Dinosaur Cowboys – Tabletop Skirmish Game

Two great new Posses today that I will be using in my next playtest (and hopefully battle report depending on how my scheduling goes). These are created using the v0.91 rules, well, almost, since the Pike weapon is a new one that isn’t in there yet.

I thought I’d go a new route with both Posses, so I went for 1 Leader + 2 Members + 1 Dinosaur for both. The Tribe of the Blood Pact ended up very close combat oriented, whereas Hope’s Warden geared out pretty heavily with a solid choice of guns. It’ll either be very messy or very quick.

Anyways unfortunately I don’t have any pictures of the Posses in advance, but I might retroactively edit the entry if I take some photos for the battle report.

Cannons as Artillery
I decided for my next game I’m going to put a slight focus on cannons. This is partly inspired by my recent visit to the San Juan fort, or perhaps my 28mm scaled cannon souvenir. Either way what I want to do is have each Posse get fire support from a row of distant artillery cannons.

How this will be achieved is each player can drop a single “cannonball” once per Turn. To do this they hold a small scrap of paper (circular, 1″ diameter) from 20″ above the table and let it drop over their desired target. A piece of paper that small will drift a lot, and that will represent the cannon fire deviating. Then I’ll just use these rules to represent the impact of the shell:
Cannon Shell: 1A-5D 6" Explosion 2" Knockback
I’m also toying with the idea of having each player choose a different type of shot, like Grapeshot which has a bigger radius, etc.

---

Posse: Tribe of the Blood Pact
IP 110, ND 1,110
This was my Savage based gang who I planned to use rather medieval and barbaric figures for. I aimed for a fast moving force who were solid in close combat. I also wanted to use a beefier dinosaur so that ended up taking a lot of cash. Luckily melee weapons are cheaper than ranged on the whole, so the cost didn’t impact me as much.

Creating Bloodscar
First up was a Leader, who I would make a Savage to keep the theme. I wanted him to be fast and deadly, so I gave him an additional +1 MV beyond the +1 MV provided by the Savage Allegiance. This cost me a hefty 15 IP though. For survivability I went for +1 AR (10 IP) and +2 HP (12 IP) which meant with his Leader bonuses he’d have 12 HP. Finally I knocked his MMC down by 1 for 10 IP.
I figured this leader was a crude barbarian intent on raiding small villages and outlying towns. After being approached by an Armored dinosaur in the night Bloodscar saw this as a sign. In his mind the sign was to assemble a ragtag Posse and raid the old mill at Mikkalo, Oregon.
Oh and he got my first Trait allocation, in this case Retreat! since the extra 4″ Movement to an ally could really help close the gap at the last second.

47 IP, $70. Savage, MV 6, AR 1, RMC 9, MMV 7, BRV 7, HP 12, Retreat! Pickaxe, 80kW Six-Shooter

Creating Illit’taex
What would a Savage Leader be without a Savage Member to back him up? In this case Bloodscar had hired the violent and deadly Illit’taex. He is a roaming mercenary intent on stirring up trouble, and attacking a mill for plunder and fun is right up his alley. I had a great figure in mind for Illit’taex so I knew I wanted a Spear/Pike for him. Otherwise he is basically a less expensive version than the Leader. I made him Savage Allegiance and gave him +1 AR (10 IP) and -1 MMC (10 IP). I also boosted his HP by 2 (12 IP), and actually did some voluntary weakness in terms of Bravery (-1 to 5 for +2 IP) so that I could squeeze out a few more HP from my IP pool.
Since Bloodscar had the Leader HP bonus and Sendar the Duster HP bonus I needed something to keep Illit’taex equally tough. To that end I gave him Bonus HP I to bring his HP from 10 to 13.

30 IP, $70. Savage, MV 5, AR 1, RMC 9, MMC 7, BRV 5, HP 13, Bonus HP I. Pike, 80kW Six-Shooter

Creating Sendar
I figured that a semi-crazy leader (I seem to make a lot of these; apparently the future is rough!) who is on a vision quest after seeing an Armored dinosaur would totally need an equally unbalanced shaman to whisper plots in his ears. Again my main motivation was the figure I had in mind. She honestly ended up being an even lighter version of Illit’taex in terms of stats. I did manage to equip her with a fairly nice melee weapon though, so the different spread should be interesting. Bloodscar’s Pickaxe is 1A-6D, Illit’taex’s Pike is 4A-3D, and Sendar’s Staff is 3A-4D, so yeah lots of variety.
Anyways like I said pretty light on the spending. I gave her +1 MV for 10 IP so she wouldn’t be left behind. Then +2 HP for 12 IP (thanks to Illit’taex’s -1 BRV sacrifice), and finally -1 MMC for 10 IP.
I also figured she would make a better Duster than a Savage, like perhaps she had worked as a soothsayer in a border town or something. To me she was still more of a gypsy than a pure feral shaman.

32 IP, $70. Duster, MV 4, AR 0, RMC 8, MMV 7, BRV 6, HP 12. Staff, 80kW Six-Shooter

Creating The Crimson Terror
Instead of the standard Ankylosaurus that is the archetype Armored dinosaur I went for a Styracosaurus instead. He still look pretty rough and tumble and it would give me a chance to try out my new Papo toy.
He made sense as a Feral Breed instead of anything else, which gave me -1 DIS and +2 HP. I couldn’t afford any HP improvements, so his stats ended up being pretty simple.
Although he could have everyone mounted at once (3 passengers because he’s Large) I didn’t expect to do that with his slower 4 MV / D4 PMV. To that end I figured he’d be Running each turn, so the Runner Trait was perfect as it gives +1 MV when Running.

$500 Armored. Feral, MV 4, PMV D4, AR 1, MMC 7, DIS 4, HP 28, Runner.

---

Posse: Hope’s Wardens
IP 110, ND 1,110
I had three matching figures for this group that looked relatively high tech, so I knew I’d aim for a Neotechnoist group of some sort. I figured good equipment would make up for their lack of numbers. All of the characters had names that sounded like they were trying (and failing) to be intimidating, which sort of fit in with the theme of some Neotechnoist do-gooder group. In this case their do-gooding (?) was to help defend the Mikkalo mill from raiders.

Creating Limeskull
You’ll understand the hilariously cheesy name better once you see the figure, since he has lime green armor and a big hand painted skull on the back. Then again I can’t say much since the figure was one of my old ones from the 90s. I think it might actually be for the Warzone tabletop game. Anyways I made Limeskull a Neotechnoist, which isn’t too painful as a Leader because the HP penalty doesn’t hurt as much. Anyways I wanted him to be a bit more mobile than usual, especially since I was arming him with a Light Repeater. So +1 MV for 12 IP it was. Then +2 HP for 12 IP to further help balance the Neotechnoist limitation. Finally +1 AR for 10 IP to help match his high tech looking figure.
No Traits for him as I figured the Light Repeater with 7 RMC would speak for itself. I did give him a Small IRP though to help with healing.

34 IP, $130. Neotechnoist, MV 5, AR 1, RMC 7, MMC 8, BRV 7, HP 10. Light Repeater, S-IRP

Creating Red Dove
As I mentioned I’m going for names that would sound tough to a Neotechnoist snug inside The Wall, but sound patently ridiculous in the real world outside. So Red Dove was born, and I thought even if he doesn’t sound tough he can at least be tough. I gave him a Motor Blade (always wanted to try it) and a solid 100kW Six-Shooter (looking forward to using Fan the Hammer before charging in). I had enough left over cash by the end to afford another Small IRP.
In terms of improvements I went for +1 AR for 10, +1 HP for 6, and -1 RMC and -1 MMC for 10 IP each. Kind of a middle ground trooper but at least he’d be versatile. For his Trait I gave him Whirlwind which will be terrific if I get a chance to use it!

36 IP, $130. Bandit, MV 4, AR 1, RMC 7, MMC 7, BRV 6, HP 9, Whirlwind. Motor Blade, 100kW Six-Shooter, S-IRP

Creating Glowstar
The final member of the crew had a heavy weapon for his figure, so I thought a nice hefty shotgun would work. I went for an Auto Shotgun and tried to get stats to match. Unfortunately his Neotechnoist weakness for HP hurt a bit more than the Leader.
Anyways I paid 15 IP for -1 RMC which brought it down to 6, woot. At these early stages such low RMC really helps since a lot of Posses can’t afford armor yet. Anyways speaking of armor I continued the theme of high tech by giving him +1 AR for 10 IP. Then I balanced out the Neotechnoist penalty by giving him +2 HP for 12 IP.
He got the Neck Shot Trait since I hoped to get a kill shot if I could hit a weakened enemy. It would also be great against Dinosaurs since they aren’t even close to dead after half HP of damage, so I won’t be wasting my shot with it.

37 IP, $150. Neotechnoist, MV 4, AR 1, RMC 6, MMV 8, BRV 6, HP 8, Neck Shot. Auto Shotgun

Creating Nedevan
Finally it was time for their dinosaur. I went for a nice soft Ducky dinosaur, which holds a special place in my heart because it was the first Papo toy I bought. Anyways I figured he’d be well broken in from a lifetime behind The Wall, so a Trained Breed made sense. This gave me +1 DIS but -2 HP, but that’s okay since Ducky’s have an abundance of HP but not a lot of Discipline.
To ensure he could absorb a bunch of fire I gave him the Bonus HP I Trait to bring his HP to 18. Otherwise there wasn’t much to do, so his stats ended up as:

$300 Ducky. Trained, MV 6, PMV D6, AR 0, MMV 7, DIS 4, HP 18, Bonus HP I.

---

Summary
So there we are, two freshly minted v0.91 Posses just waiting to clash! I don’t know who I’d put my Neodollars on to win. Hope’s Wardens have some withering fire available, but Tribe of the Blood Pact is seriously beefy in a lot of ways. Either way they should provide an interesting playtest to further help me with the new dinosaur rules and other recent changes.

Also note that if I ever finish making an editable Posse Roster I’ll be able to provide PDF lists for any of the Posses I make. Hopefully a future improvement!