Shootist at BGG

In our gaming group, we have been playing Wild West games since the mid-90s. Sometimes in 25/28mm, sometimes in 54mm. See our page on Wild West games for a full overview.

Our rules were originally based on a little ruleset called Shootist. We have adapted the rules over the years, but the core is still recognizable.

Some time ago, I noticed that the game was also listed on Boardgamegeek.com. But apart from a general description, there were no files, no images, no review. I felt a little sad about this, since Shootist has served us so well over the years, and didn't deserve to be orphaned in this way.

So I uploaded some of our photo's, some our materials, and worte a short review. So you should all go to the relevant BGG page and give all that uploaded stuff some thumbs-up!!!

Crisis 2016 (2)

Some more pictures from our Crisis 2016 game.

Crisis 2016

Pictures of our 54mm Wild West game we staged at CRISIS in cooperation with fellow wargaming club PMCD, can be seen here:

https://pmcd-mobilisatie.blogspot.be/2016/11/crisis-antwerp-2016-our-participation.html

Rules etc. can be found here.

Wild West at CRISIS 2016 (2)

Our friends at PMCD have organized a test game for our joined CRISIS game this coming November. We are going to run a 54mm Wild West game, using toy scenery elements that was available during the 70s, and which many wargamers remember fondly.

We are going to use our house rules.

A few pictures here, but more pictures to be seen on their blog.

Wild West at CRISIS 2016

This year for CRISIS 2016, we will be joining forces with PMCD, running a 54mm wild west shootist game, using our house rules. Dirk D. has been busy painting figures. Some pictures below, but more pictures can be seen in this blogpost.

Wild West in 54mm

Chances are we will run a 54mm  Wild West shootist game during Crisis 2016, together with our friends from PMCD.

To "test the visuals", I brought out all relevant 54mm stuff, and made a little diorama. The wooden fort has been in my collection for over 40 years, dating back to my childhood days (update: apparantly from a DDR company Oehme & Sohne). All figures are Britains from the 70s (and 80s?), except for the wagon. The shootists in front of the shiriff building have been repainted several years ago.

Wild West house rules

Back in the nineties, we ran quite a lot of Wild West games, both in 54mm and 28mm. We used a little ruleset called "Shootist" (Bunblebee games), and adapted the rules over the years. Everything is now collected on the Wild West House Rules page.

54mm gunslingers in action.

Wild West Shootout in Denderleeuw

This weekend I ran a Wild West game using our house rules, at the invitation of Dirk D. of the wargaming group PMC Denderleeuw. Dirk invited me over to show our approach towards Wild West gaming. I think it's always nice to have some good discussions across different wargaming groups, to inject some new ideas into each other's playing styles, and also to see firsthand where and how others are organizing their games. In this case, Dirk's garage!

I loaded up all my Wild West scenery and figures in the car, and once I arrived, I let the "locals" set up the terrain the way they wanted. Not all terrain and scenery was used, but the idea in such skirmish games is always to mix dense terrain with some open areas.

5 players were present, with me taking up the role of umpire. We managed 3 games, each player controlling one shootist each. As is usually the case in Wild West games, emotions ran high, especially when shootists are killed with headshots ;-)

I had a stack of pregenerated characters ready. Every player draws a random shootist, as well as a random weapons card.

The first game was a little test game to explain the mechanics. For the second and third games, each player had a secret mission ("Kill 3 shootists", "Free your friend from jail", "Dug up a sack of gold on spot X", etc.) Such missions give some flavour to the game, instead of having a "last man standing" game, which can really drag out the proceedings.

Pictures shown below, courtesy of Dirk D. Figures and scenery all painted by the Schild & Vriend wargaming group, in some cases over 20 years ago! Most houses are from Hovels, figures mostly from (Guernsey) Foundry.

Overview of the table.

Hangman stand from 4Ground

Shootist in action. Two blue cats from Black Cat Bases.

Indian Village

Barn. Plastic ducks from a toy animal set.

The not-so-historical OK Corral

Umpire in action

Shootist in action

Dead shootist. Using red cardboard templates is a nice way to visualize fallen figures.

Shootout in front of the church

Another overview of the table

Cactus from Grand Manner

Plastic toy sheep

Indian village

Another overview of town

Bandit shot dead before the jailhouse

Shootist hiding behind stack of wood

Another farm

Teepees

I finished painting 2 teepees yesterday.

These teepees were part of the Old West collection of wargaming buddy and co-author of this blog, Bart V. But a few years ago, our entire Old West collection was consolidated as part of my collection, hence the teepees are now in my possession. Bart only managed to paint one teepee, back in 1997 (the leftmost one), and because I am running an Old West game this weekend, this was the perefect incentive to finally paint up the last two. The paintjob is not as steady as Bart's, but it will do :-)

I must confess I didn't look up painting schemes for actual teepees, but rather on some photographs of wargaming scenery in the magazines. So probably these teepees are closer to what we think they should look like rather than what they actually looked like.

 

A few finished miniatures

I have to admit wargaming activity has been on the slow side lately. I barely managed to do any painting, and due to a variety of reasons, actual number of games also has suffered.

Anyway, here are some finished miniatures.

First, some old Runequest miniatures which I identified earlier in this blogpost. From left to right: Smitten Broo, Broo with Mace and Orlanth Adventurer. The Broo with Mace required a small repair, since the mace was broken off.

Second, a large siege engine from Games Workshop, published several years ago as part of their Lord of the Rings range. I originally bought this set in 2005 or 2006, for the Lowenheim game, but I only got around painting it now.

Third, not really a paintjob, but a hangman stand put together. This set is produced by 4Ground. The figure is one I had lying around, and was (is?) part of Foundry's Old West range. Time to play some more Shootist games!

Legends of the Old West

Continuing my tradition of [reviewing rulesets without playing them](/snv/ttm/archives/000041.html), allow me to present my thoughts on the new [Warhammer Historical](http://www.warhammer-historical.co.uk) Old West ruleset, [Legends of the Old West](http://www.yahoogroups.com/group/LOTOldWest). Only this time, I haven't even read all of the rules - I gave up halfway through. That should give you a clue about the bias in this review :)

To start with the things that I like, the book is very well presented, better than the other WH books. Each and every page in LotOW is in full colour, and the book is illustrated throughout with good photographs of miniatures illustrating the various rules and mechanics under discussion. The book also includes the now standard painting and modelling section, although in this particular book, that section seemed a bit anemic to me. So in all, good points on presentation.

Another good point is the fact that this book will undoubtebedly draw a few more gamers to the historical side of the hobby, although I'm not quite sure about that, as GW players usually seem to identify themselves with a system (_I'm a Warhammer Fantasy player_ or _I play 40K_) as opposed to a period or style of play (i.e. fantasy or sf), and for them, LotOW will be just another system, with no potential crossbreeding into the world of historical wargaming.

On to the bad points then. As I've said, I've not even managed to read all the rules, so I cannot give a balanced review on this book. I'll just mention why I could not finish reading it -- this is one gamer's opinion, not a review. There are two major reasons why I dislike LoTOW, one reasonable one and one silly one.

The silly reason is language. The book is written in English, but it is rife with expressions like _howdy pardner_, _shootin' phase_ and various other examples of stunted English. Now I'm sure that this has been done out of a misguided wish to inject a certain period feel into the language, but it grates on me terribly. Besides the fact that this form of 'Old West English' is probably a Hollywood creation (nothing wrong with that, the rules state that they want to recreate the Hollywood version of the Wild West), that slang was used in oral communication, not in written communication like a book. The fact that I am personally not a native English speaker might have something to do with this, but I have to stop reading this kind of language after a few pages of it.

The second reason I dislike the rules is their general feel. I do not mean the rules mechanisms themselves (as I cannot form a decent opinion them, not having read them all), but the atmosphere created through them. At least for me, these rules create an atmosphere where everything needs to be spelled out to the letter, and where every little thing needs to have a rule so that players can turn to the holy book and prove their right (or wrong, as the case may be). For a game like DBM, which is geared towards tournament play (or at least has warped to this purpose, having been adopted as the major tournament ancients ruleset), one expects this, but in a skirmish ruleset such as LotOW, I expect a much more laid back and relaxed attitude. Sure, the rules say that in case of a dispute, you should roll a die or draw cards to resolve the dispute, but they belie that sentiment throughout the rest of the book by painstakingly crafting rules for each and every situation imaginable (attacking a horse in HtH, anyone). In an understanding group of gamers, the kind of situations that LotOW seems to need to spell out fully, can be dealt with by consensus, and need not be written out and officialized. Again, it might be just me, but this is the atmosphere that these rules create for me.

I think that for any Old West games I'm organising, I'll stick to our trusty _Shootist_ for the time being. Nevertheless, in the spirit of open mindedness I am perfectly willing to be proven wrong (and will report so here if that is the case) should anyone invite me to a LotOW game. I'll even bring a posse.