At some point in practically every Hollywood Western ever mode, there's a game of poker. Of course, we all know it's the Mexican with the big grin and bad teeth who's going to slip a 'deuce' from the top of his boot, look coy when challenged and then reach for his gun CHARACTER TYPES Gunfighter : The Hollywood image of the western gunslinger who lives by the gun. ie. famous outlaws, frontier lawmen, bounty hunters, long service army NCOs etc. Hired guns : Upstart kids who want to make it as gunfighters, deputies, outlaws' gang members, veterans of the civil war, that sort of thing. Cowpoke : Ranchers, cowboys, most soldiers, the posse, the drunken sheriff etc. Townsfolk : The people who run off the street at High Noon. MOVEMENT Draw a numbered counter from a receptacle for each figure. in a multlplayer game, the figure with No. I goes first and so on until every figure has moved and fired. Where a player is controlling several figures, each player will draw the appropriate number of counters and can then take 30 seconds to decide in which order his figures are going to be activated. Gunfighters and Hired Guns may reserve their activation for later on in the turn by losing 1/2 their Action Points. A Gunfighter only may use 3 Action Points as a panic measure at any time prior to activation. To do this he forfeits the real of this turn. All movement and actions are determined by the use of Action Points or APe. Each character is allotted a number of APe that he/she can use each turn. They are not require to be used up but cannot be saved for another turn. They can be used in any order, such as move 2cm, fire twice, move and open door. Gunfighter. 12 APe Cowpoke 8 APe Hired Ouns 10 APe Townsfolk 6 APs ACTION POINTS Move 1cm 1 To aim a weapon 4 Fire single action pistol 2 Open/Close door 2 Fire double action pistol 1 Move upstairs 4 per floor Fire single shot breech loading shoulder arm 3 Kneel/stand 2 Fire repeating shoulder arm 2 Lie down/stand 3 Throw knife 1 Jump/obstacle 3 Fight hand to hand 6 Climb etc. 3 To reload: first round 2, each round thereafter 1 Move : within house 2 rough terrain 2 close terrain 4 FIRING This is based upon the card game PONTOON. To prepare just add to a deck of cards the royal (picture) cards, the aces and the jacks from a second pack. If you want a hard game just use one ordinary deck. Most gunfight and skirmish rules sets introduce lots of calculations and modifiers at this point. If you enjoy accountancy please feel free to introduce them here. I have deliberately taken the bold stop of assuming firing and hand to hand combat results will already take into account many of the possible variables, Increasing the pace and excitement of the game. METHOD Draw two cards from the deck for the first shot of the target. Check against range chart. A score of 21 is needed to hit from the cards allowed. Draw one further card per subsequent shot fired that turn and odd to total. Still under 21, dose enough to make target duck - 4 APs in target's next activation. Over 21, bust. Shooting was wild. RANGE CHART Type Range Pt. Blank Close Medium Long Aimed Fire H/D/C/S H/D/C H/D H Snap Shot H/D/C/S H/D H - i.e. Hearis/Diamords/Clubs/Spades Gunfighters may count the JOKER as ANY royal/picture card or Ace from any suit. Hired guns may count the JOKER as a royal/picture card from any suit. Cowpokes may count the JOKER as any numbered card. Townsfolk discard a JOKER and draw again. If target in soft cover all Aces are discarded. A JOKER may still be used as an ACE. If target in hard cover all royal cards become number 10. THE RED BADGE OF COURAGE Royal Pontoon, Le. a picture card and Ace will kill. Pontoon, ie., a number 10 card and Ace will severely wound. Minus 6 APs. 21, made up from the sum of several cards will lightly wound, Minus 3 APs. When a figure runs out of Action Points - APs - he/she is only fit for the preacher or the undertaker. GUNSMOKE Type Range Close Medium Long Colt/Remington.45 six shooter d. action 6 - 20cm 21 - 50cm to 80cm Colt Army.44 six shooter e. action 6 - 20cm 21 - 60cm to 90cm Remington .44 Derringer (2 shot) POINT BLANK 0NLY Winchester .44 carbine (12 shot) 6 - 40cm 41 - 80cm to 200cm Double barrelled soattergun (1 or 2 shots) 6 - 15cm to 30cm - Colt 'Buntline' Spedal 6 - 15cm 16 - 60cm to 100cm Point Blank is under 6cm for ALL weapons Treat each barrel of the scattergun as a separate weapon for firing purposes. Light wounds are treated as serious, a serious wound becomes dead. Scattergun spread is 22 1/2 degrees. Use the table above to come up with your own favourite weapon's characteristics. HIGH NOON The quick draw is the staple of practically every western ever made. My method is simple and fast. Cut the deck in half and each figure has cards pulled from their individual decks. First to reach 21 out of any Combination of cards drawn so for, wine. Card modifiers used to determine firing can be utilised here. If this has whetted your appetite for the old west, then there are a number of more 'serious' gunfight rules available, the most serious of these being Ian Beck's ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST by Tabletop Games. SANITY WARNING: I only buy these rules if you want to seriously damage your life-style. Figures are available, though not readily. DIXONS do a neat little range of 25mm cowboys and gunfighters whilst GRENADIER UK produce a box of 10 superbly sculpted western characters, including a saloon girl for around £10. REVELL and ATLANTIC are worth checking out for inexpensive OO/HO plastic figures. Back to The Gauntlet No. 1 Table of Contents Back to The Gauntlet List of Issues Back to Master Magazine List © Copyright 1994 by Craig Martelle Publications This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com