Johnny Law

As our gangster campaign proceeds, public outrage grows.  That means that there will be a call for the City Police to intervene!  Fortunately, fresh off the painting table, here come the boys (and one lady!) in blue!

Cops with nightsticks, walking the beat.

These three have pulled their sidearms to investigate some suspicious activity. 

As things get more serious, they can call in support from colleagues armed with rifle and tommygun.

Back at the precinct, the sergeant supervises as old Mike the town drunk gets booked, while Matron keeps an eye on sweet-talkin' Sally.

The cops came with a fire hydrant and an old-timey police call box (notably different from the UK version favoured by time- and space- travelling timelords).

And here are a few shots against a lighter background.

A few comments.  I was going to paint the Matron to match Queen Latifah from Chicago, but that didn't end up happening.  

The police uniforms have red stripes on the trousers and red cap bands.  This is more of a Canadian police thing than American, but I like it as it gives a touch of colour to the otherwise monochrome uniforms.  Similarly, white shirts offer a better contrast than dark blue shirts!

Sally was inspired by Anita from West Side Story.  I didn't have the mauve required for Rita Morena's version in the 1961 movie, so instead I went with a yellow dress based on the 2021 version.

Wolf Cull

 I hosted a game at last week's last meeting of the Trumpeters for 2024.  I called it 'The Wolf Cull', with two of the players taking on the role of northern trappers, seeking to cull the wolves they held responsible for stripping their trap lines.  The other two players got to be the beasties of the woods who fought back against the trappers.  I must confess that I didn't put as much thought into the scenario as I should have.  It was (deliberately) biased towards the critters, so wasn't as much fun for the trappers.  My apologies to Craig and Walter, and thanks to them for being good sports!  And thanks also to Fletch and Legion who played the beasties.

Inspiration for the scenario came from a few sources.  The most recent Wargames Soldiers and Strategies has a beer and pretzels boar hunt game, with medieaval nobles on a boar hunt.  I considered just playing that, but the game seemed a bit too simple, even for me!  I was also eager to put my new beasties and critters on the table, so I looked to move the setting from Europe to the Yukon.  

Here's the setting, somewhere in the North.  A small beaver colony is present in a marsh beside the creek, and there are woods in each quadrant of the table.

A small pack of wolves are spotted in the woods, as a cute little bunny tries to remain inconspicuous.

Trapper Calamity Jane moves up and shoots one of the wolves,

And then the rest of the pack attacks and ravages her!

It was at this point that the trappers found out that the wolf pack included werewolves.

A sharpshooter trapper tried to shoot one of the werewolves, but ended up out of ammo at a crucial moment!

Meanwhile at the other end of the table, a big moose charged the other group of trappers.

And was then coldcocked, a la Mongo from Blazing Saddles, to the great amusement of all.

Wolves and werewolves battle the trappers.

Is this bear baiting?  Dog pack harasses a bear.

Bigfoot tentatively enters the fray but is discouraged (as per the shock marker), as the wolf pack battles the trappers.  The trappers managed to knock one of the werewolves out of the fight but were ultimately defeated.

Four shock markers and a wound marker on the bear as the dogs wear him down.

Having finished off the first group of trappers, the werewolves push to the other side of the table to challenge the other trappers.

Bigfoot stalks Beardie MacBeardface.

Wolves finish off the dog pack.  Beardie, finding himself the last trapper on the table, decides to exercise the better part of valour and retreats.

I was pretty careless in how I set up the scenario.  A few lessons to remember for next time will include:

- The trappers are stronger at shooting, while the critters work best in close combat.  However, with all the cover and also the fast movement, the trappers barely had a chance to get a shot off before getting swarmed.  I'll need to make sure there is at least a chance for the trappers to use their weapons.  For starters, there will need to be more open corridors between cover to allow the trappers to get a chance to shoot.  

- I'd like a better way for the critters to start out hidden. The trappers will need to find them, which allows for ambushes.  This contradicts the point I just made above about giving the trappers a chance to engage from a distance!  So I'll have to also figure out how to balance those ideas.  

- The trappers were really overpowered.  It would be better to have both groups of trappers together, to take on the single pack of werewolves, and then keep the fourth group (bigfoot, bear and moose) as a slightly random group that could show up to swing the balance one way or the other.

- I had an idea of including some leghold traps.  The idea would be that any figure (beast or trapper) moving near the trap marker (say, 3") would be "attacked". If the trap 'wins' the roll, it rolls to 'wound' with a -1.  No matter what, the figure is immobilised, and will have a shock or wound in addition depending on the wound roll.  Once immobilised, the figure can try to roll off against the trap each turn.  If the trap rolls higher, the figure remains immobile.  If the figure wins, it can then act as normal in the following turn. 

So I will give this some thought and hopefully get a chance to present an improved version of this scenario again before too long.