Spring Blog Con part 3. "The Perils of Budgie Ray"- continued

We left our hero towing Budgie in his wake as he took his spurs to his mount heading across town for the train which was whistling it's imminent departure.




Loki and Kev were working their way into town covering either side of the street. Loki could not resist pushing open the gates to the stock pen ...was he looking to cause bovine mayhem perhaps..

At this point Phil's Gambler who had been in the Cattlemens cheating and boozing his way to a small fortune emerged to see what the gun fire in town was all about.

He spied the troublemaker Loki complete with rope in hand who threw a lassoo around him, but before it was pulled tight he drew his pistols and fired, winging Loki in the head and knocking him down.




Kev then had the next actions moving around behind the Gambler who on hearing the click of gun spun around , but the bullets missed. He levelled his shotgun and fired which hit Kev knocking him out. However it also inflicted a fatal head wound on one of the girls who was at the entrance of the hotel!
He quickly reloaded.




Loki was back on his feet, looking for trouble , just as poor Mr Wu ran down the side street trying to get out of the way.... Can you tell what is coming....
The Gambler turned and blasted away.. Hitting Loki and Mr Wu... Down they went..

Stumpy wanted to save the poor Budgie and take him into town custody , levelled his shotgun.. But actually thought twice about pulling the trigger as the Mounties terrifying gaze looked back at him...he decided to shoot it out with Lee instead...and after missing Lee decided to just knock the old guy out with pistol! Sheriff Roundwood was very conspicuous in his absence...there were rumours about some large pay off from the Mountie.




The Pinkertons had a pot shot or 3 at the Mountie , inflicting a couple of potentially serious hits, which his legendary toughness reduced to mere flesh wounds , which he shrugged off. They had also moved to get on the train.




Captain Campbell raced the horse over the railway lines... Unfortunately the rope towing budgie got caught on a sleeper (there goes that fumble role!) bringing him to the floor..but he had enough spare actions to compose himself and drag the almost unconscious Budgie to the train ..just as it set off from town.

This left the Mountie to fight the two Pinkertons on the caboose...the result one dead and one knocked out..who he then kicked off the train...the 3rd one who was further up the train then thought better of it and jumped off the train.




Budgie Ray would be returning to the Great White North after all! My that Mountie was tough.

Phew it was an action packed game alright with some rare card interactions. The Pinkertons were really unlucky in the end as they should have overwhelmed the Mountie.. But they kept missing when shooting!

I really enjoyed umpiring this one. Also having a lot of players gives some different problems which I want to play with for the next large action game.

There had been a lot of laughter, which is a sign of good game. It was great to see the guys enjoying themselves.

Spring Blog Con part 2 "The perils of Budgie Ray"

We were able to get a cowboy game in during the Blog Con day. So with apologies for those this not up to speed on the "in jokes" here is the set up.

Loki ... Leader of the outlaw gang .. And brother to the captured ner do well "Budgie Ray" . Loki has rope skills, is a crack shot and lightning fast
Kev , the second member of the gang who was "lucky"
Lee , the 3rd member of the rescuers who had explosive skills ... But not actually any TNT!

There were 3 Pinkertons , one Shootist and two Gunmen played by Ian and Stephen.

The town law were made up of Shootist Sheriff Roundwood picked up by Sidney. The shotgun wielding Stumpy played by Gary A -who insisted any likeness between him and his character were purely coincidence. This time there was also a certain high quality Gambler who was friends with the Sheriff in town who was picked up by Phil.

Then we have our "hero" Captain Campbell who was in town to pick up that legendary sandbagger "Budgie Ray" and take him to the Great White North. Budgie Ray had been brought into town by the Man With No Man who found him engaged in dubious practices with a badger..the intelligence for his whereabouts being supplied by O'Irish.

Captain Campbell would have to get his charge across town avoiding his would be rescuers, also the Pinkertons who had been sent to apprehend Budgie by the "Badger Defence League".

This gave me 9 players to keep in check! It was going to be fun.







Given that Budgie would be looking for the first opportunity to abscond and run for the hills , the Mounties opening move of throwing him from the first floor balcony and missing the water trough (deliberately on purpose.. allegedly )leaving him stunned and tweeting would see him be more compliant!

The Mountie landed on his feet next to him -Maybe they don't have stairs in Canada - he took a rope from his horse and hog tied his prisoner attaching the other end of the rope to the pommel of his saddle.. Budgie was going wherever the horse went.







Sheriff Roundwood saw one of the outlaw gang from the jail , and shouted at him to drop his weapon .. Lee did not comply fast enough and the Sheriiff let fly scaring Lee into dropping it and high tailing it around the building.







Stumpy hearing rifle fire from the jail moved up behind the wagon and readied his shotgun.

The Pinkertons were down on the train platform and were about to spread out







Loki and Kev were loitering down by the stock pens.

What would happen next.