23 August, 2009

Slaughter at Oheke Creek



James Wilson Marshal of Caspar discovers that the Pinkertons are holed up at the Widow Compton's farm by Oheke Creek. He grabs his brother Thomas, deputy Jerry McEwan and long-time friend Hank Shelby to go run them out of town.
All's Quiet at Oheke Creek

The Pinkertons get word of the raid, and start out from the farm through the scrub towards the cooperage on the creek.
The Pinkertons make their move into town

Zeke White and Frank Rucker peel off to make straight for the cooperage
Zeke White and Frank Rucker move towards Jones' Cooperage

Jim McFarland runs ahead, skiring around the high ground and leaving Pete Walsh behind.
Jim McFarland skirts around the badlands overlooking the Creek

Seeing a flash in the distance across the creek, White makes a snap shot at Jerry McEwan hitting him in the leg.
White takes a long-range shot at Jerry McEwan

Taking careful aim, he lets off another few rounds, seriously wounding McEwan, who promptly skedaddles back into town.
McEwan skedaddles

McFarland leap up like a mountain goat onto the heights overlooking the creek to get a better shot.
McFarland climbs on top of the heights to get a better shot

With a lot of lollygagging going on between the marshals, James Wilson and Hank Shelby finally reach the creek and get ready to cross the stream. Over to their left, Thomas Wilson has crossed the creek successfully and drags himself out, soaking wet but not right beside the cooperage.
James Wilson and Hank Shelby get ready to cross the bridge

White and Rucker position themselves behind the barrels, ready to get a good shot at anyone crossing the bridge.
White and Rucker try to get a good angle on the bridge

White moves around the barrel hut and catches Shelby unawares. He shoots him in the gut.
White hits Shelby in the gut

Shelby goes down, for good. Wilson curses and unloads his shotgun at the Pinkerton before running for cover by the old mill.
Shelby goes down, for good

From here Wilson can get a better shot at White but has no luck with either of his shots.
James Wilson moves around to get a shot at White

With Wilson no longer covering the bridge, Rucker moves up alongside the barrel hut and fans the hammer, emptying his six-gun at Wilson, but missing each time.
Rucker fans his revolver at Wilson but misses each time

White takes careful aim at Wilson and puts a round in his chest. Wilson's last act is to wave away his brother, knowing he'll surely die in the crossfire the Pinkertons have set up in the vicinity.
White takes aim at Wilson and shoots him dead

Looks like the Pinkertons rule the roost at Caspar, Wyoming. Vanderbolt's plans can be brought forward now...

A few post-mortem thoughts:
If you look at the first photo of the game showing the terrain, the Marshals started just at the top of the setup beyond the rough ground. The Pinkertons started off near the tall grass at the bottom of the setup (in fact you can see their hats if you look closely)
This should have allowed the Marshals to get to and control the bridge and the buildings just beyond before the Pinkertons got to them which would have made the gunfight very interesting. However as the movement cards were drawn the Pinkertons got theirs much earlier than the Marshals did (despite Loughlin's careful poker shuffle). That combined with the Pinkertons having a high agility and being able to move on the 'Greased Lightnin' card mean that getting stuck on the other side of the bridge proved to be terrible for the Marshals.
Combining with this was an initial "heroic moment" shot at long range causing the marshal with the rifle to skedaddle (everyone else was armed with pistols or a shotgun). The Pinkertons then had a definite advantage until the Marshals could close the distance.
With the Marshals split into two definite pairs the skedaddling rifleman was out of range for the leadership check needed to talk him back into the game.
If the Marshals had actually put in some successful shots the fragile Pinkerton morale may have faltered, but as it was the eagle-eye shooting of White accounted for two dead and one seriously wounded marshal.

3 comments:

  1. Wow, I'm impressed overall; great terrain, excellent writeup, good action and scenario...very nice. I didn't realize there's more, like the trouble at the mill, I'll have to go catch up.

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  2. Thanks for letting me know about the blog Donogh. Got it on Google Reader, going to check older posts :D

    Cheers!

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  3. Them thar Cowboy games look fun, Donogh. I know my son would like them. I too will catch up on the older games by and by.

    James from the Guild

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