Games Night 12th June

So with a plethora of game at my feet, many worlds and time periods to investigate what should I play this week?
Same as last week of course!

Cortez was very keen to have a go at Dead Mans Hand again and I was quite happy to indulge!

Gallows

(look, I could have gone off on one here with various Gallows lyrics and references, I didn't to avoid the Misery. I dread the night these references kill the rhythm of the blog and we all abandon ship. *cough*)

The Cowboys had got their hands on a member of the Bandito gang and were plannin' a hangin'

This was nooooooo gonna happen!

With the mission rules the cowboys were all surprised as the Banditos ambushed the gallows area this meant the 3 bandito gunmen had the drop on the Cowboys and went before any cowpoke could move.

In a round of superlative shooting the cowboys were out of action before they knew they were under attack.

One managed to dive behind a stage coach as the second shot went off only to be caught by a well aimed bullet between the stage coach wheels..

On to Scene 2

The Guns of Never-One

(if only)

Having rescued their chum and buddy from the gallows the Banditos were buoyed up and looking for more trouble.

Rumour had it the Sheriff was out of town!

Time to bust Javier from jail!

The banditos were placed in the centre of the table around the jail and had to escape via a table edge of the cowboy players choosing.

Javier was legshot and had to be in base contact with another gang member to move. It was gonna be a tough run!



The Banditos started by holding their postion and blazing away with their guns, trying to make a hole to escape through, or least lessen the return fire!

A few quickshots were fired as the cowboy armed with shotgun moved into range but failed to connect....

The shotgun fired!!!



And only scored a glancing hit on Rodrigo (under fire marker) who turned and took out the shotgun wielder with his repeater rifle.

The man with no name (Hank) fanned his pistol and dropped Javier into the dirt, bleeding from several wounds.

With the death of Javier a grim determination took hold of the Banditos and every shot fired found its mark from then on and 4 more Cowboys lay in the street, the dust blowing over their lifeless bodies......

Can I get a Witness

Scene 3, the big finale.

The cowboys had themselves a prime witness, if they could get him to the courthouse  El Guapo and his boys would be rounded up and hanged.

Unfortunately El Guapo had got wind of this and had rounded up every lowlife in the area to stop him!

The cowboys had to secretly nominate one of their gang as a witness and secretly chose which of the 3 end buildings they had to get him into. If they did, they win.

If a bandito gets with 15cm they identify the witness and he is revealed.

Kill the witness and they win!

The cowboys had to be split into 3 "teams" to make the run across town. The Banditos defended the target buildings (ably represented by various WFB and 40K buildings!!)

The opening turns saw the Banditos fire a lot of long range shots as the cowboys scurried for cover. A few under fire markers were placed but nothing significant.



El Guapo took the lead, spying the man with no name (Hank) and ran into the fray to gun him down like a dog.....

...but failed and was shortly after taken out by a shotgun (Only a fleshwound, he will return...)!
The real fight was on the Banditos right flank where the boss and a cowboy were tussling with a pair of low lifes that were slinking around the corner of a building.
The cowboys had moved up and laid some fire on the Banditos, but not enough to drop them.
They were now in point blank range of the return fire!!
*click*
ANOTHER 1 !!! Do they not clean their weapons?
The second bandito moved to get into point blank range and spotted a figure behind the boss - and had a flash of recognition!
"Aye, the snake, He is 'Ere!!"
Rodrigo heard the shout and stopped looking at the slightly out of place sandbag bunker to where Raul was pointing.
The Witness!
He took aim and fired off a couple of a shots with his trusty repeater.....

... The second was good and true and the Witness was no more.

A clean sweep for the Banditos!

Some more thoughts on Dead Mans Hand

• Its still fun
• The rules are simple to grasp
• The scenarios are very cinematic
• I still roll a LOT of 1's for shooting (although the 20's made up for it!)

It's a hell of a thing, killing a man. Take away all he's got and all he's ever gonna have.