Retribution City, somewhere out in the Weird West..... way out in the Weird West.

Well partner... it was nigh on or about November 9th, 1874..... the day Retribution City saw the most ungodly occultation of violence and bad spirits that's never been seen since.

Due north of town Sioux appear'd in the foothills of Blindman's Mesa. Rumor had it that the old Maxwell claim hadn't played itself out after all. Baron Simone LaCroix cook'd hisself up some walkin' dead and had 'em workin' the mine for some time. Apparently Injun Scouts saw what was happening and thought they'd heist the Ghost Rock them there walk'in dead had squirreled away in a shack outside the mine. Shortly a frisky engagement insued, with lots of hand to hand scrapin'.

Well, about this time a group of Chinamen Rail Workers came 'round the bend intent on releasin' one of their compatriots from the town Pokie. He'd bin' jailed for some past transgression and was about to pay the ultimate price. They had with 'em a rocket battery and were'nt gonna take no fer' an answer. Fer' some reason them there walkin' dead started takin' pot shots at 'em and took out one of the crew of that there rocket battery what we were jest talkin' about. Now that got their ire up so the remaining crewman fired a rocket right at the mesa they were a-hidin in. Needless to say them bones were a-flyin as they scored a dee-rect hit. Somewhat unperturbed with all the 'sploshins the remaing five posse of Chinamen went hell bent for leather towards the Jail.

'Bout this time, just outside a' town, five mechanical automatons lead by "The Perfesser" came a-strollin over the hills to the northwest. Now, we figgered they was after a meteor that had come to earth about a month 'er so ago. That dang thing was still hot an smokin' so we wasn't about to go mess'in around with it. Well apparently Old man Hellstromme thought it musta had someth'in good in it 'an sent "The Perfesser" to gather a few samples. Well as usual them nosey Mexicans sent a contingent of the Mexican Imperial Army to do the very same thing. Intent on a-gettin' lost territory back they're always a-lookin fer some kinda edge.

Just to spook the livin' dew out of us that dang pirate, Henry 'Le Blanc came a crewzin overhead scopin' out some likely, poorly guarded treasure. He had hisself some Ghost Rock powered ethership. Neither land nor sea was a gonna stop that thievin' scoundrel. Luckily there was jest too much lead a-flyin throught the air to make landin' a good ideer.

Well, as it turned out the Injuns jest couldn't snatch the Ghost Rock. They a-charged down from the messa an got in a few licks but be'in the walkin' dead it was real tough kill'in 'em again. Well, there was jest too many of them hidin' out in the mesa 'fer the Injuns to git an their attack eventually jest peetered out.

The Chinamen rushed the jail as best they could with their hand weapons. Goes to show yer "don't bring a Chinaman to a gunfight." Without shootin' irons they got themselves hosed down pertty good and resorted to fir'in on the jail with their rocket hop'en fer a lucky hit. Well, they did, and as it turned out it was more lucky fer' the deputies. While a few got blowed clean up the build'in collapsed and fell on the prisoner and killed him outright. Got to give em' credit.... they fought to the last Chinaman.

"The Perfesser" made the mistake of "leadin from the front" an got hisself konked out early. Them Mexican Regulars deelivered some acc'erate shootin' and "The Perfesser" was a eatin' dirt right quick. Turned out he spent most of the battle tryin' to git hisself up. Meanwhile, his leaderless Automatons lumbered up to the meteor a-firing their gattling guns like crazy spewin' lead everywhere. The Imperial Mexicans suffered a case of bad morale due to a "close call" from whither'in fire and never took out but a few of them mechanical men. One blowed up but didn't manage to do much damage to anything else 'round it but a cactus plant. The smokin' crater is still there. While the Mexicans withdrew a couple Automatons "pulled the duce" an suffered malfunctions trying to git in their last licks. Good thing the Mexicans skedaddled when they did otherwise them Automatons mightened have got the worse end of the stick after all.

Seems like everyone had a good time. There were over a hundred figures on the table and things moved smoothy. It was a demo game so after explain'in most of the rules the players fell into actually play'in and we filled in the blanks as we went along. We kept it simple with no spell stuff.

The terrain was all hand made. Buildings were made of balsa "planking" over matt board walls with removeable roofs should the need arise. The box canyon was made from... you guessed it; a box. Some of the cactus were made from air dry clay while others were made from pumpkin seeds glued together and painted green. Some boulders were made from styrofoam while others were made of paper mache'. The flying Pirate ship was made from matt board and painted grey. The cannon mounted on the front came from a ship model building shop.

The game surface was made from an old bed sheet painted with blotches to look like desert over the top of a couple sheets of styrofoam wall insulation. The road was done in pastels that will wash out in the washing machine. The hills were styrofoam cut to shape and placed under the sheet. All cactus and boulders had a pin inserted in their undersides. They could then be "pinned" to the playing surface and thus wouldn't get dislodged.

Most of the figures were Foundry while the Chinese were old Frontier Boxer Rebellion figures. A few of the skeletons were old, old plastic Games Workshop figures. The pack horses were Dixon. The Automatons were Mage Knight squat looking robots. In fact many of the Mage Knight figs have that mechanical look to them and will work great for Dr. Hellstromme creations.

It looks like Rail Wars was a big hit and will provide the opportuity to incorporate all kinds of crazy troop types in the future; many of which are already in the works.

Get the rules, paint some figs and have yerself some fun.

If you have any questions email me at: jefferyschutt@yahoo.com