Rio Diablo - a 28mm Wild West Campaign. Prologue: "Owlhoots"

I wanted to test out my Tray Battlefield, so I decided to play a 'prologue scene' for my Rio Diablo Wild West setting.

The idea of the setting is to play a number of games in the tray that are basically scenes from a story. They are used to direct the flow of the campaign and develope the story.

To kick the game off I pitted three Owlhoots against a lone cow boy tending some cows.

I rolled for initiative, and as the Cowboy rolled really high vs the Owlhoots, I decided he wasn't caught alseep in his tent and would appear from a randomly chosen side of the tray, and this is where the action would kick off.

The Cowboy took a couple of shots at the closest Owlhoot, wounding him before getting a bit of concealment behind his tent.

This was the last action the Cowboy managed to get in, as the Owlhoots advanced and the shotguns two of them were totting soon silenced their victim.

After killing the Cowboy, the Owlhoots made off with his cows.

This ended the prologue scene, setting up the initial event for the campaign.

The main characters of the campaign are a couple of Rangers and the game starts with them attempting to track down the Owlhoots.

To do this they will need to find clues at each crime scene or by visiting different locations in Rio Diablo to question folks about 'going ons and happenings'.

Once they get enough clues they can confront the Owlhoots at their hideout. The longer they take to find the hideout, the more crimes the Owlhoots will get up to.

Each scene will provide a clue or two for them to find. In this case, they found two clues when to came to where the Cowboy was killed:

Game notes:

 I used a modified version/mix of Iron Ivan Games "Disposable Heroes: Point Blank" and "Where Heroes Dare".

The rules worked really well, but as with all the Iron Ivan games I have played over a much bigger playing area, you need a lot of cover/obstacles.This didn't worry me for the first game, as I kind of needed the Cowboy to be killed, but played out the game, as any casualties the Owlhoots took would give the Rangers more clues to work with.

Over all the game took roughtly 30 mins to play.  It was so quick I tried my hand at a pulp game in the tray to see how that would work:

I am happy with the games I can play in the tray, but I certainly need to modify/refine the rules I am using to cope with only a small number of figures in a small area. The two things I need to focus on is scenery/cover and victory conditions for each game.

Gutshot!

It has been a while since my last post. I have been very busy, including a period of over five weeks without a day off, but I have been 'chipping away' at the hobby.

A few months ago I dusted off the Wild West rules "The Rules With No Name" and played a few games with my friend.

 We decided a Wild West campaign would be a great way to go for the year as it would be one of the easiest to maintain momentum.

 After a few games, I took a set of Wild West rules off the shelf that I have had since 2009, but never actually played.

 This set of rules are "Gutshot" by Hawgleg publishing.

 I suggested trying them to see what they were like. 

 I am very glad we did. They are VERY easy to play, and dare I say it, even BETTER than "The Rules With No Name".

 A lot of reviews of the rules say that "Gutshot" is closer to a Role Playing Game than a Wargame, but I don't believe they are.  Yes, you have characters and character sheets, but it is not a RPG.

 The game does encourage interaction between players/characters to a certain degree, but it is far from a "dungeons and dragons' kind of game.

 I am in the process of finishing off some scenery and figures, but I am thinking a lot of my wargaming this year will be a Gutshot campaign set in the county of Rio Diablo, located somewhere in the wild west of America.