Dead Man's Hand AAR "There's Gold In that Thar Town!" or "Trouble Out West"...

In September we played a game of Dead Mans Hand, there were three gangs heading into the Town, they could gain or lose Victory Points by killing others Gang’s Characters or Townsfolk and there was also loot to be 'recovered'! Okay so basically there was Gold "In that thar Town!" but who would get it?

The Ex Confederate Cavalry (George)

The Outlaws (Dave)

Or the Ranchers (Pete)

The Town...

The AAR

Well the action ran quick and hot!

The Outlaws and Ranchers were soon at each other and casualties started to mount as a fast and furious firefight erupted!

Taking advantage of the other two gangs preoccupation with each other the Ex Rebel Cavalrymen skulked through the town seeking fortune! They ran into a couple of armed locals whom they quickly dispatched!

With the Outlaws and Ranchers now spent forces the Ex Rebs took control of the Town’s Main Street where they were in a position to ransack the Town un opposed!

A win to the Ex Reb Cavalrymen, well done George!

Some Pictures

The Ranchers (five figures in the foreground) enter town and find the Wells Fargo building full of Outlaws, the shooting’ begins!

The Ex Confederate Cavalrymen carefully entered the Town keeping clear of said shootin’…

The Ranchers and Outlaws get up close but still find it hard to hit anything 😲!

Finally with so much lead in the air the first bullets find targets…

Meanwhile the Cavalrymen gun down a Townsperson out front of the Haberdashery! They then continue to make their way down Main Street…

The Ex Confederates view of the Town’s Main Street, Ranchers and Outlaws can be seen in the distance! The farm folk were in the process of putting the bad guys to flight, we were down to just the badly battered Ranchers and the fresh Cavalrymen (play onimous sounding music 😉).

An overview of the Town, all the buildings except the ones in the top right with the small corral are scratch built…

The final act, a Cavalryman known as Slim Jim takes aim at a Rancher from the Banks roof and fires, his aim is true and another Rancher eats dirt and the rest decide to leave the Town pronto!

Afterwards Stuff

Using the players points accumulation at the end of the game the Ranchers and Outlaws both had higher totals than the Ex Rebs but given they could the recover anything they wanted from the Bank etc they were the winners on the night!

Dead man's Hand AAR - "This Town Aint Big Enough..."

We played Dead Man's Hand again this time with four gangs and in a town.

Before the action began the town Sheriff took the time to be photographed by the famous Hanging Tree by Burt Willoughby and his assistant!

Dave played the Lawmen, Al played the Banditos, George the Indians and I played the Cowboys. Also in Town was 'The Willoughby Travelling Photography Company'.

These are our four five character ‘gangs’...

... the objective was to be the last them standing and alliances were allowed via verbal agreement at the beginning of a turn. Plus each gang had some special rules that they alone knew!

The Lawmen

The Sheriff is immune to the Joker card.

The Cowboys

Can’t shoot at Lawmen unless the Lawmen fire on or combat them or are last rival Gang in town.

Rancher Owner is immune to the Joker card.

The Banditos

Can’t shoot at Indians unless the Indians fire on or combat them or are last rival Gang in town.

The Indians

If the Braves run out of Ammo it is permanent, they can’t reload their revolver. They are down to using their Big Knife in Hand to Hand!

We had one special rule for all gangs I threw in and that was ‘Get ya new fangled photograph taken’ rule. For this scenario if you drew your decks Joker you ignored the value and text and the affected figure moved to the photograph area by the hanging tree and would have to spend two turns there (not including the current one!). There was a 10cm safety zone around the hanging tree so no one getting their ‘picture took’ could be targeted! It worked a treat! Next time though we’ll reduce the time to only one game turn.

The AAR!

The Lawmen started around the crossroads with the other gangs deploying along selected edges.

The shootout got off to a hot start with the Indians rushing to close the range on the Lawmen and despite the Law taking a couple of pot shots at the Cowboys at the beginning of turn two came to an arrangement to defend the town. The Indians and Banditos similarly ganged up...there’d be some falling out of bed fellows to come!

The Indians soon worked out their Hand to Hand superiority was their best weapon and so they got in close to the Lawmen and were soon cutting them down! Note here - even though I reminded everyone including myself before we started about ducking for cover and snap shots NO ONE used the snap shot rule against the rampant Redskins, much to their character’s disadvantage!

The Law were down to one man quickly, with one other having his ‘picture took’ so they required a Big Nerve test despite having the Sheriff still in the action failed rolling a one!

The Cowboys managed to shot down an Indian but they too were soon left with town figures as they tackled the Indians and Desperados, they took a Big Nerve test and rolled a two. They too skedaddled!

Well it was just down to the allied Indians and Banditos, the Indians called out let lot the town to their ‘friends’ who replied with a volley of shots and calls of “This town aint big enough for you and us!”

It was on and both sides lost figures and required simultaneous Big Nerve tests...the Banditos passed and the Indians failed (rolling of all things a one!) a victory the Banditos!

A great game, everyone had fun and even though we had four players while anyone had their gang still in the fight everything ran quickly, we diced off all ‘tied’ cards. The verdict was we would be visiting the Wild West again very soon!

Here’s some pictures of the action...didn't take too many was busy playing!

Our town before the carnage began!

The Indians sprinted into the town and I'Gopi Tu one of their warriors overpowered one of the Lawmen...

Overview of town showing the Lawmen in the town centre and the Cowboys entering town, seen in the lower left and in the corral...

Another overview, the Law still in the centre the Banditos have entered from the road at the top of the picture and are by the bank and hotel, the Indians have entered via the road on the left and can be seen advancing!

Indian Dog Soldier Goshi Wolf then gunned down Little Jimmy! It was looking like a bad day for the Law!

The Indians were in the thick of the action while the other gangs fired ineffectively! I'Gopi Tu seeing the red mist continued into the Town after his hand to hand success only to be hit by both barrels of Deputy Ol' Jacks shotgun! Bystanders in front of the Hotel and Wells Fargo office were horrified at the sight of the brazen Indians!

A general melee began in the street in front of the Post Office and the fighting was fierce, Indian Brave Shinii stabbed a Lawman and two Cowboys...firstly Clint

...and then Ben...

...before getting a belly full of lead from Ranch Owner Pete.

At this point with both the Lawmen and Cowboys fleeing after failing Big Nerve tests the unscathed Banditos declared war on the Indians! Five versus three!

Again the Indians revelled in hand to hand combat and again we forgot the snap shot rules! Three Banditos were felled to a single Indian!

The resulting fight was quick and brutal both sides taking losses and requiring Big Nerve tests!

During the Game one lawman, one Bandito and one Indian took advantage of The Willoughby Travelling Photography Company's service!

And a group shot of the TSOGers getting into character!

Adios Amigos!

Wild West Town - Building One In 1/56 Scale!

We have only played Dead Man's Hand once but it was such a hoot and the reaction so positive we knew we'd play more often and of course what do you need to play an Old Wild West game but an Old Wild West Town!

Before I go into the details of construction here is the town all laid out!

The street width is pretty wide but can be adjusted and does allow easy game play...

I was in two minds when it came to this build, do I make just facades and have a Hollywood town or make complete buildings, well I went with the latter! 

I figured we'd need; a Saloon, A Bank, a Post Office A US Marshalls Office, a Blacksmith with adjacent 'Corral', two other miscellaneous Buildings and a railway Platform. Big ask from scratch. I had a Battlefield laser cut Shearing shed which could easily be a blacksmiths or a building under construction and Al (our master craftsman) said he had a Wild West Saloon already built great news!

My on hand parts included; 2mm 1mm & 0.5mm sheet styrene, pop sticks (ice-cream sticks or coffee stirrers to others), wood skewers, some roughly cut squares of thin wood, a piece of Masonite and some balsawood.

Here's my initial work, a floor of pop sticks dictated the building size...four slab sides and the usual Wild west high front for signage...

A door and windows only on the front wall only and it would be topped with a flat roof. I scored the sides at 5mm intervals to give a planking effect...

Okay so I had cut parts for; two buildings 10.5cm x 12cm x 6cm, two buildings 12cm x 12cm x 5cm, one building 16cm x 12cm x 6cm (only one with a peaked roof) and a railway platform 22cm x 6.5cm x 1.5cm and the building frenzy commenced. At this point Al brought over his magnificent Saloon/Hotel with a store along side it. Crickey it was good and surprisingly was a façade only, the very construction type I was going to do initially DOH. Doesn't matter it will all be fine on the gaming table!

Here's the basics of one of the buildings cut from 1mm sheet styrene...

In this picture the scored wood planking can easily be seen, the only issue with this technique is it causes the sheet to curve hence the bulldog clips required to keep things looking square!

The production line in full swing with Al's beaut Saloon in the background...

...and of course the railway platform...track is also from Al's great terrain stash!

All the details such as windows, door frames, signboard edging were cut from 0.5mm sheet styrene. For the signs I downloaded a free Wild West Font called Western Bang. The bases are cut from Masonite and 'flocked' with sand...

A close up of Al's Saloon and Mining store, unlike my rough buildings this was painstakingly made from balsawood with delicate detailing!

Some figures testing the lay of the land!

Hope this inspires others to crank out their own buildings!

Stay tuned for a game (and town name) soon!

Dead Man's Hand AAR - Shoot out at the Ranch with No Name!

Last Monday we tried out Escape Games Dead Man's Hand Rules!

Setting the scene...1870, many Ranchers in the western valleys of Montana were having trouble with outlaws rustling doggies from their herds and then high tailing it into impenetrable mountains. The owners of The Ranch with no Name decided to make a stand against these low lifes and fight back!

The Sides...

The Action!

Okay what to say about the rules, well they are easy to learn and give a good and quick game, perfect for an evening gaming get together. I also have the follow up rule book which covers 'campaigns' so will need to look at that now as we will definitely be playing these rules again! Hmmm, now to build a Wild West town street setting!