Dead Man’s Hand Redux: First Impressions

So most if not all of us who backed the Kickstarter to fund the 2nd edition of Dead Mans Hand will by know have recieved their deliveries. I am aware that several players of the first edition from the clubs I am involved with did not get involved with the kickstarter and I have been asked “Has much Changed?,” so I thought I’d do a couple of posts to share my understanding of the changes.

First up the production quality of the delivered product and internal examples are a dramatic improvement over the 1st edition and I would advise new players to go straight for the redux.

The core game mechanics have not changed dramatically –

gangs still have 21 rep points,
models still get 3 actions per activation,
gangs still have unique jack, queen, king and aces,
The 2 to 10 cards are still standardised across the suites,
Shooting still uses a d20 and Hand 2 Hand still uses a d10 as do nerve tests.
Model activation is still managed through dealing cards out
Players still have “hands” from which they can play special cards.
The game continues the consept of 3 scenes make an Act.

There is a plethora of new rules as well, which add flavour to your games, including

Rules for trains
Rules for wagons and stagecoaches
Rules for Livestock, stampedes and town folk’s- which are now potentially more integral to the game.
Campaign rules are included in the core book – previously to get these you had to buy “The Legends of Dead Mans Hand”

I will review the 4 core gangs Lawmen, Cowboys, Outlaws and Desparados in seperate posts and highlight changes/opportunities.

So first up – The most common question is “I know the back of the cards has changed – how about the specials on the front?”.. or “I can I still use by cards from the previous edition for my gangs – especially for those that have yet to recieved the Redux treatment?.”

So Lets start by looking at the 2-10 cards. – Back in December I compared the original DMH cards with those of The Chicago Way – So I am going to do the same but this time DMH original Vs DMH Redux.

Card	DMH Original	DMH Redux	Notes
2	Out of ammo – after 1st shot	Out of ammo – after 1st shot	Identical
3	Remove all aiming bonus’s from a shooting model	Causes the first shot action a character takes to automatically miss	Different
4	Swap 2 of the opponents initiative cards over	Swap 2 of the opponents initiative cards over – but only after swaps for low card have been done	Small Change
5	Automatically end an opponents models move action and cancels all further actions.	Automatically end an opponents models move action and cancels all further actions. Now includes Wagons and Stagecoaches	Small Change
6	Adds a free move to the end of a models actions	Enable a model to interrupt play and take a free move action, can also be used to break from H2H combat	Different
7	Cancels duck back when declared.	Provides activating model with a free shoot action prior to declaring actions for the turn, or use to cancel duckback or quick shot when declared.	Different – enhanced
8	Turns “Out of action” results to “under fire and nerve test” – lasts till end of turn.	Turns “Out of action” results to “under fire and nerve test” – lasts till end of turn.	Identifcal
9	Forces opponent to fail Nerve test due to “under fire and nerve test” shooting result.	Forces an enemy to fail a Nerve test even if they would normally automatically pass, regardless of reason for nerve test.	Small Change
10	Ignore to hit penalties for cover and target movement when shooting.	Ignore to hit penalties for cover and target movement when shooting.	Identical
Red Joker	Swap 3 of your initiative cards with 3 of the opposing players initiative cards.	Swap 3 of your initiative cards with 3 of the opposing players initiative cards.	Identical
Black Joker	All shots on both sides get a +1 to hit modifier for the turn.	All shots on both sides get a +1 to hit modifier for the turn.	Identical

Comparison of Dead Mans Hand Original and Dead Mans Hand Redux core cards

So to summarise

5 cards have not changed – the Black and Red Jokers and 2, 8 and 10
3 cards have had small changes – 4, 5 and 9
1 card is does what it did before and more – 7
2 cards have changed completely – interestingly the new cards are similar to ones from TCW – 3 and 6

Personally I’d say that the differences are small enough that continueing to use your existing core cards when playing against some one using the redux cards would not be a big issue – you both could of course pre agree to either use the Original versions or the Redux and record the impacts on a table for reference to be used instead of the text on the front of the card.

So thats the first look – next I’ll have a look at the Lawmen.