Liberdy - rules for the Wild West (and other places)

Way down in Liberty,somewhere on the border between Canada and Mexico, we've been a'tinkering with our in-house Wild West rules and having ourselves a few test games.

Each player controls a gang of 4 gunmen - usually 3 pistoleros and a rifleman

Virtually everything in the game is handled by two decks of cards, ideally with different backs

• Spades: shooting and hand-to-hand
• Clubs: movement - the number is the distance in inches they can move
• Hearts: saving against shooting and hand-to-hand
• Diamonds: both shooting and hand-to-hand AND saving
• Jokers: saving AND fan-shooting pistols AND initiative

Certain cards have other uses

Cards are ranked from high to low as follows

• Joker, Ace (worth 11), King, Queen Jack, 10 down to 2
• Hearts, Clubs, Diamonds, Spaces
• Blue back, Red back

The turn sequence is

• Each player is dealt a hand of 5 cards.
• Each player selects one of their cards for initiative and places it face down
• All initiative cards a re revealed and the order of play worked out using the Card Rank
• In initiative order each player uses his cards for moving, shooting etc
• Cards for shooting and saving can be held back in  case you are shot at etc
• A player's turn can be interrupted by other players shooting on over-watch.
• If any civilians are nearby they may react to firing 
• Once everyone has had a go then all cards are returned  and a new turn starts

Shooting and Hand-to-Hand

• Pistols have a 12" range and rifles have an 18" range
• To shoot a player indicates the shooting figure and the target figure and plays a Spade or Diamond
• The target player must play a Heart, if they have one, or a Diamond if they want to
• There are various modifiers for cover, height, over-watch etc
• If the shooter's card is higher than the target or the target does not play a save card then the target is hit
• If the target is hit the shooter then rolls a D6 and scores that amount of damage on the target
• Every figure can take upto 5 hits before being killed

Those nice people who actually live in Liberty

Townsfolk can be affected by gang members shooting. Any non-gang member within 6" of someone shooting draws a card. Depending on whether they are armed or not they can run away, stand, move to the action or start shooting

There are a few extra rules but that's about it. If something isn't covered by a rule then we wing it.

Here's some recent activity in Liberty which has a habit of changing every time there's a show-down

Sometimes it looks like this ....

...and other times it looks like this

It's got the regular 3:15 from Yuma

Entertainment...

... to suit...

...everyone

And attracts many

,many

,many

,way too many visitors

Where's the sheriff when you need him? Dead?

He'll do. Oh he's the pianist

The ideal candidate.

The buildings are either by 4Ground or Whitewash City and lovingly cared for by Shaun who also owns the train

The figures are by various manufacturers

The original rules were picked up at a participation game - can't remember the club but thank you. 

Our version can be found on the Liberdy rules page.

Rearguard at Dalian 1904 RJW using Blood Big Battles

This scenario, Rearguard (2) from Scenarios for Wargames, follows on from the successful Russian defense of Dalian.

The Russians have been ordered to evacuate Dalian and most of the Division has embarked leaving a regiment as rearguard. The Japanese have got wind of the withdrawal and have sent a brigade to capture the harbour.

The Rearguard map from Scenarios for Wargames

The table

The Terrain

All hills are steep sided - level 3 of Lijia Ridge is impassable

The streams are impassable to artillery except at bridges

Minquan, Shidiao and Fuguo are villages and each count as 1 Objective

Dalian Harbour is 2 villages and each one counts as 2 Objectives

The battlefield from Sinjan Hill

The Forces

The Russians have 12 Companies of 3 Bases and 2 Guns

The Japanese have 21 Companies of 3 Bases  and 4 Guns

Both sides are armed with repeating rifles and breach loading artillery

All troops are Trained.

The Japanese are not classed as Aggressive due to their kicking in the initial fight for Dalian.

Objectives

There are 7 Objective points - the 3 villages (1) and Dalian Harbour (2x2) The game lasts for 8 turns 

The Game

The Japanese advance to Lijia Ridge

Mike, Rodge and myself were the Japanese. We had to deploy first and concentrated everything on Posu Ridge and Anjin Hill with the aim of punching straight through to Dalian

Lijia Ridge

The Russian Reserves

Dave N and Shaun were the Russians who deployed a token force on Lijia Ridge and the remainder as reserves between Minquan and Shidiao

In  order to secure the villages of Shidiao and Fuguo the Japanese push forward a battalion

Japanese troops approach Hongqi Hill

The fight for Hongqi Hill and Shidiao

A Japanese Company moves to secure Fuguo

The main attack was aimed at Lijia Ridge

The Japanese prepare to storm Lijia Ridge

The attack goes in.

The Russians get hammered on the ridge

The Japanese start to advance down Lijia Ridge to Minquan and Dalian

The Russian line crumbles under the Japanese pressure

Individual Russian companies attempt to hold Minquan and Shidiao

The Russian company hold Dalian is ordered to hold to the last by their Commanders

But on the last turn the Japanese get a foothold on the Harbour

The final tally for Objectives had the Japanese on 3 for the villages of Minquan, Shidiao and Fuguo and the Russians on 2 for half of Dalian Harbour - the other half being contested. So a less than minor victory to the Japanese with the Russian commanders having to abandon their Faberge Egg collection!

Another excellent scenario from Grant's book - going down to the wire. 

The Japanese Artillery failed to get into action due to miserable dice rolling but weren't really needed as their infantry were more than up for the job.

3 Base infantry units disappear very quickly especially with close range Repeating Rifle fire so I will try 4 Base units next time. 

And as for next time. With the Japanese capture of Dalian they can now start bringing in troops and supplies for the assault on Port Arthur. However will the Russians give up the Liaodong Peninsula and just sit in Port Arthur as they did historically? I doubt it.

The figures are all by Pendraken and the buildings  by Mura Miniatures

The terrain is all by Homebase - the hills and villages are the "luxury" £5 carpet tiles, reduced to £2.50 and the sea and streams are the sadly out of production Oxford Blue self adhesive vinyl tiles. I keep writing to them but they just ignore me.