The Law Dogs are a faction built to discourage their opponent from cheating and they thrive on hunting down bounties. This first part will focus on the dudes designed to play off of your opponent’s cheating.
Lucinda “Lucy” Clover
Lucy is an incredibly cheap dude with two influence. She doesn’t have a good bullet rating and is highly susceptible to Soul Blast, but her two influence will be excellent for staying in the game and using the Outfit ability for the Law Dogs.
If your opponent reveals a cheatin’ hand against Lucy, every dude in the opposing posse goes up by 1. What makes this ability even better is the fact that she can bring it up from zero. This makes dudes that aren’t wanted into wanted dudes before resolution is complete. Abram Grothe’s ability will suddenly have several more targets if your opponent reveals a cheating hand against her.
Philip Swinford
Philip has one of the best anti-cheatin’ traits because his doesn’t require him to be in a shootout. This trait will always be active, even on the opening lowball hand of the game.
Philip will help you cycle through the cards you don’t need early on in the game. Every lowball hand and shootout is an opportunity to discard and draw another card. Unlike the Fourth Ring ability, Philip can keep discarding throughout the turn.
He is another low bullet deputy. You will need a few good gunslinger’s as well if Swinford is part of your starting posse.
Tommy Harden
Tommy Harden is the Law Dogs version of Barton Everest, but even better. If your opponent reveals a cheatin’ hand, you get an extra hand rank. If your hand is legal at the same time, you get another bonus hand rank. Because Tommy triggers on a reveal, you can gain the hand ranks for revealing a legal hand then change a legal 4-of-a-kind to an illegal 5-of-a-kind with a Pair of Six-Shooters. You will still have Tommy’s bonus since it was already applied by that point.
Once your opponent knows how powerful it can be for you to get a legal hand against their cheatin’ hand, they may hold back from any further cheatin’ while facing against Tommy.
Sherriff Dave Montreal
While most of the Deputies simply flirt with the idea of punishing an opponent for cheatin’, When an opponent wins with a cheatin’ hand, Montreal says none of your dudes will suffer casualties in any round that your opponent reveals a cheatin’ hand. If you tie, your opponent still has to take one casualty for the tie and you will take none.
Dave only protects your dudes and not your sidekicks, so Blueticks would still need to be lost if you had casualties in a round.
The best part about Dave is that your opponents will completely refrain from cheatin’ hands because they will get no where until they play a legal hand. The Sheriff doesn’t actually pair up well with the other deputies listed here since they won’t trigger their effects if your opponent is hoping to cause you casualties.
Andreas
Andregg
Andreas doesn’t respond directly to cheatin’, but he is capable of building a Force Field that can have an added effect with Tommy Harden. Tommy can bump up your hand rank. If it still isn’t enough, you can spend a few Ghost Rock on the Force Field to close the gap and make him almost as effective as the Sheriff at preventing casualties.
He can build a Mechanical Horse that will allow Wendy Cheng to use her ability more often in combat. He can also build the upcoming Telepathy Helmet to protect Dave Montreal from any cards that might kick him out of the combat.
The Anti-Cheatin’
The Law Dogs can thrive on a cheatin’ opponent. If the four Deputies are all in the same posse and your opponent reveals a cheatin’ hand and yours is legal; you can’t take casualties, your hand rank will go up by 2, each opposing dude will increase their bounty by 1, and finally you will get to discard a card and draw a new one. It is unlikely that you will be able to have them all in the same fight without getting hit by a Pistol Whip, but the Law Dogs have plenty of ways to punish a cheatin’ opponent. Since all of the above abilities trigger on a revealed hand, you can still play cheatin’ resolutions on the same opponent.
The remaining Law Dogs focus on good shooting and taking advantage of the bounties that they are able to hand out from their Outfit. They aren’t better shooters than the Sloane Gang, but they are a close second. Since they are the best faction to play the Bounty Hunter, they don’t need the best shooting in the game since he can soften them up before the Law arrives.
