Tag Archives: Wild West Skirmish

Wild West Skirmish

Wild West Skirmish

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While I have been doing no painting recently, have gotten a few games in here and there. Some pictures from a Western skirmish game. Six teams of four. Each group had their objectives. Won by the Pinkertons who defended the bank against Mexican bandidos. The other teams didn’t really achieve much apart from turning on each other. Rules used were The Rules with No Name.

See my other posts on this rule set including new cards and some of my other Wild West Miniatures.

 

Itai the Italian Maremma
Anoterh Lawman bites the dust at the hands of the bandidos.
Layout for thei game.
Pizza and cake for the players.
Snack break and visit by the hounds.
About to cross the stream – they should never have crossed the strream..
Buffalo Soldiers trying to stop their run-away wagon containing their gatling gun.
No stteenkin Pinkerton will ambush me.
Wild Bill downed by the infamous Pedro Gordo
Another view of the table.
Wild Bill v Pedro Gordo
Well that sack of flour looked dangerous.
German and British nobility on the American Tour.
Wild Bill exits the Sheriff’s Office.
Mexicans make it to the bank.
All the European nobility gathered to sight-see.
More Lawmen
Mexicans sneaking into town.
Wargame Terrain

WIP Report: Buildings

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I am on leave this week and instead of mowing lawns, pruning trees and helping Mrs Woolshedwargamer in the garden I am painting miniatures and making terrain. A man has to know where his responsibilities lie and prioritize accordingly.

First off. The first piece of Wild West terrain I have worked on in years. This is my sheriff’s office. I ballsed it up right off the bat by getting the height of the verandah roof wrong and most of my miniatures don’t fit underneath it. I am not doing it again so will just have to live with it. It is made of foam core and balsa wood. Windows are glazed with plastic from some piece of random packaging that I found. The corrugated iron is cardboard. Brickwork for the jail part of the Sheriff’s Office is etched into high density styro-foam. Have to add a chimney pipe and then texture the base.

Next up is another Conflix-like building. I did have a bunch of others I made a few years ago but they fell victim to a combination of depression and an open fire. This one will survive I think as I have got my life somewhat under control. Once again foam core board and card. Still to do – all the wooden framing, texturing and roof tiles. A job for tomorrow as it is all glued together and drying at the moment.

Wild West Skirmish

More Wild West citizens

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Some years ago I brought the excellent set of Tombstone Civilians by Blue Moon. I got mine from Old Glory, taking advantage of the 40% discount offered by their Army Card scheme. These guys include a whole bunch that would not have looked out of place on the streets of HBO’s Deadwood.

First up, the crippled floor cleaner at Al’s Saloon. Her name is Ruby.

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When I play Wild West Skirmish games it is quite fun to have the NPC citizenry on the board for the players to interact with. To this end a lot of my NPCs have specific Event Cards that can be activated by Bystander Events. As an example, here is Ruby’s Character Card and a Specific Bystander Event that gets her shambling down the main street and getting in the way of things.

ImageImageNext up is Tom Nuttall, the owner of the No. 11 Saloon.

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Here we have Bob Symes (R), a notorious gambler and ‘Gentleman’ Johnny Bowden (L), a pistolier of some note.

ImageA Specific Event Card for Bob Symes.

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In this shot the two aforementioned villains are joined by their lawyer, the somewhat unpleasant Silas Taylor, Attorney at Law.

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And a Silas Taylor Event Card.

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The Hardware and General Merchandise store is run by Mr Peter Stapleton. A fine upright fellow. Talking to him is Stinky Dan, an Old Timer of uncertain bathing habits.

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Last but not least, all those hitching rails need something to be hitched to them. These horses are by Knuckleduster Miniatures and can be found here.

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Wild West Skirmish

28mm Pinkertons (Artizan Designs)

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A popular faction in Wild West skirmish games is a gang of Pinkerton Detectives. Artizan Designs make two sets with six really nice figures. Set one has two rifleman and a pistolier and Set Two has two men armed with pistols and another man with a Winchester. All are wearing classic Duster coats over their suits and waistcoats. These are my attempt at doing these fine figures some justice.  The buildings are amongst the first ones I made and I got the door height a bit wrong in relation to figure and base size.

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Wild West Skirmish

The Rules with No Name: Drunk Card Deck

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When we play The Rules with No Name rather than use the rules as written in the rulebook for drunks – which are a lot of fun but can slow things down – we use this following deck of Drunk Cards. A drunk character in our games is defined either by the scenario (for instance if cowboys are in town on a spree) or by the miniature itself. 

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When a drunk character takes a turn we consult a table and throw a d6. 

1 -2          Do what you were doing last turn or nothing (Can duck back voluntarily if already near/in cover)   

3-5           Draw a card from the Drunk Deck

6              Sober Up (Can act as normal for rest of game)

Here are the Drunk Deck Cards. Feel free to use as you will.

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And of course, no card is complete without a back.

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Wild West Skirmish

Family Gangs in my Old West Town, Pt 2: The Stones.

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Another family who make regular appearances in my corner of the Old West. The Stone Family. Pa Stone is a hard man, and he brought up his three daughters to be tough as well. A deadly shot with both hands, Pa Stone taught all his daughters to fight with a gun in each hand – for those times when six bullets are just not enough..  There are precious few crinolines and bonnets in the wardrobes of the Stone girls.

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Ellen, Eliza, Emma and Pa Stone.

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Eliza and Emma Stone.

Eliza Stone is a Knuckleduster Miniature from the set “Women of the Gun“.  Emma Stone comes from Shadowforge (available from Eureka Minis in Australia) from the set “Wild West Women“.

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Ellen Stone and Pa Stone

Both these two are Reaper Miniatures. Ellen Stone is a named figure from their Chronoscope range.  Likewise Pa Stone is from the licensed Savage Worlds range.

If you are looking for really nice character figures for Old West gaming you can’t go too wrong trawling through the Reaper website. There are some really nice models in the Chronoscope range in particular that are perfect for Wild West skirmish games.

Wild West Skirmish

The Rules with No Name: Bystander Event Deck

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When using the Rules with No Name for Western Skirmish games, the addition of Bystander Events can add an, at times, comical and random element to the course of a game.  It also gives you the perfect opportunity to get all those ‘citizens’ and ‘ordinary folk’ that you brought and painted onto the board.

I have been asked to post my Bystander Event Deck, so here it is. I thought I had some more but seem to have misplaced the files.  Many are the generic ones from the Rules with No Name rule book, and some are specific to my Western Town – but can easily be altered in any graphics package to change names etc.  Feel free to use and abuse.

If you have any specific requests I would be happy to knock you up some ‘to order’ cards.

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And finally, some card backs for this deck.

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Wild West Skirmish

The Rules with No Name: Action Deck Cards.

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I first discovered these rules when I had my first game with Col o’Truth and Notorious Greg. I was sold on them in two turns of the Action Deck.

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And talking of Action Cards, that is the point of this post.  The game requires an Action Deck that contains a number of specific cards, as well as character cards for each model being used in the game. Here is a jpg file of my generic Action Cards.  All my cards are sized to fit in a standard plastic card sleeve and are about the same size as a typical playing card.

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These are my Alternate Action Cards:

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The Rules with No Name has special rules for Indians and Soldiers.  Indians get their own Special Action cards that can be used when fighting in their natural terrain (i.e. not in town). They can also use the standard Action cards above that correspond to their ‘class’.

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I have made a whole stack of other action cards that may or may not be used, depending on the scenario.

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In my games when a Bystander Event Card is drawn I pull a Bystander Event from a special deck I have made. The following is a sample based on the Bystander Events on Page 133 of The Rules with No Name rulebook.

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These are more ‘character specific’ and correspond to models that appear in our games.

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and….

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The back of all action cards use this graphic:

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The Bystander Deck uses this alternate graphic to help me identify which cards go where.

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I also have a Drunk Deck that gets used occasionally if we have drunk characters on the board. I use a simplified rule set when dealing with drunks. On a 1-2 they draw a Drunk Card, on a 3-5 they Act as Wish, and on a 6 they Sober Up.  First off, some sample Drunk Cards.

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and the backing sheet for these cards

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We also often draw random skills. So…once again I have a specific Skills Deck for use in such circumstances. Some samples:

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and the Backing sheet for the Skills Deck.

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Finally, every Wild West model I have has a specific card made for it. These are added to the action deck when and if the character or model is being used in a game. Some samples:

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and

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I hope that you find these useful as they are or as an inspiration for your own Rules with No Name Action Decks.