Fistful of Lead: Horse and Musket at Recruits Part Two

Game Three started right after lunch on Saturday. In typical Fistful of Lead fashion, a "blood alley" formed in a contested and congested area. In fact, two blood alleys formed consistently in all four games: one was along the wall behind the main house, and the second was at the dogtrot barn, which often saw two of the warbands converge on it. This game saw the main house and the barn burned, with colonists fleeing the burning buildings only to be cut down outside - or in the case of 4 of them - captured. Game Three goes to the Indians.

Game Four fired up after dinner, and I was too tired to run the game AND take photos. This game was interesting in that it featured several repeat players from earlier games, mostly taking the "other side" to see how well they could do having seen the situation already. Just like the earlier games, the Indians won.

As The Baron noted in his post, there was a lot of whooping and hollering at our table during our games. Everyone had fun, and said so, whether winning or losing. Why do I think the games were so much fun, especially as the results were so lopsided? 

Fistful of Lead is a fun set of rules. Cinematic in feel, but not unrealistic. It allows for dramatic moments, like an unlikely bow shot through a barn window with the slimmest chance of success. The Horse and Musket variant adds the "reload" action and another decision point to the game, and increases the potential for hand-to-hand combat. Tense and dramatic!

The scenario was fun, too, but not quite in the way I anticipated. I expected that play would prove it to be at least nominally balanced; but play proved it to be unbalanced, and I think that was part of the fun! The Indian players all felt a great sense of accomplishment in burning the settlement, and the militia players all engaged in great heroics attempting to save it in the face of great odds. Readers: if you played in one of these games at Recruits I would like to hear what you think of this observation.

See ya at Recruits next year!