My T-SOG friends and I recently had the opportunity to play a re-enactment of the Kelly Gang’s last stand at Glenrowan, kindly hosted by George (surname suppressed in the interests of privacy). He ran the scenario as a ‘come & try’ game at Little Wars Adelaide in July of this year and, because we were all busy running the event, none of us managed find the time to sit down and play this game.

George has a reputation for finding the oddest and most unlikely historical events and turning them into an immensely enjoyable game and this was no exception. I discovered last night too that George is a rarity in our hobby. He has a deep and contagious passion for history, but has the talent to make that history engaging and entertaining at the same time. Couple that with some wonderfully painted figures and a terrain table to-die-for, the experience was top-notch.

Hare’s troops take an unexpected nap in the face of wildly inaccurate fire from the Kelly Gang.

While the Kelly Gang is undoubtedly the best-known Australian bushranger, the actual details of how his gang met its demise were (for me at least) sketchy. George’s research on the matter was simply astonishing – each figure in the scenario was named (where the details were known) and George could recall their individual histories. We were all amazed at the ineptitude of the people on both sides of the conflict.

The game was played using the Brutal supplement to the Tribal rules produced by the lads at Mana Press. A fun and quick-to-learn set of rules ideal for small scale skirmishes between combatants that are only lightly armed. The game’s origins are set in the pre-European tribal wars of the Pacific Islanders and has been adapted for prehistoric combat (Primeval) and gang warfare (Brutal). I plan on using them for my game-in-progress, set in 15th Century Venice.

The four armoured gang members were standing on the porch of the Glenrowan Hotel waiting to see who got off the troop train that had just pulled up at the station. A small group of black trackers and a section of lightly armed police officers arrived on the scene and made their way, in the darkness, towards the pub. The had no idea that the Kellys were wearing their now-famous armour, or that there were around 60 civilians held hostage inside the pub.

Ned opened fire on the approaching troops and, well, everything pretty much turned to shit. The troopers returned fire while the remaining gang members sought cover inside the building. Shots fired into the building were ricocheting off the armour and into the cowering civilians. Ned was charged, first by the trackers and then by the section of troopers, and stood his ground amongst a growing pile of wounded (we agreed that they were just out of the game, and not actually deceased). Reinforcements arrived in the form of half a dozen mounted troopers who forced their way onto the rear of the hotel and began meleeing these steel-clad outlaws, finally bringing down one of them. And Ned, continually engaged in hand-to-hand combat outside of the pub yet somehow surviving, managed to survive and hobble off in search of safety in the tree line.

My troops, led by Superintendent Hare, were reduced down to the Super himself and his Senior Constable – everyone else was lying in a pile out the front of the hotel. Hare himself was shot in the last turn; an ignominious failure, since three of the Kelly Gang somehow managed to survive.

Thanks George for an excellent gaming experience. I look forward to shooting the crap out of model birds in your up-coming Emu Wars game.

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