Dead Man’s Hand Redux: Cowboys

The Cowboys are one of the original 4 gangs for the Dead Man’s Hand Wild West skirmish game and are also updated in Dead Man’s Hand Redux available from Great Escape Games.

The rules for them are available for in the rule book and their original stats can be downloaded from Great Escape Games website, and are also suitable for use with characters you can create using either Gunfighter plastics or Gunfighters 2 plastic box set.

Their gang specific cards are included in the Core Card set – which comes with the rules or can be bought separately.

Now I don’t own this set of metal miniatures, but instead used Great Escape Games Gunfighters and Gunfighter 2 plastic sets to create my set.

The Cowboys are introduced in Redux as

In off the range, town gives you people the opportunity to wind down a little. It’s a hard life in the saddle, even the most stoic of your bunch need some rest and relaxation, and civilisation provides for each of them in its own way.

Cowboy cards are a real mixed bag, they have a bit of everything! Move an opponent’s character as if it were you own, shoot through walls, clear a load of Under Fire markers for the price of one or perform a super interruption; there’s something there for any circumstances.
Dead Man’s Hand Core rules – Great escape games

There are 4 characters available to the Cowboys

Boss – renamed from Range boss – a gang must have 1 of these. Here we see the first main change between this gang and others that is equipment – this character can have a pistol, rifle or repeater. So far lookin’ at gangs this is the first time a Boss can have a rifle. — No change from original except name

A Wrangler – replaces the “Man with No Name” – mine is known as ‘im over there – as always a gang doesn’t have to have 5 rep point character but can take upto 1, who can then be armed with either a pistol, rifle or repeater. – No change from Original except for name

Buckeroos – replace Cowboys/girls – the gang must have at least 2 of these, they can be armed with a shotgun, pistol, rifle or repeater. Only 1 may have a shotgun. – Again No change from Original except for the name

Greenhorns – the only character type that kept its name, however the gang can include upto 6 of these, thats 4 more than was originally allowed. These can have either pistols, repeaters or rifles. The previous limit on rifles has been removed. Also Greenhorns now also have -1 to shooting and -1 to H2H like most other 1pt characters — Increase in number allowed – and removal of rifle limit from original

This is the first gang which DOES NOT HAVE TO HAVE AT LEAST HALF THE GANG ARMED WITH PISTOLS – and where all characters can carry a rifle. So why might you wish to take a rifle?

Ok you can only have 1 shot a turn – but you can aim twice, it has a close range 10cm longer than a repeater so less chance of a negative on firing at range. Really the question is do you want volume of fire (pistol, repeater) or quality fire (rifle), or short range death (shotgun)

In redux the cowboys now have 3 special rules, which are

SEE HOW THE CAT JUMPS – so this is an each turn rule. Once all initiative cards have been placed and revealed, the Cowboys player may place a card face down to any model of his choice within 20cm of his boss. The owning player may look at the card and does not reveal it to the opponent, the owning player may then chose to replace the original initiative with this new face down one. Now the way this is written it appears that the card could be played against an opponents model should the player choose – not sure why you’d do this but it doesn’t appear to discount this Will go and double check the FAQ’s – No change from Original
TOUGH AS OLD BOOTS – once per turn, when a Cowboy character is facing a nerve test that may put him out of actions, the player may use this rule. The nerve test is then taken with no modifiers and is passed on a 3 or greater. – No change from Original
LIFE IN THE SADDLE – all cowboys can mount/dismount without expending a move action – they can also stampede large animal herds more easily that other factions (see page 17 of the Redux rules for stampedes) – New Faction Rule

The first 2 rules are mutually exclusive – i.e. if you use one in a turn you can’t you the other, and the last is always active.

Their Jack, Queen, King and Aces cards also bring some interesting options

ACE – “The gunfight is in the head, not the hands” – this card can only be used on a character and is played when an opposing model activates and declares at least 1 shooting action at the model. This card gives the model 3 actions to take before the shooting model shoots. The only limit is that at least 1 of the actions must be a move. – In the original the model was required to be in a building or behind cover – this requirement has been removed – so some may say an slight change
KING – “True Grit” – use this card on a Cowboy model with multiple under fire markers, it causes a recover action to clear all under fire markers rather than only 1. – No change from Original
QUEEN – “If they move, kill ’em” – this card must be played when a cowboys actions are declared, and TBH you really should be declaring a shooting action as one of them otherwise its a bit of a waste. It allows one obstacle that would block Line Of Sight to be ignored – so long as the target is within 20cm, the target benefits from counting as obstructed so there is a -1 to the to hit roll. This really is where the character knows the coward is behind the wall and so just pumps the wall full of lead. – No change from Original
JACK – “You boys better move away” – this card is played on an opposing character that has already been activated so long as it has no under fire markers on it. The cowboy player gets to move the model 10cm in any direction, however you can’t move them into contact with an opponent and you can’t make them fall of a building or hurt themselves during the move. – No change from Original

In summary changes since original

1 Faction card has been slightly changed to increase it’s usability
1 new Faction special rule aimed at new options introduced in Redux
Removed limit of only 2 – 1 pt characters – and removed the limit of only 1 rifle for 1 point characters, reduced stats for 1 pt characters

Thats The Law , The Outlaws and The Cowboys done from the Core set, just leaving the Desperados.