Saturday, December 5, 2020

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 πŸ˜€


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 πŸ˜‚


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 πŸ˜€

As always, thanks for looking!
Ivor

30 comments:

  1. Wait wait wait --- blogging AND playing games!!! WHOOT! Very happy to see this. Oh man, you shot the hostage :-O lol!! I agree, it's easy to forget just how fun this game is - I often do since I get wrapped up in my big projects and forget about the games I already have done and ready to play.

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    1. Madness, right?!?! I almost wouldn't have believed it myself if I wasn't actually there lol!
      Agreed, it's such a great little game, it'll be out on the tabletop again soon πŸ˜€

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    2. lol, perhaps an out of body experience or something :-) That's good to hear ... get some more gaming going.

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    3. 🀣
      Baby steps... little gaming baby steps lol

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  2. A wonderful and atmopsheric terrain, great looking game Ivor!

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    1. Cheers Phil, it was a lot of fun to play a game again πŸ˜€

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  3. Lovely set up Ivor & while solo gaming is fine there's nothing like gaming with like minded others & bouncing ideas back & forth.

    Look forward to seen the Starwars project lift off :)

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    1. Thanks a lot Frank! Yeah, Jeff and I have really hit it off and have all kinds of really fun ideas for some games in the future.
      Much more Star Wars on the way...

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  4. Great looking game Ivor with fantastic scenery and models. Great idea on using counters instead of cards, I know from Stuart ( Great Escape Games) originally his idea was to play it on a round poker table with the cards sitting on the outer edge, and the scenery and models sat in the middle, we even discussed doing it in fibreglass through my company.

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    1. Much appreciated Dave! That's really interesting about Stuart's original idea, that would be a perfect set up for a convention game to really draw people in πŸ˜€

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  5. Very nice DMH set up you have. Great scenery and miniatures! I have some DMH stuff lying around that I simply have not been able to get to...it’s only been a few years. I hope I can still find it. πŸ˜€

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    1. Cheers Stew! You've got to really try to find your DMH stuff, I guarantee that you won't regret it once you get a game in πŸ˜€

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  6. That scenery is absolutely gorgeous, getting some real envy there!
    The game looked like it was fun too.

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    1. Thanks a lot Mike, it was really great to actually play a game again as it had been forever since the last one πŸ˜€

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  7. Playing a game against real opponent? This could possibly catch on as it sounded so much fun!
    Love the set-up and the use of casualties and agree with any your view that any cards, etc. on the table detracts from the overall game, but your addition of casualties and those excellent wound markers really enhabces your game!
    I may also have to look at the DMH rules now, for more ideas for my own set-up.

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    1. Right?! A bit mad isn't it Joe lol
      Appreciate the complements πŸ˜€ I highly recommend looking into the game Joe, very fast paced and easy to play - and honestly you can just download the quick reference sheets right from Great Escape Games and you could play the game from that, it's that easy to figure out.

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  8. Looks great. I like the touch of adding casualty models with extra blood. I've never played DMH, but our group did mutter about it a while back, hmmm...

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    1. Thanks a lot Kieron πŸ˜€ It was a bit of a last minute idea as I was gathering the casualty figures but couldn't be more pleased with the look of the blood marker. As I mentioned above to Joe, highly recommended, though I did forget to mention that you would need the cards to play but I think you can buy them separately - so that and the free QRS and really your set.

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  9. Hi Ivor,
    Wonderfull table as usual.
    I use some playing card token for my DMH games. I found them some times ago at warbases. Once painted they are quite good
    https://warbases.co.uk/product/playing-card-tokens/
    kind regards
    Tristan

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    1. Much appreciated Tristan πŸ˜€ I actually have those exact same tokens lol! I had a real time trying to paint them, it was taking me forever and I wasn't happy with my results. I ended up finding some small playing cards that I used my hole punch on to cut out each card suit/number, and then glued those right on to the tokens. I think they turned out pretty good actually. I'll be sure to post some photos in an upcoming post πŸ‘

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  10. Excellent looking set up, lots of clutter and a joy to look at the pictures, thanks for posting them.
    Good to see that you are playing against live opponent's it does create a greater level of enjoyment and feedback, generating more excitement and ideas than you get with solo play in my opinion.
    Cheers

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    1. Cheers John πŸ˜€ Agree 110%, and it's simply been being able to sit in the club with Jeff a couple days a week just talking shop and about things we'd like to see get put on our tables in the future that has really helped me get excited about the hobby again.

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  11. great to see an AAR and such a nice gaming table. I especially like the hardware store with enclosure.
    Dean Man's Hand is a really nice rules set, and now I would really like a game.

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    1. Thanks a lot Joakim πŸ˜€
      It was great fun and something that I hope we can really continue to do on a regular basis in the future.

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  12. Very nice looking game and sounded like fun was had by all! Jealous you've been able to play anything!

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    1. Cheers Dai! It definitely was great to roll some dice again πŸ˜€

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