I'm a huge fan of Great Escape Games' Wild West gang fighting game Dead Man's Hand, as a quick-play skirmish game that is heavily influenced by the Western films I grew up enjoying it's a beautiful way to play out a three-act movie on the tabletop. In keeping with the filmatic feel of the game Great Escape Games has announced an upcoming Kickstarter in October for Dead Man's Hand Redux.

Great Escape Games // Dead Man's Hand

With over ten years of gameplay to reflect on Great Escape Games is in a prime position to go back and tinker with the rules to make it easier for people to get into the game and to streamline some of the rules to improve the game. The FAQ and errata are being folded into the rules and the card deck that runs the game is getting a bit of a cleanup with some card abilities being changed to make for a better mechanic in game.

Plastic Building Kit // Great Escape Games

One of the biggest bits of news is that the Kickstarter will help fund a new plastic building, three of which will be in the new Redux starter set, along with twenty figures using their existing Gunfighters sets, and possibly a new plastic sprue.

The building comes on three sprues and has a detailed interior and appears to be highly modular. The internal wall can be moved around within the building to allow you to modify your set up and change the look within the town you build.

The building comes with duckboards and an optional awning/porch that can be assembled with or without upright stanchions so even with this simple kit there is plenty of variety in the assembly so all three buildings can be uniquely distinctive on the tabletop. They also look as though they will be stackable and I'm sure there are plans for expansion in the terrain for the Old West that will allow this kit to shine as a basis for a whole town of Dead Man's Hand.

The Kickstarter for the Redux Starter Set is planned to be a very organic thing that will allow backers to interact with the folks at Great Escape Games and help shape what goes into the upcoming starter set and I expect the campaign to be very engaging as they push forward with the plans to bring DMH to a wider audience and production is already planned in so that even though the Kickstarter is mid-October they are planning to ship in March/April 2023.

Beyond the Redux box, there are two new books planned, The Good will contain thirteen gangs along with all of their face cards to play with them. While the Bad and the Ugly will be a single book for those more nefarious gangs of the Old West. Between the rulebook and the two new expansions, all the current gangs will be covered along with four new gangs which will include Buffalo Soldiers, and the Family (a cult-like group of religious fanatics). Until they are released all of the current books and cards will remain valid and nothing will vanish from the lists, in fact, some gangs may gain new soldier types.

I'm really fascinated to see where this goes there is more information from a live hangout from Battle Bunker HQ  if you want to check it out in more depth with some exclusives being shown off on camera.

Wicky Wicky Wah Wah...