Image Courtesy of bloominoctober
This review continues my series of detailed reviews that attempt to be part review, part resource for anyone not totally familiar with the game. For this reason I expect readers to skip to the sections that are of most interest.
Please thumb this review if you appreciate my work. It does put a smile on my face to know you stopped by. Thanks for reading.
Summary
Game Type – Sandbox Adventure Game
Play Time: 90-180 minutes
Number of Players: 2-6 (Best 4-5)
Mechanics – Action Points, Area Movement, Dice Rolling, Hand Management, Pick-up & Deliver, Take That, End Game Bonuses, Variable Player Powers, Betting & Bluffing
Difficulty – Moderate (Takes a couple of plays to put it all together)
Components – Excellent
Artist – <PERSON>
Release – 2018
Designer – <PERSON> -(Debut Game)
Part II
In Part I covered an overview of the game, the components, the set-up and the basic flow and Phases present within the game. If you want to know how the game plays, I recommend you read Part I before continuing on here.
Western Legends: A Detailed Review (Part I)
In this, Part II, I cover the mechanisms within the game in greater detail, shine a light on the strategies within the game and then sum it all up in The Final Word. I hope you enjoy.
The Strategy – The Mechanisms in More Detail (How It All Works and Ties Together!)
To gain a greater sense of how to play the game well we need to know the core systems that are in place. They are :-
Your Branding: Wanted Vs The Law – Whilst gaining Legendary Points is the main aim, the players will also have to decide on which side of the law they will largely fall on. Actions leading to lawlessness (such as Robbing, Cattle Rustling, Heists etc) will earn a player Wanted Points. Alternately actions such as Arresting those that are Wanted or helping to Wrangle Cattle can earn Marshall Points.
I will get to both of these tracks in a moment but the key thing to note is that someone who is Wanted cannot just convert to the law whenever they want. A player has to be arrested and sent to the Sheriff's goal before they can think about wiping the slate clean.
Contrary to that is the lawmen or those on the Marshall Track. A law abiding citizen can go crooked whenever they please, it just takes a dark act to do so. There are several strategic reasons for doing so if the timing is right, but it does come at a cost...
The Wanted and Marshal Tracks – These two tracks (located on the left side of the board) are critical and the players are always keeping an eye on everyone's position.
Each track is effectively a 3 x 3 grid with some benefits listed both on the track and down the right-hand side. 470
The two tracks though work quite differently and this in turn helps guide the actions of the players to some degree. The one thing that both tracks have in common is that they can offer benefits to a player if they land on or pass a given location when moving their cube.
The Wanted Track offers additional Poker Cards. If we consider that Poker Cards really do represent the bullets in your gun (your many 'outs' over the course of the game) then it is quite apt that Wanted felons draw Poker Cards.
The Marshal Track offers up a mixture of cash and Legendary Points, both of which are very handy indeed. The gaining of cash probably reflects the greater ease with which lawmen could access the gear they needed to keep the peace. The LP's reflect their stature within townships, particularly when bringing a notorious figure to heel. In contrast to that, Lawmen perhaps were not as cunning and quick on their feet and thus do not get Poker Cards quite as easily as those that are Wanted.
Image Courtesy of <PERSON> is one other critical factor that makes the two tracks very different. Being Wanted will earn a player 1, 2 or 3 LP's at the end of every turn they take in the game (depending on which row their marker is at). Wanted players want to get notorious as quickly as they can in order to ramp up their Legendary Status. This of course comes at the risk of attracting the Sheriff's attention or an Arrest attempt at the hands of other players.
The Marshals cannot gain any LP's at the end of their turn but they can gain them during play by reaching locations 3, 6 or 9 on the Marshal Track. This can earn them 2, 4 and 6 LP's over the course of the game. That's a total of 12 LP's, which is huge. In addition, anyone finishing the game on the Marshal Track can earn a further 1, 2 or 3 LP's based on their finishing position. 528