Western Legends

Product Information

Western legends by Kolossal games is a sandbox game set in the wild west. Players get to wrangle cattle, pan for gold, play poker and choose the path and story they write to wild west fame or infamy.

Western Legends is an open-world sandbox tabletop adventure for 2-6 players set in the American Wild West. Players assume the roles of historical figures of the era, earning their legendary status in a variety of ways: gamble, drive cattle, prospect for gold, rob the bank, fight bandits, pursue stories, become an outlaw, keep the peace. The possibilities are darn near endless. Whether arresting outlaws, fighting bandits or holding up the bank, combat is resolved using poker cards that contain additional actions. Panning for gold requires dice rolling and you can even earn money playing poker with other players.Wild West adventure game Western Legends is coming to a close in its last major expansion, Blood Money. From the creative mind of Hervé Lemaître, players will enjoy a highly narrative and interactive experience, choosing a life of crime as a Wanted character or justice as a Marshal. Western Legends features historical characters from the American old west brought to life with the beautiful illustration work by Roland MacDonald. Players are competing to become a true western legend and the game end is triggered when one player gains a predetermined number of legendary points.

Each turn there can be random events you have to manage and story cards that you achieve allowing you to gain additional bonuses. As the rounds continue and players complete certain objectives, they can place markers on story cards. Once filled, the story card is flipped at the end of the round and additional bonuses are resolved, the card will often allow the sheriff to be moved towards, or away from the outlaws, depending on who has revealed the story. The Good, The Bad, & The Handsome expansion features three new legends with their corresponding goal cards: starting Marshal Judge Roy Bean, starting outlaw Butch Cassidy, and Joaquin Murrieta. This expansion also introduces 16 new story cards with a new condition, as well as 12 unique legendary items. Each player's turn starts with drawing poker cards and/or gaining cash. Then they choose three actions. Possible actions include: move on the map (how far depends on whether they have a mount), doing a location-specific action (such as mine for gold if they are at a gold mine, gamble if they're in a saloon, etc.), fight other players at the same location (either duel them, rob them, or arrest them if they're wanted), play poker cards that have action abilities, etc. Legendary Points (LPs) are earned based on the outcomes of many of these actions, and the winner is whoever has the most LPs at the end of the game.Pre-pub link is up, and the game is getting great numbers to start. https://www.gmtgames.com/p-1083-wings-for-the-baron-deluxe-gmt-edition.aspx

I guess so. My single play was more a combination of just "doing stuff" than anything else. I started out near one of the mines, so I went in and mined. I did well and then went straight to the bank to cash in and bought a gun and the fastest horse. I ended up upgrading both and dumping money on other stuff(!) that wasn't important, as much as that I just wanted to dump the cash so I wouldn't be a target and so I would gain the LP for earning and spending it. This was another contrast between WL and M&M. In the latter, there's a basic tension between spending and saving. You earn VP on the Caribbean for stashing your loot. But you really want to spend it on ship upgrades and rumors. In WL, you earn points for spending money on stuff that you may not even want and might never use. There's no decision to be made there. It's not the basic life choice of spending or saving. You just spend because that gets you closer to winning. If that means that WL was intended to be faster-paced, so you're not spending turns going all the way across the sea to stash your loot, where it does you no other good but getting you points at the end, I can see that. It just takes away from what is often a crucial choice in M&M (and many other games.)Blood Money introduces several new concepts into the core experience of Western Legends. Upping the stakes is a new risk die, which players can choose to roll during their turn in hopes of gaining additional rewards such as extra money, the chance to automatically move and the opportunity to draw a poker card, which enables the player to perform certain abilities. However, the consequences for rolling a negative outcome on the risk die are wounds, which can build up over time to have some nasty effects.

Thinking about it, I guess one of the things that bugs me is that there doesn't seem to be anything that you're compelled to do because there's so much to do that all of it, collectively, doesn't seem important. Take cattle wrangling. It doesn't earn you much in the way of points or currency... but just about as much as everything else you could do. On the one hand, that's great for variety and just enjoying what you're doing. OTOH, it seems to sap the urgency from the game. In M&M, for example, there's tension because your moves are so limited. But the payoff when you finally complete your task is pretty huge. You feel a sense of accomplishment because you took the risk and now here's your reward. Most of the rewards in Legends seem smaller, so the feeling of success isn't nearly as great. It's also because the risk seems smaller, so the energy in the game, in general, seems less. (with the obvious caveat that I've had all of one (1) play of Legends.) It didn't seem like I was moving toward any kind of exciting turn. I was just accumulating points doing... stuff. It was generally entertaining stuff, but still just stuff. I didn't see any turns that even approached the Doc Holliday moment that Wade described. Ultimately the game is a very neat clash of efficiency of actions with sandbox adventure narrative. The third part is a “Mini expansion” and here especially unique weapon abilities for shotgun, revolver and rifle are something that should interest most western fanatics.As a sandbox game this is where the fun really begins, on your turn there are just so many options and all of them can support you in working towards becoming the most legendary figure in the Old West. You really can play this as you want to, become the most wanted character or become a marshal chasing down the bad guys arresting them and placing them in jail. Either way you can go into one of the two towns to spend your cash in the general store to buy a mule or a horse to increase your movement or buy and upgrade your weapons which prove your abilities in fights. Players assume the roles of historical figures of the era, earning their legendary status in a variety of ways: gamble, drive cattle, prospect for gold, rob the bank, fight bandits, pursue stories, become an outlaw, keep the peace. So, choose your player colour, grab your player board and tokens, and read through the flavour text on your card. Place your character, the Sheriff and bandits on their designated start spaces, discard one of the four character objectives and you are almost ready to go. Each character is given various starting items which could be a mix weapons, useful items, dollars and some poker cards. Once these are all dealt out, the most wanted player will start. Gameplay From outlaws, to gunfighters, to the American cowboy, and buried treasures on the frontier, Old West Legends provides tales, biographies, and in-depth history into the lives and times in the American West. GOLD RUSH is an easy fix to the problematic Gold strategy. BRUTAL BANDITS is for those of us that can’t even buy the “Fistful” expansion. Plus other rules adding difficulty.