First Play: Dead Man's Hand

For our first game of Dead Man's Hand we decided to try one of the scenarios from the rule book - in this case The Good, The Lead And The Ugly.  Lenin was The Law and I took Outlaws.

For the opening scene The Stranger, we set up a town called Malice using my mixed collection of 4Ground and other buildings.  Lenin played the part of the newly arrived Marshal (the Stranger of the title) and I had three dudes from my gang who had just rolled out of the saloon after a hard afternoon's drinking.

The stage was set for a showdown...

Three members of the Weller gang stumble out of the Saloon and run into the new Marshal.  He tells them to go about their business but they're spoiling for a fight.  Guns are being waved around and so the Marshal draws, he wings one of the gang but the others gun him down and he crawls, bleeding to the Sheriff's office.

So we moved onto the second scene - This Town Ain't Big Enough.

With the Marshal out of the picture the Weller gang decided to stamp their authority on Malice but underestimated the anger of the townsfolk.  With gang members swaggering around town in little groups the Sheriff and some upright citizens decided to put the Weller gang in their place.

Small fights broke out all over the town.  Brave townsfolk we cut down but some gave a s good as they got and the notorious Wild Bill and his sidekick Catastrophe Jean were cornered, hit and had to run with their tails between their legs.

And so onto the final scene - We Will Be Waitin'...

Wanting a final showdown the Wellers walked up the main street of Malice towards the Sheriff's office.  The Sheriff and the Marshal, who had recovered from his wounds, moseyed on out to meet them.

Hot words were exchanged followed by hot lead!  The Sheriff and the Marshal had to take cover behind some barrels as the Weller's numbers started to tell.

But a Deputy had snuck up behind the gang and opened fire.  One of the gang fell but another turned and engaged the Deputy.  Men fell until only four remained, the two lawmen and two of the gang, including their Boss.  The gunfight raged on but it was the gang who managed to concentrate their fire and the lawmen fell.  But given the casualties to the gang it was something of a pyrrhic victory...

---

The game was a lot of fun to play and moved along at a good pace.  The cards provided some interesting decisions and game effects but d20 based system meant that despite the modifiers luck was the major factor in the combat.  As a result I think playing a campaign would require some serious thinking or people might not see it as worthwhile investing too much time into individual characters.

4Ground General Purpose Wagon

The next addition to my new Western project is a another kit from 4Ground, this time it's their General Purpose Wagon:

As it's a little smaller than their buildings (duh - obviously!) it comes on a single MDF board but isn't pre-painted like the buildings:

The kit allows you to finish the wagon in one of four simple alternatives - with or without the canopy hoop and with the back open or closed.

Although there are a few small parts, it goes together very easily and I finished putting it together in a jiffy.  Here's the finished result:

I quite like the look of the raw MDF and so I'm not sure whether I'm going to paint it or not.

Dead Man's Hand Side Street Building 1

As you may have notice from a previous post, one of my purchases at Salute was one of the new 28mm buildings to accompany the Great Escape Games Dead Man's Hand rules.  At launch the range is five buildings, 3 single storey and 2 two storey ones but they are talking about expanding it to a fairly extensive selection in the future.

I only picked up a single building as I wanted to (a) see how it went together and (b) how it scaled with my existing Western buildings.  As with the previous 4Ground buildings I have had, this is a pre-painted laser cut MDF kit and it went together really easily - more easily than some of the other buildings I have had from them.  Here are a few photos of the finished building showing it alongside some of my existing collection (the one to the left is from Hovels and the one to the right from PMC on eBay).

I think they all work pretty well together and I'm really pleased with my new addition.  The kit is £18 from Great Escape Games (the 2 storey ones are £36) but they're not (yet?) available from 4Ground directly.

First Look: Dead Man's Hand

One of my purchases at Salute was a copy of the new Wild West rules from Great Escape Games, Dead Man's Hand.  The rule book is 44 pages long in a softback, staple bound, full colour format.  It comes with a set of small cards in a plastic box.

Other than the contents page, the rules are laid out in a single column format with large section and sub-section headings and are interspersed with photographs of miniatures and comment bubbles from various line drawn characters.  The inner side of the front and back covers are a quick reference sheet with one in metric and the other imperial measurements.

The game appears to be intended as a cinematic take on the West and provides for 4 separate factions - Lawmen, Cowboys, Outlaws and Desperados.  Each faction is intended to be represented by a gang whose stats are similar but not identical and who have slightly different abilities.

The game uses the pack of cards both for initiative (using their number) and also as special events/actions (using the text printed on the card).  The card suits are allocated one to each gang.

Each player is dealt a hand of cards from their suit and then uses the remaining cards in the draw deck for initiative purposes.  You have some control as the first card is dealt face up but the remainder are face down; however, there are some switching and abilities which may affect the final allocation.

Each figure has three actions per turn including moving, aiming, shooting, reloading and recovering (removing the effect of markers).  Shooting is based on a d20 mechanism using ranges with some simple modifiers, whilst melee combat is based on a d10.  Target figures have some limited opportunities to interrupt an active figure and there are some morale rules when your gang reaches certain casualty levels.

Games are intended to be played as a series of linked "scenes"; however these can be played separately.    A selection of scenes is provided within the rules and these can be played in various combinations as they differ in size and duration.

The rules are rounded out with a page of markers which you can copy and cut out or a set of lazer cut MDF markers are also available:

The rules and cards are £20 and the markers will set you back another £8 (although you could cut out your own).  Great Escape have also commissioned a set of pre-painted laser cut MDF buildings from 4Ground (one of which I also picked up at Salute).  I am looking forward to getting these rules to the table and it has certainly reignited my interested in Western games.