Dead Man’s Hand: Outlaws

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

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

The Outlaws 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.

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 Outlaws are introduced with the following in the Core rules

I’ve seen all types of no good varmints in this town, some of them on the dodge from the law and others puttin’ themselves up as businessmen and pillars of the community but all the while hustlin’ and bulldozin’ honest, hard-workin’ folk.

One thing these outlaws have in common is that they’re mean, calculating and ruthless; they’ll no sooner stab a man in the back as look him in the eye.
Dead Man’s Hand Core rules – Great escape games

Outlaws have 4 characters to choose from

The Boss – a gang must have 1 of these and they can be armed with a pistol or a repeater – Mine is the elusive “Sackman”

The Gunslinger – the Gentleman Marshalls ex wife known as “lady” fills this role in my gang (yes that was one marriage that went very wrong) – a gang doesn’t have to have a Gunslinger but can take upto 1, who is then armed with a pistol.

Dudes – the gang must have at least 2 of these, they can be armed with a shotgun, pistol or repeater and 2 may have shotguns. These are the unnamed majority of the gang who are hoping to make a name for themselves.

Varmints – the gang can include upto 2 of these and they can only have pistols. This makes this gang different from most the other gangs who are allowed up to 4 characters costing 1 Rep.

So weapon wise Max 2 shotguns, no rifles, leader, 2nd in charge and disposa les (Varmit) all are limited to pistol. So in a 21 pt gang, assuming you take leader, 2nd and the varmits (6+5+1+1 = 13) leaves enough for 4 outlaws. As at least 50% must have pistols, this means you could take 2 outlaws with shotguns and 2 with repeating rifles or even all 4 could be armed with repeating rifles.

Their 2 special rules are

ABOVE SNAKES – now I am not 100% convinced in my interpretation of this one – to me it sounds like every character in the gang each turn may take a duck back interruption, if they do they then MUST take a nerve test, if they pass this then they don’t burn their activation, but lose an action to a move and gain a move marker. However if the opponent plays the 7 card the duck back is wasted for the turn.
CHEATIN’ – this is a lovely themed rule. Once per game, after all initiative cards have been revealed the Outlaw play can activate this rule. Once activated the player can then swap on of the cards in their hand for one of their initiative cards on the table. The card picked up from the table then can be played as any other card in the players hand – Now this sounds familiar to me – a similar ability is available to the Bucks via their ACE card, but this one is much more flexible.

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

ACE – “With a gun in his hand, nothing stands in his way” – unlike a lot of the cards we’ve looked at so far – this one is played on one of the Outlaws characters when they are activated. It then makes all shots fired this turn by the model count as if they were aimed and they also ignore any negative modifiers for movement or cover. Now don’t waste this on a character with a shotgun as this is the sole exception.
KING – “You should have killed me when you had the chance” – this can be played when one of the Outlaws takes a hit from shooting that puts them out of action. The model may take upto 2 move actions straight away, it burns their turn if they had not been activated yet. After the move, so long as the character has reached cover or got out of sight of all opponents, the model is left on table with 3 under fire markers. If the character cannot get out of line of sight or into cover then dont bother playing this card as it will have no effect.
QUEEN – “Hostage” – another great on theme card, when you play this card one of the outlaws uses an action to “magic up” a bystander and use them as a shield. Whilst the hostage is held, the character cannot use an aim action, may not move more than once a turn, reload or clear a jam. All opposing characters must pass a nerve test to shoot at the model with the hostage, and if passed they then shout with a -2 to hit. If the outlaw is hit the hostage is lost, I also assume that if the outlaw chooses to aim, move more than once or reload/clear a jam the hostage is also lost. If your opponent is the desperados dont bother with this card as they don’t care about hostages and will just shoot anyway.
JACK – “Dying Shot” – this can be played as soon as one of the Outlaws goes out of action due to enemy shooting. The outlaw takes a single unmodified shot against the opposing model that just shot them, the only limit is that the opponent must be in range.