Ran my first game of Fistful of Lead Reloaded on Saturday, December 14, 2024 - a few years ago ran a Fistful of Lead: Bigger Battles game. The two systems are highly similar but definitely different gaming experiences.
Had five of seven possible players show up: Mike, Alan, Tom, Rob, and John. The other Mike and Gary weren't up to making it out that day, a very rainy and windy day.
First lesson learned was that I should limit how many characters each player has to run/handle - I started with six each which would have been workable but then I spread out some additional characters that should have been run by the missing players. Would have worked better if stuck to original plan and just dropped some figures.
I think next go round I will limit each player to just five characters. Perhaps that will also allow the game to be more of a narrative story telling.
Another lesson learned (or relearned from a different rule system) is that trains are powerful obstacles to be overcome so next game with trains I will put them at the end of the table rather than right down the middle. And, while on trains, need to put in place better movement rules for them.
One of the best elements of the rules is that the game master can join in the fun and run figures without being too prejudiced one way or the other so I did get to run a few figures along the way.
This report will be light on narrative and specifics because by the end of the game my energy crashed - and crashed hard, had to eat and take a break before putting stuff away. So memory not as clear as I'd like so apologies if I leave out anything significant.
Game started with the 'bad guys' out of Muleskinner Canyon hoping to locate and steal the strongbox with the ranch pay fund during a picnic celebrating selling the last of the year's herd to the army - with a train at the stock yard waiting to load.
Photo below shows the 96 longhorns in the six main enclosures of the stockyard, two different sizes - animals three to a base so 32 total bases. The train in the left background is the arriving passenger train.
The buildings in the foreground are barns and warehouses with four grain wagons loading bagged crops for selling.
Most of the three figure bases of people seen are just unarmed civilians and 'decorating' the table. One set of four three figure stands were armed and able to fire - but with only one die. Not sure I'd do that again or at least rethink how it will work.
At one end of the board was the small ranch passenger station and the water tank and windmill for pumping water up into the tank. The other wagon seen below is the ranch chuck wagon heading for the barns.
Below shows the main ranch buildings with the 'big house' on the far left and to the right of the road the picnic set up with a dozen tables and a couple of dozen guests. There were some individually based civilians roaming about it the crowd one of whom was Sister Veronica who had been listening awfully closely to discussions about the strong box. Very early in the game she jumped up behind a random cowboy and the two of them road "hell for leather" away from the picnic - leaving the ranch players wondering what that was all about. Turns out she was a spy for the bad guys and had learned that the strongbox was coming in on the train and located in the safe in the combine. [Hell for leather allowed player an extra move action to get the heck out of there faster, a game master add, not part of the rules.]
This shot shows the players are still setting up and sorting out their figures - the yellow bits of paper identifying groups. Each player had two 'sets' of three mounted/foot/dead figures each plus matching standing horse to mark point of dismount and dead horse which could be used to avoid a figure dying, letting the horse go down instead. That is before giving players those additional figures - some of which were the best - or worst - of the gunslingers. Stagecoach is arriving near the bottom.
An overall shot showing the passenger train has made its first move - and frustrated the bad guys since they had a variety of options for actions to take besides robbing the strongbox - robbing the train, rustling cattle, robbing the stage being the main options. The player, John, closest to the train was a bit flummoxed at how fast the train moved - even though it was slowing down to stop at the station (again, need to better formulate how that will work).
And the train arrives and stops at the station and you can see figures from both sides closing in. Also, you can see the stagecoach arriving. Those blue indicators show a figure is pinned (green for out of ammo, tan for action completed for a figure, and then brown and other colors for number of wounds taken).
John took the train's movement in stride and switched over to starting a cattle stampede - which I limited to one pen's worth of cattle to avoid the stampede wiping out the rest of the game - though I would have allowed another pens worth. Another element to give greater thought for next time it is an option - and there will be other games with stampedes, I'm sure.
Besides the stampeding, there was also cattle rustling, below shows a pens worth of cattle being started on its way away from the owner's possession - though the rustler needs to get them turned around to go the other way (which he did successfully - die roll).
This shot shows Sister Veronica on the left in her habit and then her 'real' persona on the right as Veronica Voluptous, assuming the player wanted to use her with her derringer - though the nun persona had a much better melee stat, not because she is so powerful but because of the impact on the mind of anyone attacking her of assaulting a nun!
Alas, Veronica came to a bad end, she tangled with Calamity Jane, one of the celebrity passengers on the stagecoach. In blue beside Jane is Belle Starr who was tangling with, I think, Rowdy Tosser, one of the bad guys - either Tom or Rob running him. First 'dead' figure of the day - and woman versus woman of all things. I ran the three women on the ranch side.
And why run-of-the-mill civilians shouldn't tangle with gunhands. A dead man for his pains.
The stampede working its way along - seemed to be a bit of a slow motion stampede at times. On the left are a bunch of the picnic guests and a few dogs - but also a variety of ranch hands engaging the bad guys - one by the yellow buildings, two on either side of the white structure, and one by the bushes near the top right. One dog got alarmed by early shots ringing out and started out to investigate - but never got very far.
Another group of cattle being rustled.
How we marked that a section of fence had been broken (earlier used as a special 'hell for leather' token).
The worst thing that happened to the ranch - its owner, George "The Dude" Van Vittles was "killed"! But see below.
Rustled cattle being moved away. Those cabins at the top belonged to a couple of local prospectors who got in on the rustling act.
14 of 32 stands of longhorns out of the stockyard.
Just another shot showing the picnic area a bit better.
Various watering troughs and hitching rails were scattered about.
The buggy and buckboards didn't get into much of the action - but they helped with the atmosphere.
Up on top of the train near the front is Annie Oakley who got one shot off, missed, and then ran out of ammo and never got reloaded (but should have if yours truly hadn't been so distracted running the game since I did get a six which I could have used to reload her and an ace as well). All those tokens indicate a lot of pinning of figures at this focal point near the end of all the firing.
One of the newest players, Tom or Rob???, thought up the idea of having dynamite - which they had based on a die roll - and for reasons unknown tried to blow up the water tank. Dynamite went off and pinned two stands of armed civilians and killed a third but didn't take down the tank - player didn't dice high enough for that result.
Lots of scatter terrain but surprisingly little use made of it for cover.
Just another shot.
And closer shot of one of the steam locomotives in its livery - and the longhorns being stampeded. And there is George lying on the ground still.
And a different angle.
Just a shot to get a better view of one of the box cars. I have stock cars being built but not yet ready for this game.
The other steam locomotive in this game, above is from Peter Pig, the one below is from Glencoe - with a Peter Pig tender. The sign is also from Peter Pig. Debating about dry brushing all the figure bases to be more like the sign base - or leave them more 'barren'.
The stagecoach was probably the third busiest action point.
There is Annie Oakley on top of the train (actually inside the car - rules provide nice diagrams for car interiors if needed). Her green out of ammo token had fallen out of sight. There is also a dismounted horse in the background, I believe the entire section of three cowboys had dismounted - one of whom was seen on top of the last car in the train.
In the end, even though the Muleskinner Canyon folk failed in getting the strongbox, they got the "honors" for the day. They stampeded and rustled cattle and fared rather poorly at the stage coach but they did take out the owner of the ranch.
For the three Big Names who 'died', I diced for final results and George and Veronica were 'shot full of wholes' which means they come back but with lower abilities after a long convalescence. And Jake 'Spawn' McGregor, the baddest bad ass on the table, was barely wounded and will be back in full vigor.
So, fewer figures per player next time and trains more out of the way.
US Army and Lakota (Sioux) in the painting queue for a future game - as well as a couple more gunfighter characters. And lots more individually based unarmed and armed civilians. A dozen Mexican gunmen being painted for me, half upright folk and half desperadoes. Had a half dozen African American cowboys painted and ready but they didn't make it into the game - except for a brief cameo by one making a dash to get Veronica out of the picnic area.
My Old West is ethnically diverse as was the real one.
While there were challenges in this game, mostly of my own making - and not entirely from inexperience with the rules, there will be many, many more Old West games in my future. Be plenty of Pony Wars as well, though that may make more use of multi-based figures. Lots of fun.
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