Faith and Fear is the first Pine-box expansion for Doomtown: Reloaded and is expected to release on April 6th. Right now, we know this new set will give us far more cards than the usual saddlebag. It contains 4x of 36 new cards and four new Outfit cards for the existing factions, a story sheet about the arrival of the Blessed back in Gomorra, and new sample decks build with cards from the set.
Check out the Law Dogs, Morgan, and Outlaw spoilers as well.
Clown Carriage (from Team Covenant)
The Clown Carriage is the second mystical gadget, making Valeria Batten (below) more attractive as a starting choice. The Clown Carriage counts as a horse and sits in the same spot as Buffalo Rifle and Forget which makes it another high value the Fourth Ring will enjoy. It mainly benefits Abominations that are already getting a boost with Oddities of Nature (below).
When forming your posse, it effectively acts like a Roan for every Abomination joining from that location. This allows you to start jobs and bring in several standing dudes from another location. They will still go home booted at the end of the job, but they will be standing to use shootout effects. As a second option, you can bring an Abomination straight into the posse from hand. It’s like Raising Hell, but a lot less is required to make it happen. With just a few Ghost Rock a Tyx or Eve Henry could be added to your posse to quickly even up the shootout.
Don’t forget that the card is Mystical, allowing Richard Slavin to dig it out of your disard pile or boot hill. It also has the Horse keyword so it can be used with several of the horse related cards already in the game such as Run em Down and Ridden Down.
Valeria Batten (from Strange Assembly)
Valeria brings a lot into the realm of possiblities with Fourth Ring. She hints that there will be more Mystical Gadgets for us to create in the future like the Holy Wheel Gun. Valeria adds to the total of zero upkeep huckters making Circus better at managing their budget.
Valeria can create gadgets with her huckster skill. This doesn’t seem that attractive at first since there is only one Mystical Gadget right now. Giving her the benefit from the Morgan Research Institute is worth virtually double the benefit allowing her to have an effective huckster skill and mad science skill of 3. She’s a soft target for Shotguns and Soul Blasts, so don’t put all your faith in her mad science skill to add gadgets to your circus. Be sure to bring a back up or two.
Maria Kingsford
Sloane gets another huckster and she continues the shootout huckster theme for the gang. Jose Morales started the trend with getting a bonus to his huckster skill equal to his bullets. Maria gets a bonus equal to her bounty. Cards like The Evidence, Hunter Protections, and This is a Holdup! will help accelerate the bounty you need to make Maria stronger.
At first it seems like you wouldn’t want to run hucksters that are only strong inside of shootouts. Spells that are best used during the Noon phase will be of little interest. Spells such as Corporeal Twist and Soul Blast could fit into the draw structure of shootout hexes because they will be able to reach higher huckster skills in combat when the check needs to be made.
Don’t be surprised if more combat hexes make their way into Gomorra in the upcoming Faith and Fear Pine Box. There will need to be some competition for the evil-hunting preachers coming to town.
Pagliaccio
Thanks to the guys over at Gomorra Gazzette, we have a preview that fits right into the Oddities of Nature, previewed below. The Fourth Ring has been getting several low value 
dudes in the past few sets, but typically the low values go against everything hucksters look for. Perhaps there is a future for the circus without the spell slingers. The clowns get their first non-unique dude in the form of Pagliaccio. This clown has a simple 1-draw bullet rating and no influence, unless you are running Oddities of nature and run it into the town square.
The clown has an ability that continues to add to the power of hucksters stacking value and bullet debuffs. If you absolutely must run hexes at the same time as these guys, Corporeal Twist will fit in simple enough while you only need a Huckster 2 still to make sure it goes off. Expect a new kind of deck from the circus soon. One that will be happy to go into shootouts with the Sloane Gang or Law Dogs using the great shootout actions provided at the lower values. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Bobo walking around with a Legendary Holster. With Smiling Tom on the table, he would be a 7-stud shooter only needing 6’s or below to kill with the holster.
Oddities of Nature
We finally have sight on what our new Outfit cards will look like. Run4Games has spoiled the new Outfit for The Fourth Ring, Oddities of Nature. First of all, it loses one income from the previous Outfit card, but continues to give us a way to earn Ghost Rock while we dazzle the denizens of Gomorra. Abominations have been a stong side effect of The Fourth Ring and its spells. Now you will be able to steer away from the hucksters and focus on the creepy and wierd.
There are currently seven abominations in the game. If you still plan to use hucksters, spells like Summoning and Raising Hell will go a long way in bringing your abominations into play and doing it cheaply. As a second effect, the Outfit can also boot an opposing dude in town square. This will allow the circus players to continue their reign of booting terror. You will want to find a way to unboot your dudes or stay away from the town square as often as possible. Since Fourth Ring has usually decided to stay out of the town square for favor of slinging spells from a distance, it will be nice to see a version that brings circus players in as well.
On top of all this, your abominations get +1 influence while they are in the center of town. If you succeed at a Summoning and move him into the town square right away, you’ll get +1 influence and a control point on that abomination while he’s in town square.
Swinford Finds Trouble
This Shootout action is likely to open up plenty of new defensive and offensive possibilities during combat. If you have more bullets than any of your opponent’s dudes, you can win a shootout or a job just by sending them all home booted. It’s like another version of Pistol Whip. It can be combined with nearly all of the current shootout actions as they either reduce bullets or boot other dudes in the posse. After you have the right guys booted, Swinford Finds Trouble can send them home.
This card is likely to find most of it’s value when defending against jobs. Most of the opposing posse will be booted to start a Kidnappin’ or Ambush. Only clever use of positioning or shootout actions will get their dudes standing. Take the opportunity to play this action and send the biggest hitters home, if possible. It takes your bullet rating as is, so bonuses from weapons, Charlie’s Place, and War Paint will all count. If they bring in a high powered Sloane, hit her with the bullet reductions before playing Swinford Finds Trouble.
You could also use this card as a safety in numbers option. When one dude comes after two of yours, penalize his bullets with a Sun In Yer Eyes and then boot both your dudes. The first dude boots the opponent, the second dude sends him home.
This’ll Hurt In The Mornin’
This Cheatin’ Resolution fits in the 8♣ where several powerful cards already sit. Reserves is good for those who need added economy, Bounty Hunter is a no-brainer for Law Dogs, Ridden Down adds power to having all those horses and Rumors is a great combo with Blood Curse to drastically reduce an opponent’s influence. What more do we need in this suit and value pairing?
Cheatin’ Resolutions are a great way to add importance to any card value. Right now, the game only has a few Cheatin’ Resolutions among all the values in the game. The 8 value already has a Cheatin’ Resolution in the Quickdraw Handgun, but what if you want more versatility? The Handgun has to be in the shootout and not be hit by Unprepared to still be useful. Cheatin’ Resolutions that are actions can be played regardless of who is in the fight as long as your opponent cheats.
This’ll Hurt In The Mornin’ creates two effects that can stack for something powerful, much like Coachwhip! does. First, when your opponent cheats, you can choose two cards in that cheating hand and discard them. Your opponent draws two new cards to replace them. Then, if you have a legal hand, your opponent must pay you 1 Ghost Rock for each card you choose or have that card aced.
The title of the card resembles the power very well. Acing a card from their deck may not have an immediate effect, but if you’re able to hit a Steven Wiles early on and send him to Boot Hill, that’s a powerful gunslinger your opponent won’t be able to bring back to the table later in the game. This is one of the rare Cheatin’ cards that appears to be more valuable during lowball than during a shootout. Lots of players will burn through their early Ghost Rock stash in order to get set up. Even with strong economies, they will likely have only a few Ghost Rock or no money at all at the start of a turn. Lowball occurs before money is made.
Catch an opponent cheatin’ with no Ghost Rock on hand and you can ace some valuable cards from their deck. If they do have Ghost Rock, you’ll likely earn two more as a result of this cheatin’ card and with clever choices, you could improve your chances of winning the lowball hand as well.
Keep those eyes peeled
As always I will stay on top of the spoilers from Faith and Fear. It’s over a month away, but Alderac has no problem sharing cards and the set has twice as many cards as normal, so expect to see plenty of spoilers for the next month. Check here for updates! Find the Outlaw spoilers here! The Good guys got their week here.
Published: Feb 27, 2015 06:08 am