(a review by Keith Done)
Deadwood is a relatively new release from Fantasy Flight that has become an instant hit with gamers at LXG. It’s a wild west themed game that uses the title of the famous frontier town made (in)famous by the HBO TV series of the same name. However, while the game shares the same name, it is not a simulation of the TV series in any way.
In Deadwood, each player controls a faction that seeks to make its fortune by fair means or foul before the railway comes to town and Deadwood gets civilized. The one with the most money at the end of the game wins.
You start the game with:
3 cowboys each with a rating of 1, 2 or 3, representing their prowess in a gunfight.
$5 in cold hard cash
A skedaddle token (lets you avoid a gun fight and run for the hills)
A cartridge token (allows you to roll an additional die in a gunfight)
The money and all pieces are printed on thick card stock with the art-work in a wonderful cartoon-style rendering. The board is small and contains three main areas:
Plots (where buildings are set up at the beginning of the game and during the game)
Boot Hill (where dead cowboys go and never re-enter the game!)
The Hideout (where cowboys who skedaddle end up until called home)
There is also the ranches – which are basically an off board areas where you keep your cowboys when not active on the board.
At the beginning of each game you sort out a quantity of buildings into piles labelled 1, 2 and 3. The buildings all have different functions and make every game of Deadwood a different experience. Several buildings (the Sherriff’s Office, the Mayor’s Office and the Saloon) are permanent starting
fixtures every game.
The game mechanics are very simple; basically you have two options each turn – you can send any one (only) of your cowboys on your ranch to a building in town or bring any or all cowboys home to your ranch (this includes cowboys in town or at the hideout).
Each building in town usually provides a once of financial reward that you get when you visit it and another special effect. For example, if I visit the Gunsmith I receive $1 and 2x cartridge tokens. This is a once only effect. I can only get this if I send another cowboy to that building again and the building has to be empty for me to activate it (so i would have to bring the cowboy already occupying the Gunsmith home first before I sent some else to get cartridges an $1,
Some buildings have a special permanent effect (for example if I have a cowboy on the Undertaker’s, I get a one off payment of $1 when I first move there and, as long as I have a cowboy there, every time any cowboy dies I get another $1). There are many buildings with differing effects and what makes Deadwood a challenge is to manage these effects to maximise your income and control of the town.
Of course the different factions will try and occupy key buildings as long as possible and, as only one cowboy can occupy a building (except for the Church) at any one time, you can opt to initiate a gunfight to drive them out. You move a cowboy to an occupied building to do this. The occupier has the option to beat it and run to the Hideout (by playing a skeedadle token (if they have one). If not, a gunfight takes place. Both sides have dice pool equal to the level of their cowboy. Both sides can opt to add one more die by playing a cartridge (if they have one).
Single dies are rolled – 6’skill outright, 4’s and 5’ds do a wound – two wounds = death. If a cowboy’s pool starts with more dice than his opponent, those dice are rolled first and the results applied immediately. If the cowboy with the fewer dice in his pool survives, both cowboys roll the rest of their dice one at a time. All results are simultaneous, the effects taking place after each die is rolled. It is possible for both cowboys to die in a gunfight.
If the occupant of the building is killed (or skeedadles before the fight) the cowboy who started the fight controls the building and immediately collects any money and uses its abilities if applicable. Any cowboy who starts a gunfight also collects a Wanted Poster, which has ramifications on scoring the game. Wanted Posters deduct money from a cowboy faction at the end of the game on an accumulative scale (not just one for one). You can get rid of wanted posters by visiting key buildings like the Church and the mayor’s office.
The mayor’s office is a key part of Deadwood in that it’s special ability brings down more buildings. However, it also forces the player who activated it to lay a piece of railway track, which brings the game closer to conclusion. There are four pieces of track and once a fifth track is to b laid, a station is placed in town and the game ends. Railway tracks must connect and are placed sequentially on empty town plots or, alternately, existing buildings are removed to make way for the railroad (entrenched cowboys are sent to the Hideout).
A strategic benefit of the placement of railroad tracks is that they cause any buildings to activate if they are placed adjacent to sites controlled by cowboys. When the station is placed, all occupied buildings next to it are activated twice.
Deadwood can also end prematurely if any faction has no cowboys on the board or at their ranch (and it can actually be a strategy to get your cowboys killed in gunfights if you are sitting on the highest pot of cash!) Deadwood also ends if the Wanted Poster Pool runs out (unlikely).
My first experience of Deadwood was to have fun going into town and challenging everyone to a gunfight. It was only in later games that I found t winning was a far more subtle game of manipulating control of buildings. You can win without firing a shot by carefully planning to occupy combinations of buildings at the most appropriate time.
In summary, Deadwood takes an average of an hour to play. Its game system is simplistic but its strategies require some forward planning if you are going to come out on top. The interaction between the different buildings that come into play each game makes for a unique game experience every time. The only negative comment is that two of the faction colours, purple and blue are very close and sometimes are mixed up and the ornate skill level numbers on the cowboys get lost in the art-work.
But, other than that, grab a copy of Deadwood and send your cowpokes into town to raise some hell – yeeha! (or you could just have a nice cup of tea at the local church).
4.5 out of 5 stars.
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