First Look : Dead Mans Hand & 4ground buildings

So after picking up Dead Man's Hand from Partizan a couple of months ago I've finally got round to getting a game sorted out with Coops at the club,

In the traditional manner I painted up the desperados and also managed to get some more scatter type terrain done that I've had kicking about for a while,

as both me and Coops had got a demo in when we were at the Derby wargames show last month we simply dived in and went for it,

We played the scene of the good the lead and the ugly,

The opening scene was over fairly quick as I managed to roll fairly well and blew the stranger away with the under fire markers stacking on him,

its the law gun him down!

We then swiftly moved onto the second scene and after a real tight shoot out coops and his infamous D20 rolling got that one in the bag,

it looked grin for sleeping with donkeys, until I pulled a card that let him have an extra movement action so made like a ninja and "regrouped" with the boss!

 In the mean time the gangs killer, was sneaking around and being a really naughty boy shooting people in the back.



Time was ticking and we decided to give the final scene a crap and it was all out war, we'd managed to drop two guys each and went on the next kill wins, which I managed to nip in a cheeky gang up attack on a single dude,

only two of them! charge!! 

and the mayhem begins when the lead starts flying.

 it looks grim for the boss, the model with the bullet token, which is a reload has a double barrelled shot gun and we discovered quite quickly that they are rock hard!


So the actual system then -

Game play:

You have a set of mini playing cards that you get with the main rule book for a mere 20 quid, depending on your gang you'll use a certain suit and the bigger the game you'll use a bigger hand, the cards are used to determine model initiative starting with ace down to joker so a real nice touch that gets rid of the usual I go you go rules that you see now days,

the cards also give you benefits and you'll start with a certain number in your hand and these can be used within your activation or your opponents activation to boost shooting and the like or hinder actions, but if your opponent has the same number card in his hand then your can counter it! so if your like me and pants at poker the cheesy smile will give away that fact that I've a great card or have I.....

models get 3 activations and you have to declare what you do before any dice are rolled so move shoot move and so on. Shooting is dead easy its all D20 with modifiers for range,  cover etc. the thing I like is a natural roll of a 1 means you've ran out of ammo so you need to spend one of your next activations reloading unless your a killer with 2 pistols.

you also don't need a great deal of room to play myself and coops managed to play on a 2x2, it was a tad tight but not too stupid, 3x3 is recommended but I'll no doubt do a 4x4 so I can use the edge of the table for the "admin" zone,

overall the mechanics of the system work really well and the game is very fast once you get going.

Lastability:

Its a good game to play for 3 - 4 weeks on the go then I'd need to give something else a crack, but when I was talking to the chaps from Great Escape Games they have a supplement coming out either end of this year early next year that'll have more gangs and hopefully a campaign system so you can link your games together after all every one loves a cool campaign that they can dip in and out when ever they like.

with the system being quite simple and the stats for the weapons very generic you could easily adapt this to a ultra modern system and clear the embassy with the SAS back in the 80's or rescuing poor souls that have been captured by modern day pirates or even making a table that represents a modern warfare map!

Models:

Great Escape do a box set for each gang, costs 20 quid for 7 guys so a reasonable £2.85ish a model and because the box is like a video cassette case it doubles as a mini carry case all you need to do is add bubble wrap to stop them bouncing around.

as its based in the old west you can get shed loads of models from all over the shop and some are great some are not so great but its what ever floats your boat and what change you have in your pocket!

if you want to know more head over to the great escape website and check out the bits and bobs you can get for the system,

www.greatescapegames.co.uk

and this nicely brings me on to the 4ground stuff that I picked up from Derby, Ive looked at this stuff for ages now and could never justify why I should pic up the terrain until now!

so I got a wagon and a being built building,

the wagon was really simple to build and looks really nice, only negative thing I can is that if it was a tad wider then your 25 mm base models could stand inside no worries.

the building went together like a dream, the only tricky part was the roof but once I'd got it under way it wasn't a problem, only down side to this kit is you don't get a base plate with the side walks compared to the other buildings that they do.

I'm definitely going to be getting more of the 4ground range when all depends on how much the roof on the house costs to repair as my better half discovered a pool of water in the bath room last week and after some mooching about in the attic we've a couple of slipped tiles some where so hoping its a cheap fix!