Let's Conjugate Some Verbs: DEADWOOD

OK, thanks to the post in "What've you been playing", I am now interested in Deadwood. I know nothing of it, and I did always overlook it, although I love Western themed stuff.

Also, shootouts. I love shootouts.

So, let's discuss. Enlighten me.

I really liked it the one time I played. Minimum of 3 players although the designer has posted some 2-player variant that actually looks good.

You have a map that at the beginning is pretty empty. On one side in the town with a few buildings, the other side is where the railroad comes into town (the end game timer). You place cowboys on buildings and perform the action the building provides which often involves getting money somehow. As the town expands the railroad gets closer. Once the game ends usually by the Train Station getting placed the player with the most money is the winner.

The core of the game is super-simple, on a turn you must do one of the two options:
-Remove any/all of your cowboys from the board
-Place one cowboy on a building and if empty perform action, if populated roll some dice for a shootout

When you place a cowboy on an empty building, perform the building's action. If you place a cowboy on a building with another cowboy you have a shootout. If the "attacker" wins and drives off or kills the defender they can activate the building's actions.

The end of the game is when the railroad gets to town and the train station is built. There are other game trigger effects but really should never happen.

All the other rules are just specifics on how shootouts are performed and what the individual buildings do.

This is an underrated game. It's fast (about an hour plus or minus), shootouts are easy but deadly (if you lose, your cowboy is dead) and has three different end game conditions.

It a great little game.

Hey y'all, thanks a fuckin' lot for talking this game up AFTER I passed it up on clearance for like $7 at Target a couple of months ago.

Dr. Mabuse wrote: ...three different end game conditions.

Curious - Have you hit the other end game conditions? I haven't at this point and it seems like the group has to make a conscious effort to trigger one of those and not end via railroad. I feel for the poor soul that manages to lose all their cowboys though!

I think next game though I'm just going to go on a shooting rampage with my guys, go all El Guapo on the group and just shoot the town up.

I've only played it a few times at this point and every time I play I ask myself: "Why the hell am I not playing this more?"

Cocksucker!

Someone had to say it.

Michael Barnes wrote: Hey y'all, thanks a fuckin' lot for talking this game up AFTER I passed it up on clearance for like $7 at Target a couple of months ago.

I've talked it up before but I think my love for Horus Heresy has tarnished my worth to you.

(Looks over chart)

Hmm...yes, it seems I have you highlighted as a "red zone" recommender.

See, my words hold more weight since I gained street cred with the Bugs in the Kitchen recommendation.

Yeah, Deadwood's neat. Not terribly ambitious but does what it sets out to do with a mean efficiency. FFG seems to have some decent games hidden away amongst their acquisitions - on the strength of my Deadwood experience I picked up a marked down copy of Black Gold. Have yet to play though.

Has anyone played Black Gold? Thoughts? That's one I picked up on discount as well. Did it have buzz because Gigitan (sp?) was OOP and hard to find? And that's the cause of the reprint? Or because it is a good game? It looks pretty neat overall so I've held onto it despite never being able to play it yet.

I haven't played this Deadwood, but I have tried the Cheapass Games Deadwood. It's sort of a worker placement game, except that each player gets only one worker. Mildly amusing, with or without the card expansions that mix in different genres. I got the base set plus the horror and kung-fu expansions.

VonTush wrote:

Has anyone played Black Gold? Thoughts? That's one I picked up on discount as well. Did it have buzz because Gigitan (sp?) was OOP and hard to find? And that's the cause of the reprint? Or because it is a good game? It looks pretty neat overall so I've held onto it despite never being able to play it yet.

I'm not sure what they changed in Black Gold from Giganten, but Giganten falls into that category of 'family' games, that was brought up here a few weeks ago. You can get lucky (or not) in how much oil you find, and how much you can sell it for. You can bluff in the auctions by bidding with cash you don't have, but if you get caught you have to pay 1/2 the bid. The Giganten bits are good, but Black Gold's are every bit as good.

I guess I'd say it was okay - not the best or worst game that I've ever played. The wife and in-laws liked it, and I should get it out again sometime. There's not a ton of brain-burning strategy here; find oil, sell oil, try to hose your opponents a little bit.

Dr. Mabuse wrote:

Michael Barnes wrote: Hey y'all, thanks a fuckin' lot for talking this game up AFTER I passed it up on clearance for like $7 at Target a couple of months ago.

I've talked it up before but I think my love for Horus Heresy has tarnished my worth to you.

It's OK. He and Nate are going off to some dark corner of the internet to start Fortress: ERP. They're not ~real~ gamers anymore...not the kind of gamer that can sit and play a 6 hour slugfest. Gangsta.

LMAO