After Curly Billy shot down Crazy Sam McGee Part 3

After their narrow escape through Dry Gulch Canyon (read all about it here), Curly Billy and his gang go into hiding. With the information from Broadstone's bookkeeper Curly is planning a raid on Broadstone's silver mine. Broadstone's men are closing in however. Curly, the bookkeeper and the gang disguise themselves and board a stagecoach in an attempt to slip through and evade the Law.

Broadstone has people spying for him everywhere and his men are waiting for Curly Billy at the Livery. 

Part 3: Ambush at the Livery

Everything seems business as usual at the livery. While his horse is provided with a new horseshoe,

Doctor Spitzenfinger is trying to sell his Miracle Elixir to one of the workers.

When the stagecoach appears, Broadstone's men prepare themselves to spring the ambush.

The stagecoach moves up the road and bullets start flying.

Broadstone's goons are trying to stop the stagecoach by unscrupulously firing at the driver. Hans "Arizona" Huffheins and Paddy O'Malley are returning fire, forcing Charley the "one-armed snake" to dodge behind the fence.

The One-armed Snake gets up but is shot dead by Arizona!

Arizona then uses his Desperado card to hurl a stick of dynamite at Johnny "the Duke", inflicing several points of shock.

Having passed the first line of defense, the guys in the stagecoach are now taking fire from Davey Kroket and Thomas Brown. The driver is losing action dice fast.

Paddy takes a critical chest wound and falls off the stagecoach. He survives the fall, but the driver's luck has run out. He is out of action.

Grasping the opportunity, Davey Kroket advances towards the stopped stagecoach. Despite his severe chest wound, Paddy manages to blast Davey at point blank range, killing him instantly.

Arizona takes the reins. Unfortunately he isn't able to move the horses more than a few inches before he is killed by a bullet from the winchester of Thomas Brown. Paddy stumbles forward, trying to take out Brown.

With only a few action dice left, Paddy is no match for Brown, and Paddy collapses after a few more shots. This allows Curly Billy however to exit the stagecoach (he and Mad Jack had been firing rather ineffectively from inside the stagecoach) and take the reins.  

Curly Billy almost immediately takes a wound. Fortunately this is downgraded to a shock by playing a Desperado card. After several nailbiting turns without move or wild dice, Curly Billy is finally able to drive the coach off the table, winning the game.

Although at first I thought that with a little luck I could move the stagecoach quickly to the other side of the table, it took almost all Bonanza tokens and all Desperado cards to get half the gang off the table!

Both sides have taken casualties in this game. The Law loses the One-armed Snake and Davy Kroket. Curly Billy's gang loses Arizona and Paddy O'Malley who died of his chest wound in the post game wound recovery dice roll.

New recruits are available for both sides and after rolling for their background and traits Curly Billy is joined by a rancher with the eagle eyes trait and a native american with the stealthy trait.

Certain Dutch readers of a certain age will know that there is an obvious name for these characters: 

Bob "Eagle-eye" Stanhope and White feather.  

Eerde 1944

We played a Chain of Command scenario (Attack & Defend) my friend based on the fighting around Hell's Highway near Veghel (more information here).

The Germans are trying to stop reinforcements from reaching Arnhem by trying to cut the road north. The Americans (101st airborne) intend to stop the attempt with agressive counterattacks.

My Germans are defending the dunes near Eerde against my friend's paratroopers, supported by two British Shermans.

I read about the German Panthers taking out lots of Shermans during the historical battle. This led to the  assumption that I would be able to take out my friend's Shermans with my Panther. I was wrong.

A preliminary barrage prevented me from deploying anything, while the paratroopers were already moving towards my jump-off points. Fortunately the Panther did get through, but failed to hit the Sherman during the entire game!

The Sherman on the other hand, kept hitting the Panther. Not hard enough to destroy it, but enough to force the commander to spend his actions preventing the shock from reaching bail out level.

I was finally able to deploy some troops and slow the US onslaught. This included the German forward observer. My plan was to pin the paratroopers under a mortar barrage.

After the first volley, my friend used his full chain of command dice to end the mortar barrage by ending the turn. Trying to start a new barrage failed because I failed the battery available roll required after the first request for a barrage.

By this time I had my own full Chain of Command dice and used it to ambush the other Sherman with my Panzerschreck team.

But they missed (a double 1)!!!

The paratroopers and Shermans were now chewing up my Germans and things went from bad to worse for the Germans.

Luckily I was able to repeat the Panzerschreck ambush. This time with success. The Sherman which had been relentlessly shelling my troops was out of the fight.

This wasn't enough to turn the tide however. I had to withdraw the remnants of a squad behind a dune in order to prevent them breaking. The paratroopers quickly moved to the other side of the dune. With their superior numbers they threathened to close assault and wipe out the reduced German squad. So I decided to flee.

This sealed the fate of the German squad. The paratroopers marched and fired over the dune, wiping out the German squad, which couldn't get away fast enough.

The German force morale was reduced to zero. Victory for the Allies!

Escape from Aniron Part 5

The final showdown

Master Vhing and friends have escaped from the clutches of evil crime lord Zenyatta Mondatta in the shuttle Synchronicity II (read all about it here). They have landed at Lahini spaceport (one of Aniron's smaller spaceports) to stock up on fuel for the lightspeed engines. Master Vhing has just sent his friends to find fuel, when he feels a disturbance in The Force.

He is relieved at first when Master Yoda arrives at the spaceport with two Jedi Knights he saved from order 66. But then the Dark Side makes its presence known...

Darth Vader has recovered from the wounds inflicted by Master Vhing (see Part 1) and has brought four inquisitors with him. Bent on revenge Darth Vader heads towards the Jedi for a final showdown.

The bad guys/gals

The good guys/gals

It's business as usual at Lahini spaceport.

Customers and mechanics arguing about repairs

Lifter droid is loading do-it-yourself furniture

Darth Vader and the inquisitors enter the scene, startling the locals.

The Jedi enter from the opposite side, warning the locals of the danger.

The intergalactic furniture transporter has seen enough and decides to lift off and get away (random event).

Both sides approach each other while the lifter droid is desperately trying to get out of the way.

Darth Vader tries a Force Choke on Mezir Arpo, in an attempt to reduce the opposition, but Mezir shrugs it off.

Master Yoda attacks, striking down Vader.

Mezir joins in and together they take Vader out of action!

Enraged by the sight of their lord going down, both Sister and Second brother join the fray.

Mezir and Second brother simultaneously strike each other down!

Nearby, Master Vhing takes on First brother and Brother.

 Kovash rushes to aid Master Vhing, but is immediately struck down by Brother.

Master Vhing hits First brother where it hurts and he goes down with a wound.

Master Yoda dispatches Sister and scans the area while bystanders are either trying to find shelter or watching the fight.

Let me back in!!

Another ship takes off just as Master Vhing and Brother (again simultaneously) cut each other deep enough to take them out of action.

First brother and Kovash recover and get back on their feet, just in time to see Master Yoda swinging his light saber to strike First brother.

However..... First brother parries the blow and strikes Master Yoda. Master Yoda is out of action!

Now only Kovash and First brother are left in the fight. Both are wounded. They circle each other, looking for an opening or a momentary loss of focus.

Then Kovash uses The Force to execute the perfect strike. First brother goes down and doesn't get up.

With the help of Master Vhing's friends, Kovash brings Master Vhing, Master Yoda and Mezir on board the fully fueled Synchronicity II. While the severely wounded Jedi recover in the on board Bacta tank, Synchronicity II leaves Aniron's atmosphere and escapes from Aniron.

Imperial security forces recover Darth Vader and he is transported to an Imperial medical center.

A fitting conclusion to our Escape from Aniron campaign. My son really enjoyed the games and is looking forward to a new Fistful of Lead campaign. I had to bend the rules a bit in this last game to allow more than one leader for the Jedi and a large number of specialists, but the line up seemed fitting for a final showdown.