Before we show our game from last weekend I would like to talk a little about Wild West Exodus (second edition) to give those who either don’t know much about the game, or don’t think it would appeal to them some idea of what it’s about and why it is our favourite and most played game.

I won’t delve too much into all the factions themselves, as I tend to ramble and this would be far too long and cumbersome, plus there is a good series of video’s already on Bow covering them. Instead, I’ll  just cover the factions we play and why.

So what is Wild West Exodus all about? Well, It’s a game set in the Old West (with a twist) just after the civil war that mixes the real life Heroes and Villains of that time with fictional characters, Monsters Shapeshifters, and Aliens.

The Game revolves around a Substance, a power source called RJ1027 that is used, not only to power vehicles but to enhance weaponry.  With some of the game’s factions trying to destroy it due to its corrupting influence, and some factions making the most of its power.

The Current factions are: The Hex (RJ1027 corrupted, influenced or mutated humans), The Order (zealots out to eradicate RJ1027 and those corrupted by it), The Warrior Nation (Native Americans, including Shape Shifters), The Union (The American Government and its soldiers and agents), The Enlightened (a consortium of scientists who create their Posse’s from experiments combining RJ1027, machinery and the near dead) The Watchers (Aliens- Nuff said), The Lawmen (The Guys n gals of the west who have made it their mission to protect the general populace from the machinations of the other factions) and finally the Outlaws (made up of disparate bands of thieves and cutthroats, Mexicans/conquistadors, and the remnants of the Confederate army)

The game itself plays very well and scales beautifully from playing with the half a dozen or so figures that come in the faction boxes to larger games played with 1500 – 2000pt forces. It is fairly easy to learn with the rules well written and frequently updated and streamlined (but not so often that it’s a pain in the ***).

Essentially, in a turn, a player will draw an Action Card which gives him a random amount of Action Points to use. He then selects a unit (although everything is referred to as a unit whether it be multiple models, single models or vehicles) to activate and spends the points accordingly, up to that unit’s action limit. Apart from movement all stat checks are done on a d10, rolling the dice and adding the particular stat including any positive or negative modifiers. If the score is 10 or greater the roll is a success.

The game length and victory conditions depend on the scenario played, and there are a number of these in the book and more on the Warcradle website, or you can simply create your own.

The factions we play at the moment are The Enlightened (Chris, my youngest son), The Outlaws (Matty, my oldest son) and the Lawmen (Yay me).

Ok, The Lawmen. This is currently my goto faction. It consists of cheaper but fairly weak hands units, to fairly Powerful Characters. You are nearly always outnumbered and can find it very difficult to slip Heavier vehicles into you’re  posse’s – especially in lower point games. I chose them initially because of the cool characters I could field but found they fitted well with my playstyle which was a bonus. The less I have to think about, the less mistakes I make.

Our Usual game size is 2000pts and in that sized game we will usually take 2 Posse’s.

Wyatt Earps Themed Posse

Consisting of:

Legendary Wyatt Earp + 2 K9 Gun dogs with Gatling guns

Doc Holiday

Virgil Earp

Warren Earp

Pat Garret

Morgan Earp

Interceptor

And a more generic Posse

Wild Bill Hickok

Nate Berenger

4 Deputised Sharpshooters

It’s a mixed bag, good long ranged shooting from Virgil, Warren, Pat and Morgan, with some mobility from the Interceptor and the Gun Dogs. Wyatt Himself is a little short ranged so it can be a bit risky, but his gun has enough power to destroy vehicles and bypass a number of the abilities characters come with, killing them outright.

Wild Bill’s Posse is more static, preferring to use its range from Wild Bill and the Sharpshooters, and the powerful AOE effect from Nat Berengers Grenade Launcher to clear an area before advancing and either grabbing objectives un-opposed or moving over to add their firepower to my main Posse.

Choosing Matty’s force was a little less straight forward due to his Autism. He doesn’t really have a playstyle as such, changing the way he plays from game to game, so we needed a faction that was customisable enough to accommodate that. With the Outlaws being the biggest and most varied faction by far, we eventually settled on them.

He selected his Posse’s by picking a variety of troops, a good mix of long range and short ranged/close combat guys, and a few vehicles with not only firepower, but transport for his slower footsloggers in mind.

His force consists of Two full themed Posse’s, Jesse James’ and Johnny Ringo’s.

Jesse James

Frank James

Robert Younger

Jim Younger

Cole Younger

Frontier Outrider

Doomsday

Johnny Ringo

Bill Brocius

4 x bandit Cutthroats

5x Bandit gunmen

Jake Williamson

Apache Kid  (I gave Matty a bit of leeway on this guy because he isn’t actually allowed in this Posse but he looked so sad when I told him that I let him get away with it).

Dust Cutter