FOR GOD AND OUR MISSION!

For God and Our Mission by Andrew Maxfield (Barnes Wargames Group, London, England)

The Vultures are circling...

The mission bell is silent now, the bell ringer's blood seeping into dust. Even so, its frantic peals have done their work and a deadly race has begun. As the Apache raiders snatch what they can carry from the mission, they know that the Mexican army is closing in.It may be too late for the soldiers to save the holy brothers, but it is the perfect time to avenge them.

The Game

This scenario formed the basis of a participation game at the Broadsword wargames show in Walthamstow, England, in June 1997. The game involves soldiers of the Mexican army trying to prevent a band of Apaches who have looted the Mission from escaping into the hills with their ill-gotten gains. Members of the public took the part of Mexican soldiers, while the Apaches were controlled by the umpires. The game ended when all the Apaches were either dead or safe. Each game lasted between forty minutes and an hour.

The layout of the game is shown in the map below. The Apaches left the Mission either by the front or rear gates and spread out to give a fairly even distribution across the table.

The Mexicans

There were four to six groups of soldiers in each game, with one shootist and four gunmen in each group. To simplify things for both the participants and the umpires, the names of figures in each group started with the same letter of the alphabet (eg Group J comprised Juan, Jesus, Jose, Julio and Jorge). The weapons carried by each group varied as shown below:

Group Weapons

A, G, and P

Shootist -Single action rifle and bayonet

2 Gunmen -Single action rifle and bayonet

2 Gunmen -Single action rifle

M and R

Shootist -Sword and Pistol

4 Gunmen -Single action rifle and bayonet

J

Shootist -Repeating rifle

4 Gunmen -Single action rifle

The Apaches

Between twelve and eighteen Apaches were used depending upon the number of Mexican groups. Half the Apaches were carrying loot or leading one of the two mules used, and these would take part in the fight only if the Mexicans managed to engage them in melee, otherwise they would just keep running.The Apaches had a mixture of weapons ranging from clubs to Winchesters; most were young bloods (=gunmen) but two were classed as warriors (=shootist).

Points win prizes

Foundry generously provided prizes, in the form of vouchers for free figures, to be given to the winners. This necessitated a points system to determine a winner in each game.

There was a bounty for killing Apaches (10 points each), furthermore players gained points for recovering the loot carried by the Indians or loaded onto mules. On the table loot was represented by numbered counters; mules carried three counters, Apaches carried one each. The counters represented items of widely varying value, a shown in the table below and players could not identify what they were recovering before they reached the counter:

Counter Number	Item	Points Value		Counter Number	Item	Points Value		Counter Number	Item	Points Value
1	Mission Bible	30		5	Poor box	8		9	Assorted vestments	8
2	2 chickens	5		6	Sack of flour	5		10	Bottles of wine	10
3	Collection of wooden spoons	3		7	Bowls and cups	5		11	Pots of honey	4
4	Candlesticks	15		8	Crucifix	40		12	Cured Hams	6

Apaches dropped their loot when killed or wounded, and other Apaches would not stop to pick up dropped counters. The mules could be killed, in which case the counters could be claimed where the mule died, or could wander off when their handler was either killed, wounded or engaged in melee, and in this case the loot could be claimed by whichever figure brought the mule under control.

Players could claim loot when they moved a figure up to a dropped counter, or when they killed or wounded an Apache in melee, or when they gained control of a mule.Once a counter had been recovered by a player it could not be subsequently lost, even if the figure used to claim it was killed or wounded.

What Happened

This is a very simple shoot-out sort of game. The Apaches make a break for the hills and the Mexicans attempt to stop them, the scope for complicated tactics is limited.In most games approximately a third of the Apaches escaped although seldom without a scratch and the Mexicans were able to recover the loot. At times though it was difficult to believe the players were on the same side, as players fired at targets almost completely obscured by other players' figures, with the unsurprising result of deaths from "friendly" fire, and swift charges to collect dropped loot in preference to going to assist a hard pressed colleague engaged in melee. Despite this most players said that they had enjoyed the experience.

Rules Modifications

The rules are based upon "The Rules with No Name" by Bryan Ansell of Foundry, simplified for the purposes of speed in a participation display game.

The detailed hit location system, and its effects on fire and movement, was replaced with a deck comprising only three categories of hit: graze which had no effect on the figure, wound which affected both firing, movement, and , in the case of the Apaches, the ability to carry booty, and dead. Wounded figures died on receiving a second wound. The ratio of graze to wound to dead was 1:2:1. To make the deck more varied death was described using colourful expressions of the time ("Kicked into a funeral procession", "Given a window in the skull", "Made wolf meat of" etc).

Apache figures burdened with loot only rolled two dice for movement. Those "leading" the mules moved the distance rolled by on three dice by the mule and were subject to the "Intransigent Mule Rule" which stated that any duplicate rolls would be ignored (eg a mule rolling 2, 5, and 5 would ignore the second 5 and only move 7 inches).

When handlers lost control of their mules for any reason each mule had its own card inserted in the deck and moved 3D6 inches (or didn't move at all ) when its card was drawn on the basis of a die roll (1,2 stand still, 3 straight ahead, 4 to the left, 5 to the right, and 6 turn and go in the opposite direction to that it was initially facing). A mule could be brought under control by a figure standing next to on a roll of 4,5 or 6 on 1D6, the only modifier being -1 to the die roll if the figure was wounded.

The character deck was normal, with no bystander or event cards added. No Young Blood or Warrior cards were included but Apaches were able to use Gunmen (2) and Shootist (1) cards contained in the deck in the same way as the Mexicans.

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