The Rattlesnake card game by Osprey Games is rootin’, tootin’, card shootin’ fun
Prepare to be blown away! By both your opponent and the slick gameplay of this Wild West card duel. In the same way that there are no end of games featuring pirates and zombies (or zombie pirates), the Wild West theme is nothing new in tabletop gaming. That makes Rattlesnake even more impressive, as it successfully pokes its nose higher than most Western games without getting it shot off.
Nailing the theme, Rattlesnake is a two-player deck builder with one thing on its mind: having you fill your opponent so full of lead, you could use them like a pencil. It’s not quite “play anywhere” – as there are a lot of decks to interact with. But that box slips into the side pocket of our smallest backpack, and with a quick setup and very simple rules, you’ll be having your very own showdown anytime (not just High Noon) and anywhere (that has a table).
Gameplay sees you drawing up to a hand of five cards no matter whose turn it is, so you have the ammunition you need. The player whose turn it is gets a pistol-shaped token, as well as the opportunities to buy an Action card from the Saloon and to attack their opponent. You have to discard two cards from your hand to buy an Action card, but it goes straight into your hand. Once you use it, it’s now part of your Action deck, appearing again when you cycle through your cards. As you buy Action cards, they are replenished, unless an Event card appears and blocks that slot. Event cards change some element of the game, which is another great touch – for example, with the Knives Out Event card, failing to hit with an attack now causes the attacker one Hit.
When a player decides to go head-to-head with the other gunslinger, the game does its best to give you the frantic feeling of hands flashing to the pistols at your hips. Once again leaning into the theme, it uses a Poker-style combat system to decide the winner. The attacker selects cards from their hand and places them face down. The defender then does the same, although they can choose to play no cards. You’re trying to make the best Poker hand – with options including: a single high card; a pair; a run (at least three cards in order, eg. 1, 2, 3); a set (three of a kind); four of a kind; or five of a kind. Not all the cards have to be part of the hand and you can bluff a stronger hand by putting some duds in there. Once these cards have been placed down, the hands are turned up and no other cards can be added to them.
The reason you might not want to include bluff cards is that each Action card has an Ability that you can use by discarding it. These can disrupt your opponent’s hand strength – changing the number on a card to mess up a run, for example. Or they might see you draw six cards to see what new dickery you can find there. Once the last Action card has been played, the winner is determined. If the attacker wins, the defender puts one of their four precious Hit tokens into discard. If the defender wins, nothing happens. Having those Hit cards cycle through the deck is another nice little touch, as drawing them almost always hurts your chances that turn. When a player has no Hits in front of them, the other gunslinger wins.
This isn’t Rattlesnake by the way, it’s Michael Hardacre’s Rattlesnake. The little information we could find about this fledgling game designer tells us he’s an “engineer, inventor and master procrastinator” who “started game design over a decade ago.” Based on his output here, let’s hope he cures that procrastination issue so we’ll be seeing his name on a lot more games in the future.
Review by Matt Chapman
This game packs heat, cleverly recreating the drama and energy of Western gunfights.
Another two-player, deck-management card game that pits you against an opponent, with added dice rolling.
65 Cards
Pistol token
Rulebook
Category: Card Games
Designer: Michael Hardacre
Publisher: Osprey Games
Time to Play: 15m
Players: 2 Players
Age: 14+
RRP: £17.99
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