Bad Day in Ditchwater part 2

We return to Ditchwater as chaos spreads around the town as everyone tries to get their piece of the action.

When we left the Banker had just picked up the bottle of Nitro as the Outlaw young blood Cletus and the Sheriff stared each other down.


Then an outlaw from another posse with an empty shotgun throws a knife at the banker and hits him in the back. It knocks him down, on top of the Nitro bottle, having an explosive result. The Nitro blows killing the banker, two deputies and derailing the train. No more chance to take the engine and drive away with the caboose with the safe in it.

The Sheriff pulls on Cletus and fires six shots just as fast as the bullets will fly. Cletus is hit but not wounded, he stands his ground slowly reloading his scatter gun.

Injun Joe still in the water tower snipes Cletus and puts him down. Cletus may have been stupid but you can't say he didn't have huevos.

The Sheriff guns down a desperado

The Sheriff moves up shooting at the lawbreakers as he goes.

Mescal Mike leaves cover to kill the cowboys that kilt' Cletus.

Lead flies as the outlaws and cowboy duel in the crates.

The Sheriff returns his attention to the caboose and the gunfire inside.

The Sheriff and his last Deputy storm into the caboose behind a hail of lead.

Mescal Mike and his last desperado close into fisticuffs to beat the cowboy down.

An outlaw with a shotgun hits the Sheriff and takes his last wound.

The Cowboys in the engine jump down and run to support their compatriot.

Mescal Mike loses the fist fight but manages to knock down one cowboy.

Our game master Barry maintains an iron grip on the players throughout the evening.

Mescal Mike falls to the combined fire of the Cowboys.

Another Shotgun outlaw downs the last two Aristocrats.

The last Desperado manages to hit and kill Injun Joe before leaving town.

The last shotgun outlaw has finally cracked the safe but isn't strong enough to carry the gold bullion by himself. While the Mayor waits with his Buffalo rifle for him to make a run from the train.

The game was played at Parker Banner Kent and Wayne in Cornelius, North Carolina. It was the first game of  Legends of  the Old West I had played in several years and the first time several of the players had ever played it. Yes, mistakes were made. We had seven posses of four models each. One Lawman, two Townsfolk, two Outlaw, one Cowboy and the Aristocrats. I had a good time and have started back working on some of my own old west figures.

ColKG

Bad Day in Ditchwater part 1

Once again the Catawba Gamers return to Parker Banner Kent and Wayne for their monthly game day. This time it was Barry running a Legends of the Old West game I like to call "Bad Day in Ditchwater".

The Banker had a little too much to drink and let out the secret that next Monday the train was bringing in a safe full of gold bullion for the bank to hold until it could be transferred. The whispered rumour ran through the town like a wild fire and before long everybody was planning to be in town Monday, early.


The peaceful town of Ditchwater as the train pulls in.

As the train stops the citizens start to stir.

The banker sends his hired gun thugs up main street to meet the train, but a another figure eases out of the livery stable taking cover behind the mules.

Outlaw young blood Cletus cocks the hammers on his sawed off shotgun and yells "The only thing I hate more than Lawmen is hired Gun Thugs!"

Cletus shoots and covers all three with pellets but only manages to knock one down.

The Aristocrats exit the train and are approached by a outlaw with a proposition to team up and split the gold. They agree ,for the time being.

Outlaw leader Mescal Mike and two desperadoes leave the Livery and head for the general store/Saloon.

Hired guns and lawmen stand off.

Dodging bullets from the cowboys on one side and the lawmen on the other, the desperadoes duck into the general store while Mescal Mike returns fire and Cletus hides and reloads his scatter gun.

As bullets start flying from every direction the train crew abandons the engine.

The Cowboys break cover and head for the abandoned Engine.

The banker and gunmen make a run for the train while the towns people cover them.

Holed up in the caboose some outlaws shotgun down several towns people, while they try to break the safe.

The Cowboys fan out while an outlaw runs down the train to beat them to the engine.

Injun Joe makes it to the top of the tower and begins to gun anyone he can see down.

The Aristocrats and outlaws fallout and gunfire erupts in the caboose.

After searching for some dynamite in the general store Cletus finds a big bottle of Nitroglycerin. William Munny might have dynamited a train but Cletus was going to NITRO a train. Cletus steps out of the General Store and throws the nitro at the train, where it hits and does nothing.

Disappointed the nitro didn't blow Cletus decides to Shoot the Sheriff and lets go with both barrels again. He hits the Sheriff but only wounds him.

While Cletus calmly reloads his scatter gun for another shot, the Banker runs to get the nitro from the train and the Sheriff draws down on Cletus to put him down like a rabid dog.

Who will survive? Come back for the final episode Bad Day in Ditchwater Part 2.

ColKG

Repost: Easter Basket Giveaway

Hello

Chirs over at Sippin on Paint Water is giving away a Easter basket with miniatures and chocolate check it out here Easter Basket Giveaway. Check it out and paint up something for the project.

ColKG

Cold Wars 2012 Report Part 2

Hi Kids, Here's part 2 of all the action at Cold Wars 2012!  Brace Yourselves, it's going to be a Biggie.  And speaking of the bigs, here's two shots of Dave Bonk's 25mm Carnage and Glory Nappie game.  Those Raleigh lads know how to get the lead out!  So has anyone decided to attend Spring Fever, the upcoming Raleigh NC con?  Late April.  Don't make me beg.  So screw your courage to the sticking point and brave that exercise of destruction known as Raleigh traffic!

Monsters of the Midway?  Bloodbowl?  Too Tame for this boys.  If you want real violence Ice Hockey is the only way to go!  Remember that joke, "I went to the fights last night and a hockey game broke out!"

Bring out yer Mechs!  Olde School Battletech (aka Beetletech aka Battlewreck aka Macross) with Ral Partha/ Iron Wind 1/285 minis!  Battle rages outside the soccer stadium.  Those soccer holigans are getting serious!

The action moves to deep space with Firestorm Armada from Spartan Games.

 When the going gets wierd, the wierd turn pro! This one was called "All Quiet of the Ruritarian Front." The Axis/ Central Powers side in a Victorian Sci-Fi 25mm game.  These guys had everything except Chittichittibangbang on the field.  Probably waiting in the wings to swoop in and save the day.

The opposite side of the field, Allied land battleships/ war machines rev up to speed and ease across the trenches!

 This bad boy makes the Paris gun seem like a wimp.  Who woulda thunk Lucas would get in on the act?  And backing the huns to boot!

Just when you thought the grass was greener on the other side, it's another game of Gnome Wars!  Those guys must breed like rabbits, they're everywhere.

 25mm American Civil War action, I think this one was in the Hawk's room.  I still dream of getting terrain like this!

More of the same.

 IIRC this was a 25mm with 1/48 vehicles, WW2 early war game put on by the Hawks.  I really dig the canal, we should have more games with such stuff!

The hun spearhead for another nearby game, just starting to move out.  Looks like the best damn tank of the war, the Pz 38T.  It just looks too sexy, TOO SEXY!

 Downtown Mideast, probably a Force or Force game in 25mm.  Now if they'd just do something to limit the popcorning reaction tests, we could get down to the shooting!

 "Check Your Six" in 1/200 scale, it's the Arab-Israeli Wars!  That's me driving two Mig-17's, a plane way too sexy for the Israelis! Two of those smoke columns are down Israeli jets, one is a destroyed troop concentration or a Mig-17 flown by some Zero-rated dude.  Then again, most of us Egyptians were rated Zero. It's tough to be Arab.

Here we have the final moments of our hero (yes, that would be me) flying to tempt the final Israeli pilot into a stern chase.  Luckily for him, the other Egyptians with a hearty, "Up yours pal!" decide to break off and head home, leaving our hero high and dry.  Naturally they didn't bother informing me of this plan when I told them I would lead the Israeli to a perfect bounce position...... Thanks guys!  Appreciate it!!!!  What can you do?  Some guys just suck on ice.

 Downtown Beruit, 1982.  "I Ain't Been Shot Mum" in 15mm.  This is the PLO side of the table, those are the PLO blindes in red, and the troops lining the edge of the table.  Once the IDF gets close we'll flip the blindes over to reveal troops, ATgun, or dummies.

Here we have the IDF forces; Merkavas, APC's, Engineer vehicles and an extra bonus, an M109!  Due to truly hellish luck the IDF were battered early on and try as them might it was just too tough to make up the losses.  I was told it was the only time EVER that a Merkava was taken out by an RPG hit.  (I rolled 6 hits on 9 dice, IIRC!)

 The Ambush Alley of Beruit!  An APC is immobilized on the first turn with a lucky hit, and in the foreground a Merkava burns.  PLO punks on the rooftops rejoice.

 Another PLO blinde flips to reveal a WW2 surplus Brit tank in PLO colors!  The APC brews up, and the engineers inside take to their heels.

Endgame, two Merkavas head off the board edge, but it's not enough to secure victory for the IDF.  Nearby PLO punks lob RPG's with furious abandon, but don't hit anything except a M113.  For more details on this most excellent game, see the "Daddy's Little Men" blog.

 For those of you who think I have big minis....  here's the real Bigs!  25mm pirate ships from the days of fighting sail!  I shudder to think about transporting stuff like this.  Thank God they don't need much terrain.

Oh yeah, the Chuckster could use a new project!

 Ok, ok, this is the last picture of Gnome Wars games.  Lon, you oughta be paying me for this!

 Got a good game?  Convert it over to minis!  Here we have Memoir '44 made into a 6x15ft extravaganza!  Hit the beach!

25mm Old West.  High Noon.  Cover is your friend.

You guessed it!  No con would be complete without a big honkin 40K game!  I betcha there's a fistful of zombies in there somewhere.

One of the rows of 25mm Ancients games in the tournament room.  This room was about the size of 6 tennis courts.  It wasn't all ancients, they had DBA, FoW, Wargods of Egyptus, card games, and a lot of room for pick up games.

A Yemeni Boeing 747SP stands out on the ramp, probably bringing a couple hundred hardcore gaming dudes to get the lead out!  Ok, ok, this shot is from LAX, not the Lancaster County Airport.  But you gotta admit, an SP is one cool looking plane!  And rare, too!  It's been my dream for the last 20 years that the big HMGS cons would be near a decent freakin airport!  Who's with me?

So that's it for this wargaming extravaganza report!   Hopefully this can inspire us all to drag out the figs and dust off those dice!  And remember, life is too short to play crap games!