Last Bullet Standing - A Long Range Duel in the Desert

Earlier this year I played a simplified verison of Donald Featherstone's/ Gerard Du Gre's 'Lunge, Cut and Stop Thrust dueling game. The game it self is very fast to learn and easy to play, and was further simplified by Kaptain Kobold by using D6s instead of cards. This game is originally designed as a skirmish hand to hand combat and (sword) dueling game, but I wanted to see if it could be adopted to ranged battle as well? 

The Rules

The way Kaptain Kobold simplified the original rules by resolving the battle with a single d6  instead of cards, it looks direct transferable to ranged battle.  -At least for a simple, pretty static, gunfight between a couple of combatants. I feels it automatically gives it itself as a 'hit' is a 'hit'.

Number of Combat Points (CP) can be modified by giving extra CPs for body armour, long range, being in cover, (and perhaps even extra CP for a hard cover), and extra CP can be added as 'Hero Points'. 

The Scenario 

I needed to create a plausible scenario for this game which included the elements of 2 combatants with firearms fighting each other with multiple shots in a pretty static 'duel'. A classic Old West shoot out came to my mind. Since the firefight was to be very static and last for several shots I envisioned a kind of 'Ambush' situation. Perhaps like the classic 'Western scene' where one Cowboy gets into a 'fortified' position in a rocky high ground fighting off any followers coming from the terrain below him. After giving this loosely 'scenario' a closer thought, I think most such scenes I've seen in western movies includes a number of gunfighters on both sides, not only one vs. one. -Well, except for one, but there 'the follower' in the lowlands are hit and killed immediately. -But what if the shooter hit the horse instead of the rider? Even if the shooter is very accurate, it's a long range shot...

Maybe some of you already have recognised and figured out what scene I had in mind? I've played 'scenes' from this movie before. In the intro to 'For a Few Dollars More' the opening scene shows a long, quiet shot of a vast, empty desert, punctuated only by the sound of wind. Suddenly, a distant figure appears on horseback, seemingly wandering alone. Without warning, a gunshot rings out, and the rider falls dead:

There has been many speculations and theories about who the shooter or rider is, and who does the humming. A lot could be written about this opening sequence, but Sergio Leone deliberately keeps the identities of both the shooter and the rider a mystery. Rather than identifying the individuals, Leone is making a broader statement: in this world, nameless men die without warning, and killers remain unseen. It’s not about who they are—it’s about what they represent. It immediately tells the audience that this is not a standard Hollywood Western (like they were at the time) - it's a gritty, violent, ruthless and unpredictable world where death is a constant companion.

But just what if; the shooter initially hit the horse instead of the rider? The resulting engagement would likely turn into a long-range, relatively static potshot exchange or duel:

Forces:

• The Shooter (Attacker): In the movie you can clearly hear the shooter loads a repeater rifle, so he'll be armed with a Winchester. He's in hard cover so he'll get a CP of 6.

• The Rider (Defender): We don't know much about him, but if the rider should have any chance to return fire on such a long range he'll need to use a rifle as well. He's in the open, but seeks cover behind his dead horse and will have a CP of 5.

Mission:

• For both; Take out the opponent. 

Preparing the game

You don't need much to play this game. I already had a couple of 'Cowboys', which are 54mm-ish painted Airfix knock-offs, but to play the suggested scenario I needed a dead horse to set the scene and act as a 'cover' for the 'Rider'. As I didn't have any dead horse in model, I 3D-printed one:

The Game

Time:    10 minutes with taking photos etc. An average game takes about 3 minutes.

Turns:    8. Average about 11 turns. 

Win:      Like the movie I based this scenario upon; the attacker hiding among the cliffs.

Without warning, a gunshot rings out and the horse falls dead. The rider immediately seeks cover behind it and grabs his rifle from the saddle so he can return fire and defend himself:

The rider spots his attacker in high ground in cover behind some rocks:

Just killing the horse with his first shot, the attacker fires again:

...-and misses. The rider return fire...

...-And hits.

The gunmen exchanges fire for several minutes, slowly reducing each other's health:

The firefight goes on until the rider is critically low on health...

...and the attacker finally gives the rider 'The Coup De Grace':

To keep it in the spirit of Sergio Leone it's still mysterious who actually won the duel...

- was it a 'Good Guy' or was it a 'Bad Guy'? 

Conclusion

I had a great time playing this very simple set up. To get the most out of it I put on the 'For a Few Dollars More' main title to create some background ambiance, and used a gun-sound app on my mobile when doing the shooting each turn. Prone or kneeling  miniatures would have looked better in this static game, and I'd use it if had had some.

I think this adaption of the D6-version of 'Lunge Cut and Stop Thrust' Dueling game for ranged battle will work just great for a small shootouts if you're just looking for something quick to set up and play  SOLO on the go.

If you want to add just a little more to the duel than these rules, I think my entry to the 2024 Wargame in a Matchbox Challenge might be an option, as they're still just a simple duel, but allows for some movement, covers and 'Hero points'.

Blog PostScript 

This is what ChatGPT suggested when asked to make a playset based upon these rules. I'm not sure how much saleable such a set would be as popularity and political correctness has dropped on Cowboys & Indians Native Americans, and the market is nothing like it used to be back in the 70ies. Nice playset though.

Arming my G-scale German Heeresfeldbahn train - An easy model you can build

When participating at garden railway running sessions at fellow MRC member's garden railways, I often bring my G-scale WW2 German Heeresfeldbahn military narrow gauge train and run it on unsecure lines and into 'unknown territories'. -unaware of any potential danger of saboteurs or partisan actions. It is a military train after all, so I decided to give it some light protection against ambushes or railway sabotage. It's only for a small narrow gauge train, so nothing big or complex, just perhaps a small armed wagon in front of the locomotive?

I haven't seen any periodic photos of small machine gun trolleys or armed railway cars used by the German Wehrmacht on their narrow gauge lines during WW2 (just standard gauge ones), so this is just some modeler's licence and a product by my imagination. Hopefully it's not too improbable.

I did't want a too large armed wagon in front of my small narrow gauge locomotive, as I think that would make the engine seems small, so I decided to try one of the smallest I got by LGB:

Even if the wagon was lightly weathered, I decided to give it a more heavy weathering depicting a surplus wagon that would be available for this kind of service:

For the German soldiers I sourced some free files at Thingiverse I could 3D-print. They were actually meant for 28mm Bolt Action, so by scaling them up to 1:19th scale they looked a bit more chunkier and 'over-sized' (like many wargaming miniatures often do). Even when 'down scaling' them a little bit more to the right height for sitting in this scale, they still looked oversized due to their larger 'wargame proportions'. Perhaps too much bier and würst? For instance the ammunition for the machine gun looks like it's 0.50 ammo for a M2 Browning machine gun instead of 7,92mm. I don't actually mind that much since I'm not into this scale because it's a 'fine scale'.

The 3D-file comes with multiple machine guns, but I went for the MG42, as I have a soft spot for this weapon after being a main instructor on the NATO equivalent; MG3.

After carefully removing the supports:

This is eventually what the equipage would look like (after some adjustments):

But first some imperfections and layer lines needed to be filled and smoothed on the 3D-printed figures with Miliput and modelling paste:

To make the surface even smoother they were given a couple of coats of car spray filler:

Then they were primed:

And painted:

Finally they were given a light brown- and black wash and lightly drybrushed:

I think they looks less 3D-printed now. I also think the soldiers looked a little bit unprotected on the flat wagon, so I decided to give them a couple of sandbags for protection too. The sandbags them selves were again sourced from a free file on Thingiverse, rescaled to 1:19th scale and 3D-printed. To remove the layerlines and replicate fabric I decided to drape them with tissue paper soaked in diluted white/wood glue:

Finally it was time to tie everything together and give the whole thing a coat of mat varnish. Despite being 3D-printed the surface of the soldiers was so smooth that it was really challenging to get it as flat as I wanted.

It seems like they're ready for some action. Coincidentally a member in our model railway club invited to a running-session in his garden instead of going to the club one afternoon/evening due to very nice weather, so I decided to take them for a day out:

It was a long and heavy rake of wagons the locomotive was hauling this afternoon, and about it limitations coming to the gradients:

All in all this has been a fun little project thus taking a little longer time than expected. Thank you for reading! 

"Lunge, Cut and Stop Thrust" Dueling Game

When trying the "Lunge, Cut and Stop Thrust" dueling game for the very first time, this is how I eventually envisioned  the game. The image was generated by ChatGPT 

"Lunge, Cut and Stop Thrust" Dueling game by Gerard Du Gre must be one of the easiest and most fast playing wargames ever made. -Or is perhaps more like a dueling game. And you don't need more than a couple of miniatures to play it either. Actually you need so little and the rules are so short, that this was actually a game I considered for the 'Wargame in a Wee Matchbox Challenge'. Finally I didn't, but my own entry to the challenge just ended up as a kind of dueling game as well.

This game was brought to my knowledge thorough some excellent blogger posts by Mark at The Man of Tin Blog. By following his links to his earlier blogger posts I ended up at Alan's blog The Duchy of Tredgardland, where Kaptain Kobold suggested how to play "Lunge, Cut and Stop Thrust" with dice (D6) instead of cards in the comment section. All these blogger posts really aroused my interests to try this game myself.

I had no intention to use a lot of time or effort to make a lot of different attack- and defense-cards to just to try out such a a small and simple game, but Kaptain Kobold's suggestion to play it with a D6 was so simple that it could be summarized and captured in a single photo by Mark at his blog. -So finally trying out this new (to me) game became a no-brainer to me! I used the rules as provided in Mark's photo:

Photo by Mark at The Man of Tin, which actually sums up the whole game. Actually it was this photo that gave me the final push to try this game my self.

Preparing the game

Even if Mark suggests a lot of different suitable miniatures and scenarios for such a small game on his blog, I didn't find any usable miniatures at home for playing this as mine are too modern and none of them are armed with swords or sabres. I was at my local toy shop considering to buy some Playmobil Romans or Pirates for this, but the selection was poor and I thought they were a bit pricey as well. So I decided to simply try to 3D-print a couple of miniatures in 54mm for this test game instead:

I also 3D-printed some suitable broken columns as 'periodic terrain' just to set the scene:

Since I printed these in white plastic, I didn't care to paint them, so I just gave them a 'Black Wash' instead.

The scenario

I've arranged this duel as a Roman Gladiator Fight. 

Similar opponents with same weapons, skills and armour getting similar Combat Points to make it easy and balanced. I settled for 5 Combat Points each as suggested by Mark. 

Forces: 

• Attacker: Magnumius the Roman Legionnaire:

• Defender: Polulus the Murmillo Gladiator:

Mission:

• For both combatants; To win the Gladiator Match by killing their opponent.

The Game

Time:    6 minutes (when taking photos etc.) An average game takes 2-3 minutes.

Turns:   8

Result:  Victory to Polulus the Murmillo Gladiator 

The Gladiator match is about to begin:

Turn 1: The Gladiator starts off really offensive:

Turn 2: And the Gladiator keeps on his offensive fighting:

Turn 3: The Legionnaire makes a successful counter attack: 

Turn 4: It looks like the fighters are about getting exhausted and tired now and none of them scores a hit:

Turn 5: The Legionnaire makes a successful hit again: 

Turn 6: The Gladiator regain the initiative:

Turn 7: And keeps aggressively pushing:

Turn 8: Until he finally gives the Legionnaire 'The Coup De Grace'. The audience is cheering:

Pros

• This is a very easy and fast playing wargame
• You won't need more than 2 miniatures for a game, but you could add some few more if you like a more intensive and very small skirmish game.
• This game works well for SOLO-playing.
• This can be a very interesting way or mechanics to resolve close combat in other wargames too. -And you can vary different number of Combat Points for your opponents regarding how well protected with different type of armour. 

Cons

• There is not much decision making regarding tactics in such a simple wargame. 

Conclusion

I would like to thanks Mark and Alan for bringing this game to attention on their  blogs and Kaptain Kobold for finding a way to play an easy game even easier. It made me certainly want to try a game I else wouldn't have tried. This was also my first ancient wargame.

I made some optional rules so the rules also can be used for fighters with different armour (and the ability to take more damage), and allowing for some movement as well.

-And if you haven't tried this game yet, I highly recommend you to do so for a an easy, free, fast playing fun game!

You don't need much to play this game, and is an ideal game to play if you're in a hurry and don't have time for any complicated setups or long games.

Blog PostScript

At the time of posting this 'imaginary action playsets' created by ChatGPT are trending on Facebook. This is how ChatGPT would envisage a playset of an instant wargame reviewed in this blogpost:

Another suggestion by ChatGPT:

It would be cool to see this thing in production and I think such playsets would be salable. What do you think?