Dead Mans Hand Redux: Building 2 gangs from the starter set

With the release of Dead Mans Hand Redux – and having looked at the changes to the 4 core gangs- I thought it was time to redo this post but using the Redux rules.

If you’d like to read the original post its here – Dead Mans Hand: Building 2 gangs from the starter set.

So can we still build 2 gangs from the 3 sprues that you get in the starter set.

Last time I built a Lawmen and Desperados gang from the 3 sprues, this time I have a bit more freedom, so will look at what can be done. Now Great Escape Games have changed the standard sprues supplied from 3 male gunslinger sprues to 2 male gunslinger sprues and 1 female sprue.

So lets lay down some basics (for most 2 gang combinations) of the 15 figures available 8 will need pistols – to meet the at least 50% of the gang have a pistol as their sole ranged weapon.

Lets have a look at the Male sprue – to my knowledge this hasn’t changed in the new edition.

And the female sprue

So what is available –

So the max you could build is –

So what are the weapon mixes for the 4 core gangs – In the old rules the options of mix of gang member types (by rep cost) were identical. In the new rules this is no longer the case the outlaws have the option of a 4 pt character (the Fugitive) and the Desperados have the option of upto 2 3 pt characters (the Hijackers). Also all the gangs, except the lawmen, can now take up to 6 – 1 pt characters – the Lawmen can take upto 4.

The new rules provide a greater flexibility that the old ones did – especially as the cowboys don’t have to have 50% with pistols and all their model types can take Pistol . Rifle or Repeating Rifle.

The real choice is whether you wish to maximise your flexibility of figure usage, or build to a specific gang. If you wish to do the first I’d avoid using the masked heads, not use the sherif stars and look to build 3 shotguns, 2 repeating rifles and 2 rifles leaving you with 8 with pistols. I’d also recommend avoid building a 2 pistol model but instead have one with a pistol in hand, pistol in holster and an empty holster that you can use either as a pistol only or a 2 pistol character.

I would avoid building

• more than 4 shotgun characters as the max you can ever field with 2 gangs is 5 – 3 for the lawmen and either 1 for the cowboys or 2 for the Desperados or Outlaws.
• more than 1 character with 2 pistols
• Unless you really wish to play the cowboys also work to keep 8 figures with only 1 pistol as the other 3 gangs require at least 1/2 the gang to be armed with a single pistol.

So happy building.

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