Thursday 7 May 2015

Dead Man's Hand


"You see, my mule don't like people laughing. He gets the crazy idea you're laughing at him. Now if you apologise, like I know you are going to, I might just convince him you didn't mean it"

      The one thing all gaming clubs, and mine is no exception, can be bad for, are weird bursts of enthusiasm for games or genres that vanish as fast as they appear and one of the ones that my club is prone to is wild west games. Once every 6 months it seems someone puts out the call that anyone with anything western should bring it to the club to help fill the board and give players something to use in a big, sprawling club shoot out. It was to one of these calls that I wandered down to the model shop near my work and bought myself a cheap 4ground western shop, I got home, I built it and I found I really enjoyed it. So I went online to look up what else they had. By this point I had missed the club game which I had bought the building for, but I had caught the bug good and proper, there were another two buildings in the post and a set of rules as I figured if you are jumping into something head first you might as well do it properly.
      This post is about the birth of the good town of Sonry, named after the town at the start of Django Unchained called Daughtery. Its a modest town, but I have no doubt that will change in the future. This is a project I have had on the go for about 2 months now and I have been holding back from this blog because I wanted to do it justice, now might be that time.

dead mans hand board game scenery terrain town western wild west
 The good town of Sonry.

Burleigh's gunshop - a must have in the west.

 New construction.

 The sheriff's office.

dead mans hand wanted posters western wild west
 Wanted posters, left to right;
Walter Whyte, Sirrus Black and John Marston.
From Breaking Bad, Harry Potter and Red Dead Redemption respectively.

 Dibbler's general store.

Dr. Lawn - the town doctor.

 The teddy emporium - this I want to explain . . .

 The gallows.

     The set of rules I decided to go for were Dead Man's Hand, they seemed to have the best rules online and had the benefit of being simple to learn. Again after looking at reviews I decided that as much as the figures produced for the game are gorgeous,the price point is just a tad too high compared to other offerings, so I duely popped onto North Star's site and filled my basket up with a mix of North Star and Artisan figures, including a few bits and pieces for other games, and found for the same price as 14 figures from Great Escape Games I now had just over 20. Here they are;

 The good sheriff and his deputies.

 The Outlaws - Boss in black, obviously. . .

dead mans hand dr doctor
 The good folk of Sonry - Dr. Lawn in the middle.

     As I mentioned at the beginning of the post, my club pulls out a western themed game every 6 months of so, and the last one was just after Salute last year where one of our members had picked up Dead Man's Hand and wanted to try it out (this only lasted two weeks), but in that time I decided to get a gang together, but I wanted something different. While searching online I found Eureka Miniature's the good, the bad and the cuddly range of cow-bears and I put a little order in to get the full 7 man gang plus one extra just because of how the packs worked. This is where the idea of the teddy bear emporium from earlier came from.

good the bad the cuddly teddy bear cow boys dead mans hand
The good, the bad and the cuddly, plus friends.

    In due course I will try and name every model for this game as I kind of feel a 7 man gang should be made of individuals and not just figures. I might have a game planned for tomorrow so hopefully there will be a post in the near future going over a game, if not there will definitely be some Bolt Action stuff coming fairly soon. Building up a stock pile of cool photos I have taken in games.

Thanks for reading

16 comments:

  1. Yeehaw! I love it. Your photo's duly saved and ideas have been taken from your layout... Now if only I could pull me finger out and finish my town :)

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    1. Thanks Roy. I am still waiting for yours. You are going into much more detail that I have so far. Have to say getting a yellow cloth down and setting up was a massive enthusiasm boost, if you start to lag.

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    2. Unfortunately I've jumped ship and am painting up IHMN at the moment, so I've something I can play with at wargames clubs.
      As it is I'm still making purchases but have now called a halt to buying anymore till I've finished the three buildings I've got. I've my eye on some Redoubt Enterprises miniatures, for civilians and the like. They have a nice civilian horse and carriage in their ACW collection that I desperately want.

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  2. I love! that you have teddy bear gang!

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    1. Thanks Adam. I was pleased when I found them online!

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  3. That's a lovely looking town dude! Great gangs too.

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    1. Thanks Bob. Now are there any good zombie cow-boy makers?

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  4. PLUSH TOYS OF THE OLD WEST!!

    "This here's John Wesley Teddybear - they say he oncet shot a man jest fer eatin' his porridge too loud."

    Top stuff, and just the right amount of weirdness! Do you plan to have rocking horses tied up at the hitching posts?
    ; )

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    1. Thanks Evan. They sell cow-bears on hobby horses and unmounted hobby horses. Might be a route I can walk down.

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  5. Absolutely brilliant, but best I don't show Mrs. Awdry your bears or I'll be painting some myself! That's an awful lot of Sarissa on show there too. ;)

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    1. Thanks Michael. You've got to keep yourself entertained some how . . . And as for the amount of buildings, firestorm games I your best friend there.

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  6. Fantastic, love the buildings!

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    1. Thanks Phil. I'm a bit pleased with them.

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  7. Excellent job on all these pieces. Love the Discworld references as well.

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    1. Thanks for that. Keep an eye out for more Discworld references elsewhere as well, the late great Sir Pratchett has influenced me in a big way . . .

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