Rumbleslam Referees

Currently, the newest supplement and set of figures for TT Combat's Rumbleslam are the Referees. This supplement offers optional rules to include referees in your games. Referees is the second expansion for Rumbleslam, introducing two all new attacks, tripping and pinning. Use a trip attack to get your opponent onto the ground, then pin them to evict them from the ring! Referees are only in a Rumbleslam ring to monitor the match, not participate in it, but that doesn't stop most of them from interfering!

First up is the human referee who comes with two stat cards - Good Referee and Dirty Referee. In both cases his special ability is very similar. As a good ref if a friendly wrestler makes a No Class action or an action with the Dirty special rule, the ref can force the player to re-roll the Crowd dice. As a dirty ref if an enemy wrestler makes a No Class action or an action with the Dirty special rule, the ref can force the opponent to re-roll the Crowd dice. Note that this figure is not part of the Referees set - he was a limited edition figure that I was lucky enough to but earlier. His stat card can be downloaded from the Rumbleslam website.

The Goblin ref has identical stats to the Dirty ref with the addition of the Put the Boot In special ability. If the ref ends its activation in base contact with any wrestler with Knockdown counters, those wrestlers lose 2 STA.

Death is unique in that he has no stats other than Move 3. This is due to his Beyond Time Itself ability which means wrestlers cannot interact with Death in any way. Death may move through squares occupied by other wrestlers but may not end its activation in an occupied square. Its second ability is Dicing with Death. If Death ends its activation in base contact with any wrestlers, the controlling player must choose one. Both players roll 1G - these rolls cannot be re-rolled. If Death rolls higher, remove the opposing wrestler from the game. If the opposing wrestler wins, it gains +1 to its ATT, DEF, GRP and DEX until the end of of the game and cannot be chosen for this rule again.

The Dwarf referee is a good ref. His first ability is Got My Eye On You. Any wrestler within 2 squares of this ref is affected by No Class after the second identical action in its activation. His second ability is Keep It Clean. Any wrestler that attacks a wrestler with a Knockdown counter gains the DIRTY special rule for the attack.

Moving on is Jittery Ref, whose only ability is Crescent Moon. Every time he takes damage, roll a Crowd dice. On a Cheer result, replace the Jittery ref with Were-Ref. Note that once Jittery Ref transforms into Were-Ref he remains in that form for the rest of the game.

Were-Ref is a real brute with awesome stats. He has two abilities, the first of which is Full Moon. If Were-Ref ends its activation in base contact with any wrestlers, it will make a Brawl attack against each one. His second ability is Claws and Teeth, which means his Brawl attacks deal 2DMG.

Finally, is Big Ref, a female Ogre. She has only one ability - Break It Up. If Big Ref ends her activation in base contact with any wrestlers, she will attempt to Lift and Throw each one for 0AP. Any wrestlers Lifted must be Thrown as far as possible into an empty square but not on a turnbuckle. She has a Throw range of 5.

Referees are used in much the same way as any other wrestler and are always counted as their own team. Refs cannot be attacked as normal. They cannot gain any counters, but other special rules affect them as normal. The player that placed the first wrestler in the ring also places the referee as close to the centre of the ring as possible. A referee activates at the end of the round after all other wrestlers. Each player rolls 1G. The player that rolls higher controls the referee for that round. Alternatively, pick a third player to play as the ref all game.

This boxed set of six resin cast figures and rules cost £30.00 from the TT Combat webstore. I do like these figures and whilst I haven't used them in a game yet, I am looking forward to trying them out.

Rumbleslam Free Agents 01

Over the Christmas holidays I added to my collection of Rumbleslam figures with a few new purchases from TT Combat. These three characters are all Free Agents, which means they are not affiliated to any one casino and thus can be hired by any team without affecting their important sponsorship bonuses.

 First up is Big Andy, who is clearly inspired by the dearly departed Andre the Giant.
"Contrary to his kind’s scary and angry nature, he has been known to play with his fans, carrying them on his shoulders as he walks about! Children love Andy and aspire to be as strong and tall as him when they grow up! But it is not wise to prod this slumbering titan. Even the calmest can lose their cool at times, but most don’t have punches that can break stone and arms thick as tree trunks!”
Big Andy is a great all-rounder superstar. He's not quite as dangerous as some (Trihorn, I'm looking at you), but his Dosh cost is barely higher than a regular Weight 3 wrestler. For that little bit more Dosh you get some incredible special abilities like Underhook Suplex and Body Slam which cause the all-powerful Knockdown. And because of his Walking Stupor passive ability, Big Andy is immune to the Dazed special rule, meaning he's very hard to take down.
Big Andy costs £8.00 and comes in three parts - body and two arms. I'm not a fan of the clear bases that come with these figures , so I have stuck all of my Rumbleslam figures on MDF bases.

In the centre of this trio is Granite. He could team up very well with the Golem from a Runic Thunder team (double the Stoneskin!), or could join in with The Cold Bloods for a little one-man flexibility that can hold his own without relying too heavily on the rest of the lizards for support. 
"This resilient superstar has it all: power, toughness, size, charisma... There are few wrestlers in the ring that can match a natural charm and presence which have enthralled and captivated the hearts of countless viewers. He's even been known to break the rules to deliver a better show for his adoring fans. If he sees that the crowd is getting bored, he'll perform a dirty move, or kick an opponent when they're down. Cheers or boos, he only wants to entertain, as that's the only way to fill the seats of an arena.
With one of the best Defence stats in the game, you know Granite is tough to deal with. Combined with his Stoneskin Passive Ability he's almost entirely impervious to Brawl attacks.
His real draw is the Face Heel Turn Passive Ability though. Granite can choose each turn to be a face or a heel, gaining a stat boost to go along with it. That gives him a lot of flexibility, starting off as a face and getting extra attack power, then finishing the match as a Heel when it's time to throw the opponent out. Or you can go for a Crowd Pleaser to have your cake an eat it too! If successful in wooing the crowd, Granite may choose both choices, gaining extra attack and grapple, and getting the HEEL special rule too! Now that's a walking mountain with flexibility!
Granite costs £10.00 and comes in five parts, body, arms and legs. His legs were incredibly fiddly to fix to his body and in the end I had to use Milliput to secure them in place.

Finally, is Ice. So what teams is he best in? The Raging Beasts and The Green Bruisers benefit a huge amount from his presence, as he counters their low defence stats.
"A slippery superstar possessing a cool demeanour, Ice has chilled the hearts of his opponents for many years. Men and women can't help but shiver as he makes his glacial way towards the stage where his powerful figure gleams in the limelight. Try as they might to grapple or lift his monstrous mass, his glassy exterior seldom allows opponents to find purchase, whilst his hard as steel hide deflects all but the strongest of blows."
What Ice may lack in grappling and dodging, he more than makes up for in Defence. And defending himself isn't all he's good for! His Glacial Skin Passive Ability makes him extremely hard to grapple, and The Wall is a Passive Ability that allows him to share his Defence value with any wrestler in base contact. Just think on that for a second. You can take high offensive wrestlers or great grapplers, then just hug up to Ice and be extremely difficult to take out.
Ice costs £10.00 and he comes in four parts - body, head and two arms. 

Six Gun Sound Scenario 01 - Gunfight at Stillwater

Finally I present my first ever Wild West batrep. This has been a long time in the coming but is something I have been dying to do ever since I started blogging. It has taken me a long time to build up my collection of Wild West buildings, figures and scenery in 28-32mm scale. Now my collection is of such a size that this batrep is possible. I am using the Six Gun Sound: Blaze of Glory rulebook with a few changes and additions from the upgraded, simpler and faster to play sequel. I much prefer the original version because it is so much more detailed.

This is my town set up, primarily using buildings from 4Ground. Now I know they are expensive, but to me the price is worth it because they are incredibly detailed and best of all, they come pre-painted. This is a huge time saver, however, I do paint the edges to blend in with the appropriate colour and to hide the dark wood. This is a tip I learnt from making my card buildings - always paint your edges.

The town of Stillwater, New Mexico is close to the border with Mexico. It has a main street running from south at the bottom of this photo to north at the top. A side street runs east and west.
As I said, most of my buildings are from 4Ground, but the one exception is the sheriff's office and jail, which I purchased from TT Combat. It came unpainted. Painting it wasn't too hard but it was time consuming. It did help me in that I used coloured card on the interior walls and I stuck black, fine-grade sandpaper on the roof.

This view of the crossroads shows from left to right at the top of the photo, a two-storey building under construction, the undertakers and across the street, the hardware store. A chuck wagon stands outside the store. This was a plastic construction kit in 1/48th scale that I bought many years ago. I don't know which company made it, but I do recall it was a Japanese company. Sadly, it did not come with horses.

At the western side of the main street is the only two-storey house in the town, with its family of four standing outside. Next to it is the land office and at the corner of the crossroads is Miss Kitty's Hotel, run by Kitty Trent. The name hotel is a bit misleading as the establishment is actually a brothel.

At the other side of the crossroads is Rogan's Bar, run by the strong-willed and tough miss Cathie Rogan. The upper floor is a bunkhouse for travellers looking for a cheap place to stay overnight. Next to the bar is a single-storey building under construction. The town is expanding northwards.

Here is a view up the side street. The two buildings at the bottom of the picture are single-storey houses for some of the town's residents. Some residents live and sleep in their own establishments.

In the north-east corner of the town is a small lake, from which the town got its name of Stillwater. This wonderful terrain piece came from Wargames Terrain Workshop, and its owner, Dave Stone, kindly painted it for me. I did ask him to and I was thrilled with the result. Dave added a rattlesnake to it, which is such a cool touch! It is only just visible at the top of the lake and directly below the topmost cactus. Note that my glasses are visible to the left of the house. I never noticed that they were there until after I'd posted this picture. Silly me!

The outdoor toilets are card models. The smaller one to the left was produced by World Works Games as part of their TLX Deadfall range. The larger one behind the sheriff's office was produced by Stoelzel's Structures as part of their Fatal Frontier set. I built two of each for my town.

And so we come to the scenario itself. I played a simple Gunfight encounter (p.35 of Blaze of Glory) and this was GF-2 where one side is outnumbered by the other. Obviously the encounter took place in town. The two female bandidas are after the four man outlaw gang after they shot and killed a good friend of theirs.

In this encounter the characters face off at the shortest effective range of all the characters involved. That was 8" for two of the outlaws. Although technically this is outlaws verses outlaws I called it outlaws verses bandidas, because the two females are Mexican outlaws known as bandidas. Note that males are known as bandidos.

The two females are from left to right Sara Sandoval and Maria Alvarez and both are Rep:5 Gunman Bandida Stars. Yes, I know this goes against the rules that a gang can only have one Star leader but I'm using a house rule that allows me two Stars as leaders. Sara has the Attributes Marksman, Lucky and Knife Fighter and she is armed with two Colt .45 Pistols and four Throwing Knives. Maria has the Attributes  Marksman, Lucky and Resilient and is armed with two Colt .45 Pistols. These figures are from my Shadows of Brimstone collection. Maria is appropriately enough, a Mexican Bandida and Sara is actually a Bounty Hunter figure.

The four outlaws whom Maria and Sara are after are a mixed bunch. From left to right are Benito Zedilla, a Rep:4 Gunman Bandido Grunt, Andrew Calder, a Rep:4 Gunman Bounty Hunter Grunt, Thomas McKay, a Rep:4 Gunman Gunslinger Star and leader of this gang, and "Wild Willy" Wilkes, a Rep:4 Cowboy Mountain Man Grunt. Zedilla is armed with a 12 Gauge Scattergun and has the Attributes Marksman and Dumbass. Calder is armed with two Colt .45 Pistols and has the Attributes Marksman and Initiative. McKay is armed with a Colt .45 Pistol and a .44 Derringer Pistol and has the Attributes Marksman, Nerves of Steel and Tough. Wilkes is armed with a Springfield .58 Rifle and a Bowie Knife and has the Attributes Brawler and Marksman. All four figures were produced by EM4 Miniatures.

Before the combat begins both sides must roll 2d6 verses their Sand scores for the Flinch test. Stars can choose their results, so Maria, Sara and McKay automatically passed 2d6 and could draw as normal. Zedilla and Calder also passed 2d6 but Wilkes only passed 1d6 and Flinched, giving him a -1d6 penalty on the Draw table.
Next, everyone rolled a number of d6 equal to their Rep for the Draw and applied appropriate modifiers. All Gunmen (that's everyone except Wilkes) got a +1d6 bonus and counted passes on 1 to 4 instead of 1 to 3 (this rule appears in the new version of Six Gun Sound and I liked it so much that I used it. Cowboys pass on rolls of 1 to 3 and Townsfolk on rolls of 1 to 2.). Zedilla suffered a -1d6 penalty for drawing a weapon that wasn't a pistol, derringer, knife or tomahawk. The same rule applied to Wilkes who decided to use his Rifle instead of his Knife. Finally, Wilkes suffered another -1d6 penalty for Flinching. Wilkes would only count passes on a 1 to 3 because he was a Cowboy, not a Gunman. So the results were as follows from highest to lowest -
Maria rolled 6d6 and passed 5.
Sara rolled 6d6 and passed 4.
Calder rolled rolled 5d6 and passed 3.
McKay rolled 5d6 and passed 2.
Wilkes rolled 2d6, and passed 2.
Zedilla rolled 3d6 and passed 1.

Shooting was carried out from highest result to lowest with ties being resolved simultaneously. When a character fires, it targets an opponent. That opponent must return fire. Each character must be targetted once before another character can be targetted twice. Maria went first and using her Marksman Attribute which allowed her to roll twice on the Ranged Combat table, counting the best result, but only for single shots. She fired once at Calder rolling a 5 and a 2. The 5 gave her a score of 10 because you add the dice roll to the character's Rep score. A 10 counted as a hit. Rolling on the Shooting Damage table, she rolled a 9, which was a hit in the gut. If hit by a Pistol, Carbine, Scattergun at 3", Shotgun at 6", Rifle, Buffalo Gun or Tomahawk the character was Out Of Fight, otherwise, the character rolled on the I'm Hit table. So Calder measured his length on the ground and took no further part in the fight.

Next up Sara fired once at McKay and like Maria, she used her Marksman Attribute. She rolled a 6 and a 3. The 6 gave her a score of 11 - a hit and she got to choose the result on the Shooting Damage table for rolling so high. She chose result 5 - hit in the head and Obviously Dead. With McKay being a Star I rolled for his Star Power Advantage to reduce the damage he'd taken. He rolled 4d6 for his Rep score and needed results of 1 to 3. Unfortunately for him I rolled high with rolls of 6, 6, 5 and 4 - all misses and the two 6s reduced his Star Power Rep to 2. I could have used his Cheating Death Advantage, which would have allowed him to be removed from the table to a place of safety, but that would have reduced his Rep by one level to Rep:3. I decided not to bother because for narrative purposes it made sense that he got killed.

Next to fire was Wilkes. He fired his Rifle, which could only target one character per turn. He shot at Sara and using his Marksman Attribute rolled a 3 and a 3, giving him scores of 7 and 7 - both a miss.
Zedilla fired his Scattergun at Maria and it could hit three targets but Zedilla concentrated all three shots on Maria. He rolled 5,4 and 1, giving him results of 9, 8 and 5. The 9 was a hit, the 8 misses because it was the second or higher target, and the 5 was an obvious miss. When firing a Scattergun you roll twice on the Shooting Damage table and count both results. He rolled a 4 and a 7 on the Shooting Damage table scoring a hit in the leg and a hit in the gun arm (if this had been at range 3" or less, Maria would have been Out Of Fight but the range was 8") and forcing Maria to roll twice on the I'm Hit table to see what the extent of her injuries are. She rolled 2d6 verses her Toughness of 5 and passed 2d6 twice, scoring a just a scratch result. She remained standing but must take the Being Shot At test.
At this point with everyone still standing and having fired, Reaction Tests had to be taken. I used the Reaction Test tables from the second edition rules. Stars can choose their result so Maria and Sara therefore chose to pass 2d6 verses their Rep and could Return Fire. Zedilla and Wilkes had to roll for Being Shot At and Man Down. They only rolled once but applied the worst result of the two tables. They both passed 2d6 giving them a Return Fire result on the Being Shot At table and a Carry On result on the Man Down table. Therefore they took the Carry On result, which allowed them to act as normal. And yes, this would allow them to Return Fire if they wanted to and more importantly, if they were able to, because Maria and Sara were about to Return Fire.

Maria shot first and once again used her Marksman Attribute to fire once at Zedilla. I should point out that Marksman is a Class Ability that all Gunmen characters receive. She rolled a 5 and a 2, giving her scores of 10 and 7. Obviously, she took the 10, which was a hit. Rolling on the Shooting Damage table she scored a 9. Zedilla was hit in the gut and was Out Of Fight.

Next it was Sara's turn to shoot. She used her Marksman Attribute to fire once at Wilkes with her Colt .45 Pistol. She rolled a 6 and a 1, giving her scores of 11 and 6. The 11 was an excellent result as it allowed her to choose the result on the Damage table without having to roll for it. She chose result 12 - hit in the chest and Obviously Dead.

And so the Gunfight at Stillwater came to a bloody end with the four outlaws lying dead and dying in the dirt. Maria and Sara had avenged their friend and they left town for further adventures. Neither increased in Reputation.
Conclusion
I played this game on a 4' by 3' table and I didn't think the buildings I had would fill the table. Individually they don't have big footprints but when put together, I was surprised at how much space they took up. I may have to get a 6' by 4' battle mat for future games as there are still a lot more buildings I want to buy, some of which have much bigger footprints, such as the 4Ground livery stable and corral or the 4Ground bank or the 4Ground Sassy Gal saloon. Playing this certainly gave me food for thought. I also want more scatter terrain, fences and saddled horses with and without riders.
As for the rules, I'm fortunate in being very familiar with the Two Hour Games rule systems. However, Six Gun Sound: Blaze of Glory is different to many other THW games in that it is incredibly detailed. For example, it has rules for hitting various body parts on humans and horses and more detailed rules for cover, horses and wagons. I love this extra level of detail and so I'm a huge fan of this game.
To be honest the game went pretty much the way I thought it would. Maria and Sara had the advantage of higher Reps but the outlaws had the advantage of numbers. Unfortunately for them, they didn't make it count. When Calder and McKay went down, Zedilla and Wilkes could have turned the tide but Wilkes missed and although Zedilla scored a hit on Maria, she shrugged it off. Bad news for them!
I know that this batrep was very rules heavy and that was deliberate. After all, this was my first Six Gun Sound batrep, and I'm sure most of you are unfamiliar with the rules. I would hope that future batreps would be more narrative driven with fewer references to the rules. Now that I have played my first Wild West batrep, you can expect a lot more.

Now then, in my last post I asked you to name the film in which Salma Hayek and Penelope Cruz played Sara Sandoval and Maria Alvarez respectively? The answer is Bandidas, a 2006 French/Mexican/American comedy/action Western film directed by Norwegian directors Joachim Ronning and Espen Sandberg and produced and written by Luc Besson. It tells the tale of two very different women in late 19th century Mexico who become a bank robbing duo in an effort to combat a ruthless enforcer terrorising their town. It is very much a popcorn movie, not to be taken seriously but it is a lot of fun and Salma and Penelope are so lovable and so beautiful you can't help but like them. Here's some photos of them.

Sara Sandoval and Maria Alvarez played by Salma Hayek and Penelope Cruz.

Maria teaches Sara how to shoot. She is not so good with a pistol but an expert at knife throwing.

Maria the feisty, poor peasant girl with her twin Colt .45 revolvers.

Sara, pampered daughter of a rich landowner, takes aim with her Colt.45 revolver.

A scene near the end of the film taken after a running battle on a train.

Maria and Sara looking so cute and adorable. Who couldn't fall in love with them?

Rumbleslam Deluxe 3D Arena

When I bought the boxed starter set for Rumbleslam by TT Combat I also bought the 3D arena kit made of MDF at the same time. The kit was very easy to build but rather complicated to paint. Still, I took my time and it ended up just as I wanted. There was just one problem and that was what to do with the ropes? I should say that the kit does not come with ropes, so you must come up with your own solution. I dismissed using thread, because I thought that would snap too easily. My brother suggested using plastic wire, which he had used to hang a spaceship model from his bedroom ceiling. This seemed like a good idea but proved very difficult to tie knots in so I abandoned this idea. After much thinking, I eventually hit upon a solution that really appealed to me - brass rods. I use these for the stands of my miniature spaceships. I thought if I glued them in place at each corner with superglue, that would give me a solid bond and ropes that would look good and be very sturdy. Once glued in place and left to dry overnight, I painted them in red, white and blue.

Here is my arena set up for a four team match between the four teams I currently own - the Green Bruisers (orcs and goblins), the Twisted Shadows (dark elves, shadowlings and gorgons), the Heavy Pounders (humans, halflings and ogres) and the Cryptborn Nightmares (undead and werewolves).

The ropes look really good, especially when painted. The arena itself came unpainted. I left the central area its natural wood colour and very carefully painted the surrounding area and the signs and logos. This was painstakingly slow work and required a very steady hand but I never once made a mistake.

In addition to the arena, you get four stands to position over the four corner turnbuckles to allow any of the larger based characters to stand on top of the turnbuckles. These are useful additions that come with the three legs each - the fourth leg being the turnbuckle itself, which they partially rest on. Here I show all four in use at the same time.

In the centre of the arena is the referee. This is a limited edition figure that I was lucky enough to purchase. Stats are provided for him as a good ref or as an evil ref. He is a bald-headed human. I'll showcase him in a later post so you can get a closer look at him.

In this particularly memorable match, the huge creatures all leapt from the turnbuckles to surround the ref and...

...each one grabbed a limb and played "wishbone" with him, pulling him apart! The troll got an arm and the body, the others just got a limb. So, victory for the Green Bruisers. Referees? Who needs them anyway?
The Rumbleslam Deluxe Ring is available for purchase from the TT Combat webstore for £14.95. With the exact measurements as the flat play mat, this ring makes an excellent upgrade to your Rumbleslam matches. Now that I have it made and painted I hope to showcase some Rumbleslam batreps in the near future.

Assorted Wild West Fauna 01

As you know I am slowly building up quite a collection of 28-32mm scale Old West figures, buildings and scenery. Whilst most of my figures are humans, I have also been adding various animals and birds that are appropriate for this genre. In this post I want to showcase some of them.

These three impressive looking bears are grizzly bears produced by Acheson Creations. These are part of the Primaeval Designs range of Prehistoric Mammals and are actually sold as Giant Cave Bears, but I thought they would make perfectly acceptable grizzly bears. I actually acquired these as part of a Kickstarter that Acheson Creations ran a few years ago to promote the Prehistoric Mammals range. This set was one of the optional add-ons you could buy.

The grizzly bear is a large sub-species of brown bear inhabiting North America. Scientists generally do not use the name grizzly bear but instead call it the North American brown bear. Note the pronounced hump on its back (particularly visible on the centre figure). This is a good way to distinguish a grizzly bear from a black bear, which does not have this hump.

Here is a black bear, and it is noticeably smaller than the grizzly bears. This figure was produced by North Star and was a freebie for those who bought all three of the latest factions in the Dracula's America range. Certain individuals in the Skinwalker tribes can transform into either a bear or a wolf, which explains why this bear figure was included. The black bear is a medium-sized bear native to North America and is the continent's smallest and most widely distributed bear species. The American black bear is the world's most common bear species.

The animal alongside the black bear is a reindeer produced by Ral Partha, but I'm using it as an elk because reindeer are not native to North America, but elks are. This is specifically a Rocky Mountain Elk. This was a two-piece casting, with the antlers being separate from the body. There are six sub-species of elk, which can be found in North America. Until recently, red deer and elk were considered to be one species, but DNA studies indicate that elk should be a distinct species.

These three animals are coyotes, which are native to North America and are widely distributed across the continent. The coyote is smaller than its close relative, the grey wolf, and slightly smaller than the closely related eastern wolf and red wolf. These figures were sculpted by Johnny Lauck who used to run Mega Miniatures before he retired, and were part of a limited edition Kickstarter, Road Kill Animals, which I backed a few years ago. They never went on general release, making them very rare indeed.

As of 2005, there were 19 sub-species of coyote that had been identified. The colour and texture of a coyote's fur varies geographically. I copied this colour scheme from a photo on Google Images, showing a prairie dweller. Mountain coyotes are generally greyer.

These four rattlesnakes are my most recent acquisitions and they are available from TT Combat as part of their resin cast Western Accessories Set, which is an incredibly useful set, containing 26 pieces, including 10 dynamite, 5 cowboy hats, 4 snakes, 4 cacti, 2 animal skulls and 1 dynamite plunger, all for £8.00. The snakes come in two separate sculpts and so I have painted them in slightly different colour schemes.

The 36 known species of rattlesnakes have between 65 and 70 sub-species and all are native to the Americas, ranging from southern Canada to central Argentina. Rattlesnakes are the leading contributors to snakebite injuries in North America. However, rattlesnakes rarely bite unless provoked or threatened; if treated promptly their bites are seldom fatal.

At the far left of these two photos above and below is a hawk, a medium sized bird of prey that is widely distributed around the world. This figure was also sculpted by Johnny Lauck as part of his Road Kill Animals range. I was surprised that he sculpted a hawk and not an eagle but I'm not complaining.

The four remaining birds are clearly vultures. A vulture is a scavenging bird of prey. The two types of vultures are the New World vultures, including the Californian and Andean condors, and the Old World vultures, including the birds that are seen scavenging on carcasses of dead animals on African plains. Some traditional Old World vultures (including the bearded vulture) are not closely related to the others, which is why the vultures are to be subdivided into three taxa rather than two. New World vultures are found in North and South America; Old World vultures are found in Europe, Africa, and Asia, meaning that between the two groups, vultures are found on every continent except Australia and Antarctica. These four vultures are the Californian condor species, the largest North American land bird. The figure sitting on the Tombstone signpost was produced by Black Scorpion as a free stretch goal available to anyone who bought all seven gang factions in last year's Tombstone Kickstarter. The other three figures are more of Johnny Lauck's Road Kill Animals range.
Most of my Wild West games will take place in town settings and so it is unlikely that any of these figures will feature much in them. But for games set out on the range, then they will make for very useful potential encounters. Whilst my default set of Wild West rules, Six Gun Sound, does not have rules for animal encounters, its Weird West supplement, High Moon, does. So too, does Dracula's America.

Necromunda: House Escher Gangers 02

Following on from last week's well received post about my original House Escher gang for Necromunda, I now turn my attention to my latest Escher gang, made up of the ten multi-part plastic figures found in the new boxed starter set. I didn't encounter any problems in making them. Some people have complained that they are too fiddly and I can see that that might be the case for some, but I actually enjoyed making them. Once that was done, I painted them all. The default name for them was the Carrion Queens, which I almost used but seeing as I went for a totally new colour scheme I named them the Pink Pouncers instead.

At the far left is Black Friday, my limited edition Escher ganger that I procured from TT Combat. I did show her in a previous post but she has undergone a few slight changes to her paint scheme. I have given her a white face and changed the colour of her knee-pads from silver to pink. She is armed with a Sawn-Off Shotgun and a Power Sword. Her white face makes her look even more like Harley Quinn, which is deliberate.

For the rest of the gang I have given them the names assigned to them by Games Workshop. In the centre of this trio is Jelena, the gang's leader. She is armed with a Combi-Bolter and Needle Rifle and a Shock Whip. She wears Flak Armour, as do all of this gang. This gives a 6+ save but grants a 5+ save against weapons that use the Blast template.
At the far right is Tumala, a Champion who is armed with a "Nightshade" Chem Thrower and a Stiletto Knife. She is the gang's heavy weapons specialist.

At the far left, Marika is also a gang Champion. She is armed with a Plasma Pistol and a Stiletto Knife plus Choke Gas Grenades and Krak Grenades.
Next to her is Rhosinn, who is armed with a Las Pistol and a Power Sword plus Choke Gas Grenades.

Next in line is Zarann, who is armed with a Las Pistol and a Stiletto Knife plus Choke Gas, Frag and Krak Grenades.
At the far right is Nokomi, who wields a pair of Las Pistols and has a Stiletto Knife in a scabbard at her right side as well as Choke Gas Grenades.

Moving on, is Olina, who is armed with an Autogun Rifle, a Stiletto Knife, Choke Gas Grenades and Frag Grenades.
Orange-haired Reina is armed with a Lasgun Rifle, a Stiletto Knife, Choke Gas Grenades and Frag Grenades.

Brae, who is second from the right, is only armed with a Lasgun Rifle and Choke Gas Grenades.
Finally, is Kaiya, who is carrying a Lasgun Rifle and a Stiletto Knife.
As a massive fan of House Escher, I have to admit to liking these figures. So much so that I have ordered another boxed set of them so I can expand my gang. There are weapon options on the sprues that were not used here - Grenade Launchers and Shotguns, for example. I still think that the original metal Escher gangers were better but these are not bad at all. These new Eschers are chunkier and more muscular but they do have far greater conversion potential and can be put together in near infinite ways. Now that I have these and my new Goliaths painted up, there is nothing stopping me from getting in a few games, which I'll post up on this blog.