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.

Liberty - Test game 1 for PAW 2014

Deadwood, Tombstone and Dodge City pale into insignificance when compared to the chaos that is Liberty. There is more lead on the streets of this town that in the Cannington mines in Australia.

Various unsavoury gangs appear from nowhere, causing mayhem by robbing the bank, freeing prisoners from the jail, looting the gold mine, gunning down towns folk and delaying the 3.20 to Yuma train. Even the old Indian burial ground isn't safe - but that's another story

Over the Christmas period 3 gangs, The Mysterious Al Clan, The Twang Gang and the Cinco Esquiladas, rode into town looking to make a few dollars
Word was out that the miners at the Liberty gold mines had struck a rich seam and were yet to bring the gold into town. What could be more tempting.

The 3 gangs each numbering 5 very bad men, started at the far end of Liberty. For some bizarre reason the Liberty Town Council had issued an Ordinance that no shooting was permitted this side of the railway tracks.

Due to low movement cards the Mysterious Al Clan lagged far behind the other 2 gangs so they decided to form a line overlooking the gold mine

After a brief shoot-out with the Twang Gang the three surviving members of the Cinco Esquiladas pushed up to take the gold

The gold mine - one miner has taken several wounds and the other looks mighty worried as the Twang Gang sneak up on him

The Twang Gang advance towards the Cinco Esquiladas looking for a showdown

A fist-fight breaks out between the Cinco Esquiladas and the Twang Gang leaving several dead or wounded

Mysterious Al, having seen the rest of his crew shot down, takes up a position on the Water Tower waiting for the 3.20 to Yuma

Right on time the train arrives along with Pat Garotte and his posse of lawmen

Mysterious Al, now wounded, jumps on the train but so does Pat Garotte who finishes Al off

The sole surviving severely wounded member of the Mysterious Al Clan looks down on the shoot out between the lawmen and the Twang Gang and dies in a hail of law-enforced lead

The last two members of the Twang Gang way up their chances of taking out a lawman and getting the gold

Law and order prevail in Liberty - Pat Garotte stands astride the now delayed 3.20 to Yuma knowing that the gold is safe - resting in his bank account

Train, terrain and figures by Shaun. Buildings by 4Ground and Whitewash city

We will be putting this on as a participation game at PAW 2014 in Plymouth on 1st and 2nd February

Liberty - There's gold in them there hills

The wild west town of Liberty is an enigmatic place at the best of times. Various unsavoury gangs appear, causing mayhem by robbing the bank, freeing prisoners from the jail, looting the gold mine, gunning down towns folk and delaying the 3.20 to Yuma train.

We use a simple set of rules that someone else wrote several years ago. The game uses two decks of cards so it is possible to have 5 Aces!.

Each player controls up to 5 figures and is dealt a hand of 5 cards.

Each player  in turn plays a card which for shooting or brawling affects 1 figure or for moving affects a group of figures

Spades - 1 figure can take a shot
Diamonds - 1 figure can brawl or 1 or more figures can move
Clubs - 1 or more figures can move
Hearts - 1 figure can defend against shooting or brawling

The card value indicates either the number of  inches a figure or group of figures can move or the accuracy of a shot or the strength of a punch. Ace = 11, King, Queen and Jack = 10

In order to shoot a Spade card must be played. The target must reply with a card. If the target plays an Heart that equals or beats the value of the Spade then it is a miss otherwise it is a hit

Each figure can take 4 hits before they die. Each hit reduces the value of any card they play by 1

Everything else is sort of made up as we go along

The game, There's gold in them there hills, was played with 3 players, Mike, Shaun and myself controlling 3 figures on a 2 foot square table. The objective being to steal the gold from the miners and leave town on the 3.20 to Yuma.

My plan was to sneak up on the miners, shoot them, steal their gold and run for the train. I have no idea what the other 2 varmints had planned but my gut told me it was something along the same lines

I should have got worried when the 2 other gangs started sneaking around together

Leaving one guy, Pacífico, to provide covering fire my two remaining guys, Tuco & Benedicto, snuck round the back of the camp, past the Bean Master no doubt sleeping off a quart of cooking sherry in the chuck wagon

Meanwhile the other two gangs had started taking pot shots at the miners wounding one of them

Tuco found the miners' stash in a tent and headed back to join up with Pacifico

At this point the 2 gangs started to try and head me off at the pass

Somewhere along the trail Benedicto and Pacifico were shot down leaving Tuco to get on the train alone - hey that's life - they weren't relatives. The opposition had other plans though

Having made it onto the train Tuco found himself the target of every ne'er-do-well between here and the Rio Grande and died in a hail of lead.

The 2 other gangs broke their alliance gunning each  other down in a mad frenzy trying to grab the gold. By this time my only living gang member, Benedicto staggered onto the scene

As the train thundered through the canyon the 3 gangs fought a terrible duel....

leaving Mike's single Apache to claim the gold and clamber onto the train. Benedicto looked on helpless with 3 wounds and no Spades. Hey at least there was a clean pair of pants on the miners' washing line

All of the terrain was made by Shaun. All of the 28mm figures,various manufacturers, were painted by Shaun, The Train is Shaun's. The Chuck Wagon is by 4Ground

Watch out for more posts from Liberty