Developing A Scenario (part eight)

AFTERTHOUGHTS

I do not know if my report has conveyed the excitement we had playing this scenario, but the fact that the result was in doubt to the very last rifle-shot helped make the game a heck of a lot of fun.

Perhaps there being nothing remotely serious at stake only added to the enjoyment.

Certainly it was a relief to me, as the scenario designer, that the game should pan out in such a nail-biting way.

When the rancher riding shotgun was killed early on, and the wagon's horses were slowed by taking a hit, I feared the cowboys would have little chance. But in the end they won with very little blood spilt on either side.

Was the scenario too lacking in blood? I have to admit the number of casualties would have made for a disappointing Wild West movie, at least for a movie of the old school.
But then again a wagon escaping an ambush would only take up one very small part of a movie, the scene lasting under five minutes. 

And I like to think the low mortality rate - except, perhaps, among the horses - is more like how the West really was.

If every wargame I played were this much fun, I would have no complaints.

Developing A Scenario (part seven)

TURN FIVE

Overview at the start of turn five

I send as many Indians as I can to close in on the wagon, except for my spear-armed mounted warrior who I order to turn around and attack the rifle-armed cowboy in hand-to-hand fighting.

Up close and personal

We decide to resolve the melee before the firing - mainly because it is our first melee in the scenario. Ricky rolls a 4, which becomes a 3 after my warrior's shield is taken into account, so well short of the needed 5. I roll a 6, which is enough for a hit even without my +1 modifiers for being an Indian and for having a spear. The hit turns out to be on the horse, which is killed, but the rider can fight on, albeit on foot.

Ricky's man is down but not out

Unfortunately for me, my partial success in the melee turns out to be my only success of the half-turn as my firing at the wagon is ineffective.
Ricky manoeuvres his one remaining mounted cowboy to charge my spear-armed mounted warrior from the side, and moves his other cowboys to clear a path for the wagon along Pitchfork Way.

The wagon has almost reached safety

Ricky's charging cowboy soon regrets his decision, suffering a hit while not inflicting one, but he only has to fall back a square.
Firing by the cowboys is as ineffective as by my Indians, with just my bow-armed mounted warrior suffering a hit, and that only makes him fall back a square.
TURN SIX
There is no doubt the Indian cause looks desperate, but there is still hope because one rancher has been killed - the only human fatality so far - and the cowboys will have to run away and abandon the wagon if the second rancher, which is Ricky the Kid himself, is downed. Accordingly I order my braves to target Ricky as much as possible. This entails charging him from the side by my bow-armed mounted warrior, as well as hoping to shoot him.

Ricky the Kid is wearing green in the square directly north of the wagon

I ask for this melee to be resolved first. My warrior gets +1 for being an Indian in hand-to-hand fighting and +1 for attacking from the flank, but no bonus for being mounted as Ricky has another cowboy with him in the square. Ricky and his ranch-hand have no modifiers. The dice roll 6-1 in my favour, meaning I get a hit. It turns out to be on Ricky rather than the ranch-hand, but a further roll shows it has no effect! A rifle-armed brave in the square immediately in front of Ricky fires and scores a hit, despite having a -1 modifier for moving. The hit is on Ricky, but again it has no effect - he must be one tough hombre. A bow-armed warrior also in the square directly in front of Ricky shoots but misses.
Elsewhere, the only incident of note is when my spear-armed brave on horseback charges the cowboy whose horse was killed last turn, scoring a second hit, but it only forces the man to fall back a square. My brave chooses to follow-up and occupy the vacated square.
Ricky, deciding discretion is the better part of valour, pulls the figure of himself as far from danger as possible while leaving the ranch-hand who was with him to face my angry warriors alone.

Ricky the Kid skulks nearest the camera, while the wagon, or at least the horses pulling it, pass through the gate to the ranch

My bow-armed mounted warrior is forced back a square by firing, and then has his horse shot from under him, and another of my warriors is twice forced back a square.
In his excitement, Ricky forgot to move his remaining mounted cowboy, but the omission looks academic unless something amazing happens in turn seven.
TURN SEVEN
All depends on whether I can kill Ricky this half-turn as his wagon cannot otherwise be prevented from entering the ranch and giving him victory. I get a chief and a warrior, both armed with rifles, to rush along Pitchfork Way to within two squares of the rancher.

Lining up for the Indians' last shot at winning

That means just a 3 is needed for a hit, but there is a -1 modifier for moving. The chief misses, but the warrior scores a hit ... but to no effect.
With the wagon sure to enter the ranch in Ricky's half-turn, I concede.

Developing A Scenario (part six)

MY opponent is my usual wargames opponent, and as the guest he will have choice of sides. As usual I will write up the game as we go along.
He has chosen to be the cowboys.
TURN ONE
The wagon enters from the east. Although it can normally move three squares when on Pitchfork Way, it has to stop at the ford because the ford is rough terrain, requiring two movement points to enter, and the wagon only has one left after covering the first two squares.

The situation after the wagon arrives at the ford

I immediately notice that my opponent, who is calling himself Ricky the Kid, is using a pistol-armed cowboy as the driver. Riding shotgun is Ricky's co-rancher.

Close-up of the wagon at the ford

A quick count of the cowboys in the ranch tells me there must be two other cowboys hidden in the back of the wagon. Ricky has placed his mounted cowboys out of range of my my Indian on horseback that has a bow, presumably because the Indians get to start the game-proper. But note that the same Indian is within the longer range of the rifle-armed mounted cowboy.
I have placed the maximum six Indians, including the rifle-armed chief, in the wood, as Ricky can work out by counting the number of Indians left in the village. There are four of them, including the spear-armed chief who represents me, and they are waiting in the canoes ready to launch themselves as soon as the ambush is sprung.

Poised in the village

I have decided to wait for the wagon to draw alongside the wood before leaping into action. An interesting alternative strategy, however, might be to send the whole tribe in the direction of the wagon from turn one, although this would give the cowboys in the back of the wagon time to remove the tarpaulin and be ready to open fire.
TURN TWO
The wagon crosses the ford, and I have a bit of a think. Should my braves open fire from the wood now, when the wagon still has some way to reach the ranch?

Now?

Or should I wait for the wagon to pull parallel with the wood? This will maximise my shooting, but the wagon will be much nearer the ranch.
I decide to wait.
TURN THREE
The wagon trundles along and my Indians spring into action, with the mounted warriors charging down to join their brothers who emerge from their hiding places in the wood. Meanwhile the Indians back in the village launch their canoes, landing on the far bank one square further south. That requires one movement point, and they use their other point to climb out of the canoes.

Ambush!

The two rifle-armed Indians in the part of the wood nearest Pitchfork Way fire at the front of the wagon. The range is two squares (in the Portable Wargame, distances are always measured through the sides of squares, never the corners), meaning they need a 3 to score a hit, but they have a -1 modifier because they moved from their hiding places. Only one succeeds in scoring a hit, and a further roll shows this is on a horse, reducing the wagon's speed to two movement points.Of the four Indians further back in the wood, two do not have line of sight as they are obstructed by the trees immediately to their front. But the other two, one armed with a rifle and one with a bow, fire at the front of the wagon. Again the range is two squares: the rifleman needs a 3, the bowman a 5; both have a -1 modifier. Surprisingly, while the rifleman misses, the Indian with a bow, no doubt happy to be using a traditional weapon rather than a new-fangled paleface invention, scores a hit. This turns out to be on the rancher riding shotgun, who is killed.
My mounted Indian with a bow is effectively unable to fire this turn as he has two -1 modifiers: one for moving and one for being mounted.
TURN FOUR
The cowboys in the back of the wagon pull off the tarpaulin as the wagon continues along Pitchfork Way. The wagon, thanks to one of the horses being injured, it is now only able to cover two squares. The men in the ranch rush through the gate and over the fence, and the cowboys on horseback also do their best to gallop to the wagoners' rescue.

Counter-ambush! The tarpaulin has been ripped off the wagon

One of Ricky's riflemen in the wagon fires at the mounted Indian with a bow, hitting his horse and forcing a one-square retreat (he has to fallback diagonally to the only empty square available). My mounted rifleman then fires at the same Indian but a roll of 4, which would normally suffice at a range of three squares, is nowhere near enough as there are -1 modifiers for moving and for being mounted. The two men from the ranch armed with rifles - one is myself, the other a cowboy - also fire at this Indian, but neither scores a hit. Two other cowboys armed with pistols are within extreme range (four squares) of the same brave, but cannot not fire as they need a 6 and they have a -1 modifier for moving. Finally, the second rifle-armed cowboy in the wagon fires at the same Indian but again misses, meaning the warrior has survived five shots.

View from the wagon at the end of turn four

Developing A Scenario (part five)

SETTING UP

At least one cowboy must be driving the wagon. As previously stated, he can be joined by a cowboy riding shotgun (but possibly only armed with a pistol) and by up to two more cowboys in the rear.

Both mounted cowboys are riding the range and must be placed in two of the northernmost squares west of the cacti. The rest of the cowboys can be placed anywhere inside the ranch fencing.

Southwest is nearest the camera

Up to two Indians on foot can be hiding in ambush in each of the three wooded squares, but do not needed to be physically placed there. The Indians on horseback must be placed in any of the northernmost squares between the cacti and the river. Remaining Indians start anywhere in the village.

The players should take turns in placing their men until the only ones left are those hidden from view, ie Indians in the wood and cowboys in the back of the wagon (their positions should be noted on paper, to be revealed once the game-proper starts). 

The game begins with the wagon entering along Pitchfork Way from the east. No one else can move until the game-proper starts, which is when Indians in the wood spring their ambush (if there are no Indians in the wood, it is going to be a short and uneventful game), or an Indian leaves the village or one of the Indians on horseback moves south.

Developing A Scenario (part four)

THE WAGON
The horse-drawn wagon is the key to the scenario.
It is travelling from Farmerville to the ranch with vital supplies, including dynamite.
Farmerville is to the east of the table, and the route the wagon takes is called Pitchfork Way.

My excuse for the unimaginative names ... they are on a signpost that came with one of the playsets

I have added timbers to show the route of Pitchfork Way on the table.

The timbers are lawn edging from a pound store

The wagon can move three squares while on Pitchfork Way and  while inside the ranch. The horses are used to the route and so will stay on it unless steered off, at which point each square requires two movement points.
One cowboy must be assigned to be the driver. He cannot fire a  weapon while driving but can melee if attacked in hand-to-hand fighting.
A second cowboy can ride shotgun and can fire forwards or sideways from the same square as occupied by the wagon's horses.
Up to two other cowboys can be placed in the wagon itself. Their presence is only revealed when they strip the wagon's canvas covering (this can be done by two men in one turn or one man in two turns) or fire straight backwards through the rear of the wagon. Once the covering is removed, occupants of the wagon can fire sideways or to the rear.
Anyone firing at the wagon must specify whether firing at the occupants of the front or rear half. Hits are determined in the normal way.
If a hit is scored on the front half, roll again with a 50:50 chance of the hit being on a horse or a man. If a horse is hit, the wagon's speed is reduced by a movement point; a second hit on a horse halts the wagon for the rest of the scenario. If a hit is scored on the rear half, roll again: 5 or 6, occupant hit; 1-4, no effect.
When a man on a wagon has been hit, roll to see what happens to him: 4-6, killed; 1-3, falls off the wagon to an adjacent square as far from the shooter as possible. There is no difference for being a rancher or a chief (in the event of the Indians capturing the wagon but later coming under attack).
The wagon can ride down any figure in its path on Pitchfork Way. Dice for the figure: 4-6, killed; 1-3, jumps to the side (if side square unavailable, can jump diagonally - is killed if no square available).
Any figure in its path but not on Pitchfork Way automatically jumps out of the way and is only killed if no square is available.
MORALE
The Indians flee to their village if both chiefs are killed (the wagon, if it has been captured, is abandoned).
The cowboys flee to their ranch if both ranchers are killed (the wagon is abandoned).
VICTORY CONDITIONS
The cowboys win if the wagon safely enters the ranch.

Developing A Scenario (part three)

THE rules for my cowboys & Indians scenario will be adapted from Bob Cordery's Portable Wargame series of books, and particularly the original 2017 book's Portable Wargame Rules: Late Nineteenth Century (Including Colonial).
There will be quite a few differences, not least due to my scenario being a skirmish game rather than a battle between armies.
The scenario's figures can be divided into three categories: men on foot, men on horseback and the wagon.
The men on foot can be further divided into cowboys and Indians, with the former primarily armed with either a rifle or pistol(s) and the latter with a rifle, bow, spear or tomahawk and knife.

Five different weapons

One of the mounted Indians has a bow and the other a spear (the latter Indian also carries a small shield), while one mounted cowboy has a rifle and the other, although twirling a lasso, has a pistol in a holster and can be thought of as being armed with that.
From a weapons viewpoint, therefore, the mounted figures bring nothing new to the table, but using a weapon on horseback can be rather different from using the same weapon on foot.

The four horsemen

Important things to note about the wagon are that it does not come with a driver and it occupies two 5in squares.
I think it will be easiest to make basic rules and then deal with rules for the wagon separately.

The horse-drawn wagon makes a special case

You will need one of Cordery's books to properly understand my rules - I will generally not be explaining the mechanics, except where they differ from his.
BASIC RULES FOR A PORTABLE COWBOYS & INDIANS WARGAME
A square can be occupied by one man on horseback or up to two on foot. No one can pass through an occupied square.
Movement
Men on foot: two squares.
Men on horseback: four squares.
The river is generally uncrossable, except by one or two men in a canoe. It takes one turn for the canoe to cross, and it lands a square further south than the one from which it started.
The ford in the southernmost square counts as rough terrain, except if the footbridge is being used by a man on foot. The wood and the cactus squares are also rough terrain, as is the Indian village to cowboys and the ranch to Indians. Rough terrain requires the expenditure of two movement points rather than the normal one.
Actions such as opening the gate, crossing a fence or mounting a horse require one movement point.
There is no penalty for changing the direction a figure is facing, but a figure must always face a side of a square rather than a corner.
Firing
Rifles, pistols and bows are ranged weapons; spears, tomahawks and knives (everyone is considered to have a knife) are for hand-to-hand fighting.
Roll a die for each weapon fired, requiring the following minimum for a hit.
Rife 1-2 squares: 3
Rifle 3-4 squares: 4
Rifle 5-6 squares: 5
Pistol 1 square: 4
Pistol 2 squares: 5
Pistol 3-4 squares: 6
Bow 1-2 squares: 5
Bow 3-4 squares: 6
If firer moved this turn: -1
If firer is mounted: -1
If target behind cover (includes cactus rough terrain): -1
Hand-to-Hand Fighting
Hand-to-hand fighting occurs when a figure or figures try to enter a square occupied by an enemy figure or figures. Only the legal number of figures that can occupy a square can try to enter it in any half-turn.
Both sides roll a die, requiring a 5 to score a hit.
Indian: +1
Armed with spear or tomahawk: +1
Two men versus one on foot: +2
Man on horseback versus single man on foot: +2
On foot facing an enemy on foot and behind cover (includes cactus rough terrain): -1
On horseback facing an enemy on foot and behind cover (includes cactus rough terrain): -2
Enemy has shield: -1 (cannot be combined with being behind cover)
Attacking from side or behind: +1
Being attacked from behind: -1
Resolving Hits
If two men in a square suffer a hit, roll again with a 50:50 chance to determine which one has been hit.
Where a hit is scored on a mounted figure, roll again with a 50:50 chance to determine if the hit is on the man or the horse.
If a hit is on an ordinary ranch-hand or Indian, roll to see its effect:
4-6: killed; 1-3: falls back one square.
If a hit is on a ranch owner, a chief or a horse:
5-6: killed; 3-4: falls back one square; 1-2: no effect.

Chiefs can be recognised by their full war bonnets, while the two ranch owners have hats with taller-than-usual crowns

Where it is not possible to directly fall back a square because the square is occupied, a figure may exceptionally fall back diagonally (dice to see which way). This is the only time diagonal movement is allowed. If no square is available, the figure is killed (both rider and horse are eliminated even if one has not suffered a hit).
If a horse is killed, the rider continues on foot.
If a rider is killed, roll a die for the horse:
6: it moves forward two squares; 5: it moves to the right two squares; 4: it moves backwards two squares; 3: it moves left two squares; 2: it halts but cannot be approached; 1: it halts and can be mounted by any figure entering the square. Keep rolling each turn until a riderless horse gets a new rider or leaves the table. Re-roll any results that cannot be acted on because a square is already occupied.

Developing A Scenario (part two)

The cowboys have a horse-and-wagon, two men on horseback (one with a rifle, the other with a lasso), five men on foot armed with rifles and four on foot armed with pistols.

The cowboys

The Indians have two men on horseback (one with a bow, the other with spear and shield) and 10 on foot - three with bows, three with rifles, three brandishing a tomahawk and knife, and one with a spear.

The Indians

For terrain I have used as much of the two playsets' scenic pieces as I reasonably could.

All scenery is from the playsets, apart from the river, which is made from tissue paper, and a footbridge made from coffee stirrers

In the top-righthand corner - let's call that the north-east - is an Indian village, which has two canoes, the river being otherwise uncrossable except in the southernmost square, which has a footbridge and is also a ford.
The three squares with a tree represent a continuous wood, there is rough terrain to their northwest in the squares containing cacti, and in the southwest is the edge of a ranch, which has a gate and a sign pointing to the town of Farmerville.
The scenario I am planning will be set around an Indian ambush of a supply wagon that is coming from Farmerville, which is off the table to the east.
The key to making this work will be the rules ....

Developing A Scenario

THREE years ago I paid £2.99 for a "Western Rider Cowboy & Indian Playset" in a gift shop in Paignton, Devon (https://timspanton.blogspot.com/2017/10/cowboys-indians.html).
The following year I paid about £7.50 for a "Wild West Playset - Cowboys & Indians" in a toy store in Olomouc, Czech Republic (https://timspanton.blogspot.com/2018/08/toy-lightning-strikes-twice.html).
Both were fun purchases, but I found no way to turn either into a wargame.
However, with time on my hand - haven't most of us, right now? - and a renewed interest in Bob Cordery's Portable Wargame series of books, I decided to take another look.
One of the things inspiring me was realising I would not need to buy a new gaming cloth - I cannot recall how much my green gaming cloth cost, but I know it was not cheap.
I guess I could use the green cloth for a cowboys & Indians game, perhaps set Last Of The Mohicans-style in in the eastern United States. But in that case the palefaces would not really be cowboys.
Instead I am using a sand-coloured fitted sheet which easily fits over one of my approx 6ft by 2ft 6in gaming tables. I suspect it would also fit over both tables side-by-side.

A desert-like Wild West base

Since I am adapting Portable Wargame rules, the next step is to create a grid, which I do with green beads bought from a pound store for exactly this purpose.

The table with a 14x6 5in grid

So far, so good. But I hit a problem when I came to remind myself of the contents of the two playsets. Unfortunately, the figure scales are not compatible.

Colourful contents ... but not matching

Never mind - this is a toy-soldier project, not a modelling diorama.
I will concentrate on using the smaller figures, which go perfectly well with the scenic features, and the smaller of the two wagons.
Indeed the only figures I will use from the larger-scale set will be the two mounted cowboys and the two mounted Indians. I need to use them as the smaller set has no men on horseback.
(To be continued)

My Toy Bonus

THE February/March 2019 edition of Toy Soldier Collector was waiting for me when I got home on Sunday from a trip to the Czech Republic.

Issue 86 of Toy Soldier Collector

There is the usual big selection of eye-candy but also an above-average number of articles that I found interesting to read including Keith Nairn-Munro on Britain's 17th/21st Lancers, Gary Emery on the Crusades and Robert Welham on early Catholic priests in North America.
I am also pleased to report this issue sees the publication of an article I submitted about an earlier trip to the Czech Republic in which I came across a cheap and cheerful cowboy-and-Indian set.

My colourful page

Toy Lightning Strikes Twice

"NEVER go back" may be good advice for relationships and dimly remembered holidays, but toy-soldier collectors soon realise lightning can easily strike twice in the same place.
So it was with great anticipation that I made a return visit to Olomouc in the Czech Republic, where I bought a fun knights-playset that featured in issue 83 of Toy Solider Collector.
This time, in quite a large toy store in a shopping mall, I found a magnificent Wild West Playset - Cowboys & Indians.

Action-packed, colourful and "more than 40pcs."

The set is made in China and imported into Europe by Johntoy, a Dutch company that boasts it offers "exclusively designed toys with a distinctive style."
You certainly get a varied and colourful selection for your money - 199 Czech crowns, to be precise, which works out at about £7.50 at the time of writing.

Contents laid out on my hotel-room desk

Highlights include a one-piece covered wagon that is completed by clicking a horse into place.
Having a one-horse team looks a little strange, and the driver has no reins, but the wagon seems sturdy, thanks not least to the axles being made of metal.

Wagon roll - the wheels rotate perfectly

There are two mounted cowboys - one firing a rifle and the other twirling a lasso. Both have a six-shooter as a sidearm, and are easily detachable from their mounts, which stand firmly despite having no bases.
Four cowboys on foot are armed with a variety of rifles and pistols, and the cowboy part of the set also includes six pieces of fencing and two identical signposts pointing the way to the somewhat unimaginatively named "Farmerville" and "Pitchfork Way."

Actively posed cowboys

But the cutest part of the set by far for me is a four-piece campfire that can be put together much easier than you might think. You can almost feel the heat being given off by the burning logs!

Clever painting gives a realistic-looking blazing campfire

The Indians, like the cowboys, come with two mounted and four foot figures, one of the latter clearly being a chief. No one could call them Redskins, and that is not just out of political correctness, but because their skin has been painted paler than that of most Palefaces.

Indians are armed with bows or spears

There are two tepees, an impressive totem pole and a nicely crafted canoe with paddle - but no paddler.

You have to paddle your own canoe

Finally, there is a plastic map, two fir trees, two cacti and two straw-coloured objects that I have not been able to identify - maybe miniature hayricks?

The map looks quite good in this photo but it does not really go with the figures

All in all, a great set worth looking out for from a company that distributes across most of Europe.

Cowboys & Indians

I FOUND this "Western Rider Cowboy & Indian Play Set" for £2.99 in a gift shop in Paignton, Devon.

Western Rider...colourful version of the Wild West

As for most modern toy soldiers, the contents are made in China. In this case they were "imported into the EC" by HTI of Fleetwood, Lancashire.
The contents consist of a horse-drawn covered wagon, five green cowboys, four brown cowboys, six brown Indians, four green Indians, a canoe, a tepee, two pieces of fencing and a tree (some of the green figures come across as blue in the photo below, but that is a trick of the lighting).
Note that there is no driver for the wagon or paddler for the canoe.

Good variety of models

As is usual with such figures, the value for money is excellent, but I will need more than is here to put together a decent Wild West wargaming scenario.