Once more it is Rescue from the Hangman's Noose as I test another variant of my skirmish game rules. More than skirmish rules, really, they have the mechanics to transition into table top rpg.

Four musketeers attempt to save a friend from the hangman's noose. Andre, D'Hubert, Arnaud, and Paul sneak into the square as the grim ceremony is set to begin. A drummer beats the solemn prelude and the musketeers linger out of sight at the edges of the square. Five of the Cardinal's Guard watch the crowd for the would-be rescuers. (I've dispensed with the crowd for my purposes today).

The musketeers are spotted immediately by an alert guardsman. The guards are under the command of Lt. Joubert. His four men are Rousseau, Colbert, Jarnac, and Joussac.

Hearing the guards shout a warning about the musketeers, Paul runs in from the shadows of the auberge to take Joussac, who is waiting for the hangman and prisoner to emerge from the cells, and runs him through. (The green markers denote hidden items the musketeers can use but which were not significant factors to play as the circumstances developed). D'Hubert has come around the other side of the auberge.

Meanwhile (not pictured), Arnaud rushed the guard Rousseau. They exchanged blood samples and Arnaud retreated to check the depth of his wound.

Joussac's death cry attracts the attention of the lightly-wounded Rousseau. The guard's rush toward the hangman and prisoner is interrupted by D'Hubert. Paul charges the hangman and introduces the pommel of his sword to the hangman's skull. The hangman is completely floored by the encounter. (The hangman is played by a cowboy sheriff figure, and the condemned is played by another cowboy figure).

In his rush to delay the guards from hindering Paul's rescue attempt, Andre leaps upon the table, only to have the unstable furniture tilt as his feet come down upon the edge. The table tips to spill Andre to the ground. Fortunately for him, the guards are focused on the the prisoner and are unable to take advantage of his temporary vulnerability.

Arnaud discovers that his wound is, in fact, but a flesh wound, and he launches himself at the guard Jarnac. In a brief flash of steel accompanied by remarks about lineal irregularities, Jarnac falls with a mortal wound.

Joubert, seeing the hangman down and a musketeer about to seize the prisoner, realizes that desperate measures are required. He raises his pistol and fires at Paul.  A puff of smoke rises from the flintlock and the ball smashes against the stone of the prison wall. Joubert follows the shot by rushing Paul.

Paul begins his escape with the prisoner before Joubert can stop him. D'Hubert measures swords with Rousseau. The latter comes up lacking, with the result that he measures his length upon the square. The musketeers have slain a third guard. 

 Even with three of their number stretched upon stones, the two remaining guards keep their heads. Before Paul can escape with the prisoner, Colbert fires his pistol at Paul. Although his lead message doesn't strike the rescuer, Paul does leap for cover, abandoning the prisoner.

The guards find both courage and will. Joubert sprints in to grab the prisoner and drag him back to the hangman, who has regained his senses. They have a resurgence of hope--which D'Hubert punctures, along with Colbert's innards. The badly wounded guard drops to the cobblestones with a bellyache that obliterates his ability to take part in any further festivities.

Joubert and the hangman don't get far with the prisoner. Paul breaks from cover to engage Joubert in a vigorous philosophical discussion with an emphasis on being or not being and the utility of cold steel in providing an answer to the query. Joubert becomes converted to Paul's point of view, first falling as the argument penetrates his flesh, and then fleeing with the burden of his new found wisdom.

With Joubert converted and Colbert stewing in his own juices, no guards remain to impede the rescue. 

Overall, it was a great game. I was surprised that the musketeers took only a single wound while killing three guards, putting one hors de combat, and having the fifth flee the field. Andre never even got into the fight (if you don't count his duel with the table). As usual, I like the changes I've made to the system. I'll have to see how it goes with more advanced scenarios. I anticipate the Rescue in the Ruins next. As far as this scenario goes, it could be made more interesting with the addition of replacement guards entering on the next change of initiative after the death of any guard. Adjusting the random starting positions of the musketeers so that none of them enter so close to the prison might be a simpler alternative.

 Musketeers and Cardinal's Guards meet once again to exchange pleasantries and blood samples

I've played this scenario before. It's the first of the dozen or so scenarios I've created for my skirmish rules. Since I've made some fundamental changes to the method of resolving combat and other things, I figured that I should try it out on the first scenario. So once again, it is the rescue from the hangman's noose. Andre, D'Hubert, Arnaud, and Paul are musketeers on a mission to rescue a friend from the Cardinal's Guards and the hangman's noose. The musketeers are in blue. The guards are in red. The white circles mark the location of objects hidden to help the musketeers. The guards can't take any action, other than looking for the musketeers in the crowd, until they spot the musketeers or the rescuers do something to draw attention to themselves. I've dispensed with the crowd for simplicity's sake for this test. The hangman is played by a partially painted Planchet figure. The friend to be saved from hanging is played by a woodland Indian figure.

Here is the initial setup:

Ignore those Allied troops in the background at the upper left waiting to enter the battle of Leipzig. The musketeers moved first. D'Hubert went for the prisoner while the others went for the hidden objects. 

Here, the guards make an effort to spot the musketeers, and fail miserably--giving the turn back to the musketeers.

Arnaud found an item, a cage of pigeons which flew up and distracted the nearby guards. With D'Hubert blocking the hangman from getting to the scaffold, Arnaud opens the festivities with a the caress of steel to a distracted guard. (The guards have names, but I can't remember them). He nearly killed the guard, but only ended up wounding him, and getting between him and the prisoner and the scaffold.

Unfortunately for Arnaud, the chickens (or in this case, the steel) soon came home to roost. The guard wounded him. Arnaud reacted with an attack of his own, only to have the guard run him through. Scratch one musketeer.

In an attempt to relieve the hangman, so that he could in fact hang a man, a guard rushed to attack D'Hubert. The musketeer received the attack with aplomb, and more importantly, with a sword, which he put through the guard's enthusiasm, and heart. 

D'Hubert in the upper left corner attempts to make his way to safety with the prisoner, after knocking down the hangman. Paul and a guard at the top of the picture have measured their steel with one another. The guard was wounded. Both of them saw that the key to the situation lay with D'Hubert and the prisoner. Both attempted to make their way to hinder or help the musketeer. Paul hoped to avoid going around the scaffold by leaping upon it, but did not have enough umph to make the jump. Meanwhile, Andre and a guard at the lower right have engaged and disengaged. Andre has found an extra knife that was hidden for him. The other guard near the center has had trouble accomplishing anything.

Paul met the guard's attack, giving him another wound, and squeezing between him and the scaffold to head toward D'Hubert who has been set upon by a guard. The guard determined that his wounds required attention and that he could not stay for the remainder of the show.

Above, Andre and a guard continue to fence. Andre has twice wounded the guard, but the Cardinal's man refuses to let the musketeer pass.

Andre finally breaks away. The guard moves to re-engage, but Andre counters with the old knife to guard's level three, or liver, as the case may be (you didn't think I would miss a chance to insert an obscure ST reference?), and the guard falls--but he still isn't dead.

In the upper left corner where the prisoner and D'Hubert are about to escape, Paul has made it to the fray along with two guards. Paul introduces his sword to a guard who is terminally pleased to meet it. The other guard, seeing his companion fall, elects to breakaway from the combat to reconsider his priorities. He takes a wound from D'Hubert as he flees. The guard runs, but not far.

Before D'Hubert and the prisoner can escape to terminate the encounter, the cowardly guard decides that he can be brave at a distance. He fires his pistol, killing Paul. D'Hubert completes the mission. Although Andre and D'Hubert escaped unscathed, two of the four musketeers breathed their last in that town square. Two of the five guards were slain. A third guard fled the field before the final scene.

***

Overall, it played very well. I like the new changes, with one exception: I left something out of the ranged combat rules, which makes the target unreasonably vulnerable.