improved version of Astounding Tales at present, so I know I'll need to make reference sheets too for the main characters to ease play along in future...

I was inspired to make these by the response to my efforts on the set for Funsen, as well as by a set shown of the LAF Forum Boards for the Rules with No Name. Again I trawled the net for suitable period photographs to use on the text side, mainly to enhance the look of the game as the cards are turned over. The most difficult images to find were for the gravedigger, OT ~ a long story there ~ and for the armed Preacher. In the end I opted for a C19th English picture for the former and of a reenactor for the latter, but otherwise they are all C19th photos from the Old West. For the face of the cards I found a rather nice image of a shoot out, very apt for our games, and a free font called El Dorado! They are nothing special in the end, but they will help the game look better and move along smoothly. As Phil says, "They will do!"

Now, will I get on with those Samurai next, or shall I finish grassing and tufting the rebased War of 1812 collection? No contest really...

 



A Mixed Bag

One thing is certain about wargaming, it gets you out and about the world, even if only in miniature! In the past ten days we've been in up country Vietnam; the veld of South Africa; and the far west of the USA, and all without leaving the comfort of GHQ! A few pictures and accompanying thoughts on three very different games. First up, a return after a long absence to Vietnam, triggered by the new Bolt Action rules and an article in the latest WSS.

A typical table for our ventures in Vietnam, with an army base in the foreground and a village in the middle distance. But, 'Where is Charlie?'

Well, clearly not in the village.

In fact, making a surprise assault on the base's perimeter. All in vain though in the end, a the Free World Forces drove of the attacks.


While the patrol swept the village clear of more VC, although Medivac was busy...

Then off to the veld of South Africa, where a Boer Trek was the subject of unwelcome attentions from the local Zulu chief, Bykelezi M'Tubi. A Boer scout reports in...

Though by then the Boer column seems to have got the picture for themselves.

The odds looked bad for the Boers, but again they made it of the table leaving little plunder and many dead Zulus, again.

Back in the Old West, the good guys always wore a white hat in the Saturday Matinee!

The bad guys always seemed to lurk in dark corners...

Or down dark alleys where heroes walked tall.

Or fired from windows as the hero passed by.

But somehow, they always ended up dead...











The truth is I lost the Vietnam game to Jon; the AZW games to Jon and Phil on successive days; and managed to cling on in the Old West against Phil for a draw ~ four deputies and four of the Dusst gang gunned down, Jed Dusst escaping, though having two wounds, with one surviving gang member; Sheriff Twerp with four wounds being helped to safety by old Stumpy and one other deputy! All great fun though with great company and cake! Not much rates better than that I find in my hobby.