How to Play

Each round every man still in the fight acts once, in an order set by his quickness and luck. The active man is ringed in gold. He has two actions (one if shaken or down).

• The Tactics Primer — five short lessons, each with an objective shown on the left: reading the odds, moving from cover to cover, fire and movement, the flank, and breaking an enemy's nerve.
• The view — drag to pan, wheel or pinch to zoom; arrow keys pan, + − 0 zoom and fit, C centres on the active man.
• Move — click a lit square. Diagonal steps cost more; a man lying flat or down crawls only a square.
• Shoot — click an enemy. The Odds Slip on the left shows every factor first: range, cover near the target, smoke, men in the line of fire, movement, wounds, aim.
• Take aim — +15 on the next shot, lost if you move.
• Fan the hammer — both actions, up to three quick shots at −25 each. Standing still only.
• Reload — two cartridges a revolver, two shells the coach gun, three the rifle.
• Pull saddle rifle — beside a horse that still carries its Winchester. Horses shy at gunfire and may bolt, rifle and all.
• “Throw up your hands!” — Virgil Earp, as marshal, may call on every cowboy who can see him to surrender. Unarmed and shaken men comply more often. A man with his hands up is out of the fight — shooting him counts on the record.
• Leave the fight — from a doorway or the edge of the map.
• Hold fire, covering — spend what is left of his turn watching. Until his next turn he takes a snap shot (−5) at the first enemy who fires in his sight, or, once the fight has begun, who moves in it. A man who moves across open ground under covering guns is shot at before he gets there.

Inspect the replayed position. Replay HUD, casualty counts, score and character inspection follow the selected timeline frame. Select a roster name to follow that man’s recorded wounds and status as you step through the fight. Historical ammunition, action points, aim, shaken state, initiative order and shot odds were not recorded, so replay panels label those values unavailable. The Battle Record shows up to 400 retained events, independent of the replay step.

Check a move for covering fire. Inspect a reachable empty square to see which loaded enemy covering guns could react on arrival. Listed odds include snap-shot and target-movement modifiers, in the engine’s reaction order. Reactions to movement begin only after the first shot of the fight. Earlier reactions can change later odds or prevent your follow-up shot. Your projected shots after moving retain current stance, wounds, shaken status and target movement, lose aim, and include the movement penalty.

Check your saves. The Save Ledger shows the latest autosave result and the tactical snapshot’s scenario, round and saved time when available. Storage failures remain visible while you inspect the field. Retry autosave writes the current position without spending an action; it does not overwrite the snapshot. If saving a new snapshot fails, the earlier snapshot remains unchanged. Watch mode leaves the player autosave untouched.

Understand your orders. Expand the Order Guide under Orders to see costs and current availability for every order. Reload shows how many rounds will be loaded, Change weapon names the next weapon, and Take aim warns when it would leave no action to shoot this turn. Unavailable orders explain their requirements. The same descriptions are attached to each order button for assistive technology and pointer tooltips.

Review key exchanges. In the after-action replay, choose a round to jump to its first recorded step. Gunfire buttons skip to the previous or next step containing shots, including reaction fire. Shift+Left/Right provides the same shortcut; Left/Right steps once and Home/End jumps to the ends. Seeking pauses playback so you can study the position; press Play or Space to continue.

Compare shot choices. Inspect an opponent to compare firing now, aiming then firing, and fanning in the Odds Slip. Each choice shows its action cost and current odds, or explains why it is unavailable. Aim then fire needs two actions; fan odds describe only the opening shot because smoke and wounds can change later shots. These are read-only comparisons: use the normal Orders or Survey controls to act.

Review the record. Search up to 400 retained fight events by name, action or event, and filter Lawmen, Cowboys or other events. The latest 100 matching entries appear first; Earlier entries reveals another 100. Entries stay in chronological order and include round numbers. Latest matches jumps to the end of your filtered results; Clear filters restores all events. Older entries expire at the 400-event limit; if your starting entry expires, the status explains the move to the earliest remaining match. New events follow automatically only when you are already at the bottom. During a replay the record shows up to 400 retained events, independent of the replay step.

Target Ledger. Compare opponents by the active man’s current shot odds, including fan penalties. Blocked shots state the reason. Select a name to centre the map and inspect the Odds Slip without firing; in Survey mode this also selects the explicit order. Q cycles legal shots, and Shift+Q cycles backward. Surrendered, killed and departed men are excluded from the ledger. Warnings identify unarmed targets, covering guns, cover and men in the line of fire. Collapse the ledger when you need more room.

Take a breather (J). Pause freezes computer turns and disables orders while you inspect the battlefield. Help and hidden browser tabs suspend computer turns and replay playback automatically. Closing Help or returning to the tab resumes playback unless you paused it yourself. Pause is temporary; loading or starting a fight resumes play.

Survey mode (D). Inspect map squares and targets without spending actions. Click, tap, or use Shift+arrows and Enter to select a plan; review the Odds Slip, then use the labeled order button to move or fire. Escape clears the selection. Other order buttons still act immediately. This preference is saved between visits.

Saving a position. The fight still autosaves after every action. Snapshot (S) stores one separate tactical position so you can try a plan and return to it later; Restore (K) returns to that exact position, including the random-number state. A new snapshot replaces the previous one.

Learning the ground. Click a man in the roster or initiative strip to centre and inspect him. The map HUD reports distance from the active man and, when relevant, current shot odds or whether a square is reachable. Point at any empty square to see which enemy guns could hit a man standing there, and at what odds. If the square is reachable and you would still have an action after moving, the map also previews your best firing lanes from that position. Threat map (T) tints every square by the guns that bear on it. Odds overlay (X) places the current hit chance above every enemy you can shoot. Fire lanes (I) draws the active man’s legal shots directly across the map, with line style and labels showing shot quality. Best target (Q) cycles through visible enemies from the strongest current shot downward. Range guide (B) shades squares outside the active weapon’s maximum range and marks the range boundary. Minimap (M) shows both sides and your current viewport; click it to jump around the battlefield. Advise me (V) marks the order the computer would give in your place and says why. Undo the move (U) takes back the most recent move within the same activation, so long as no dice were rolled because of it. Reaction shots make a move irreversible even when they miss. The Order Guide explains why Undo is unavailable.

Ground. Walls and doorways block sight; barrels, troughs, wagons, trees and rocks give cover when they lie close to the target and between him and the shooter. Brush does not stop a bullet but hides a man in it (−10). Water cannot be crossed.

Nerve. A man who is shot at, wounded, or sees a friend fall tests his nerve when he next acts. He may be shaken (one action, −15 to hit) or, if not a hard man, panic and run for the nearest exit. A leader nearby (Virgil, Frank McLaury) steadies men.

Wounds. One wound slows a man's shooting. Two put him down — he can still fire from the ground, as Billy Clanton did. Three kill him.

The end. It ends when one side has no one left able to fight, or when Sheriff Behan and the townsmen close in at the round limit. Points count men killed, down, wounded, surrendered and fled. The verdict compares your margin with par, the margin measured over hundreds of computer-played fights in that scenario — so a lawman who merely wins the historical fight has done only what history did. Par is measured separately for each difficulty and each side. The fight saves itself as you play; Resume appears on the title card. After the fight, Watch the replay steps through every move and shot.

Keyboard play: Shift+arrows move a cursor over the map, Q jumps it to the next enemy in sight, Enter moves to or fires at the cursor square, Esc clears it. Tab reaches every button. Keys: J pause/resume · D survey · V advise · A aim · F fan · O cover · U undo · T threat map · X odds · I fire lanes · B range · Q target · M minimap · S snapshot · K restore snapshot · R reload · W weapon · P flat/stand · G rifle · H hands · L leave · Space end turn · N new game · arrows pan · + − 0 zoom · C centre · ? help.

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