Saturday night, the group got together for a good old fashioned Wild West shootout. The scenario had two rival gangs shooting it out for control of the town. It seems that the Marshall had gone to the next town to get married, and the hoodlums were taking advantage of the situation.
We used the Warhammer Historical Legends of the Old West rules. It’s a set that I’ve previously used for Plains Wars and French and Indian War rules, but strangely had not yet used for a basic gunfight. For those who haven’t played, the rules are typical Games Workshop. For shooting, you first roll a six sided die to hit, then your roll to see if you hit the cover, then you finally roll to wound. The game plays quickly, and new players can pick up the basics in a couple of minutes.
In our scenario, the sides each consisted of two gangs, each with a Desperado, two Kids and five Rowdies. I’ll call them North and South for the board edges they started on.
The players spent the first couple of turns maneuvering their gangs into position through the back alleys, taking the occasional (ineffective) long range shots as the opportunity presented itself. Both sides initially holed up in the buildings facing each other on opposite sides of the main street and began trying to pick off their opposite numbers.
Lots of shots were fired to no effect. Another tactic was needed. Then, on opposite ends of the street, each side began a flanking maneuver. On the western edge of the board, the North gang dashed across the street to an alley, losing one member in the move. At the same time, the South gang began trying to move across the eastern side. They managed to make it without taking any losses.
Now the casualties began piling up on both side, especially as the shotguns got within short range. The South Gang began having some luck with the dice, but the North Gang still was rolling blanks. They just couldn’t get a hit. Finally, in an act of desperation, the North Gang charged into hand-to-hand combat; that somehow seemed to work for them.
But it was really too late. They reached fifty percent casualties, failed a Guts check and fled the table.
The figures in the game are mostly Gurnsey and Wargames Foundry, with a smattering of other manufacturers mixed in, especially among the civilians. The buildings are all scratch built by yours truly, from foam core and cardboard.
It seems that back in the 1930s, the son of Edgar Rice Burroughs set out to create a cartoon series based on his father’s John Carter of Mars series of novels. Unfortunately, the series never got off the ground. Some initial work on the series survived, however, and you can see it in the YouTube video below:
Fans of the miniatures/board game Battle Lore and the older computer game Fantasy General will appreciate Fantasy Wars, a new turn-based strategy game from Atari. I really enjoyed it and have spent way too many hours playing.
In the game, you assume command of one of three armies—Human, Orc, or Elf—and battle your way through a series of interconnected scenarios. The action is strictly turn based. You click on a unit and then tell it where to move and fight. When one unit has finished moving, you go on to the next. When all have completed their actions, the turn ends and the computer plays.
That leaves plenty of time to think about what you’re doing—a welcome break from the frenetic clicking real time games that seem to be in vogue.
Like BattleLore and Fantasy General, movement is done on a hex grid, with one unit occupying each hex. From a distance, the units appear as single figures on the screen, but as you zoom in, you can see the individual soldiers. That makes it appealing to the miniatures gamer in me. Each unit of course has different abilities, and as is standard for these games, you can upgrade units and abilites as you earn money by accomplishing tasks
During the game, units performed realistically (can you even use that term with a fantasy game?). Defensive positions matter; terrain affects both combat and movement. One nice touch is that when a missile unit is placed behind a melee unit, it can provide defensive support. That encourages the realistic positioning of archers.
A tactic that works for me: Move archers into range of the enemy and pound them. Them advance the cheap foot troops to wear it down. Finally, when it’s about to break, send in the cavalry or heroes to mop up.
I found the game play to be very satisfying (and addicting). It’s one of those games where I always wanted to play “just one more turn.”
The graphics are a major upgrade from Fantasy General, and were more than adequate for my tastes. They aren’t what you’d call hyper realistic, but I am more concerned with game play anyway.
Fantasy Wars is played point and click interface. After watching the tutorial, I was able to play without thinking at all about the actual mechanics. If there’s one complaint I have about the game, however, it’s that it was slow to respond to mouse clicks. I often had to click several times before getting a unit to do something.
If you watch this video of an elephant painting a self-portrait, you’ll realize that its only a matter of time and effort before we can get them to paint out wargames miniatures.
Miniature Wargaming is part of the "adventure games" hobby, which includes r ole p laying and board games. Wargamers recreate battles on the tabletop with toy soldiers, like a more complicated game of chess. Models range in height from 6mm to 28mm tall, with 15mm and 25mm being the most popular. There also is a growing interest in toy soldiers and military models, such as the 1/32 and 1/35 scale plastic soldiers from Conte, and Marx.
The most popular miniature wargames are fantasy and science fiction based, such as Warhammer, Warhammer 40K, Warmachine and The Lord of the Rings. World War II games such as Flames of War and Axis and Allies are new favorites. Other favorite historical periods include Napoleonics, the American Civil War, and ancients, such as Romans or Greeks. Other gamers enjoy miniature naval wargames, recreating battles like Trafalgar, Jutland and the Coral Sea.
Hobbyists research historical periods and paint their tiny soldiers in accurate uniforms. Others develop "historically realistic" rules sets or build scale battlefield terrain using model railroad techniques.
For pictures, visit the gallery.
Some of the bigger hobby companies are Games Workshop, which produces Warhammer, Wargames Foundry and Old Glory Miniatures. Wizards of the Coast produces several lines of pre-painted miniatures games, such as the Star Wars and Dungeons and Dragons miniatures games, and a historical game with pre-painted miniatures: The new Axis and Allies game. Wizkids produces a fantasy collectable miniatures game, such as the Mage Knight and Heroclick fantasy games, the science fiction games MechWarrior and Rocketmen, as well as the quasi-historical Pirates of the Spanish Main.
Saturday night, the group got together for a good old fashioned Wild West shootout. The scenario had two rival gangs shooting it out for control of the town. It seems that the Marshall had gone to the next town to get married, and the hoodlums were taking advantage of the situation.
