Wild West weekend

I was scheduled to run this Month's game for one of my wargaming groups session and figured it was time for me to breakout a Wild West game. It's been at least 7 years since I ran one, I just couldn't find a set of rules I liked and also thought would be fun for the players and eventually I kind of forgot I had Wild West stuff.

Late last year I picked up Shoot n Skedaddle (from Turnstyle games), and thought they looked like they would fit my stringent requirements (fun to play and easy to run). I haven't ordered the cards yet as they are (with shipping) somewhat expensive, so I bought the PDF cards, printed them out and stuck'em in card sleeves and made my own versions of the character cards to match my figure collection.

In preparation on Saturday (December 9th) I took the rules and stuff to the Hamilton Road Gaming Group for a trial run and ran two games. Just one picture of the games. First game had 2 players and I learned 6 characters is too many for one player to run. Second game, both players ran 4 characters and things went more quickly. Might have made some sales for Turnstyle Games.

Shinbone shoot out at the Crouch aka the HRGG

Experience gained, I then ran two games Sunday (10th December), again in my Wild West town, Shinbone.

The first game was scenario one, with each of 4 player drawing 3 characters, one player drew a cowboy and both Soiled Doves (I suggested he swap one out for a redraw but he declined). No pictures of that game. It was mainly to get everyone acquainted with the rules.

We broke for lunch and afterwards played scenario one again with new characters.

Outlaws hanging around near the Saloon,

Some of the forces of Law and Order, The Judge (inside) and Mountain Man in the street,

Bodies piling up at the corner of the Dry Goods Store

Mountain man's body atop Herman's Feed and seed.

Mid way through the game, the Lawmen turned one of the outlaws (via special card), but then the outlaws almost immediately had a townsman join them (via another special card) he popped up near the corner of the dry goods store, very near the end of a turn, and so got both actions quickly. Oh and he had a Mare's Leg

3 men remain, a pair of outlaws vs. the Bounty Hunter (atop the Sheriff's office). One outlaw has taken a hostage, but all doors are locked and he can't climb over a fence with the hostage (and refused to turn her loose).

The game was called at that point, Bounty Hunter had a carbine but the only target he had was the hostage taker who was rooted in cover with his hostage and the other outlaw was wounded (and not coming out).

Players had a great time, but now expect more games of this, I guess I'll have to level up my terrain, Thanks! Turnstyle games. Might have made some more sales for Turnstyle Games.

One thing players didn't like was the amount of one shot weapons, (by one shot I mean you get 1 shot then have to reload before you could shoot again), but that could just have been the luck of the draw.

Gaming in London

Gaming scene in London

I maintain my local gaming group's website and the Ontario Wargamers Yahoo Group and am occasionally asked about places to find gamers in London.

So I thought I would post here about what I know of the scene.

There is the Hamilton Road Gaming Group meets every Saturday at Crouch Public Library, 550 Hamilton Road. An unstructured organization, they do a bit of everything, miniatures (any genre), role playing and even board gaming.

The Historical Gaming Association of London (Ontario), meets every 4th Sunday of the month in the community room in Police HQ, almost exclusively historical miniature wargaming, we have done some Science fiction. I'm not sure how much traffic it sees though in the 15+ years I've been maintaining the site, it has generated no new members.


There are are only two stores devoted to wargaming in London;

Games Workshop in White Oaks Mall a tiny store (a guess approximately 20' x50') with a few 3'x2' tables and a bulletin board. Exclusively GW games.

Imperial Hobbies 256 Dundas Street, carries GW and Flames of War, but has other wargaming miniature lines, board games and RPG materials. He has a website that used to announce what they play and when, but it was almost always blank. My direct knowledge is several years old, as I no longer frequent the store, ever since the owner said to me "If your too cheap to buy anything, why do you come in?"

Three Comic book stores that have some gaming, I've heard anyway. The only one I have actually seen gaming occurring at is Comic Book collector.

L.A.Moods: 350 Richmond Street.

The Comic Book Collector: 779 Dundas Street.

Worlds away:  666 Dundas Street, not sure in any gaming takes place on premises.

That is it for organised groups, for some reason Londoners don't seem to like finding new opponents, there a few gamers I know of, but they prefer to play at their homes.

HGA - October 23 2011

October 23rd 2011: This month we played an American Civil War naval game. Run by Glenn, using: Sail and Steam Navies: Naval Battle System 1840 to 1880's; Under Two Flags ACW expansion


I'm not sure if it is a published Scenario, one in playtest or a home brew inspired by the actual action. My understanding is Glenn plans on running it at a con (Hotlead 2012? maybe).

We played the Battle of The Head of Passes 10 days after the 151st anniversary of the battle.

The game, initially, went very similarly to the historical battle CSS Manassas rammed the USS Richmond, did very little damage, got its stacks shot up, but did not run aground. The Union vessels also did not run away, they instead blasted the Mosquito fleet.

Richmond being rammed by CSS McRae and CSS Tuscarora's flaming rafts, USS Preble crossing the infront of CSS Ivy and CSS Calhoun just having sunk CSS Pickens

USS Vincenes anchored in the way of CSS Calhoun, CSS Manassas left edge of picture.

Confederate confusion, USS Vincennes has slipped it bow anchor as USS Preble races by firing on a pair of entangled Confederates (Calhoun and Jackson)

Victory was determined by who had the most points at game end. Points are awarded for sinking or capturing enemy ships. The Union lost the coaling ship USS Toone (5 points)
Confederate lost 1 or 2 ships and had several more badly shot up.

The victory conditions need tweaking, since the Union player starts with 25 points (Confederates out point the Union at start) is unlikely to run away, and either Richmond or Vincennes alone outguns the entire Confederate force.

HGA - September 25th 2011

September 25th, 2011: I ran a game of the 'Sword and the Flame' for my local gaming group (Historical Gaming Association of London [Ontario]). I decided to run one from a Scenario book. The book I chose was 'Colonial Campaigns: Ethiopia' and the scenario was 'Adowa: The Centre Brigades'.

Five players showed up which was perfect, the scenario seems to work best with that many (three Ethiopian and two Italian). I ran it once with six, three a side, the actual Italians enter on turn 2 and either take three to four turns to reach the fighting, which is desperate by that time, or they move to the West hill and see no fighting til near turn 9 or 10.

I made one change to the scenario to make it closer, I moved up all Ethiopian reinforcements by one turn, otherwise the Italians have to try very hard to lose.

To win the Italians must accrue more victory point than the Ethiopians, each side gets one point for solely occupying each victory hill.

The game is supposed to be 12 turns long, but you can determine by about turn 8 if the Ethiopians are going to win, which is where we got to.

By turn 8 the Italians had lost control of 2 of the the 3 hills and even if they kept the 3rd hill, the Ethiopians would accumulate enough victory point to win, the Italians didn't have enough troops to contest one of the hills, they used their reserves to hold the second hill as long as possible, if they could have contested it for one more turn we would have had to play til turn 12.

Turn 2: The Askari (Eritrean fighting for the Italians) move onto occupy 2 of the 3 victory hills, but Ethiopians cavalry is already on North hill at top of picture.

North hill being assaulted.

Last stand on North hill, the only survior will be general Albertone (on horse near South edge of the hill). The markers denote that a unit has moved  and the different colors which player is commanding said unit.

Italians reinforcements arrive to contest the South hill, constant sniping and rushes have reduced the defending askari to 3 figures.

Turn 8: Italians just about to be pushed off the South hill. Ethiopians assault the reserve to prevent if from counter attacking.

For the most part we played The Sword and the Flame' rules as written except melee resoloution and officer casualties.

Melee: I had each side start with1d6 per figure, or 1d8 per leader then add or subtract for various factors. Roll the dice with any result of 5+ inflicting a kill, the side with the most kills win, ties go to defender.  

Officer Casualties: when a unit takes casualties for each casualty roll 1d12 on a 1 unit suffers an officer casualty.