The Cicadas were singing as Ruffen Ready the notorious outlaw was being given his last meal before being led out of the jailhouse and towards the scaffold…
Twelve curious bystandsers had gathered around with the sole intention of telling whoever would listen that “they had been there when…”
And a bunch of tough lawmen in the guise of the Lone Stars had been given the task to make sure that justice was done this day by the local magistrate.

As the sun started to rise, a small dust cloud on the outskirts of town indicated the approach of a small group of men – it was Ruffen’s friends – outlaws to a man – not really there to save him, more to make sure he went quietly and didn’t spill the means on their latest caper.

Creeping up to the edge of town, the outlaws saw that Ruffen had already been put onto the scaffold and the Preacher was reading from his bible, but luckily the trapdoor hadn’t been opened and Ruffen was still in one piece.
In a last-ditch attempt to save Ruffen, they ran through the archway to the town only to come up short, back off and finally run away after a brief but bloody disagreement with the Lone Stars.

The Preacher finished his reading, the trap was pulled and another outlaw went to meet his maker.

——————

The “Hang ’em High” scenario started well with Kathy swarming her Posse through the outskirts of town and up to the town limits. At the same time my Texas Rangers had taken up position around the main square with the two Deputies being given roof-top positions to get a good field of fire.

Up to three of the townsfolk could be moved per turn by whoever got the drop, so Kathy managed to constantly manouver them very well to prevent me shooting at her guys while her guys were still able to shoot at mine.

As the outlaws came through the gateway and over the fence, bullets started to fly with very little effect – we both had some fairly shocking rolls, so I decided to try and avoid shooting (there were too many civilians in the way anyhow) and opted for a more up close and personal attack – hand-to-hand combat.
Charging in, the Rangers managed to drop two of the outlaws in the first turn of combat while the remainder of the outlaws were trying to work their way round the town square using civilians to shield them from any potential shots that the Rangers could make.
A second turn of combat saw another outlaw go down and shortly after that Kathy failed her “head for the hills” forcing her to leave Ruffen to his fate.

Kathy played very well, but was hampered by the fact that she only had six men who could make the raid due to a very unfortunate previous game, whereas the Rangers started with eight men who were better armed, better shots and slightly tougher.
Still, no-one died in the post-game injury rolls and she managed to scrape together enough cash to pursuade two more men to join her posse, so despite loosing Ruffen, it did turn out to be a good day for the Outlaws.

Simon