Context at the front: I’ve played one complete three part scenario of Dead Man’s Hand at a demo run by a friend. He supplied all terrain and miniatures–I wish my stuff looked this good! The wood here is outstanding. This also means I have not read the rules in full. They’re not available digitally.

I’ll start by saying all the cowboys came from the starter set for Dead Man’s Hand, which appears to be an excellent value. It comes with several pieces of terrain and the board seen here uses those plus a few more. The plastic wild west buildings in particular look great. I admire this board.

Dead Man’s Hand Redux – 2 Player Starter Set

Here’s a link before I tell you why the box is worthwhile but the rules I’m iffy on.

The rules appear intended to be fast playing cowboy movie style rules. Shooting and movement are easy to do. You move 10 cm at a time (yes, centimeters) and can ignore low obstacles like fences. When shooting, you roll a D20 and add up several modifiers factoring all of the usual stuff with a few exceptions (wounds, movement speed). If you hit, you wound your opponent and those wounds follow them, causing them to get progressively worse at shooting until they die. Three to four health appears normal.

Each time a mini activates it gets three actions. These follow the usual expectations though all I recall doing was moving, aiming, and shooting.

Again, the above was smooth and fast playing. The D20 does make the game feel swingy–a single dice deciding your fate often does. Where the game gets a little more interesting is in activation. You draw from modified poker deck and place most of your cards face down next to your models without knowing the result. I say “most” because the first one is the interesting one: it’s a quick draw mechanic. You draw the card, see its number, and place it face up next to a model on the field. The first to place it gains initiative which breaks ties. The game then proceeds from highest to lowest numbered cards on the field. King goes first, then Queen, etc.

The end result is a chit draw system where you know the order. It creates a neat game-within-a-game and is inoffensive. The quick draw is a fun gimmick. I can embrace it.

The next wrinkle is the cards themselves have text. This text does not apply when used for activation order (there, it’s just the number) but you start the game with a hand of cards which you can play for special effects at any time. These range from bonuses to shooting to cutting off an opponent’s shot or activation entirely. These can be fun or they can be… well, a feels-bad. It’s never quite ‘fun’ to have your whole action cut off by something you couldn’t control or foresee. You basically have to assume every action may get cut dry.

It also feeds my main problem with the game: luck. It’s a silly fun cowboy game–I get that luck will be a factor. You want drama and excitement! Every cowboy ruleset has some amount of trickery and silliness and I love it. Unfortunately, here it felt a bit much. Between the D20’s swings and the cards being able to cancel actions the game felt a little out of my hands in ways that felt bad.

That’s not to say I didn’t have a good time–just that I won’t be buying the rules to play them. I’ll show up to my buddy’s house for a beer and a game, but that’s because of the next, most important part of these rules.

The scenarios in the book are great. I’m unsure how many are in there but gosh was it cool to see a three act structure scenario. We started out first act with two men per side duking it out in a gunfight. This progressed to a larger 4 on 4 fight, finishing with a climactic 6 on 6 as I busted one of my men out of jail. Or, well, utterly failed to bust him out as between dice, cards, and randomized order my men all died before really doing anything on turn one.

Set that last part aside. The scenario progression was cool. It was neat to have victory carry over and I really enjoyed it for the mini-campaign feel that it lent the game. I’d love to just acquire the three act structure and suggested missions for it minus the remaining rules.

So that’s that. I’ll also be trying What a Cowboy and may revisit my own ruleset Rootin’ Tootin’ Cowboy Shootin’. I love cowboys as a theme and am now printing a new wild west town to paint up. It’s just a fun setting and a ton of fun to paint.

I could play more Dead Man’s Hand and enjoy it but I can’t say it’ll be how I live out my cowpoke days. With so many cowboy rulesets on offer I’m hoping I’ll find something I truly ‘click’ with. That or I run out of steam and remember I should be painting Irishmen right now.

There were Irish in the west, right? Right?