Dead Man’s Hand: Mountain Men

The Curse of Dead Man’s hand Gang 2 – Mountain Men.

Grizzly Adams and his friends – there is of course a gang set from Great Escape games but this gang also offers a wide opportunity for representation.

The cards come with the Curse of Dead Man’s hand rules book or can be purchased seperately.

This gang is the second goodies gang from the Curse of Dead Man’s Hand and provide some nice options – so lets have a look

They are introduced in the Curse of Dead Man’s Hand

The Mountain Men are often described as being a breed apart.

Each one is a survivor, tough and resourceful, able to live off the land. They’re typically loners, whether that’s the way they have always been or whether the life style has driven them away from others is difficult to tell.

They band together out of neccessity, coming into town to trade the furs and pelts they have gathered for supplier that nature cannot provide such as hard liquor, bullets and women.

They have an affinity with the natives and have adopted many of their ways, including clothing and fighting styles.

They headed to the hills a long time ago and only come down when they have to. They’re mean and surly and that’s when they’re being friendly.
Curse of Dead Mans hand – Great escape games

There are 4 model types available to the Mountain Men gang.

Boss – must always be part of the gang and is armed with a pistol and a knife

Bearman – is an optional member of the gang and comes with a pistol and knife.

Free Trappers – at least 2 of these must be in the gang – they can have pistol and knife, repeating rifle or musket, and one may take a Buffalo gun.

Company Men – 0-4 of these can be included and each must have a musket.

So the gang box comes with the Boss, Bearman, 2 company men/Free Trappers with Muskets, 1 Free Trapper with a repeating rifle, 1 Free Trapper with a Buffalo Gun and 1 Free Trapper with pistol and knife.

Interestingly this gang does not have the 50% must have pistols rule, although there is no where that this is stated explicitly, the make up of the gang from great escape and the write up of the gang definately support this.

They have no gang wide special rules, but rather each has his own rules.

LAY OF THE LAND – just like The Boys gang, the mountain men always win initiative if it is a draw. I assume if these 2 gangs face each other then neither benefits from their initiative rule.
SUIT OF STIFFENED SKIN – when a Mountain man loses a round of H2H they take 1 less damage, this can mean that they take no damage from the combat.
KNIFE FIGHTER – any knife armed Mountain Man can chose to re-roll their own H2H score, the second roll must stand.

But what are their Ace, King, Queen, Jack cards?

ACE – “Herbal Remedies” – when played this card removes all under fire markers from a single model, and this can be played at any time.
KING – “Traps” – this is played on an enemy model which is making a move action, it ends it turn immediately, loses all further actions and then takes damage from an unmodified roll on the shooting table.
QUEEN – “Indian Charm” – this card can be used at any time for a dice to be rerolled so long as that dice’s results affected one of the Mountain Men.
JACK – “Hunters’ Skills” – use this card after one of the gang has taken 3 move actions – they are then allowed to take a single shot which will also be un modified by movement.

When I started looking at this gang I expected them to be an alternative to the Renegade indians for someone who wished a H2H focus gang – however they have turned out to be more interesting than that.