The Spectacular Six: A Fistful of Lead AAR

Last night was one of the most enjoyable game of FfoL I've played. And I've played a lot of Fistful of Lead over the years. It was a scenario I wrote years ago. So, in honor of the late, great Eli Wallach who passed away last week:
"The poor village of Pocoloco has been terrorized for months by the infamous Bandit El Guapo and his band of banditos. Now, the poor villagers have cobbled together enough pesos to to convince some down on their luck gunslingers to help fight the bandit king."
The scenario starts with the Gunslingers set up hidden within the village. El Guapo and d10 banditos start a one point somewhere outside of town. There was only one gap in the walls, and that's where the majority of the gunslingers laid in wait. One took position in the church bell tower.
At the end of each turn, a d10 was rolled. If the number was higher than number of live banditos on the table, another d10 was rolled to see how many showed up. Also, for each bandit killed the previous turn a villager was added to gunslingers.
Each gunslinger got use a d12 and randomly drew one trait. The banditos used the usual d10, and the lowly villagers had to use a 8. 
To win, the banditos had to kill all the gunslingers. The gunslinger won if they killed 12 banditos.

 The infamous (I believe that means more than famous) El Guapo

 The not-so harmless looking villagers

 The ex Marshal and the other Spectacular Six

 Rusty in the bell tower draws first blood to the banditos. While the Marshal drops so more in the street before he too is too wounded and seeks refuge in the church.

 El Guapo makes a visit to the church via the back door.

 

Can you hear the guns Fernando?

 Handsome Pete hides behind a barrel of tequila

 Rusty rains more lead down

 The gunslingers start to get wounded

 El Guapo corners the Marshal and kills him. It looks grim for the gunfighters

 The villagers strike!

 Slim bites the dust

It came down to this: All gunslingers were dead but Rusty in the tower. He was pinned, guarded by one last villager. The banditos, leaderless, and with 11 dead already send in a man to kill Rusty. The villager kills the 12th bandito and saves the day! Federales show up and drive the rest away.
It was a tense, nail biter ever turn that swung back and forth. One turn the bandits got 10 reinforcements!
Once again Fistful of Lead handled it great. We had close to 30 minis on the table at one time and the game was done in under 3 hours with no slow down. I'll be running this one at the next con.

Pulp Alley- Ep. 23: the Treasure of El Kabong (or the Curse of the Crate)

In a small Mexican village of no consequence the hidden treasure of the fabled hero El Kabong has been found by renegade archeologist Robert "Arkansas Bob" Rudebaugh. Amongst its treasures is the Sword of El Kabong, rumored to have mystical powers.

Curtis, Ally of the Raptor, hops a wall followed by Roxie Rocket

Arkansas Bob seems to have gone missing, and along with him the exact whereabouts of the treasure. Four Leagues have converged on his last known whereabouts to claim the riches.
First is Pecos Pete and Giddy Up Gang. Posing as everyone's favorite Saturday Matinee idol, Pete is really an secret agent of the US government. He uses his start status to get in places others can't.
The Royal Archeological And Mystic Society wants the treasure for purely scientific study, while Virginia Dare and Danger, Inc. has been hired by a wealthy businessman to claim it.
And finally, the enigmatic Red Raptor has his own reason for the treasure.
All teams had to claim at least one minor Plot Point before moving to the Major one, the treasure itself.

 Pecos Pete claims a Plot Point

 Lefty grabs a a crate

The Royal Archeology and Mystic Society question a local

Danger Inc, moved fast and Virginia's right hand man Lefty claimed large crate that had a dislodged grave stone in it. Aha! The treasure was in the grave yard, very close to their present position.
Meanwhile, the others snatched up their own Plot Points, leaving the game tied.
The Major Plot Point, the grave proved a tough one. The place was over run with scorpions and other nasty desert critters.

 The Raptor's crew move in

Ace, Sidekick to the Red Raptor tears apart poor Wellington, Dare's dog

After it was finally claimed by Dare herself, instead of leaving the board with the winning points she decided to hang around. Oh, greed.
The game turned into a slugfest with whomever grabbing the crate quickly getting eliminated.
In the end, turn number 6 happened and Dare escaped in a very dramatic fashion.
Good time.

First stab at the new Fistful of Lead cover

That is all.

Rivet Wars playtest: Now the student has become the master

Got to try my Father's Day present yesterday, playing against the Boy. My 13-year-old beat me

4-1 in the first 5 scenarios. We have one more to play, then we're going to switch sides.
Rivet Wars is a great little game. I'm learning the subtleties of each faction.
I again wish I'd have backed the Kickstarter for all the extra bits. I'd have to sell a kidney to afford the exclusives now.

Belated Father's Day present

Despite working for 20+ years for a certain greeting card company who makes all their money of such things, my family is kinda bad about remembering holidays. I have often surprised my wife with a birthday gift, simply because she forgot it was her birthday.
No so this year. I lost my Father this past Easter and this was the first Father's Day without him. Combine this with losing my job and it has been a tough year for the Barony.
So it was a bright little ray of sunshine when a package arrived at my door today.
Rivet Wars! Something I wanted to back on Kickstarter but didn't have the money to do at the time. Amazon has it waaay cheaper than my local shop. The only bad thing is I'll have to wait for all the cool extra minis that other people got by backing.
Can't wait to play.

Saturday, High Noon

Had a chance to get some more gaming in the week when two out-of-town guests came by. I quickly threw together a a 5 player scenario. Each player had an objective that roughly translated into Side A goes after Side B, who in turn is after Side C, etc. Makes for great mayhem.
The Society of Gentlemen Gunfighters did a very ungentlemanly thing and robbed the Mining Company. They were then headed south of the border.
El Guapo and his banditos wanted said gold. Meanwhile, Ed Harley's gang wanted revenge on the Marshal, who in turn was headed towards the Dixon gang across town.
Here's some shots:

 The fate of all our gunfighters

 Long range kill

 A frightened citizen's desperate cry for help

 Blood Alley (there's always one) south of the border.

 Deputy Dan takes care of business.

Battletech: Alpha Strike Pt. Deux

Last time we played Alpha Strike, the quick play mini rules for Battletech, it was December. I vowed to add more mechs. Most of my stuff is repainted MechWarrior clix. I'm not a fan of the newer Battletech mechs. There's just dumb. I prefer the ripoff Robotech ones of my youth.
So, I ordered some CAV models from Reaper. They fit my aesthetic of what Mechs should look like.

They're a bit smaller than the clix, but they'll do double duty as 15mm battlesuits.

The game it self played pretty flawless again. Tons of models on the table and over in 2 hours. It actually gave me some ideas for a game of my own.
I got all the stats from the Alpha Strike website. That was my only problem. Some of the bigger mechs seemed underpowered while others were too powerful. One of the toughest pieces on the table was APC. It took all kinds of damage while having a speedy 20" move. Some tinkering is in order.