The Wild West, a multitude of movies & television shows have mastered the art of portraying the mystique of the ole west, but a board game has never managed to scratch that itch for me…and probably many others. Enter Western Legends (BUY) by Herve’ Lemaitre & Roland Macdonald , a game that brands itself as being THE Wild West Sandbox Experience. I’m here to tell you…it is 110% what it sells itself to be…once you add the ANTE UP expansion that is.

The base game released last year through Kickstarter, and I quickly backed it…again, looking for that game which would scratch the itch of roaming the wild west and acting out all those great movies we’ve watched over the last half century. The game arrived and I have to admit, I was giddy with childhood excitement…I mean the box art alone took me back to my childhood of watching spaghetti westerns, F-Troop, and The Lone Ranger. I couldn’t wait to get it to the table,,,and hit the table it did…repeatedly for a month. However, there was something missing, it wet the appetite but it wasn’t satiating the hunger…the base game left me wanting more. More characters, more items to buy, more frontier to roam. I think maybe part of this was thanks to the series West World…which had just started airing. I was seeing a vast world of western frontier on the screen but not quite getting all that adventure on the table. Don’t get me wrong though…I was enjoying my experience with the main game, there was just so much more they could add to it, Western Legends could be epic if it wanted to be…think Twilight Imperium epic!!

I set the game aside for a while, and before I knew it, there was a follow up expansion on Kickstarter…Ante Up. I had truly enjoyed my run through Western Legends, and couldn’t wait to see what amazing things Herve’ Lemaitre & Roland Macdonald would add to the game. The Kickstarter promised to deliver many of the things that had been on my wishlist…more characters (check), more territory to adventure in (check), and more items to buy (check)…PLUS they were bringing new gambling mechanics, a railroad experience, a new town, new sheriff features, more “Man In Black” variety, more scenario setups, and UPGRADES to the original components!!! After reading all that I was drooling! BRING IT ON KOLOSSAL GAMES!!!!

Ante Up arrived a week ago, and it hit the table this weekend. We sat down with four players, quickly went through the new rules and set out on our adventures. One word can sum up that night of gaming…EPIC! We have found our Twilight Imperium experience. This game now offers everything…EVERYTHING you could want in the wild west! You can now do pretty much anything you’ve seen in those tv series and movies.

The gameplay doesn’t change much, you still start your turn by taking money and or poker cards, and you still get three actions to take…which can be any repetition or combination of Moving, Taking Location Actions, Using Card Actions, and Fighting (which can be dueling, robbing or arresting). You also still end each person’s turn by checking the Story Card, Discarding down to 5 poker cards, Collecting your applicable Wanted points, and Checking for victory. So whats new…now you also… move the train at the start of your turn…that’s it! The rest of the new stuff is just built into the game with new places to visit, new ways of dealing with outlaws, new confrontations with Claim Jumpers, an option of playing a new gambling game called Faro, accruing new gambling points (which work just like the Marshal & Outlaw Tracks), gambling with the new High Rollers, and lastly delivering new longhorns tokens. Everything new is just built into the game…you don’t have to learn anything new…aside from learning how Faro was played (not sure they even play this game anymore lol).

Rather than go over the rules…which there are a dozen youtube videos telling you how to play Western Legends, lets just look at our latest game to give readers some examples of the great fun that is to be had here. The game is filled with a ton of characters to play with, and we chose Stagecoach Mary Fields, Buffalo Bill Cody, Marshall Pat Garrett and Poker Alice. We decided to play the long game to give us more time to get into the groove. We also chose to add the Man In Black to give us a little more pressure to push our pace. The game began with Pat and Poker Alice out in the frontier, while Bill Cody and Mary were over in the original territories.

Somehow we all ended up taking different tracks to follow without ever discussing the desire to test all the new stuff. Stagecoach Mary began prospecting right away…panning for gold and playing the good ole clean settler of the west. Meanwhile Bill Cody began tracking down Outlaws…hoping to pick up Marshal points and Legendary points at the same time. Poker Alice and Pat Garrett worked the frontier…basically getting rewarded for exploring. Poker Alice ended up turning to the wrong side of the law…becoming Wanted…this gave Pat Garrett a perfect target. But being Pat Garrett isn’t exactly about being a confrontational Marshal (after all he is known for shooting Billy the Kid in the back)…so he proceeded to maneuver the the sheriff into position to do his dirty work. While our four characters plugged away at their short term goals, the Man in Black was busy blowing up the doctor’s office, killing four different Outlaws and harassing our four legends everywhere they went.

Pat Garrett would eventually be forced into tracking down Poker Alice on his own, but was wounded in the process, allowing Poker Alice to escape. He was then forced into a cycle of licking his wounds and searching for a safe route to get to the General Store…the only place he could find whisky to help kill the pain. Pat would use the final turns of the game spending a small fortune at the Cabaret…becoming a legend in the town of Red Falls. Bill Cody worked hard to round up outlaws but they slipped away at every opportunity, so he decided to venture out to the frontier, traveling the dangerous passes on his mule. Stagecoach Mary decided that to become the most famous western legend she’d need to mix things up a bit and attempt to hold up the train at its stop in Cliff Junction. The guard on the train was easily shot down, and Mary ran off with a nice haul of goods. Poker Alice on the other hand, turned to her true gift…cards. She would spend much of her end game playing poker and faro…earning her quite the reputation throughout the territories.

The game proved to be a wonderful romp through the west. Our final standings….Buffalo Bill Cody was the most Legendary character, followed by Pat Garrett, Alice Poker and only four points behind the leader…Stagecoach Mary Fields. What a great night of gaming. It felt like all those Sunday mornings watching Gunsmoke, Bonanza, and The Lone Ranger. The game group raved about how much fun they’d had…several saying they’d be buying their own copy asap. The final results of the game came down to a difference of just FOUR points between first and last place…that’s a well balanced game! A footnote on the final standings … we stopped keeping track of the Man in Black’s Legend Points…he was killing us lol. I can’t rave enough about this game…I’m hard pressed to even clean it off the table…its sitting in front of me now as I write these thoughts… Western Legends will see a lot of game time over the coming weeks!

Western Legends is another 10/10 now that Ante Up has been added to the package!