The Book of Deadeye Dan

[ArcBlade]

For starters I agree with Rob in the above post. 1.) Don't sleep on the old guns and 2.) Some guys are just talented shots.

However, while I find (in theory) DED's powers a good buy for 60 points I have not had great experiences using him. Let me qualify that tis is probably more me than him. Specifically, my luck is awful. Basically his Ullar Enhanced rifle is supposed to be a 50% shot, only with 1 die roll attacks I don't get close to getting a skull the 50% of the time that probability would suggest I should. In fact I never (I mean that..never) get a skull on a 1 die roll. I've used DED on several occassions and now with Gladiatrons I think he'd make a nice compliment. I like to get him either to height or leave him tucked behind trees in my starting zone with an angle on the center area of the field.. Usually though he ends up sitting there while the rest of my army does all the work. I try to get him involved and I place the third marker on him quite often. My most common opponent likes hero types and so I use the Sharpshooter more than some of you I'm sure but either way I've never rolled the 1 skull on his Ullar or the 19/20 on the Sharpshooter. At least not to my present memory. Even in one game where I used him on every round once per round until the final two when Spidey and the AE had the whole affair basically in hand. No hits with DED at all.

So I started thinking. DED is good from 300 + yards.. What about modern snipers who are good to over 1.5 miles. Say a sniper (true sniper) with a power like...If Sniper is left unmoved or molested for an entire round he may chose any figure up to 17 clear sight spaces away and roll the D20. If he rolls a 1-8 nothing happens he misses. If he rolls a 9 - 11 deal 2 unblockable damage, if he rolls a 12 - 16 deal 3 and 17 - 20 the character is killed. Treat this as a special attack. I'll round him out later, I'm thinking a 200 point character.

[DeathWalker (big number)]

ArcBlade wrote:

So I started thinking. DED is good from 300 + yards.. What about modern snipers who are good to over 1.5 miles. Say a sniper (true sniper) with a power like...If Sniper is left unmoved or molested for an entire round he may chose any figure up to 17 clear sight spaces away and roll the D20. If he rolls a 1-8 nothing happens he misses. If he rolls a 9 - 11 deal 2 unblockable damage, if he rolls a 12 - 16 deal 3 and 17 - 20 the character is killed. Treat this as a special attack. I'll round him out later, I'm thinking a 200 point character.


Good point. I think the range system is a little out of wach. ( com'on, some cowboy shooting farler than a super advanced robot dude?

P.S. I feel dumb I still can't figure out how to quote

[ArcBlade]

Originally Posted by STAROCEAN980

Also what train wreck did I walk in on?

What happend to talking about Dead Eye? Now I see posts about fricking Civil War guns.


For god's sake, stay on topic.

Oh and, Dead Eye Dan is awsome!

I agree DED can be awsome, though you need better rolls than I get for that. But Discussing his shooting and his ability to shoot in the context of the game is part of discussing him. It was broght up that he shoots better than more modern "mech" style characters with advanced weaponry. It was responded that Its not the equipment its the man that makes ashot and noted that just because someone has newer tech doesn't mean they will be more accurate at distance automatically. And discussed that at DED's time there were some very impressive shootists with some very impressiver weapons, such as the Sharps Buffalo Rifle with the adjustable sliding open sight..as seen in Quigly.

This is on topic with DED as his Bio suggests..

Originally Posted by dnutt99

Character Bio: Dan Maverick was a Physician in the lonely town of Lead in the South Dakota Territory. Well-read and educated in Chicago, Dan
had ventured west in search of wide open spaces and a piece of land to call his own. On the prairie he discovered his love of hunting and became
an expert marksman with his .50-90 Sharpshooter Buffalo rifle. Dan always brought down the big game, often making his shots from well over
300 yards. (Hasbro)

My post was that I respect his powers but can see another figure possible that reflects a more modern day sniper. As per say the film Shooter. There is a rumor that an intel operative has taken an unofficial kill shot of over 2.5 miles.

While I'm here let me add a power to my sniper.
Ghillie Suit
If sniper has moved or fired this round or if he is adjacent to any enemy "scout" character he is exposed and may be fired upon by any character so long as he is within that character's range.
If sniper has not moved this round and is not adjacent to any enemy scout he is considered obscured and may not be attacked by any character from a range of more than 3 spaces.

[ArcBlade]

Isn't it strange that we have a discussion about whether or not a "sharpshooter" who on a good day only hits about half his shots is overpowered. (Although like I stated before its more like about 15% of his shots..yeah his Ullar Enhanced rifle came through for the first time last night..and worked again tonight.. both at about 35-40% as compared to the normal 0% He's on a roll).

[ArcBlade]

Ok I've read point after point about DED's sharpshooter ability and how he may or may not employ it while engaged with another figure. The Hasbro answer in this book is yes he may as it is a special power so I'll go with that. My question though is what about his Ullar Enhanced rifle. Can he use that against a distant marro figure while engaged with say a Gladiatron, since he can't use Ullar against teh adjacent gladiatron?

I treated this as a yes but it didn't help, during the course of the game I had the chance to roll Ullar Enhanced 9 times, one skull.

[StLouisBear]

Originally Posted by ArcBlade

My question though is what about his Ullar Enhanced rifle. Can he use that against a distant marro figure while engaged with say a Gladiatron, since he can't use Ullar against teh adjacent gladiatron?

I treated this as a yes but it didn't help, during the course of the game I had the chance to roll Ullar Enhanced 9 times, one skull.

The rules (Master Game Guide from ROTV, page 13) for engagement state:

Engaged figures: If one of your figures is engaged with one or more other figures, that figure can attack only those figures.

If you are engaged, you can only attack those figures you are engaged with. Therefore, DED can't attack the Marro who is not engaged. At least that's how I read it.

[NecroBlade]

That's correct. However, since Sharpshooting is a special power but not a special attack, he CAN use it against other figures while engaged.

[OmniMoose]

Originally Posted by NecroBlade

Maybe you should too: Sharpshooter: Instead of attacking, you may choose any non-adjacent figure within 10 clear sight spaces of Deadeye Dan.

I think I just crapped my pants, HE CAN ONE SHOT THE HIVE!, the logic behind that would be he hits however it sees, or its "brain." Now I can finally take the darned hive out.

[Einar's puppy]

Dead Eye Dan is very good for me I sharpshooted the hive,Tor-Kul-Na and ullar enhanced rifled the last would on Ne-Gok-Sa. When combined with Theracus he is very mobile and can get up way high fast. very good against high def small or med units.

[Phaethon]

I've run straight into the wrath of Dan twice in the last month.

The first time was a 2 on 1 game against my kids and my daughter killed Brunak on the first turn... not her first round, her first turn!

The second time my son took out Cyprien as he moved forward toward a castle.

Two major blows in two consecutive games. I know when he shows up again, I'm going to be very wary of him!

[Lord3]

Deadeye and Theracus add up to 100 points. If you've got the Venoc Warlord, and Acolarh, you can fly Deadeye 11 spaces away, preferably to height, or some other hard to reach spot. His only problems are that he can't move to do his powers, and he can't do his powers against adjacent figs. So as a unit charges up to him, not only can he not back up, he will be useless when the unit reaches him. Combine that with 2 def. 3 lives, well....

I'd always take Saylind over Theracus. Move 6 with Saylind, Attempt to Summon, if you fail move up another 6 and attempt again. DeD would be 13 spaces closer to the target. Saylind is better for pulling out a wounded hero than Theracus. Saylind also is only 1 hex and can access spots that Theracus might not be able to carry you to.

After tarnishing an otherwise beautiful win by not properly reading Deadeye Dan's card, I was thinking about the size restriction on Ullar's Enhanced Rifle- specifically why it's there. Now, perhaps I'm not thinking this through entirely, or maybe I'm missing something else (like longer game experience) but yeah. I just can't see it as a game balancer in any real way. So the target doesn't get to roll defense dice. That seems really awesome, until you realize that you can only deal one wound, regardless. Most large or huge creatures have at least three life, so that'd be at least three activations of Deadeye to eliminate the target, assuming he doesn't miss and that he is unharried long enough to do so. Can you imagine spending eight order markers to kill Braxas? Additionally, none of your other units would be able to act if you were repeating Deadeye Dan. Pretty hefty tradeoff there alone.

I think this was to prevent any further de-value-ization of the Death Walkers. Without the rule he'd have a 50 percent chance of insta-gibbing dwk8 and 9k. If your opponent wasted 130 or 140 points, you could counter with simply drafting DeD for 60

[Gomolka]

Unfortunately, I have never been able to play a successful army with DED. I just never have him set up right or roll the D20 right.

Add Taelord + extreme height advantage and he may have a chance.