Rejects at Adobe Wells Station

With details of the scenario laid out in On The Table Today and one, five-player game under my belt (see Gunfight at Adobe Wells Station), time to kick it up a notch with a six-player game hosting Postie's Rejects.  As in the previous game, some of the players submitted a character bio.  In the following game photos, white arrows show movement while red arrows show shooting. 

On to player bios.  

The Baddies

Rattlesnake Dick (Steve) - Little is known of Rattlesnake.  Hiding under his large hat, long bushy beard, and even longer duster, Rattlesnake tends to keep his thoughts and Winchester close to the chest. 

Ray Rogers (Ray) - another mysterious ne'er do well giving up few clues to either his background or motivation.  Rumor has it that Ray is an ex-lawman with little respect for the Pinkerton Agency.  Perhaps he had a run-in with them once before?

Grunt 'Deadeye' Brundle (Lee) - 'Deadeye' is a mean SOB who'll fight anyone, anywhere, anytime. Chews Baccy, hates beans, and washes religiously at least once a month cos his momma raised him right.  

The Pinkerton's

'Honest' Bob (Dan) - an ex-lawman who sees law enforcement as a dead-end job.  The life of a Pinkerton agent has much more potential for personal enrichment.

Squinty Sid (Richard) - A fine Pinkerton veteran agent generally referred to as "Squinty Sid"... but never to his face! 

English Bob (Colin) - another fine Pinkerton agent with self-proclaimed experience on both sides of the Atlantic.  'English' has adapted to the rough and tumble code of the West, a situation far removed from his home country and more civilized forms of martial combat.

On to the gunfight!

At the first sign of trouble, the two Bobs ('Honest' and 'English') are the only two Pinkertons at the station.  'Honest' is inside the station and 'English' is positioned in the northwest corner of the compound.  'Squinty' Sid finds himself out of position down at the arroyo panning for a little gold in the small trickle of water passing down the arroyo.

Ray is the first outlaw to appear.  Emerging from the rocks to the north of the station, he makes a mad dash toward the shed.  From the relative safety behind the boulders from near where Ray bolted, 'Rattlesnake' Dick covers Ray's dash to the compound.  "English' moves quickly to find more substantial cover behind the adobe shed.  With his back now firmly against the outer wall, Ray quietly waits for the other two members of his gang to converge on the station.  'Deadeye' Brundle skirts the corral and approaches the compound from the south.   

Gunfighters position themselves.

With a double action, Ray runs through the gap in the compound wall taking cover behind a large stack of crates.  English Bob has little time to react as Ray's movements are nearly a complete surprise.  English barely makes his wheel to face Ray before a hot searing bullet from Ray's six-gun strikes him in his chest.  Letting out a moan as the impact knocks the wind out of him, English drops to the ground, unconscious.  Even though 'English' is down on the ground, Ray continues to empty his gun into the Englishmen's motionless body.  That's not cricket!

Honest Bob, still in the station, repositions himself so that he can see out of the window facing the center of the compound. Bob momentarily questions his decision to be caught inside the small confines of the station.  Bob watches as Deadeye hops the wall in the southwest corner of the compound.  Before Bob can get off a shot, Deadeye ducks behind cover and disappears.  While Honest Bob cannot see Squinty Sid, he hears him call out, "watch out!"  Sid takes up a position in the southeast corner of the compound drawing a bead on the pile of crates where Deadeye was last seen.  Approaching from the north, Rattlesnake reaches the compound wall.  From his vantage point, Rattlesnake has a line of sight to English, lying crumpled on the ground, Ray, off to his right, and Deadeye moving into the compound from the south.  

'English' Bob goes down!

Not heeding the Code of the West,
Ray keeps firing at 'English' down on the ground.

Seeing Sid out of the corner of his eye, Deadeye moves around the crates to take cover before Sid can squeeze off a round or two.  With English motionless on the ground, all three of the outlaws pump rounds into English's lifeless body.  Deadeye empties his gun at English Bob.  These fellas are taking no prisoners!  

'English' attracts fire from everyone!

Preoccupied with finishing off poor old English, Deadeye does not notice Sid slipping around the compound wall to come up behind him.  Determined not to be labeled as a 'backshooter', Sid hollers out before opening fire.  Deadeye never sees the bullet with his name on it.  Luckily, he turns his head when Sid shouts.  That little turn of the head probably spares Deadeye's life.  The bullet from Sid's six-gun only slices off his left ear.  While only a flesh wound, blood pours everywhere as Deadeye drops to the ground from the unexpected and sudden impact.  

Sid comes up from behind and let's Deadeye have it!

Knowing that one more Pinkerton gunman is still holed up in the station, Ray races across the compound sliding to a stop with his back to the northside of the station wall.  With the wooden window shutters closed from the inside, Ray has no way to poke his gun through the window and clear the interior by fire.  Instead, Ray waits pressed against the station wall.

Ray need not wait long.  Seeing English go down in the courtyard and knowing that Rattlesnake is positioned at the north wall, Honest Bob decides remaining within the confines of the building is no place to be.  Bob runs out of the building and around the outside to take up a firing position to Rattlesnake.  As Bob reaches the edge of the northside of the building, he is surprised to see Ray with his back against the wall, gun raised.  In a flash of guns blazing at close range, Bob is hit twice in the arm and chest.  Unfortunately for Bob, his gun jams as he blazes away.  Fortune smiles upon Ray.  He is untouched.  

Honest Bob and Ray blaze away over the wall!

From across the compound, Rattlesnake takes a shot with his rifle at Bob to finish him off.  Rattlesnake's rifle jams as well!  Bob now faces Ray only a few feet away and his gun is useless.  Bob tries to clear the jam but he is unable to fix the gun with the wound in his left arm giving him little control to manipulate his firearm.  Ray freezes, surprised at his good fortune.  Still, Bob's nerves hold as he recovers from the wounds under a time of extreme duress.

Honest Bob is in a tight spot!

Back on the other end of the compound, Sid takes one more shot to finish off Deadeye before the bandit can regain his footing.  Sid's gun jams!  "Damnit!", Sid shouts.  To finish off Deadeye, Sid will have to get closer.  Sid hops over the wall to deal with Deadeye. 

Sid hops the wall to get to Deadeye.

Back at the fight between Bob and Ray, Ray decides to take the fight to Bob.  Hopping the wall, Ray pops Bob one more time at point blank range.  The bullet strikes Bob in the left arm ripping open big hole.  Bob drops to the ground in agony.

Ray takes the fight to Bob.

Across the compound, in the seconds it takes Sid to hop over the wall, Deadeye rises from the ground and regains his footing.  Maddened by being shot from behind, Deadeye, clubs his unloaded pistol and lunges at Sid.  In the scuffle, Sid is knocked out.  He lays motionless on the ground.

With all three of the Pinkertons either dead or down on the ground, this gunfight is over. 

The outlaws win this contest!  Congratulations to Ray, Lee, and Steve!

Surprisingly, neither Ray nor Rattlesnake took any hits in this gunfight.  Deadeye walked away with a piece of his left ear missing.  'English' Bob went down almost before the fight began.  What a quick and brutal fight.  Game lasted about 75 minutes.  With such a quick resolution, players asked to reset the game and have a second go.  That is what we did but that is a take for another time. 

Thanks guys!  This was an action-packed contest and good fun.  You all have one game of The Rules With No Name under your belts.  Given the ease of the bandits shooting a fella when he is down, the next time we gather for a game, I may introduce the 'Hate' and 'Fear' attributes into the game.