So my basement has a leak. Wait, no—my upstairs bathroom has a leak. Well, okay. It has a leak that comes out of a vent in my basement. It’s a whole thing. Anyway, dude who fixes this stuff for me is also one of my gaming buddies, so after said leak refused to manifest itself, we decided to play some What a Cowboy. Reasonable consolation prize, I’d say. Here’s a series of thoughts from the game as I was too busy having fun to really document it.

And man, what a game. It’s always remarkable just how fun this game can be. We rolled the scenario where you have to note down an opponent’s model and assassinate it in secret. Simple enough. I chose his dude with a shotgun, and he chose one of my pistol wielding shootists. This was, again, secret.

Here’s his shotgun guy. Note that this rock is near his board edge. He spent about two of my living hours sitting behind that rock because he never rolled enough movement to safely move up the board. I, uh… I lost the game. But it was still a blast!

This is my rifleman, who managed to climb up a roof and sat there the whole game taking potshots. That’s not true—he actually used a Hollywood Stunt at one point to climb into the building via a window. From there, he was safe from enemy fire but also safe from firing at the enemy thanks to a tree. I actually ended up using an entirely separate Hollywood Stunt to make him hop back out onto the roof! If you squint just right, you’ll also see the only photo I happened to take of my opponent’s target—that poor dude with a pistol on the ground by the stump.

This was my opponent’s corresponding rifleman, who spent the whole game up in the water tower giving me hell. Not much to note here, but I love his stripes!

And then there’s this guy: my opponent’s leader.

He ended up in a ridiculous point blank firefight with my leader, the outlaw and the Sherriff staring each other down from darn near punching distance. It was a ludicrous bout of missed shots, lucky dodges, and glancing hits, where we both kept dodging in and out of line of sight, then getting shot by other models on the board. My man must have made 4 or 5 successful dodges around a nearby corner, then popped back out to try and finish the job.

Unfortunately, he didn’t. He got finished, and I assumed I had lost the game because of how much darn effort my opponent put into killing him. Turned out he thought his leader was my target, which is why he put so much effort in! My rifleman cleaned up his leader and the action shifted to the other side of the board, where I finally pushed forward with my cheapest unit, not realizing that was his exact objective. I was one shot away from killing the shotgunner when my luck finally ran out and I lost the match. It was exceptionally close, actually, and a ton of fun.

As much as the dice in this game can feel frustrating at times (like when I want my opponent to move his darn shotgun into shooting range), they allow the game to evolve in a way that few other games do, which almost always leads to a good time. I have to say: I definitely recommend What a Cowboy to those who can stand a game with a lot of friction—where friction is even the very point. It tells such fun narratives and leads to such great laughs. I love this ruleset for what it is.

I also got a chance to experiment with using AI to make list builders. This was printed from a simple list building tool I’m refining as I use it. It also tracks your campaigns. It’s not quite ready for release but it’s close. I hope to try it again for our next match.

And there will totally be a next match. It’s a great game, and if it appeals, you should definitely give it a try. Any excuse to put cowboys on the board is a good reason to play, but this one really shines as something unique and worth your time if you can stand the friction.

Now to go justify painting even more cowboys on top of the forty or so I somehow already have…