Dead Man’s Hand: The Law

For a look at the changes to this gang in the 2024 release – check out Dead Man’s Hand Redux: The Lawmen

The rest of this post is about the gang under the original rules.

The Law are one of the original 4 gangs for the Dead Man’s Hand Wild West skirmish game available from Great Escape Games.

The rules for them are available for in the original rule book and their 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. Great escape also make a citizens set which provides some more characters that can be used with this gang.

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.

From the rules the Law are introduced with

Now sometimes a man may find himself on the run, and then may come a time when he finds himself upholdin’ the law.

Most lawmen are good folk, just seekin’ to build a good life for themselves and their community. Others are mostly interested in what’s good for themselves alone and how the badge can get it for them. And then there’s those that is just plain scared.

But mostly lawmen can be relied on to uphold the values of justice in troubled times

Dead Man’s Hand Core rules – Great escape games

The Law have 4 model types

The Sheriff – a gang must have 1 of these and they are armed with a pistol – Mine is Mac “Candystick” – nicknamed after his love of stripped shirts.

The Marshall – mine is known as “The Gentleman” – a gang doesn’t have to have a Marshall but can take upto 1, who is then armed with a pistol.

Deputies – the gang must have at least 2 of these, they can be armed with a shotgun, pistol or repeater and 2 may have shotguns. My gang contains the Long Arm Twins who love their bowler hats, Johnny “Bang” with his trusted shotgun and JoJo

Upstanding Citizens – the gang can include upto 4 of these, they can have pistols and upto half can have shotguns.

This gang has the potential to have the most Shotguns of any gang – 2 Deputies with them and upto 2 Upstanding citizens giving a total of 4 in an 8 man gang.

Their 2 special rules are

• I AM THE LAW – this is a permanent effect rule, a bit like the ones The Boys have – all models of the Law that can draw a line of sight to the Sheriff, even if there are models in the way, get a +1 bonus to their nerve tests. This is in addition to the bonus for having a friendly model within 15cm.
• AND JUSTICE FOR ALL – at the end of each turn the player controlling the Law may remove a single under fire marker from one of their models.

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

• ACE – “Hang ’em High” – Must be played at the start of a turn before the opponent activates any models. For the rest of the turn none of the opposing models may use a recover action.
• KING – “If God did not want them sheared. He would not have made them sheep” – this card can only be played on an opposing model after it has declared its actions and is either already in a building or is about to enter a building. The model the card is played on takes an attack from an “Upstanding citizen” who is not a member of the gang, this is done by rolling an unmodified d20 and applying its result to the target model. The target model also loses all remaining actions either before it moves out of the building or after it has moved into the building.
• QUEEN – “Long Arm of the Law” – This card is played on an opposing model within 20cms of a character from the law, after it has declared its actions – it automatically takes an under fire marker and then proceeds with its actions if able. Played at the right time this could take a character out of action, or at least apply a modifier on all shooting and H2H.
• JACK – “Run! Tell all the other curs the law is commin’!” – Another card that can only be played on an opposing model within 20 cm of a character from the Law, again it has to be played after it has declared its actions, the model is instead forced to take a duck back and loses all intended actions.

Thats The Law done, on to The Outlaws, The Cowboys and the Desperados.