The Deadwood stage... has arrived

"Sherrif murdered, crops burned, stores looted, people stampeded, cattle raped. Well the time has come to act and act fast. I'm leaving!"

The What a Cowboy package (rules, card-deck and counters) arrived this morning.

I was able to get straight down to learning the rules. Having played in John Savage's games at Steel Lard was a help in picking things us were Lard TV's tutorial videos.

I decided on a small action to be fought by, on one side, the buffalo hunter Mungo Chatney (rated as a Shootist) 

and cowhand O.S. Mapp (rated as a Greenhorn) 

and on the other side by Watt Atanka (an exiled Maori trapper, rated as a Shootist) 

and cowhand Annie Beechley (another Greenhorn).

For the setting I used my small board (about 30" x 35") with some of my adobe buildings, which I thought would suggest that we were somewhere in the New Mexico Territory.

Mungo Chatney kicked things off by dashing into the town square and sheltering behind a wagon.

As Annie Beechley took up position behind some crates, Watt Atanaka managed to throw four sixes in his hand of six dice. This gave him an additional Bonanza token and ended the turn early.

Watt dashed up towards a position behind the barrel that you can just see by the purple die showing a six. Unfortunately he ended up using almost all of his sixes to move the full distance thanks to a series of ones on his move dice. He did get to shoot at Mungo Chatney but missed.

Chatney returned fire causing Atanka to dodge black around the corner of the building. This put Atanka in position, next turn, to have a shot at O.S. Mapp. Critical Hit, failed dodge, roll of six for effect; instant kill.

We were then into a two-on-one fight and eventually Mungo Chatney was also gunned down.

This first run-through confirms my feelings having played What a Cowboy at Steel Lard a few years back. It's great fun and should work nicely for what I want to do with in November.