Skirmishing Wargaming

Wild West Scenario

by Mike Blake

Enough technical stuff. Let's look at a couple of scenarios that lend themselves to this one-to-one approach and see how they might go [or indeed have gone, when we've tried them!]

"The 26th of October, 1881, will always be marked as one of the crimson days in the annals of Tombstone, a day blood flowed as water, and human life was held as a shuttle cock, a day to be remembered as witnessing the bloodiest and deadliest street fight that has ever occurred, in this place, or probably in the Territory."

I don't suppose any reader would have any trouble putting a name to the event that this quote is about? Right, one of the classics , of course, the one that started it all for us. The quote comes, by the way, from The Tombstone Daily Nugget Newspaper, 27 October 1881.

And its ideally suited to Skirmish, because of the small numbers involved, close proximity, short duration and colourful characters. We have played it out a number of times, and the Earps haven't always won. By the way, in researching the fight, one of the first things you discover is that it didn't take place in the OK Corral! All the action took place on a vacant lot between Harwood House and Fly's Rooming House and Photo Gallery.

This is another aspect which is good fun too - research at such a detailed level. We want to know a lot about the protagonists in the action we are going to re-fight - what they wore and looked like, their weapons and how good they were with them, what sort of physical and mental state they were in at the time and so on.

Back to the OK Corral -I won't attempt to paint the scene - you all know it well I'm sure. The dark garbed Earps and Holliday, facing the Clantons, McLaurys and Billy Claibourne in conventional cowboy clothes. The brief verbal exchange which began with Morgan Earp's "You sons of bitches have been looking for a fight, now you have got it!" and then the short, violent exchange of a different kind - 45 calibre slugs! Let's take e a look at a moment from the fight as it might appear as a Skirmish game.

Wyatt Earp stands his ground, draws [an easy action for a professional shootist, 95% chance of doing so successfully] and snap fires at Tom McLaury as he moves behind his bucking horse [ a difficult shot even for a gunman like Wyatt, 30% chance of hitting.] Tom tries to hang on to the reins with one hand [a moderately difficult action under fire and with a horse that's not too keen on bullets whizzing by it, 50% chance of succeeding] whilst stepping backwards with the horse and trying to pull his own shootin' iron [quite difficult for a cowboy and small time thief up against the Earps and Doc Holliday, 25% chance].

What happens when the dice are thrown? Wyatt's first throw is 67%, well within the 95% he needs. His next is 32%, just over the 30% he needs so that means a miss. McLaury's throws. A 77%, so the reins are dropped and the horse breaks free. But then the throw for the shot he's firing at Wyatt - a 2%! The shot hits its target! Wyatt is down with a serious, possibly mortal wound! Catastrophe!!

Skirmish Scenarios

Back to The Gauntlet No. 17 Table of Contents
Back to The Gauntlet List of Issues
Back to Master Magazine List
© Copyright 1999 by Craig Martelle Publications
This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web.
Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com