Blog Con report 2 - Blazing Dice

The other game I played at Blog Con was Dave (from One Man And His Brushes) superb Wild West skirmish game, Blazing Dice.

It uses some very TFL-esque card based activation, and a nice simple skill/combat system. What really makes it, though, is the awesome quality of Dave's figures, scenery and game aids - literally no stone left unturned, no possibility unconsidered.

This, IIRC, was the third game that was run - I drew the Sheriff and his sidekick, Stumpy. The basic plot has been explained in several other folks' reviews, but in short - the Man With No Name (James B) has outlaw Johnny Ringo as a prisoner, who's worth a cool $25,000 in ransom if he can get him out of town on the train. Also chasing him are a bunch of Pinkerton's finest (Sid), Billy The Kid (blanking on who was playing him), and Johnny's gang (Rob). The Sheriff's trying to keep them in order. 

Things started... surprisingly well, from a law enforcement point of view. One of the outlaw gang headed for Johnny - the Sheriff attempted to arrest him, and he refused and drew on him. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. One shot, draw from the damage deck - Fatal wound.

Meanwhile, the Man With No Name makes a break for it. Snaps of a shot at the Sheriff. Misses. Sheriff returns fire. One draw from the damage deck...

Fatal wound.

Who is this guy?

About now, everyone's haring madly for the train. Billy the Kid has snagged Johnny up on his horse, riding across town to the platform, where he's intercepted by the Pinkertons and the Sheriff, who takes a long pot-shot with his Winchester.

One draw from the damage deck - severe gut wound, knocked unconscious. Falls off his horse, head across the tracks.

One of the Pinkertons decides that 'dead' is just fine out of 'dead or alive', so makes a point of finishing Billy off. At which point, needless to say, the train driver decides this is all getting far too dangerous, and opens the throttle. So even if Billy survived the Sheriff shooting him, and the Pinkerton man blowing his head off, he doesn't have a head anyway.

My story is that the Sheriff killed him: none of the witnesses can hand on heart swear he wasn't dead when he hit the dirt anyway.

Johnny R makes a bolt for the train, and manages a distinctly decent fist of it. Just to make sure no-one can catch him, he uncouples the back two cars, and is last seen smugly waving from the rear of the passenger car as it heads off out of town.


A brilliant, brilliant game on a fantastically detailed table with superb rules. Kudos to Dave for a brilliant little piece of work - really really enjoyed it.