Adventures on the Wargames Table

Following last years fun with What a Cowboy, I decided to see about building a modest collection of Old West toys and terrain. I ordered a small building from Warbases (Cactus Creek range) with the intention of making it in to a Telegraph Office. So, whilst awaiting delivery, I set about building a few telegraph poles. Here they are: simply wooden dowel with notches cut in to allow to pieces of matchstick to be glued in place, on to which are glued tiny pieces of plastic tube to represent the isolators Painting was easy too. A dark brown base with highlights of golden brown and light cream.

The infamous Hawtrey Gang have turned up in Blackwater County and their villainous leader Charles (aided and abetted by Sid “Shotgun” James and Jim “Sneaky” Dale) is keen to rustle some cattle and hold up the stagecoach. But Sheriff Shotte and his Deputies, Randall and Hopkirk are on the gang’s trail. Being an introductory sort of game I kept the forces quite straightforward. Each side had a Shootist plus two Greenhorns armed and equipped as per the rules.  The first few turns were really just moving up from the table edges (Hawtrey Gang from the left in this first pic, the Lawmen from the right) so the pics start as the real action begins. This isn’t a full after action report, but more of a series of highlights. Charles Hawtrey has moved up to the telegraph pole as he tries to draw a bead on the Sheriff in front of the white farmhouse. But his shooting goes wide. Jim Dale, by the barrel next to the fence, shoots too but again the shots miss. From the other side of the table we ca...

Club night and Steve has kindly put on another gorgeous looking game of What a Cowboy. It’s a second warm up game ahead of the start of a campaign next month. Here’s a few pics before our gangs set to. The “spades” gang was Simon, Mike and Rob whilst the “hearts” gang (and self-styled heroic good guys) were myself, Jordan and Ken. The objective was simple … shoot the other gang. Umpire Steve assures us that campaign games will have more complex objectives. I’m sure he’ll have a few surprises up his sleeve too. Here’s a pic from a few turns in. Ken’s lads have camped on the shed roof whilst one of Jordan’s men swaggers towards the railroad halt, no doubt intending to tip his hat to the lady standing nearby. Some of the other figures in the pic are “civilians” and they can act in a variety of ways when the lead starts flyin’. Opposing them were Mike and Rob’s men and they were advancing quite cautiously thanks to their dreadful rolls on movement dice. On the other side of the parked up l...

If you’re in the hobby then I doubt you haven’t heard about the latest offering from TFL, “What a Cowboy”. I didn’t much enjoy What a Tanker so wasn’t sure if these new rules would be any good, at least in my opinion. I watched the YouTube videos and thought “hmmm, maybe?”. Some gamers I noted had mixed reactions after their initial games. But then chum Steve kindly offered to put on a game for a group of us at the Bristol Biguns club last Sunday and I couldn’t resist. Here’s a little slice of Texas. Steve has put a lot of effort and skill in to creating this lovely table. Thanks mate! There were six of us playing: Dave, Ken and Jordan versus Alan, Simon and myself, with Steve running the game. Each of us had two characters, a “greenhorn” (the lowest skill level) and a “shootist” (the next level up). Here are my chaps, Billy Bob Wrigley (shootist) and Chester Tubbs (greenhorn), kindly supplied by Steve. Very nice! I won’t give a description of the game mechanics as you can get that fro...