"The Old West 1816-1900 Skirmish Wargames" Topic

Written by Steve Curtis, Mike Blake and Ian Colwill, copyright 1974.

Has anyone ever played this pioneer of old west wargames?

Yes, many moons ago

What was your impression, B?

It was one of the earliest skirmish (i.e. 1 figure is 1 man) wargames set in the Old West. A turn represents a very short period of time (IIRC about 6 seconds?) so it was a very detailed set of rules where you had to keep track of how much ammunition each figure had used and some weapons required a multi-turn loading and firing sequence. It was fun at the time because it was different to most other wargames of the time. We played it with 54mm toy cowboy figures.

Thank you, B.

Major B has described it well. There was a reaction system linked to a character's experience, and individual abilities with gun and hand-to-hand as well. A single modified percentage to hit translated into a kill, or a serious or light wound in a specific location. Loads of detail on different weapons. Pretty intense, but we played it a lot and knew most of the modifiers from memory.

Thanks Advocate, I need to try these rules.

Ground breaking.
I played it a lot in the 1970s.
Most modifiers in multiples of 5%

Very very slow.
But interesting

I think they did a second and simpler edition after the 1974 one.

martin

I used it as a reference source for Old West small arms. First I had heard of a Vulcan revolver (fired a minie ball with the powder packed into the base of the round making it into a tiny rocket – wasn't very successful).

Played in the same way as Major B, also with 54's (which I've still got).

We tried it using only a single, blue light-bulb for illumination – I think we were trying for hidden movement or fog-of-war or something. It was memorable, not least because I spent many, many turns building up plusses by aiming for a long time at a head poking up over a fence. My shot, when I took it, was a clean hit. Unfortunately I'd been duped because the hat had been taken of the miniature (a Swoppets), and placed in position to lure a foolish person. I was that foolish person. So, the fog-of-war worked and so did the rules, which I still have, along with the Colonial rules from the same stable.

DBDD

My group played it a few times, but a turn took too long so we took up "Boot Hill" instead which was a lot more fun & we could play 2 or 3 games in a session.

TSR's Boot Hill? Isn't that more of an RPG?

It is called a RPG but really the rules are mainly about doing a gunfight or brawl. They are the rules I use when doing gunfights.