Deadlands Noir the Big Easy: Review

Deadlands Noir The Big Easy: Review

Information:

Mechanics: Asymmetry, Simultaneous Play

Player Age: 10+ 

Player Count: 2 - 4 Players

Time to Play: 45 - 60 Minutes 
Game Designer: John Geoff
Game Artist:  Cheyenne Wright

Publisher: Last Lion Games

Disclaimer: A preview copy for the game was provided by the publisher.

Objective:

An unspeakable crime has occurred in the deadlands and your role is to individually solve this crime by having an unrevealed trio of clue cards (a suspect, motive and evidence). However, the other solo investigators will not make this easy for you as this is a cutthroat game of solving the case by any means necessary. Every turn there will be five phases the draw phase, legwork phase (where most of your turn will occur), move phase, investigate phase and discard phase.

Card Anatomy:

There are nine types of cards in 'Dead Lands Big Easy'; the Gumshoe cards that include Legwork, Meddle, Equipments, and Location cards.  There  are also individual decks for Clues and Encounters. There are also Investigators, Cases and Neighbourhood cards.

Gumshoe cards:

The gumshoe deck is the main deck that players will use throughout the game. It includes legwork cards, locations, meddle cards and equipment. All of these cards, except for the location, can and will be used for contests throughout the game with encounters and investigations. These contests will use the traits found on the left-hand side  to see if the traits match the traits in the contest and add the value on the top right on each of these gumshoe cards.

Legwork:

Legwork cards can either be used to plan your upcoming turn or thwart your fellow detectives. Each of these cards can only be used for their ability in the leg work phase but can be used within any contest.

Meddle:

These are your traps, i.e. your hidden knowledge. They can be played at any point on anyone's turn and for that reason they can be played in response to other meddle cards. When multiple meddle cards are played in response to one card, the last played will be the first resolved (the stack rule).

Equipment:

Each equipment will belong to a type: device, weapon, or getup. Players can only have one of each type equipped at any time. As well as this, each equipment will have either a static ability that is always active, an ability that can be activated at any time (meddle), or an ability that can only be activated in the legwork phase. These abilities can add effects when going against threats or investigating.

Locations:

There are several factors for each location; the top left states what clue card will be obtained if this location is successfully investigated, the left-hand side has traits and a target value which will be relevant in contests, the top of the card is the neighbourhood that the location must be played in, and lastly there is a description of the location’s ability and the location type. These cards can only be played in the gumshoe phase and will allow you to draw a new gumshoe card when played.

Clue cards:

These will be the cards that you will gain through investigating at a location. Each clue card has an ability that can be activated by revealing and keeping the card face up. These will normally add advantages to your investigation, except for suspect cards which tend to have negative effects. To win the game (the standard way) you will need one evidence, one suspect and one motive clue, all face down.

Encounter cards:

There are two types of encounters; obstacles and threats. Both of these need to be passed to be able to investigate at a location. Obstacles will create something that needs to be overcome by following the rules on the card, such as discarding a certain type of card. These obstacles will stay on the location until a player overcomes the obstacle. Threats, however, will only last this one turn. There will be an ability on most threats and they will have a value on the top right that is its attack and health. The attack/health will increase by any symbol on the left-hand side of the threat that matches the location that the threat was played at.

Neighbourhoods:

Neighbourhoods will never disappear. There are three neighbourhoods, each with a legwork action that can be activated in the legwork phase if you are on the location. Each neighbourhood has a limit of three connected locations at any one time.

Investigators:

Each investigator has a special ability and a respective token to move the character across neighbourhoods and locations.

Case cards:

These are the cases that need to be solved each game. A game will only require one case and each case may have additional cards that will be added to their respective decks, new additional rules that are relevant, and a different win condition.

Setup:

- Choose a case to solve, the first case is recommended for the first couple of games to get the hang of things.
- Shuffle all the decks separately.
- Place the three neighbourhoods separate with space to place up to three locations above each neighbourhood.
- Each player chooses an investigator and gain the corresponding character token.
- Discard (bury) the top cards of the gumshoe deck until a location is revealed then place that location into play close above its neighbourhood.
- Each player will place their investigator token at a neighbourhood or a revealed location.

How to Play:

On every turn there will be five phases; draw, legwork, move, investigate and discard. These phases continue until one player has one clue of each type unrevealed. All three are then revealed all together to solve the case (in some cases this win condition could change).

Draw Phase:

At the start of your turn, replenish your hand to your hand size (this will normally be six but can be modified with other cards).

Legwork Phase:

Every great detective needs a plan, so this is the phase where you will do just that. Any equipment or neighbourhood with a leg work action can now be activated or any legwork cards in your hand (yellow) can now be used for their legwork action. There is no limit to the number of cards that can be played in this phase.

Move Phase:

Move your investigator to a location in the same neighbourhood or to a new neighbourhood. Whenever you move to a new location in a neighbourhood you will have to reveal an encounter card and face the obstacle or the threat.

Encountering Contests:

This occurs whenever a player has to engage with a threat or perform an investigation.
When a player is in a contest they will play any card from their hand for the value on the top right side of the card. A value will also be added for any symbol that matches the location that the investigator is at when encountering the threat or when performing an investigation. The goal of this value is to meet or exceed the value on the location or threat. If you reach or exceed that value, you have succeeded and will gain a clue (if investigating) or will get past the threat. If you lose when investigating nothing happens, but if you lose against a threat you will take damage and discard cards equal to the value difference between your card and the threat value.

Investigate Phase:

If you are at a location you can now investigate by encountering a contest and trying to match the target value of the location. The catch is, any other player can obstruct justice by adding one card to increase the target value by the additional card value and any symbol that matches the ones found at the location.

Discard Phase:

You must discard down to your hand size, but you can also discard as many cards that you desire to draw new cards in your next draw phase.

Making your Accusation:

Whenever you meet the case goal on your turn you can reveal the needed suspects, motives and evidence (in the standard win condition it is one of each) to reveal the true culprit and prove that you are the best detective.

Final Thoughts:

Pros:
- Multiuse cards
- Plenty of methods to mitigate the take that aspect
- Multiple cases to change the win conditions and play conditions of every game
- Great theme and great art to match

'Deadlands the Big Easy' is a great game of using your cards for multiple methods. These may be contesting or hindering other players, or trying to solve the case before your competition to rein supreme as the obvious elite.
The game originally appears as one focusing too much on a take that aspect, but the more you hinder your opponents, the more you actually hinder yourself. An example of this is if you have a successful turn you may not have any cards left to hinder your opponents, but if you obstruct justice you may just discard a card that would have highly benefited you on your own turn.
The game allows for a lot of player interaction but there are plenty of meddle cards that cancel other cards with certain traits. If one player is constantly hindered while gaining clues then the stronger they get, and the more evidence and motives a player has revealed the more benefits they receive. This helps to keep everyone in the game the entire time with no one sitting on the sidelines twiddling their thumbs. If you enjoy games with a rich theme and constant player interaction then you should late pledge this Kickstarter, as it is not currently on Kickstarter you are able to preorder from the link below.

Kickstarter Link for Preorder.

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