Best Wild West Rules ?

[jetengine]

So In the future I'm going to be getting a wild west 4x4 board for Malifaux and I realised it also lets me use my plethora of Wild West minis ! So I need ruleset suggestions since all I've got is Dead Mans Hand.

[Elbows]

What kind of rules are you looking for?  Quick and easy, more role-playing-esque, etc.  Do you want a lot of miniatures on the board, or just a handful?

Best is going to be pretty subjective, but luckily most of the Old West rules are different enough in purpose.

Dead Man's Hand - you've got this covered.
Fistful of Lead - very popular, recently re-released
Gutshot - the most role-playing heavy one, fewer miniatures, super detailed if you wish
Legends of the Old West - Necromunda/Mordheim takeoff from Warhammer Historicals (now out-of-print).  If you love GW stuff from the 90's this is your game
Shoot N' Skedaddle - my own design, based on randomly generated posses/gangs and hectic hollywood action
Desperado - the most figures, and generally a pretty popular convention game for large groups (I believe someone was going to re-release this soon)
The rules with no name (TRWNN) - old school, available as a free download (haven't read this one in ages)
Wild West Exodus - 35mm weird-west, don't know how well this was received
Blackwater Gulch - not sure if this ever took off, but when I tried the free rules a rather simple GW-feeling game w/ limited depth

Those are the ones I can think of off the top of my head.  What kind of "feel" are you wanting from your games?

[jetengine]

20 odd models at the most. Skirmish. 4x4 board not super detailed.

[Elbows]

That number of models will cover all of the games listed, easily.  4x4 likewise works for all of them.  You can find reviews of most of these games online I'd imagine.  A few have free rules: Shoot N' Skedaddle, TWRNN (I think), Blackwater Gulch (the original one was a free download), and maaaaybe an old copy of Desperado?  You can count out LOTOW unless you love GW games as it's out of print and if you want books that'd be tough (I'm sure someone has scanned them though).

In general they all (except Wild West Exodus and later Blackwater Gulch "Weird" expansions) use the same cowboys/indians etc. so you can repurpose all of your DMH stuff.

[TheCaptain]

Also Black Scorpion has reportedly been gearing up to do a kickstarter in march for a new ruleset for their Tombstone minis, so that be worth taking a look at when kicks off.

[hentzau]

I think that Knuckleduster just did a re-release on this.  I picked up a copy at Little Wars last year (along with WAY too many of their Gunfighter's Ball figures.)  It's a pretty nice set of rules, just reading them through.  I haven't had a chance to play them yet though.  Might try and hit the table with them at my next con.

[Bloodaxe]

20 odd models at the most. Skirmish. 4x4 board not super detailed.

Fistful of Lead. 

[Inkpaduta]

Wild West Exodus would not work.
The rules are very specific to the weird west and
each figure comes with its own special card.

[Andrew_McGuire]

The Law of the Gun by Chris Peers (Ruga-Ruga Publications) may also fit the bill:

http://www.northstarfigures.com/prod.php?prod=6533

I bought it recently, heavily discounted, from North Star, and it would be worth keeping an eye out for it, as their bargains  items are changing all the time.

[Harry Faversham]

In the end there can only be one...



 

[BaronVonJ]

You know what I'll say.Fistful of Lead.
www.wiley-games.com

[jetengine]

Do any of these differentiate between Cowboys/Mexicans/NA or are they all neutral ?

[BaronVonJ]

Differentiate how so?

[Elbows]

Shoot N' Skedaddle does not have NA/Mexican designated characters so much.  LOTOW does - as it has large lists for various war parties (much in the Mordheim/Necromunda vane).

[Harry Faversham]

We have a rule making it easier to kill Mexicans, just kind of looks better...