7th Cavalry were introduced to the Dead Man’s Hand Wild West skirmish game from Great Escape Games in the Legend of Dead Mans Hand expansion. There is a set of figures available from GEG which are a lovely set of models (alas ones I just dont have currently) – UPDATED 11th Dec 2023- replaced images with 3d printed Wargames Atlantic Models I have painted.
There are multiple other providers of suitable miniatures but if you get the set from GEG you also get a copy of their rules cards. They come with 1 officer with Pistol and sword, an Indian fighter with pistol and 5 troopers/recruits with carbines.
Their gang specific cards are included in the Legend of dead mans hand Card set – which comes with the expansion or can be bought separately. Their rules are also available to download from GEG great resource page for Dead Mans Hand
Now I don’t own this set of metal miniatures and currently dont really have any miniatures I can use as stand ins – so to illustrate this post I have used the pictures from GEG site.
So the Legend introduces the 7th Cavalry as
We bring Justice in the far reaches of this country. Whether pacifying the savages or running down gangs of outlaws we are a symbol of the United states for all to see.
Legend of Dead Man’s Hand rules – Great escape games
For many this symbol is something to fight against; they byck against the inevitability of civilisation that follows in our wake.
These men must either change or be changed and we will be the agent of that change
Their are 4 ranks for the 7th cavalry detachment (gang)
Officer – a detachment must have 1 of these and they are armed with a pistol and a sword. The sword allows the officer to force a player to reroll their H2H result.
Indian Fighter- a detachment doesn’t have to bring an Indian Fighter along but can bring upto 1, who is then armed with a pistol.
Troopers – their must be at least 2 of these in any Detachment, they can be armed with a carbine. The Carbine has its own stats and is a cross between a Rifle and a repeating rifle.
Recruits – the detachment does not have to include any of there’s but can choose to include upto 4, Like the troopers they are armed with carbines.
This gang is extremely limited in weapon choices, with only pistols and carbines being available for ranged attacks and a sword for the officer.
Luckily they do come with the most special rules.
- SWORD – as mentioned earlier this allows the officer to force an opponent to reroll their HTH score
- NCO – If the officer is not included in a campaign scene, now I have not previously discussed the campaign mechanic and wont here but may later, one of the troopers acts as an NCO and receives a -1 bonus to his nerve.
- BUGLE – the detachment may include a nominated bugler (be good to have a model with one). So long as this model is alive the gang receives an additional +! to any BIG NERVE TESTS. This works even if the officer has gone out of action or was not present.
- DRILLED – 7th cavalry armed with a carbine will never receive the -1 penalty to shooting for moving twice. This makes them a highly mobile force and enables to use of move, fire, move orders to enable them to pop out of cover shoot and then return to cover.
- CAVALRY – for one off games all members of the detachment can be mounted in the final scene at a cost of 1 rep instead of 3.
Their Jack, Queen, King and Aces cards also bring some interesting options
- ACE – “Drill Call” – Must be played at the start of a turn after initiative has been shown but before any model is activated. For the following turn all carbine armed 7th Cavalry models may reroll any shooting result.
- KING – “To the colors” – This must also be played at the start of the turn before any model is activated. For the following turn all Nerve/Bug Nerve tests are passed automatically.
- QUEEN – “Reveille” – This is the only Card for 7th cavalry that can be played at any point. Once the card has been played a model within 20cm of the Bugler or Officer can remove 1 under fire marker, this occurs after it has been activated.
- JACK – “First Call” – This card bust also be played at the beginning of a turn before any model has been activated. The 7th Cavalry player discards all the cards in their hand and draws fresh cards. Interestingly this card does not state that you only draw as many cards as you have in your hand, so my reading of it is you get a full 5 cards.
Don’t forget all the gangs I’ve looked at can be found at my DEAD MANS HAND page.
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