"Magnificent seven Village map" Topic

I want to run a magnificent seven game for my local group. This would be the original, against the bad Mexicans, no Gatling gun. I have seen the beautiful layouts of the 54 mm games that have been done at historicon, but I wanted a map of what the village layout was in the movie.

Does anybody have such a map or can point me to a website with the village layout?

Thanks much

Yeah, I think you'll have to use freeze frame from the movie and study it as closely as you can and recreate as best as you can. All I could find were a couple of images of the town where the seven form up.

Good luck!

I went to Amazon and found this book on the making of the Magnificent 7.

link

I've never seen a copy but it's possible that there might be still pictures in the book that would allow you to recreate the town.

Failing that, I suggest you watch the DVD on the computer and print out freeze frames of the town.

Good luck and let us know how it turns out.

On second thought, perhaps you should read the reviews of the book on Amazon before you buy it.

Maybe you can use some of the scenes I saw by asking the internet for: map of the Mexican village in the magnificent 7.

P.S., don't use Japanese buildings.

Here's a more detailed review of the book in case you find it helpful.

link

There are some pictures of the terrain TM Terrain made for a 54mm game here:

link

which might help

Mike

Here's what I dug up:

youtu.be/hxwVZtcpwKQ

youtu.be/SmgQZ33gsg4

youtu.be/vka3ZSTt-6k

youtu.be/XHp-F2nWIzs

This clip from Youtube has several scenes of the village in it.

YouTube link

One thing that should be noted is that movie companies will sometimes leave out filming locations. When they made the movie "The Hand"(1981) with Michael Caine in my neck of the woods, they left out all mention of the principal filming location.

It is gone, built only for the movie. And it is possible the border town is gone, too. Might have been lost in a wild fire just in the last week or two – a big Hollywood ranch lost many sets, some of them westerns.

I did find stills of the border town but nothing of the Mexican village.

Bobgnar, I was lucky enough to be able to buy the TM Terrain set up second hand. I ran a Mag. Seven game recently at out local Memorial Day weekend convention and before running the game, I studied the movie pretty closely. I am not able to post photos from my computer, but if you send me your personal email I can send you photos of my game and a very rough sketch map I made while watching the film. By the way, I heartily recommend the rules I used: Fistful of Lead. I was able to manage fifteen players! Unfortunately, the Seven did not perform as expected and the day was saved by the farmers. We ended up calling the game: The Mediocre Seven.

I've been in contact with Brian Hannan, the author of "The Making of the Magnificent Seven."

I asked him if he had any information about the village that was built for the movie. Here is his response:

"I spent a long time searching for set design plans only to discover that the producer's files were locked away till his death. I wrote a couple of chapters about the battle scenes and they give a good idea of the village."

He went on to say that the real producer was Walter Mirisch and he is still alive. John Sturges, the director, is listed in the credits as the Producer and Walter Mirisch is listed as the Executor Producer. Walter has already donated all his stuff to the Academy Library but only on condition that it is not available until his death. Brian is hoping to revise his book when he can get access to the papers sometime in the future.

So there's still hope that somewhere in the Academy Library there is a map or diagram of what the village looked like.

I made a map of the village once by studying the film carefully. Going from north to south, North being the ruined walls at the top of the map:

north

Ruined walls

west side of the street east side of the street

Graveyard
Church Corn storage vessels
Hotel Cantina Supply building Blue supply building
Jail Stable

South

The town has only one street with two sides. The hotel is the large building with the arches. It's where the bandits hole up. The large cantina is where the seven hang out. The stable is really just a "lean to" made out of heavy branches. The two sides of the street are straight rows of buildings.

Wow. That self corrected all wrong, but salvageable. On he west side of the street, from north to south are: The graveyard, the church, a supply building and the jail. On the east side of the street, from north to south, are the corn storage vessels, cantina,blue supply building and the stable. At the north end of town is where the ruined walls are. Bronson is killed on the hotel roof, Coburn is killed at the ruined walls and Vaughn is killed outside the jail. Dexter is killed riding into town.

I too am working on this project in 28mm. Thanks for the input.
@Terrement, thanks for the drawing link.
Here is a composite photo of the church face on the square:

From the panorama as Calvara's men come into town at the beginning of the film

So I built the first 28mm Mexican Corn Crib for my village. There are three in the film. One on each end of the town and another one in the field, only seen when Calvara's men ride in the opening sequence.

Started with a base and then added a 1" x 1" x 2" block of balsa (actually 4 x 1/2" strips glued together. Then took toothpicks and trimmed them to about 1-1/2" length by cutting off 1/4" pieces. These were then glued onto the sides of the balsa block. Added a 2-1/2" long strip of 1/8" x 1/8" craft sticks to the corners and made a ladder from more toothpicks. I then poured glue on the top and sprinkled the 1/4" pieces on top to represent the corn.

Here is Harry Luck standing on top of the Corn Crib with Chico at the base of the ladder, both 28mm Knuckleduster miniatures.
Now just need to let it finish drying and then paint it.

Even though there was no fighting around the corn cribs during the movie, probably because of safety concerns, they make great perches, especially for the odd villager with a gun and decent cover if someone wants to hide behind one.

Thanks for this as I'm working on the same project. I've only stills or videos from the movie to go by

I received the making of book yesterday. I will report if it adds any details to what we have gathered….

Well, if you are going to that level of effort for just a corn crib that barely appears in the movie I am going to have to insist that, once the whole project is done, you go on the road and bring this game out to California so we can inspect your work and determine if you did a good enough job on it! : )

Dan or best know as CC ask me to post this for him.

link

link

layout of the village

Thanks, War Monkey and CC! I really appreciate the detail of the walls and yards behind the houses. A lot of the action takes place there. BTW, I skimmed the "making of" book and have nothing to add to our already impressive collective knowledge.

@Early Morning Writer
I just might. I get out to California about once a year or two. Gamed once at Great Escape Games last time I was there, some kind of Conan skirmish IIRC.

That's the problem when a hardcore historical gamer that likes to research does a game based on a movie.

Did the first run of my Magnificent 7 game last weekend. Here is the village using several MBA Spanish Main buildings as stand ins until I get some more adobe building built.

As for the game 44 banditos (using Boers as stand ins) rode in on one end and basically rolled up the flank. The 7 died along with almost all 21 peasants, taking about 21 Banditos with them. The two major problems were the 7 running out of ammo and also being taken out by lucky kill shots. We made a few modifications to the rules/odds that should make it more balanced in time for our local convention next month.
In this shot the Banditos are moving through the cemetery at top center, where Vin was the first 7 to go down, and the cantina at bottom right, where Harry Luck bought the farm.
Bernardo O'Reilly, with his boys, is on the roof of the marketplace (Arched Building) and picked off the group of Banditos that tried to ride through the middle of the town.

Peasant attacks a pinned Bandito. If a peasant takes out a bandito in hand to hand, he can take his gun and become armed.

Britt lies dead from a head shot on the left, while banditos close in on Lee, in the house on the right, the final of the 7 to die.

Nice photos! I have the same buildings and they do come in very handy from Mexico to Spain to the Caribbean. I am curious why you chose the scenario you did, as it neither represents the initial gunfight when the bandits ride into town nor the final fight when the bandits are on foot unless they are fleeing. In the former fight, the 7 and the villagers enjoy the advantages of surprise and position. In the latter fight the bandits are already in the town. In any case, due to shear numbers, it's a tough fight for the 7. I also found that since the majority of my bandits were rifle armed and the 7 were mainly pistol armed the bandits were able to take out the 7 with long range fire.

Nick,
The scenario is based on the initial entry of the banditos riding into the village when the 7 are in position, however the bandito players obviously already know that the villagers have hired the 7 (In this game Britt missed his long range pistol shot and one of the scouts got away to warn Calvera). I wanted the 7 to be able to fight 40 banditos, so we modified the rules to reflect the movie in the following ways:

We based the figures on skill as opposed to weapon. It also simplifies things for convention games so you are not wasting time looking at the figures trying to figure out what weapon(s) it has.

The 7 all roll d12's, use the rifle ranges, get 1 extra card to choose from, and may use one extra shot action per turn.

The bandits use d10, pistol ranges, and except for the leaders (about 4) only take one wound. They are also in groups of 4-5 per card. The bandito leaders, one for each player, move on their own card and get the three wounds.

The villagers use d8, pistol ranges, only take one wound and are in groups of 3-4 per card. Only one in each group starts with a ranged weapon (rifle or pistol). If a villager takes out a bandito in hand to hand combat then he is replaced with a rifle armed figure (due to poor skill they still always use pistol ranges and d8 when shooting with natural 8's as an automatic hit within range so they still have a chance).

In the case of the bandito and villager groups only one of the figures in the group gets to use the special ability from the card.

The average bandito and villager is out of action quicker than the more important and skilled 7 or bandito leaders. The rational is that if they are slightly injured they are more likely to stop fighting. When the group gets down to the last figure it runs away. These are reflections of the lower morale of the villagers and average banditos. We also changed the kill to just 2 wounds to keep the 7 from dying off by lucky shots.

By using these modifications, it forces the banditos to close in to engage or else the 7 will just pick them off with their better accuracy. It also gives the villagers the chance to run out and beat up on a bandito and steal his weapon after a 7 has knocked him down, but not taken him out, with fire.

Each of the 7 has a group of 3-4 villagers in support and each of the 4 bandito players gets a leader and 2 groups of 4-5 banditos. This can support up to 11 players easily with MAG7 players getting 2-3 characters and supporting villagers each for smaller numbers of players. Even with 75 figures (the 7, 28 villagers, and 40 banditos) on the table the game can be played in about 4 hours.

wisercj, I like your mods and will try them out next time I run a Mag 7 game. Thanks!

Nick,
Hope they work out for you. We will try it out with the additional mods in a few weeks. Giving the 7 an extra card and a free additional shot, a few more villagers, and not allowing the Banditos to come on en mass should give the 7 a fighting chance.
You will have to post some pics of your game when you get a chance.
Now it's back to work on the village and painting Banditos.
Regards,
Conrad

Finished my layout for the Magnificent 7 village:

And the view from above since this is the Village Map thread.

Game will be next weekend. Just have to finish the Banditos!

Oh no, the village is under attack!

The Magnificent 7 are no match for Calvera Cat.

Great photos! Have to get started on my project for this.

Yes you do, hope to see it at enfilade!

Guys, check out this movie art I found:

link

It's not a photo, of course, but it's pretty darn close.

Dan
PS. It might not be as accurate as some of these:
flic.kr/p/Lqwu5C
link
link

Does anyone have plans to make a 15mm set of the Seven?

Or does anyone have suggestions on which specific sets have appropriate stand-ins for Yul Brynner and each of the Seven?

Dan