Deadwood

In Deadwood, you send gunslingers into town to get money. You do this by controlling various buildings and gaining their advantages until the train arrives, bringing unavoidable progress and federal law.What I like about it:- Thematic attention to detail. Wooden dice. Tokens depict horses at full gallop, bullets, wanted posters, etc. The board is sparsely illustrated, but building tiles (which cover up the board) and gunslingers are stylistically cartoonish. Rules encourage antiquated lingo like "skedaddle" when you choose to flee a gunfight. It made me want to use those cheap plastic cowboys I had as a kid instead of cardboard tokens.- Simple mechanics. You either put a gunslinger into a building and use its effect, or take one (or all of them) off the board. If an opponent is already on a building you want, you can try to shoot 'em (roll the dice). An excellent quick-draw rule gives advantage to the higher rank if shooters aren't evenly matched, but if that fails it's anyone's contest.- Plays fairly quickly. 3 or 4 players are done in about an hour.- Cutthroat competition and treachery. Near the end, you have to choose whether to go aggressively after money, stymie an opponent, or get rid of Wanted posters which you pay a penalty for at the end. Everyone can see how much money everyone else has at all times, and some basic mental math will tell you whether you should end the game now, or try to hold off other players until you're ahead.What I didn't like about it:- No reference sheets. Each building has a different effect, and although the building tiles all have icons on them, they don't always adequately explain what each one provides. For example, the Grifter can be extremely valuable for relocating up to 2 of an opponent's tokens from either a building OR his ranch onto the abandoned mine, but the iconography doesn't make that clear. Plan on passing the rulebook around the table a LOT, and having new players ask "What does this place do?" half a dozen times on every...single...turn. This drags out playtime and is only slightly more fun than shoveling manure.- The game usually ends when anyone takes the Town Hall for the 5th time. Anyone. Including that douche you were hoping wouldn't show up because he never brings food, eats all of yours, and knows he has no chance of winning, so he decides to end it right before your turn, knowing fully well that he's handing your victory to someone else. Not that this happened to me... but maybe it did, and I hate that. I guess in Deadwood, people sometimes get worse than they deserve.Deadwood is a good medium-weight thematic family-friendly game. It could benefit from some resin-molded figures instead of cardboard tokens, but I imagine that would have made the game less affordable. Not having reference sheets for buildings is a real shame though. It can't have cost that much more to print 5 of them. For its price, I think Deadwood would be a good choice for people who are interested in heavily-themed strategy games, but aren't ready to invest in Descent, Smallworld, Arkham Horror, etc.

Summary: Deadwood is a board game for 2 to 4 players. The players take the roles of crooked the gangs in the fictional, Western town of Deadwood. Through cunning and violence, players can attempt to accumulate the most cash by the end of the game. It is published by Fantasy Flight Games (FFG).On to the Dr Games’ Criteria …GO/NO GO Criterion• Complexity: (GO) I am a fan of FFG, and, as a longtime advocate, I have to confess that FFG likes its games to be heavy with complexity. This one is no exception. There are many layers to the strategy this game. You have to know: when to draw, where to place acquisitions, when to retreat, assets you need to try to gain, etc. There is uncertainty as to when the game will stop too, and players will need to hedge their bets against uncertainty.• Balanced: (GO ) Deadwood is completely balanced.• Chance (GO) Deadwood is a good combination of random elements, by rolls for combat, draw cards for resources, and skill.• Clarity: (GO) You will very likely have to read the rules through several times, and then you would be well advised for one of your gaming group to play through a couple solo times to get a feel for the game. The rules are well-designed, and there are illustrations. There is just a lot of complexity beneath the surface of the game.• Reasonable Time: (GO) For the first game, be prepared to spend several hours. After you know the rules, you can complete most games in less than two hours.Bonus Criteria• Social: There are no special rules about social interactions. The advised this is a very, very competitive game.• Unique/Interesting Mechanics: Nothing jumps out.• Informed: Nope.• Rewards Throughout: You have some idea of how well you’re doing in the game, fortunes can shift radically in the last turn.

If you want a light worker placement game with a fun, Western theme, and don't mind a little 'take that' (PvP) then this is worth checking out! It's surprising to me that this games seems to have fallen under the radar and may be going out of print. That is sad, as Western themed board games are so rare!And Deadwood has a brilliant and original game mechanic that is almost never used in typical Euro-Style worker placement games: the ability to displace another player's worker from it's space. In 99% of worker placement games, once an action spot is taken it's gone for the whole turn! That of course is part of the strategy in such games.But Deadwood turns this fundamental worker placement mechanic on it's head by allowing player to try and kick an already place worker out of his spot! And it's done very thematically as a 'shoot out' mechanic! The winner of the shootout (via competitive die rolling) gets to claim (attacker), or keep (defender) the action space! It's a brilliant touch!If you like light, highly thematic games that can be played in under 2 hours, then check this game out before it disappears! It may surprise you!