As part of my ongoing search for the "right" sci-fi skirmish game rules I recently bought Fistful of Lead by Wiley Games They have a sci-fi specific set of rules (Galactic Heroes) that has the same game mechanics, but I decided to try the core rules first. Since it is a multi-period set of rules, my son and I went for a cowboy game.
After Mr Brown's escape from the Law (read all about it here) he headed North across the border. There he and his new gang attracted the attention of the North-West Mounted Police. The Brown gang has noticed that the Law is again on their tail and are planning to ambush the NWMP camp (modified ambush scenario from the free Galactic Heroes scenario pack).
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| I have a bad feeling about this... |
The mounties sense that something is up and scan the area for the Brown gang. The Brown gang has the first action however and Mr. Red uses his sniper skill to wound the NWMP leader, Inspector Goodman.
Fortunately Inspector Goodman activates on a Queen of Hearts card, removing his wound and allowing him to run for cover.
While Mr Brown and Mr. Black move through the forest to the north side of the camp, Top Hat and Mr. Pink move to the south side.
The mounties run to the hill, but Constable Frost is hit by a long range shot from Mr. Red.
Top Hat and Mr. Pink have cleared the woods and exchange fire with the mounties. Constable Crow manages to put Mr. Pink out of action, but not before he inflicts some shock on Constables Hudson and Frost
Mr. Brown and Mr. Black have reached Mr. Red and move in on the mounties from the north. Corporal Hicks has however reached the top of the hill and uses his expert long range fire skills to take Mr. Red out of action.
Inspector Goodman joins Corporal Hicks at the top of the hill, but quickly runs out of ammo after wounding Mr. Black.
When Constable Frost collapses and dies from his wounds, Corporal Hicks has a clear shot and takes out Top Hat.
Having eliminated the threat from this side, Constable Hudson and Corporal Hicks turn their attention to the other side where Mr. Brown has managed to take out Inspector Goodman.
Mr. Brown decides to get out while he still can and tries to escape. He runs past a dying Mr Black when a bullet from Corporal Hicks cuts him down.
The Mounties won, but if Mr. Brown had been able to escape, victory would have gone to the Brown gang (Constable Frost failed his recovery roll and died from his wounds).
Playing was quite easy. We only had to look up the close combat, wound and recovery rules and used the quick reference for everything else. I kept the individual traits simple so we wouldn't forget about them and wouldn't need to look up the specific rules.
Perhaps it was our dice rolling and/or selection of traits, but I found it to be an unforgiving game: Even with some cover, figures are easily hit and once they are wounded they are very vulnerable and have little chance of recovering.
I definitely like the rules and look forward using them for other periods and settings.
(Excuse the dark photographs. Lighting conditions were abviously not optimal. I often have difficulities taking good pictures of a snow gaming table; most artificial light seems to give everything a yellow haze, but without it everything's too dark).
