Last week I introduced the idea of doing a solo skirmish war-game campaign using Two Hour Wargames’ Six Gun Sound – Blaze of Glory rules and we generated our “Star”, Tombstone Tom. Tom is a gunfighter from Arizona who is currently cooling his heels at a trading post in Canada. It is the spring of 1875, time to see if there is any work for Tom here in the Great White North. 

I rolled a 4 on the Help Wanted table against my Rep and Pass 1d6, someone with Tom’s “talents” might prove useful. Let’s see what kind of job is being offered. Now we roll 1d6 plus 1 for the settlement level, on the Opportunity table. 2+1 gives us three so the job is for a Ranger. Tom has to make a choice. Take the Ranger job for the coming year, Drifting, or becoming an Outlaw. After spending the winter up here Tom is ready to get back down to the States so he will Drift. That means he moves one local (there is a point crawl type map of the west included with the game) and checks for an encounter. He will move to the Washington Territory which has a settlement level of 4. Now I roll one die to check for an encounter, if it is 4 or less there is one. 3! Rolling again on the Gunfighter Drifting Table we once again roll a 3 which is a Gunfight! Nothing like starting the game off with a bang!

Rolling a 4 than a 6 followed by a 5 we see that this is a gunfight with more than two characters involved spread out over two sides. We also know this will happen out of town on the trail. Our goal in a Gunfight is “to drive off the enemy whether through casualties or threat of force.” 

We need to see how many characters are on Tom’s side, I roll 1d6 and get a 5. Then we roll on the How Many of Them are There table, 2d6 for a 6 which tells us the forces are equal so 6 total opponents. Let’s roll on the Gunfight Opponents table to see what their forces consist of. Interesting, they have a Ranger, an Outlaw, and four Gunfighters. 

The book tells us the deployment for this type of Gunfight, GF-2, is for the characters to square off at a distance equal to the shortest effective range of all the character’s involved. After that I rolled for the disposition of our mounts and found that they are unsaddled and picketed at the center of the table edge furthest from the opposing faction. 

I think I’ll say this ambush is happening at the end of the day and Tom’s outfit is just sitting down for supper. The other side will ride in and as soon as they are close draw their weapons! 

The book tells us that the Washington Territory is Rough Terrain which is defined as: Countryside contains features that reduce movement such as gullies (1), washes (1-2), and small ridges (1-3). No more than 1/3 of the table is flat. Possibly a river (1) running from one edge to the opposite side. With one (1-4) or two (5) fords crossing river. In addition the book tells us that in Rough Terrain movement reduced to half speed through area. Visibility is also reduced when inside. To 12” in day and 6” at night. Provides both obscuring and bulletproof cover.

Before we set up the battlefield we better find out who Tom’s five companions are.

I’m going to say Tom just hooked up with a group that was traveling south so we’ll roll on the Just Passing Through table to determine who is in his outfit. 

1, 1 Bounty hunter

1, 2 Bounty hunter

3, 5 Greenhorn

5, 4 Prospector

5, 3 Mountain Man

So after rolling on some more tables we get the following:

Bounty Hunter 1 & 2 both have Reputations (Rep) 4 Toughness 4 Sand 4 a pistol and a repeating carbine. 1 is Slow subtract 2” from move and 2 is a Knife Fighter. We’ll call them Ed and Fred. 

The Greenhorn has Rep 3 Toughness 4 Sand 3 a pistol and a repeating carbine. Swimmer, we’ll call him Alexander.

The Prospector has Rep 2 Toughness 2 Sand 3 a shotgun. Touched in the Head roll 1d6 when active, roll Rep or less and behave normal otherwise remain in place, we’ll call him Bill.   

And finally the Mountain Man has Rep 4 Toughness 4 San 4 and Muzzleloading Rifle. Staggering Drunk -1d6” when moving and may only use 1d6 when testing to move fast,

we’ll call him Jeremiah. 

Fred and Bill are veterans but the rest are not.

Ed’s horse is Quality 3, Bills is Quality 5, the others are Quality 4.

Now let’s flesh out the opposition. 

Ranger Rep 5 Toughness 5 Sand 5 armed with a pistol and a trapdoor carbine. Sickly counts as 1 less Rep when making After the Battle Recovery Checks

Outlaw Rep 3 Toughness 3 Sand 3 armed with a pistol. Touched in the Head roll 1d6 when active, roll Rep or less and behave normal otherwise remain in place.

Gunfighter 1 Rep 4 Toughness 3 Sand 4 armed with a pistol. Gun Shy will only roll 1d6 when taking a Received Fire test.

Gunfighter 2 Rep 5 Toughness 4 Sand 5 armed with a pistol and repeating carbine. Swimmer.

Gunfighter 3 Rep 5 Toughness 4 Sand 4 armed with a pistol. Touched in the Head roll 1d6 when active, roll Rep or less and behave normal otherwise remain in place.

Gunfighter 4 Rep 4 Toughness 4 Sand 4 armed with a pistol. Knife Fighter. 

All but Gunfighter 3 & 4 are veterans. This matters for the Ranger as it let’s him use the longer effective range of the trapdoor carbine. 

All the opposing team’s mounts are Quality 4. 

This doesn’t look good for Tom and his outfit, I wonder why the Ranger is with these others? I wonder if Tom and his traveling companions will live long enough to find out? 

Now that we have both sides let’s build the map placing our forces 3” apart (the shortest effective of any of the characters involved.)

MAP

I think that is everything and the stage is set for the first encounter of this campaign. Join me next week as we play it out. Until then be excellent to each other!