Dead Man’s Hand: Renegade Indians

The Renegade Indians is the last of the gangs introduced in the Legend of Dead Mans Hand the expansion for the Dead Man’s Hand Wild West skirmish game available from Great Escape Games.

The rules for them and their stats can be downloaded from the Great Escape Games website. Great Escape Games produce a set of metal figures for this gang, which comes with a summary of their rules.

Their gang specific cards are included in the Legends of Dead Mans Hand Card set – which comes with the expansion or can be bought separately.

Now I don’t own this set of metal miniatures so instead I have used images from the Great Escape Games store.

The Renegade Indians are introduced in the expansion by the following

For too long my people have been pushed around by the white devil. Our traditions and way of life have been crushed under the iron hoof as it progresses from east to west.

No more. We have taken the white man’s ways and his weapons and brought them to war. We will take our place at the white man’s table, we will eat his food, drink his fire water and take his guns.

These guns we will use to take our land back one town at a time.
Legend of Dead Man’s Hand rules – Great escape games

The Renegade Indians have 4 model types available

The Chief – a gang must have 1 of these and they are armed with a pistol and like all this gang a Hand to Hand weapon. This character also has the highest HtH modifier of any of the gang members at +2.

Dog Soldier – this is an optional model type but a gang can take upto 1, who is then armed with a pistol and Hand to Hand Weapon. And unlike any of the other gangs comes with a +1 in HtH combat as well as a +2 in shooting.

Warriors – the gang must have at least 2 of these, they can be armed with a pistol and Hand to Hand weapon or, a rifle or repeater. But remember that at least the gang must be armed with a pistol as their sole ranged weapon. Also unlike all other gangs these 2 pt rep characters have +1 in HtH. But remember if they have the rifle or repeater their HtH will be zero not +1.

Braves – the gang can include upto 4 of these and they are armed with Hand to Hand weapons and unlike all other gangs 1 rep options these have no negative HtH modifier.

So straight off – no option to take shotguns, only the warriors can have long ranged weapons, so no long range shooters with positive modifiers to hit. This gang is definately buffed for hand to hand combat.

They have 3 special rules are

HAND TO HAND WEAPON – as we have seen all options in this gang come with this, it is responsible for the HtH modifiers as it confers a +1 to HTH value.
KEEN AS THE HARE – once per turn a model which ducks back can move 20cm instead of the normal 10 cm.
COUNTING COUP – this ability can only be activated once game and only when an opposing figure has been killed by one of the Renegade Indians in Hand to Hand Combat. When activated the killer can immediately move 10cm, if this move brings them into base contact with another enemy model then an immediate H2H fight is resolved. If the target of the second attack has not been activated and survives the attack they may “break off” as per page 13 of the rules.

Like all gangs they also have their own specific Jack, Queen, King and Aces cards

ACE – “Wardance” – this card can be played at any time, once played none of the opponents models can take an interrupt action for the rest of the turn.
KING – “Move about like the wind” – this card must be played before any model is activated. Once played all models in the Indian Renegade gang may make a 10cm move, this is a free move and does not affect activation of use up an action. However it also does not effect shooting or being shot at, so no need to mark the figures as having moved.
QUEEN – “Eyes of the Hawk” – this card can be played at any time. When played this card and all remaining cards in the players hand are taken along with the discard pile and current card deck (i.e. all cards except those on the table for initiative), then these are shuffled and a new hand equal to the number of cards originally in the hand (prior to this card being played) is taken.
JACK – “Warcry” – this card enables a member of the gang to enter combat from upto 10 cm away, so means that if the character wishes it can use 2 moves to engage an enemy model 20cm away, instead of the normal max 12cm. (10cm move bringing the model within 2cm of enemy, and 2nd move of 2cm to engage in combat)

So as we can see this gang is the HtH gang, with all special rules and cards enhancing their performance in HtH combat.

I have now written up all the Gangs from the Core game, The Legends and several which were introduced outside of these 2 publications. I am also aware that there are a couple of Gangs that have been released outside of the core rules and expansion, I may do reviews of these if and when I get them.

I have not covered any of the gangs from the Curse of Dead Mans Hand or Dead Mans Hand Down Under as I don’t currently own either of these and also they both are separate from the core era.