'Ruthless' - Wild West Game

 Hot on the heels of the previous post - we played a game of the free 'Ruthless' rules this morning.

This was truly 'cheap-ass' since:

• Most of the buildings were paper prints - from an old 'Miniature Wargames' magazine package. My daughter kindly cut and made these from paper prints for me...for a monetary sum, which, under UK legal laws, shall remain largely undisclosed.
• The 12 miniatures we used are old (reallllly old) TableTop Games vintage from 1980 (they may have been painted in 1982 - that's my excuse for the crap paintjob).
• The ' Ruthless' rules and the character templates are free here at Mark's Game Room: http://www.fireballforward.com/ruthless.html
• A superb set of free rules pretty much 99% there on 2 pages - and can be hacked for Star Wars et al, and I would suggest modern or even Napoleonic skirmish.

The rules use a poker hand to delineate initiative and special effects, and there are character traits. These can be explained in some of the pics re. the four groups of characters at play. D10s are in use to gauge shooting/ reaction etc, with special effects from the hand of cards, and rules for snapshots and overwatch.

With four players, we had four groups - Ranchers, Bounty Hunters, LawDogs and The Gamblers. The game took 4 hours - and the Gamblers were the only side with all three guys still alive at the end.

Wyatt Burp keeps an eye out

The main street of town - the fight would devolve into shootouts at either end, with special emphasis on the church belltower - just out of shot

Col. Mortimer starts to move

As Whiskey Walt staggers past the stables

Now sneaky ol' Stinky Pete is the first to move to the ole' church...cuz he can get to the belltower and use his shootin' bonus to act like a sniper

Clint Westwood moves in to stop him

Doc Springbreak (geddit?) advances onto the street with his shotgun

Only to be shot by Roscoe P. Coltrane

Stinky Pete reaches the belltower and starts shootin' at Sherrif Dan down the street

Col Mortimer and Wyatt Burp start shooting wildly - at one stage Burp fanfires all the chambers, and still misses

Sneakin' Flush Fred

'can't hit a goldurn elephant with this here shootin' iron'

The belltower will change hands 4 times!!! Blackhat kills Stinky Pete in a fistfight and throws him off the tower.

...then BlackHat loses a brawl to ...

...none other than Fat Pedro himself 'ehhhh Gringohhh'

...though the gambelrs are on the move, sniping at the outskirts

Col Mortimer shoots Wyatt Burp dead...

...as the belltower changes hands yet again - the Gamblers and the Bounty Hunters deciding that this was the single most important objective in play - nothing personal

Mortimer is on a roll, killing Sherriff Dan, and wounding Roscoe, before being shot at and missed by Whiskey Walt

But in the end, it was the gamblers who managed to survive with all three of their characters (relatively) intact - Col Mortimer's group rolling poorly and 'gittin' outta Dodge'

The LawDogs

The Ranchers - led by the infamous Col Mortimer

The Gamblers - the ultimate real winners

The Bounty Hunters 

A great game - yeeeehaawww.

Never in my wildest dreams, did I ever think I would find a post that this song would fit!