Dinosaur Cowboys – Tabletop Skirmish Game

Back in October I had a dedicated fan who was getting into the game, and he went wild on creating posses using The Saloon online designer. He authored each one as “Doom Eagle” and has commented here a few times. So in case you aren’t religiously checking The Saloon (you’re not?!) I thought I’d take a moment to link them and share some thoughts. It’s kind of fun trying to read into the story or theme behind each posse.

All the posses use the current version 2.6 of the rules. I get a Warhammer 40,000 vibe from some of these names and ideas, but that’s not surprising as a ton of people played the “big one” before branching out into other wargames (just as I did).

I definitely appreciate this kind of enthusiasm for my game!

• Red Sisters – A band of roving Savages, like a cliche tribe with bow and arrows, spears, knives, etc.
• Desert Scourges – Nice mix of weapons, especially the M-2285 rifle (I love the name)
• Wasteland Brutes – Quantity over quality, with a lineup of tough Dusters with some brutal close combat weapons, and one Neotechnoist to back them up and shoot a gun every now and then
• The Great King – My kind of themed posse. Built around a T-Rex “King” dinosaur, with two aptly named Savages to rush in and support with swords.
• Military Patrol – Another posse that seems like something I’d design, themed around a Neotechnoist military patrol outside the wall. Backed by their Triceratops the Korporal and two soldiers have only basic weaponry, but are all terrific shots (RTN 6).
• ADG Troop – Similar theme to the above posse, but with a less expensive Fin dinosaur. All the extra funds went into weapons it seems, with a pair of 200kW Lever-Action Rifles putting that good RTN to use.
• Sand Snakes – Bandit gang, probably raiders of some sort. The whole crew can mount the Terror dinosaur and rush in to put their deadly weapons to use. Nice to see the new Lasher melee weapon put to use.
• Archer Trade Inc – Beefy Defenses on a pair of Bandits sporting dual Lever-Action Rifles. I like the addition of a Fiddle for morale and Energy Sword for pain.
• Little Brick Town – Small town posse with a Mayor and Sheriff, perfect for an “NPC” type posse who live in a forgotten, dusty village. I like the Mayor having a Cane weapon, one member has Doctor (probably vastly untrained for the work he’s forced to do), and ol’ Pater Orvill with his Broken Bottle.
• Warjacks – Good posse to demonstrate the flexibility of Dinosaur Cowboys and how you can clearly achieve a theme. Here the posse is designed around Warjacks from the Privateer Press game Warmachine / Hordes. Imagine this guy with a Sledgehammer and Ranch Blaster to match the model. Then we have a pure melee monster with a Staff, and finally the glorious Flamethrower / Scythe combo. All quite beefy, and all quite strong.
• Watermill – Another posse with a small town vibe, maybe modeled after The Ballad of Cable Hogue. There is a well armed and skilled Savage with the crew who knows how to handle a Biosteel Knife. Maybe she helped defend the town at one point as was taken in?
• Moonwalkers – Tribal/shaman theme of Savages lead by Tala Moonwhisper. To me though the fourth member Songan the Werewolf is well made as she uses Punch and has the Boxer trait, so she’s clearly meant to be a lycanthrope. Nice to see some genre mixing with a more “weird west” feel.
• Night Breed – Similar approach to the above posse of “weird west”, as Xorag is clearly an alien come to earth to hunt dinosaurs. The Big Game Hunter trait is a perfect match, and a Blasterbow combined with Winterfrost Grenades feels sci-fi as heck.
• Ruffnecks – “I’m from Bueno Aires and I say kill ’em all!” Oh…maybe not those Ruffnecks?
• Los Locos – A gang of banditos with a classic west mix of pistol, shotgun, and rifle. I can just imagine this rowdy crew rolling into a saloon and blasting the place apart.
• Rusty Rovers – Let’s be honest we’re dealing with a Grenade Launcher in a $1,000 posse…I like it. Some serious heavy hitters in this small, but well armed posse. A Plated dinosaur just fits due to it’s extreme toughness.
• Alien Breed – Another “weird west” posse, and going with the Warhammer 40,000 visualization I could see these guys as Kroot. If they have ranged weapons I could also go with a Predator vibe. The dual wielding leads me to believe the Variant Rule “Dual Wield” was meant to be used, since a few members have two knives. Also “Alien Crusher” with the stats of a Thickskull dinosaur sounds cool.
• Stormcasts – Taking a Sledgehammer to the face (when Attack – Puncture is used) is only mildly less intimidating than constant Laserbow fire.
• Ravenclaws – I really feel like this posse is a reference to something, it’s just something I’m out of touch with (maybe anime?). I do like the combo of a Horned Triceratops that can Push 3″ with Attack – Forceful…especially if he chooses to combine it with a Beast attack like Trample for a total of 7″ Push, haha.
• Redwater – A nice mix of two bandits and a sniper Neotechnoist (a style I often use). The new Tirador Rifle makes an appearance…tip on naming anything, just use a different language and it sounds cool. In this case Tirador means Rifle in Spanish, so yes, it’s a Rifle Rifle. That’s how you know it’s really good at shooting things.