The Wild, Wild West….

A box full of Old West goodies….

….don’t take my word for it - check out the contents!

There it is in all its glory.

The very first Western gunfight games I took part in were back on the Isle of Sheppey during the early to mid 1970s. The rules we used were the Old West Skirmish Set by Messrs. Blake, Curtis and Colwill (I believe they were the worthies involved) and the scale was 54mm. For figures we used a variety of Timpo and Britains figures with a few conversions thrown in for good measure. I still wince at the memory of when my newly finished conversion - loosely based on the character of Manalito from the TV series The High Chaparall - lasted until the second game turn when he was shot and suffered a serious leg wound, thus effectively rendering him ‘hors de combat’ for he remainder of the game!

When I joined the Newham Wargames Club after moving to London there was still a healthy dose of Old West games being fought but the move to using Once Upon a Time in the West certainly dampened my enthusiasm. The rules seemed very complex and although there were some very nice touches I found them to be a little more complex than I would have preferred.

Fast forward to SEEMS and gunfights have been fought on numerous occasions using a variety of rules and with 28mm now being the preferred scale. 

I have mentioned in the blog wanting to tackle some skirmish level games and so when I saw the above starter set I was very tempted. Everything one needed to start gaming in the box - that seems to be the way of the world these days - and at an attractive price (£40).  Over the course of last weekend I finally succumbed and so the package arrived on Monday morning (first class service by Great Escape Games I have to say). I am really pleased with this, in fact so pleased that I order some additional figures and a copy of the campaign supplement which arrived this morning! I now have 21 x 28mm metal gunfighters of various sorts to paint, a blacksmiths shop to assemble (produced by 4Ground and it is a lovely model) and ideas for some Old West games in my head. 

The basic idea is that players have a gang of around 6 to 10 models and the game is card activated. Regardless of how the rules work - and they seem very ‘slick’ indeed - I also have A Fistful of Lead to use so I am well served as far as game systems are concerned.

The thing I am really looking forward to though is painting the figures - they are really lovely castings!

As far as buildings are concerned there is a bewildering variety to choose from at all levels of budget. I only need a few and to be honest I am very tempted to build them myself,

In the meantime though, I have to get a further order in to Warbases as I rather messed up the last one as I had forgotten to get a number of essential pieces for the remaining models.

Onwards and upwards though and so I shall make a point of catching up on some Westerns during my daily commute which starts on 5th July.