Spike Spiegel, Boba Fett, Rick Deckard: bounty hunters like these are some of the most memorable characters of many of our favourite sci-fi stories. The Wanted: Dead or Alive expansion brings these morally grey professionals to your games of Core Space. Will they aid or hinder you during your missions, or will you just be their next payday?
The Wanted: Dead or Alive expansion packs a lot into its box, with new kinds of equipment, rules for new game mechanics, five Auxiliary characters, two Characters and Classes, extra Event Cards, and a mini-campaign to put it all into use.
So, activate your Stun Baton, power up your Binder Cuffs and let’s go on the hunt for some of the most feared players in the galaxy.
Bounty Hunters
Models and characters
Bounty Hunters are the stars of the Wanted Dead or Alive expansion, so let’s start there. Two Bounty Hunters are included in the box: former Galactic Corps operative Nokura, and the ruthless Valian.
As with many of our sets, these two Characters have a reversible board that means they can be played as NPCs or hired as a Trader in your crew.
As an NPC Nokura is a well-armoured opponent that hits hard in close combat. That attack also has the Poison rule so it’s going to be something to worry about even for well-armoured Traders, so it’s best try to keep her at a distance if she’s after one of your crew.
As a Trader, she counts as a Captain and she retains her toughness, and her up close and personal style. This is reflected in her innate skills which give her access to Combat Expert, and she also gets a free Close Assault action when she moves into base contact with an enemy. If she decides to make a career change to become a Trader, she’s going to be a solid member of the team.
The Kaarien bounty hunter Valian is also a formidable opponent as an NPC. In contrast to Nokura, Valian prefers to attack from range, where his attacks gain the Fire attribute to make them even more potent. He’s also fast, with the ability to move an extra 2 inches or squares, so once you’re in his sights it’s going to be hard to outrun him.
As a Trader, he makes a competent and mobile crew member, as he still gets an extra inch or square of movement per Move action. He also has the Hack and Grab skill to lock and unlock doors and searchable terrain. That sounds like a fun way to thwart other players. Couple that with the Mercenary or Bounty Hunter Class and you’ve got a valuable crew member if you can recruit him.
On the subject of Classes…
Skills and Classes
When it’s your job to hunt down some of the sector’s most dangerous criminals you need to be skilled and resourceful. To reflect this the Wanted: Dead or Alive expansion comes with two new Classes: the Bounty Hunter, and the Mercenary. Both Classes come with access to the four new Bounty Hunter skills, but the Bounty Hunter has more of a focus on stealth and manoeuvrability through the Fleet of Foot and Camouflage skills. The Mercenary on the other hand is more about dealing out and soaking damage with the Weapons Expert, Walk it Off and Combat Expert skills.
The four new bounty hunter skills are a potent addition to the skill set of your crew.
Gunslinger lets you put out a terrifying amount of lead when you’re armed with a pistol – eventually letting you take five ranged attacks at level 3, and granting you the ability to come up blastin’ with a pistol in each hand as a Passive ability.
Survivor does what it says – letting you shrug off damage, move out of danger, and potentially eliminate foes that are targeting you before they can do more harm.
Shady Contacts reflects the Bounty Hunter’s underworld connections to access better gear, and to recruit crew at a reduced cost. At level 3 you even turn Gangers from a threat to an opportunity by automatically succeeding on Persuade rolls against them, or by bringing two into play to Join your crew.
Finally, Uncanny Skills reflects the bounty hunter’s prowess at their job and lets them make challenging terrain trivial, follow up a shooting attack with a Close Assault action, and wade into close combat with relative impunity.
Mechanics
We’ve made it this far without talking about hunting bounties, so let’s fix that now.
When Bounty Hunters are used as NPCs they introduce a new set of interesting and flavoursome challenges. In some scenarios, they will be in play from the start, but most of the time they will enter the board as a result of drawing one of the new Event Cards contained in this set. Once in play they enter the board from a dedicated entry point and choose a Mark. These Marks are chosen at random from amongst the Characters in play that are not Beasts, First Born or Purge. A Mark token is then placed on the target.
Mark tokens come in four kinds and determine the type of bounty being sought:
- Dead tokens mean the target is to be assassinated. You must have really annoyed someone!
- Dead or Alive means the hunter will bring in their prey by any means necessary and drag their unconscious form off the board.
- Come With Me means that the Mark is to be brought in unharmed.
- And finally, Pay Up means the Bounty Hunter has been sent to claim a debt. If a Mark pays up, then that amount of UA is placed on the Bounty Hunter’s board – perhaps you could recover or claim it for yourself? If the target can’t pay, then the Bounty Hunter acts as if they are resolving a Come With Me token.
To make things even more interesting you don’t know what kind of Mark token has been placed on the target Character. You only find out when the Bounty Hunter makes base contact with the Mark.
As you can imagine this adds a lot of fun and variety to your games, as you’ll potentially have to factor in Bounty Hunters attempting to apprehend mission-critical NPCs, extort cash from your Traders, or arrest one of your crew for that thing they did. Look, I’m sure it was all just a big misunderstanding.
You can even step in to attempt to rescue a Marked NPC by getting them to your Airlock, for a nice reward of course.
Auxiliaries
Auxiliaries are a new type of Character that represents animal companions or robotic assistants. They are not as resilient or skilled as a Trader and can usually only Move, Assault, Search, or Knock Back but they don’t count towards your crew limit on a mission. Some more advanced Auxiliaries can also take other types of action. This extra pair of hands, paws, or manipulators can be a real boost and it is a lot cheaper than recruiting another Trader too.
This set comes with three machine Auxiliaries: a Cargo mech to help you carry more loot, a Gun Drone to increase your firepower, and a more versatile Utility Drone that can shoot, fight, and aid with Repairs. There are also two Creature Auxiliaries: the fast-moving Assault Hound which is great for tying up enemies in close combat, and the adorable and versatile Gurnrit which can do a bit of everything.
Auxiliaries can also level up as they help you on missions, allowing you to flip the board over to the Trained / Upgraded side which makes the Auxiliary better at what they do.
Mini-campaign
As with most of our expansions, Wanted: Dead or Alive comes with a set of scenarios to get the most out of the new game mechanics and models.
The first mission kicks off with your crew caught off guard as they find themselves the target of a bounty. If they are skilful, and maybe a little lucky, they will not only evade capture but acquire a rare weapon too.
In the second scenario you are on a routine salvage job and find that the Bounty Hunters didn’t take kindly to being thwarted in the last mission – this time they are out for blood!
In the final mission you decide to solve the problem at the source and either wipe your record clean or Persuade the official that is posting the bounty to change their mind. If this wasn’t tough enough, a Purge assault has set the base on fire! You’d better get out before things get too hot.
Equipment
If all of that wasn’t enough, the expansion also includes some extra gear. In addition to some useful nano tokens like grenades, health packs, and throwing knives, there is some equipment of particular use to bounty hunters.
Want to jet around the place like Star-Lord? Then you might like a pair of Rocket Boots. These let your Trader leap to new levels and jump across gaps, and give them a handy dodge ability that means they can reroll a hit that was scored against them.
Bounties don’t always come quietly, so there is gear to help with that too. Stun Batons and Stun Pistols can be used to subdue a target and then Binder Cuffs can be used so that the target can’t take any actions or use any skills.
The Magnum Pistol Custom is excellent at short and medium range, and the ability to re-roll one die is going to make it even more useful. The Multi Pistol is only usable at short range, but the Sustained Fire and Burst Fire attributes make it brutal there.
And then, for when you want to bring them in crispy I guess, there’s the Flame Thrower. It takes up a large amount of your inventory and you have to carry special fuel for it, but its area of effect and Fire rule means it is probably unmatched for crowd control. Sometimes it’s the only way to be sure.
Dead or alive, you’re coming with me.
If you’re ready to acquire your target, then head over to our website or your Friendly Local Game Store to pick up a copy of Wanted: Dead or Alive. See you for the next one, and until then remember: no disintegrations.
techylist
April 26, 2024 at 10:41 am
I’m loving the idea of being able to track down my targets with the Wanted: Dead or Alive – Battle Systems. As a player, it’s so satisfying to be able to hunt down and eliminate your enemies, and this system makes it even more realistic and challenging. Can’t wait to try it out for myself!