Government Low Dogs

Just spent an hour writing up the tournament - then the website ate it. Not impressed.

Brief summary...

Round one - Dave playing similar Law Dogs deck, with similar start. First Turn took out the opposing Tommy with a Kidnap[ing, giving me the unfair advantage in shootouts, game slided out of Dave's hands from there.

Round two - Dan playing Morgan deedslide Not good start from Dan, not production deeds. Potshoted the influence holders with Bounty Hunters and Kidnappings. Caught an Irving with a Shotgun at a Pearley's Palace I cheekily nabbed control of. In the end, he'd put out more control than he could cover, so I stole it.

Round 3 - George playing Des row / Hucksters Appaling first turn from me with some questionable play choices (i was trying to be too clever with Kidnapping and the Wendy I put in for Rafi vs. Des Row). Meant I was down to just a booted out Tommy at Home. George could have won by moving his Smiley into my Cirlce M or using the Jail he controlled via Maria onteh Wendy I had to discard...but he wasn't on form either. Rest of the game slipped away from him as I rebuilt influence and dude base whilst he saw no economy to help him.

ROund 4 - Stephen playing Des Row sloane start. Kept a double coachwhip hand. First lowball I booted Sloane, then shoved Wendy in the TS. Stalled Stepehen for a turn. Next turn shenanigans happen, all his board are at home booted, so I fire a Bounty Hunter at SLoane. Who cheating five of a kinds... and eats the Coach Whip. Play a control point, and Blackwood is not enough...

Cut - Tom playing Oddities. Tried to take out his only Huckster witha first action Kidnapping. Get Lepus, so everyone goes home booted instead. Second turn, craziness occurs as multiple shootouts in teh TS and environs via Bounty HUnters go down. Eventually I've got the TS booted down and just his Jake SMiley mobile after 'sacrificing' a travis/shotgun, two bounty hunters and A steven Wiles. Call out the Smiley, Tom slips up and doesn't run home - Rafi moves Tommy in and that's game.

FInal - George. Bunch of equal discards and card play goes on. His Silas swaps with my Travis with a shotgun in TS. His SMiley faces a Bounty Hunter, the Bounty Hunter goes down but not before coachwhipping WIlber. SMiley then eats a second Bounty Hunter. Maria and Fred are left facing my Tommy and WEndy with Smiley support. Hunter's Protection goes down, I steal it and use it Fred doesn't get to use the Des Row job before Wendy calls him out and sends him home. Maria can't cover my 2 CP....

Woot. Win. Not sure it's as good overall as the previous incarnation but I get the feeling it hanldes the new Des Row decks better. More tweaking required, but I do like starting Jail even if it means one less mobile influence and Rafi's ability is immense.

Have you considered pushing the club draw structure out to include 5s and give yourself some high end shootout potential for the late game? Charlies Place and Shane and Graves are both decent at the value, and PW and Hiding are both nice too.

Late game your shootout hand draws aren't going to be significantly different from turn one - there's not that many ways to push bullet ratings in the deck.

What you're relying on is consistently being able to pull a legal full house or a cheating four off either 2 stud or one stud X draw.

I did notice that it was just missing the 5s in clubs in order to have a slim chance at a straight flush, but you don't want to touch the 3, 4 and 8 values as they're already as low as I'm comfortable with for hitting the above mentioned full house (in fact, the next version will go back to tigheter numbers as I saw two two pairs at the tourney... not good enough).

So - you'd have to remove the Tax Office, Wendy and maybe Wylie (way too expensive I found and not even useful versus Des Row) just to get 3 5s. Possible, Pistol Whip and Hiding are solid additions - but I wouldn't want to dilute beyond that into diamonds. I'd probably edge towards Pistol Whip just because it works so well with Kidnapping/Bounty hunters