Tabletop CP: What a Cowboy! Learnin' Game

[@johnsavage3584]

I should also add a comment about Brawlin’ as the mechanics are a bit different to what you might normally see in a wargame. The first thing to recognise was I wanted a game about gunfights. We all know the phrase about bringing a knife to a gunfight but I’ve played Western games where actually the most effective weapon was a knife. I didn’t want this. So shoot dice effectively become hit dice. You get 1 attack dice for each 4 or 5 you have rolled and 2 attack dice for each 6 (Aces High because, well rolling 6s is good and should be rewarded). So the Action Dice roll represents how “up for a fight” your characters is at that moment. Actually getting people to run into a fight (except for certain individuals) is usually quite hard. There’s usually lots of posturing and psyching up. You might want your character to charge (because there is no danger to you as the player) but to the character this is literally a potential life or death decision. Remember also that better quality characters can change dice so can be more effective in a fight but it’s not guaranteed. Also if you’ve lost dice you’ll be less effective (either because your shocked or physically wounded). Again perfectly sensible and exactly what you would expect. Defending is different. The number of defence dice is fixed and depends on your quality and how many dice you have available (your health). You don’t have to psyche yourself up to defend yourself, you’ll just do it. Having said all that close combat weapons can help and there are skills you’ll need to help you in Brawlin. So you could end up with a character that is ready and willing (and effective) in Brawlin. But these will be the exception rather than the rule. Generally unless you have a great dice roll (lots of shoot or ideally Aces High Dice) your opponent is wounded (less defence dice) or you have a particular set of skills (swordsman anyone?) it is much more sensible to stand off and shoot. Remember the classic scene in Raiders of the Lost Arc where Indie shoots the swordsman? After all, don’t bring a knife to a gunfight!

[@jamesmilholen9444]

Quality intro game. Plenty of action. Looking forward to seeing more of these as they go along :) Its certainly got me interested in a cowboy game down the road

[@spaztekwarrior]

This looked fun! I play Fistful of Lead :) Nice mat and terrain :)

[@davidnandrin8825]

Great battle report ! Seems like a really nice game , loved the action !!! Keep up the good stuff and thanks ! 🤠

[@geraldeade391]

Great video, loving the humour, interesting game, I like the card system determining who goes and the dice determining what moves etc you can do.

[@kevincarter9084]

Scenery looks great❤

[@paulhayes7860]

great game guys played a few times now love it

[@reecedignan8365]

Good game lads, definitely looks like it can be an interesting system and maybe seeing some bigger gangs/posses formed and set up with objectives to complete might help make it even more fervent and fun. Plus, looks like the game does supply for allowing a large range of freedom in semi-era of play. I can easily see a late western scene with a gang attacking a coach with repeaters, bolt actions and quality revolvers, while a police force runs in for the rescue. I could also see a very early western engagement too with maybe a gang of ex-Confederate infantrymen or raiders having went west to avoid prosecution, getting into a fight with maybe some western federal garrison troops. Their single shot Springfield rifled muskets and revolvers being the most quality they have. Or if cavaliers, could have them riding with mixed equipment: Shotguns, revolvers, single shot carbines, repeaters, Breech loaders, etc. Would also be interesting to see once your comfortable with the game, maybe setting up a campaign like your Spectre one. With us either following multiple gangs in a single territory fighting it out, or a single gang and their progression into stardom or infamy.

[@pauvela9526]

Thank you, Travis! You guys made me buy the rulebook and soon I'll be playing this game.

[@BattleBunkerHQ]

Great intro game, I enjoyed watching this one live 👍

[@BeardClipper]

I go away on holiday for a month and return to find I'm represented by a TRULY awesome beard!!! EPIC!! Now to watch the game and hope you don't get my killed ;)

[@BeardClipper]

Oooof I scraped through!!! Thanks for not killing me :D great game!!!

[@nirnman]

An enjoyable edited learning game.I think you forgot the "Force Morale" "Ride for the Hills" tests for a faction to either voluntarily or mandatorily leaves the game. I know you were only using two figures per side but the use of this mechanism would end the game quicker and allow for a possible reset in the same time period which quickly descended into who was going to last the longest. Again the choice of weapons caused it to slow because of no ammo effects repeating rifles allow for up to twelve rounds before needing to reload. The knack in this game was deciding how to use the action dice. do I reload before I run ran out or reload one-shot rifles and shotguns timely or even to change for a secondary weapon brawls are probably an action of last resort as you discovered.

[@StormofSteelWargaming]

Yehaaaaw!

[@ADHDlanguages]

Excuse me, but brits saying "yeehaw" is cultural appropriation 😂

[@simonnorburn3518]

@@ADHDlanguages Yaas; more of a brawl than a bout of fisticuffs. I suspect the colonials were drunk, as usual.

[@Sgtcat190]

Love you guys’ videos. Would love to see you guys try INX by Enemy Spotted Studios!

[@johnvint3122]

Watching your game and the Cowboy on the roof he would have needed a move dice to climb down the stairs/ ladder then if he had another move dice could use that move to exit the building

[@johnsavage3584]

Well spotted and quite correct

[@johnsavage3584]

Thanks for posting the video gents. Okay let me give you some thoughts here from a design point of view. The rules are absolutely meant to reflect reality. The Action Dice gives us a means to introduce an element of friction that reflects reality that doesn’t normally impact the players in their godlike view of the table. Let’s take an example. If I asked you to run 10 yards across the street in real life you could do this with little problem. Now imagine again in real life if I put 3 people across the street and they start shooting at anyone running across the street. I now ask you to run across the street. In reality you are probably going to say no, or at least think about it. There’s a whole risk/reward thing you have to run through in your head. When we put this onto the table there isn’t any physical risk to you as the player. So you can blindly run your character across the street. If he is killed well it’s not real life so the risk reward decision is skewed from reality. The Action Dice mechanic is away of reflecting reality. If you don’t roll any 1s your character doesn’t move. It’s not that he can’t move, simply that he decides to stay where he is as it is probably safer. All of a sudden you’ve lost your god like control over the character. Now if you are a higher level character you can change some of the dice so you have a better chance of doing what you want. It’s a great way of reflecting the ability of higher level characters to be more effective in pressure situations. Losing dice reflects the impact of shock (temporarily removing Action Dice) and actual damage (permanently losing dice). You can recover Shock (it costs you an Aces High Dice) and the balance between spending a 6 to do something (as was done in the game) and using the 6 to recover shock and get back to full functionality is an absolute key to the game. You have to manage your characters resources. Wounds are physical damage and as you would expect wounded characters are just less effective. Again one of the key decisions (especially in the campaign) is when to cut & run. Once your characters are down to a couple of dice they aren’t very effective (as you would expect). To keep them fighting is a little bit like being the Black Knight in Monty Python and the Holy Grail (google it if this reference goes over your head). There is a Ride or Die mechanic to force a morale check but often it makes sense to know when you are beaten and get out of Dodge before your whole gang is killed (potentially permanently). I hope this gives an insight into some of the design decisions in the game. There are actually a lot of decisions other than just running and shooting and as you play more I think you will find that the game can be very tactical. We certainly did in play testing. Having said that looked like you were having fun with plenty of laughs and banter. That’s exactly what I was aiming for when writing the rules.

[@tabletopcp]

Awesome! Great insight John. Great to hear the ideas behind the mechanics. 🍻

[@lesliebeilby-tipping6854]

Sounds like in your round up you started to realise how to play the game!!

[@howardeverton2847]

Awesome game. Top Tube entertainment ☺️

[@andersolsen3237]

Hilarious window action *click click*🤣

[@michaelgriffin135]

Just call a 6 wild. Plus you guys didn't use very many of your 6s to recover shock. Tactically maybe using 1s to run away at some points would have been helpful. Otherwise great job guys. 👍

[@johnsavage3584]

Management of Shock is absolutely key to staying in the fight and being effective for longer!

[@johnvint3122]

Also you did not do any Ride or Die Tests at the end of the Turn, the info is on Page 9

[@MarshallGrunwell]

Law enforcement 101: Never step between two people fighting :D

[@Josh.Prynne]

Looks great dude, where are the minis from?

[@tabletopcp]

Mostly from Knuckleduster but some are from Great Escape Games.

[@Outlawtex]

I dont know but i saw if your shock dice is more than your action dice hes taken out of of the game

[@johnsavage3584]

You are out once you have no more Action Dice, either lost permanently or to Shock. At that point if you have lost 3 or more Action Dice permanently you are badly wounded and have to take a recovery roll after the game. If you have lost more dice to Shock the character has simply lost his bottle and fled.

[@Outlawtex]

@@johnsavage3584 that makes sense thanks for the input

[@stump182]

Rules lawyer enters the chat 44:09 😀

[@tinywargamer3863]

after rewathing this one (due to my wargaming group urge to have some coop campaign focused game) I have to say that my lack of faith in this game has been confirmed due to a situation @20:49... I mean c'mon!!! It's totally unrealistic and strange thing not be able to do anything the entire turn....

[@tabletopcp]

Yes. That is an issue with the “what a…” system in general. Too much randomness.

[@tinywargamer3863]

A game that's heavy on the dice. I don't think I like the mechanic, that rely so much on a favor of the DICEGOD...

[@tabletopcp]

I agree. The “What a…” system is not my favorite.

[@tajmahalfred]

My grandma didn't like the name either

[@deadwolf2978]

Ohh.. if you have situations where you can't do anything even with a good roll, then this game is flawed.

[@StormofSteelWargaming]

If you can't do anything with it, then it's not a good roll.

[@nirnman]

or you haven't been canny enough in the use of your Action dice and probably should have Ridden for the Hills

[@deadwolf2978]

@Storm of Steel Wargaming i believe that player should always have an ability to do something, even with a bad roll.

[@deadwolf2978]

@@nirnman may be, but how can you escape if your dice prevent you from doing it?

[@StormofSteelWargaming]

@deadwolf2978 it doesn't reflect reality though. But whatever.