I admit to being a fan of Pinnacle’s Deadlands weird wild west setting. How can you not like outlaws, lawmen, miners, railroads, and gunslingers thrown in with mad scientists, mystical shamans and sorcerous hucksters? I was a fan of the original Doomtown collectible card game back in the day too, though I never got into collecting it all.
When I heard about the reboot of Doomtown as an ECG (Expandable Card Game), I knew I wanted to get it. But these days I’m mostly a board game fan. I enjoy playing with a couple of friends having a casual friendly game. So reading the forum discussions about tournament deck building and buying multiple base sets and the sorts of things caused me to wonder if Doomtown Reloaded was really a good match for my current interests.
The answer, thankfully, is YES! Doomtown Reloaded is a great game just as it comes in one copy of the base set. Inside is hours of enjoyable western action in the weirdest way for 2-4 players with no collecting or even deck building required.
The base set comes with a rule book and a “Gettin’ to Know Gomorra” guide along with 286 cards, tokens and a town square board. 304
The cards are divided into four suits that provide the things you need to build (and take control of) a western town: Diamonds are deeds (like the saloon), Spades are Dudes (like the Sheriff), Hearts are Goods (like your pistol, or horse), and Clubs are Action cards that do the unexpected.
The guide book even uses two preset decks to walk new players through a day in the town (better known as one turn). I found the rule book to be well written with just the right mix of narrative setting and direct, clear rules laid out in a logical, well organized format that was easy to understand, if a bit complex at times.
For us casual non-deck building gamers, one of the best things that the guide book provides is a deck list and suggested strategies for each of the four outfits that come in the base set.
The outfits! You and your pardners get to choose from the Sloane Gang (very nasty bandits), the Law Dogs (the town Sheriff and his deputies and help), the Morgan Cattle Company (who also employ mad scientists and their gadgets), and the Fourth Ring (a mystical circus full of strangeness).
We’ve used just the decks from the lists for more than a dozen games and have not yet felt the need to change them, though of course there are additional cards both in the base set and in future expansions that will allow you to build your outfit however you wish.
The game play itself is fast and furious.
Each “day” (turn) in Gomorra starts with Gamblin’ as players ante in for lowball 5 card stud which is then followed by Upkeep as you gain your income and pay wages to keep your Dudes on your side.
The heart of the game is the High Noon phase. During Noon, players alternate making a play back and forth until they all pass. You can choose between Shoppin’ (paying costs to put cards into play), Tradin’ (moving Goods from one Dude to another), Movin’ (moving Dudes around town), Actin’ (using a card’s Noon ability, which can include pullin’ jobs), and Callin’ Out (yep, reach for the sky or iron, pardner).
Shootouts erupt quite often in Gomorra. And the game has a great mechanic for gunfights, a hand of poker. Of course this being the weird west, there’s lots of things that can affect your poker hand that you wouldn’t normally think of, like having the right Dudes to allow you to draw extra cards.
Once everyone passes it’s Sundown and, if no one has won by controlling more of the town than any other player has influence to stop them, then you reset and prepare (draw cards) for another day.
A turn of Doomtown Reloaded often seems to play out a story not unlike a weird western full of town building, odd folks, gadgets, gunfights, mines, hucksters, outlaws, and lawmen.
As a casual board, non-deck building gamer, I consider Doomtown Reloaded to be a great game that will see a lot of play time with my friends before we even think about creating our own decks. 629