THREE WAY GUNFIGHT

Three Way Gunfight by Walter O'Hara (Burke, VA. USA)

Well, we didn't have a great turnout. Only myself, Brian Whittaker and Bob were present. I decided to scrap the EL GUANO: ESCAPE OR THE HIGH JUMP scenario in favor of a straight 3 way gunfight, with the three of us playing two gunfighters each. I put a lot of work in on the El Guano scenario and I don't want to waste it-- we'll play it next time. As a new angle, I decided to reduce the number of action cards to 1 citizen, 1 gunfighter, 1 shootist, 1 joker. This is the procedure the rules actually recommend and I was amazed and pleased at how this quickened the pace of the game. Other rules that we enforced was wound recovery and nerve checks (though we were in a position that we didn't ever do it-- the bullets flew so quickly).

Bob>: Diego "El Fuego" Martinez using a Winchester (Deadeye)

Matt Bastardson Jr. using a Colt Peacemaker (Lucky)

Brian: Ben Thompson using a Colt Peacemaker (Crackshot?)

William "Slick" Deal using a Winchester (Deadeye?)

Walt: Ugly Ned Logan, using a Shotgun (Deadeye)

Bad Bob (The Mean One, the Albino) using a Colt Peacemaker (Swift)

The town was set up in the standard way, with some new buildings added:

A - Saloon B - Undertaker & outhouse D - Sherrif F - Long shed H - Boot hill

C - Two sheds (Cowtown slums) E - Blacksmith/Livery stable G - Corral I - Windmill J - Banco de Mejico K - Bathouse shed

Thompson and Deal start on TOP of the undertaker's establishment.

Logan and Bad Bob start to the left of the Banco de Mejico.

Martinez and Bastardson start near the windmill.

The first two-three turns featured Martinez and Bastardson running for the cover of the Bank, while Bad Bob and Logan moved to behind the long shed. Thompson and Deal had nothing to shoot at, so Deal shoots the local preacher in the back just to have something to do. In the next two turns, Deal tries to fire at Martinez at extreme range (Martinez is standing in the doorway of the bank). Deal misses him twice. Logan and Bad Bob move up the length of the shed and get closer together. Martinez and Bastardson bolt out of the bank and head for the South corner of the long shed.

In the next 3-4 turns, all hell breaks loose. Logan draws an extra card, but holds it for the next turn (he suspects he is in for it soon). Martinez draws his card and decides to backshoot Logan, so he jumps around the corner. "Not so fast, you cur!" growls Logan, and he plays his extra action card as a trump before Martinez can go, firing his shotgun at close quarters for a devastating effect. Bastardson hardly gets scratched, but Martinez gets a serious wound and a fatal one to the belly. "Aiiiiiieeee... you got me, you dam' Gringo!" he shrieks, as he goes toes up to meet his maker. Serves him right, the backshooting dawg.

Meanwhile, Thompson and Deal got tired of waiting on the roof, and decide to climb down to do some backshootin' of their own. They sneak down the Western side of the Sherrif's office and catch both Bad Bob and Logan (who is now reloading) with their backs to them. They let fire, giving Logan (the bigger threat) a serious wound. Bad Bob fires at Bastardson, giving him only a scratch.

In the next two turns, Logan staggers away from Bastardson to within three inches (where the shotgun can be pretty devastating) of Thompson and Deal and since he draws an extra card, fires in the general direction of those back-shootin' swine. Once again, even modified because of Logan's serious wound (which isn't accounted for in the rules, we added a +2 to one aiming dice to account for Logan being somewhat incapacitated), the shotgun proved devastating at close quarters. Thompson's head was riddled with lethal buckshot rounds and his belly was torn open. He fell like a lead fishing weight. Deal, as well, got a couple of grazes and a knockdown.

In the next two turns, Logan decides discretion is the better part of valour, and runs out into the street in the alleyway between the long shed and the Sherrif's office. Bastardson pursues, all fired up to murder the man who ended his partner Martinez' career. Deal and Bad Bob exchange shots over Boot Hill, with Deal getting the worst of it with a serious wound that again Knocks him down.

In the next 3 turns, Bastardson lives up to his name by firing at the fleeing (staggering, really) Logan and backshooting him. Logan meets his maker, flopping forward onto his big belly in the Cowtown street, the shotgun which had caused so much havoc in the dust beside him. With Deal more or less incapacitated, Bad Bob fires at Bastardson (blazing away), giving him a couple of nasty wounds, one of which is a serious leg wound, ending Bastardson's mobility. In a fit of righteous indignation of Bastardson's churlish backshooting exploits, Bad Bob guns him down like the dawg he is (was). "That's for Ned, you yaller cur!" he shouts, filled with justifiable HATE for a backshooter.

Comments: The game played fast and very furious. We got all the major action accomplished within about a two hour time frame. I like running two characters and want to do that again-- it beats constantly adding new characters in bloody games. Another thing we discovered was you don't need to have 7-8 guys to have a hell of a good time with this rules set... we had three and had one great ad-hoc gun battle with no worries.

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