Pinnacle Entertainment.

£39.99/$80.00.

The wind blew gently across the wind open Savannah, hugging the ground and slowly winding its way along. Despite the gentle breeze it was still a very hot and dusty day, the temperature was well over the hundred mark and no comfort could be gathered from the wind.

In the distance the heat shimmered on the horizon and played tricks on the eyes. Circling high over head, a Bald Eagle the very symbol of the American people, flew looking for a meal for its young. The roaring plains of grass where quiet, untouched.

The stillness in the air was tranquil and idyllic, and nature was peace with herself and all was in harmony.

A huge blast filled the air and shattered the tranquility. Dozens of small birds took flight into the now blackening sky, Praiee Dogs and Rabbits dove for their holes in the sod. A new beast had arrived, mightier than the bravest mountain Lion, more cunning than the most craftiest of Wolves and stronger than even the largest of the brown bears that lived in the area. The beast would show no mercy as it pushed its way through the fertile land, and one by one the animals came to fear its name, and its name was MAN!

As the dust from the explosion settled, the workers carried on laying the long heavy rails. Within days the once tranquical landscape was changed forever into a network of veins and arteries that would bring the east to the west and the Ghost Rock to the eagerly waiting world.

The Great Rail Wars is the first boxed supplement for Pinnacle Entertainment’s excellent Deadlands: the Weird West. The game allows the players to recreate the struggle to get across the states to claim the mysterious deposits of Ghost Rock that lie along the now sunken remains of the western seaboard. And as well as being a complete game in its own right, it can be used with the roleplaying system to resolve those tricky combats that often occur in the Weird West!

So what in the box? Well for a start off the game comes complete with a set of Ghost Rock black dice (quite nice too), counters, some card stock facades (buildings to you and me!) and along with the rules themselves the game is topped off with some very nice pewter miniatures from ex-Games Workshop/Grenader sculptor Bob Naismith. The rules themselves are very similar to the rpg system that the game is based on and with very little effort one could very easily use The Great Rail Wars as a roleplaying system on its own

For some unknown reason Pinnacle decided to included a lot of rules that seem quite redundant in the Rail Wars system! I can only guess that they must have a plan to use them in a future supplement or allow the player to convert their character from Deadlands a little easier.

The rules are a little confusing at first and unlike other Deadlands products The Great Rail Wars isn't filled with a lot of examples of play. The players control either units or posses of figures or can control a single character against gamesmaster/Marshall controlled forces. It took a while to get into the flow of the combat mechanics and in the end I ended up dropping most of the elements and converting the basics to a system very similar to Target Games Warzone. I find it a little off putting that a system that costs so much (I paid almost £40 for my copy) can be so unusable. The idea behind the system works well but the mechanics of the combat falls flat.

As for the miniatures. You get 17 of them, all cast in pewter! Well don’t get me wrong I have been a fan of Bob Nasismiths for many years, but they were a little too large and the pewter they were cast from is very difficult to clean up, (my figures were covered in flash) and some of the rifles barells were badly bent and could very easily have snapped off if I didn’t have a lot of experince handling figures. The detail is very good but not worth the expensive price tag that’s been placed on the system. I would suggest if you wanted some excellent Cowboy and Native American (sorry but I hate the term Red Indian!) miniatures then you give Dixons miniatures or Guernsey Foundry a try as the range they both do is excellent.

Overall I would give this a miss, unless you’re a dedicated Deadlands fan and want a complete collection.