Dead Man's Hand AAR

One of the bright spots to come out of the last several months, and the main reason why the hobby has been reignited for me is being able to spend a couple of days a week working at Shieldwall Gaming Club.  

Obviously Covid-19 has put quite a strain on our club, but the owner and my new best hobby friend Jeff has basically moved all of the product into an online store so he's been able to keep the doors open so far.

The club opened up a year ago, right when I was leaving for my six month trip to South Carolina so I never really got a chance to hang out with Jeff or roll dice anyone else at the club - which was absolutely soul crushing for me because I'd waited years and years to find something like this (to be around like minded hobby people) and now I was leaving for an incredibly long time.

I'd been promising Jeff I'd set a game up for him since I got back from South Carolina in May and I finally was able to do it in the beginning of August - so you can see how long it's taken me to get back to the blog.

I chose to show Jeff Dead Man's Hand by Great Escape Games because it's a solid skirmish game that I knew I could teach in a matter of minutes, and being set in the Old West would be a lot of fun.

So I packed up a box of my 4Ground Old West terrain and some tree plates and set up a quick table at the club.

As it was basically a small learning game, I only gave us each three models, and didn't have any kind of narrative to it either so it was just last man standing wins.

I gave Jeff three Bandito's for his side.

Our Sergio Leone tribute photo 😀

In a future post I will show how I've since solved the initiative cards on the table problem, like above, with some small tokens instead - one complaint Dead Man's Hand and The Chicago Way always gets from people is that you have the cards "littering" the game table and it takes away from the immersion.

I took a couple of cowboys modeled after the red sash wearing cowboys from the movie 'Tombstone'. Here's Curly Bill Brocius moving up behind some barrels.

I don't remember a lot of the specifics from each photo as it has been forever ago since we played, but I do remember that we had an epic hand to hand fight next to the stagecoach that went terribly for Jeff as his dice rolling was just atrocious - and the only reason I do remember that is because usually that's me, not my opponent rolling like that.

It was here that I was actually double teamed by two of Jeff's Banditos, but because of those dice rolls I mentioned above I won both fights.

It's actually really nice to know someone personally who rolls dice as horrifically as I do 😂

There was also a lot of shooting that was taking place that caused a few casualties.

As I've gone to the super thin bases for all my models for my skirmish games I thought I would utilize those same bases for my casualty figures.

A little red paint on the clear base and I'm then able to easily slide it under a casualty figure to add a little bit of Hollywood to the scene.

I do remember this part of the game as well. Jeff had used one of his cards to take a civilian hostage, which is the photo above - and again, one of the really fun and narrative things that come from the cards. 

In my attempt to shoot the Bandito I missed and actually hit the hostage.

I'd forgotten how great of a game Dead Man's Hand is, and how much fun the card interrupts are. If you've never had a chance to try DMH I highly recommend it.

It was just a great time and I think that day really solidified the new friendship Jeff and I now have, as we've been consistently getting together weekly (and talking through text messages almost daily bouncing ideas and WIPs off each other) since August at the club, working and hobbying together - a big Star Wars project has been what we've both been focusing on together for about three months now and why you'll be seeing a lot of Star Wars posts. So stay tuned. 

And finally, welcome to new follower Dave Stone, really appreciate you hitting the follow button 😀

As always, thanks for looking!

Ivor