How To Play Doomtown: Reloaded (7 Minute Guide)

Set in an alternate timeline’s of the U.S. Wild West, the 2-4 player card game Doomtown: Reloaded is chock full of action in the bizarre town of Gamorra, California. Players assume the role of one of four outfits , or gangs, competing against each other to take control of the town. Mixing your more traditional cowboy scenary with magic and mystery, this deck building game is exciting to jump on into.

If you don’t own Doomtown Reloaded yet, check it out here on Amazon.

GAMEPLAY

Objective: Your objective is simple: be the gang that successfully ciezes control over Gamorra. To do this, players need to gain more Control than other players have Influence by the start of any Sundown Phase. Control is gained through owning various deeds and accomplishing certain tasks throughout the game. Influence is gained through the amassment of dudes you have in play.

Components:

Home Cards: These four cards represent the four gangs in Gamorra.
Deed Cards: Represent specific properties up for grabs in Gamorra.
Dude Cards: Represent the townfolk of Gamorra.
Goods Cards: Represent items your dudes can own.
Spell Cards: Show magic talents that dudes with magical affinity can cast.
Action Cards: Represent special events or actions your dudes can utilize
Joker Cards: An optional addition to player decks, these are only useful for poker pulls and draw hands.
Counters:
- Blue counters are for control.
- Red counters are for influence.
- Green and black counters are used for whatever you’d like.
- Ghost rock chits are to keep track of how much ghost rock you have.
Token Cards: Sometimes brought into effect by another card’s instructions.

Setup:

Each player begins with their own chosen deck of 52 cards, or 54 if they are opting to use Jokers, and selects with outfit they want to play as. Their chosen outfit card is placed face-up in front of them, beginning their “street.” Using the markers on the outfit card, each player takes the amount of ghost rock indicated on the card.

Players may now look through their deck to find 5 starting dudes who must either align with their faction or be factionless drifters, as indicated by the outfit symbol – or lack thereof – on their cards. Dudes are placed beside the outfit card, and players pay their card-indicated costs.

Now players shuffle their deck and randomly draw 5 more cards to make up their starting play hand. Before moving on to the turn phases, any Grifter abilities on dude cards can be resolved now if the player wishes to do so.

Turn Phases:

There are four turn phases that make up one day in Gamorra. These phases are Gamblin’, Upkeep, High Noon, and Sundown, and they continue until one player has more Control than the others do Influence at the beginning of a Sundown phase.

Gamblin’ Phase:

Each player tosses 1 ghost rock into a pot in the middle of the playing area. Players then set aside their play hand for now, and randomly draw 5 additional cards from the top of their deck. These cards serve only to be used for their poker value, as they are now played for a round of lowball poker.

When players reveal their hands, the lowest rank hand wins according to poker rules. The winner receives all the ghost rock from the center pot and gets to move first in all subsequent turn phases this round. If there is a tie for first, players draw and play 5 more cards.

Once a winner is decided, draw hands are discarded and players pick up their play hand once again.

Upkeep Phase:

In the start of this phase, players must calculate how much production each of their owned deeds, their home card, and any other production-making card they hold, has produced. This number is labeled on each card. Players then take that amount of ghost rock from the bank.

Now players must total up any upkeep costs for the cards they wish to keep and control. This amount of ghost rock is returned to the bank. If a player cannot pay the upkeep for a card, that card is discarded.

Upkeep Phase is resolved by the winner first and continuing clockwise.

High Noon Phase:

Beginning with the winner and moving clockwise, players can now choose to perform one of any five available actions or pass. Actions can be done in any order, or numerous times in a phase. The available actions are:

Actin’ – Use a Noon action on any of your cards, pay its cost, and resolve its action.
Callin’ Out – Challenge an enemy dude at the same location as one of your dudes to a shootout.
Movin’ – Move one of your dudes to any location.
Shoppin’ – Choose a card from your deck to bring into play. Pay its ghost rock cost. It can be used on your next turn in this phase.
Tradin’ – If you have dudes you control both in the same area that you control, you may switch their items.

Players continuing acting in clockwise order until everyone has passed.

Sundown Phase:

If any player at this time has more control than the others’ have influence, they are declared the winner.

If this condition has not been met, players can choose to discard one of their play hand cards if they’d like, and then draw a replacement. Play hands must remind at 5 cards unless a player has a special effect in play.

Winning the Game:

If, at the beginning of a Sundown Phase, a player has more control points that the highest amount of influence among the others, they are declared the winner.

If two or more players meet this condition, whoever has the most control points wins. If that is still a tie, whoever has the most influence wins. If there is still a tie, another full day is played.

QUICK INFO

Time to Play: 30 mins
Alternative Titles: N/A
Suggested Player Age (Manufacturer): 12+
Community Suggested Player Age: 14+
List of Expansions:
Doomtown: Reloaded – New Town, New Rules (2014)
Doomtown: Reloaded – The Light Shineth (2015)
Doomtown: Reloaded – No Turning Back (2015)
Doomtown: Reloaded – Nightmare at Noon (2015)
Doomtown: Reloaded – Immovable Object, Unstoppable Force (2015)
Doomtown: Reloaded – Frontier Justice (2015)
Doomtown: Reloaded – Foul Play (2015)
Doomtown: Reloaded – Faith and Fear (2015)
Doomtown: Reloaded – Election Day Slaughter (2015)
Doomtown: Reloaded – Double Dealin’ (2015)
Doomtown: Reloaded – Dirty Deeds (2015)
Doomtown: Reloaded – The Showstopper (2016)
Doomtown: Reloaded – The Curtain Rises (2016)
Doomtown: Reloaded – Ghost Town (2016)
Doomtown: Reloaded – Blood Moon Rising (2016)
Doomtown: Reloaded – Bad Medicine (2016)
Doomtown: Reloaded – A Grand Entrance (2016)
Doomtown: Reloaded – There Comes a Reckoning (2017)
Doomtown: Reloaded – Too Tough To Die (2018)
Community Rating: 7.2/10
Popularity: OVERALL 935 – CUSTOMIZABLE 40
Difficulty: Moderate-hard
Published Year: 2014
Creator/Publisher Credits:

Designers:
- Dave Williams (II)
- Mark Wootton
Artists:
- Abrar Ajmal
- Chris Appel
- Bruno Balixa
- Mark Behm
- Chris Bivins
- Gabriel Blain
- Grzegorz Bobrowski
- Alberto Bontempi
- Jeff Brown (II)
- Buzz
- Von Caberte
- Brian Caleffi
- Cristian Chihaia
- Brent Chumley
- Miguel Coronado
- Ed Cox
- Biagio D’Alessandro
- Paul Daly
- Marjorie Davis
- Sebastien Ecosse
- Steve Ellis (I)
- Álvaro Calvo Escudero
- Edward Fetterman
- Andy Fisher
- Carl Frank
- Michele Frigo
- Andrew Gaia
- Ross Grams
- Friedrich A. Haas
- David Hammond
- Paul Herbert
- Jesse Hibbs
- Jonny Hinkle
- Ambrose H. Hoilman
- David Robert Hovey
- David Hueso
- Ikaan Studio
- Setiawan Lee
- Todd Lockwood
- M. Wayne Miller
- B. A. Miller
- Jonathan Moore
- John Morrow
- Stephen Najarian
- William O’Connor
- Mirco Paganessi
- Paolo Parente
- Tamires Pedroso
- Brittany Pezzillo
- German Ponce
- Ramon Puasa, Jr.
- Kristel Raymundo
- Char Reed
- Vlad Ricean
- Lance Ridenoure
- Daniel Rudnicki
- Riccardo Rullo
- Bart Sears
- C. Edward Sellner
- Bryan Sevilla
- Doug Shuler
- Raciel Avila Silva
- Carmen Sinek
- Brian Snoddy
- Unique Litani Soparie
- Ron Spencer
- Lorenzo Sperlonga
- James Starr-King
- J. Edwin Stevens
- Marcel Stobinski
- David Su
- Lucas Svedberg
- Matthew Sweeney
- Kamila Szutenburg
- Jonathan Taylor
- Jose Vega
- Pete Venters
- Teejay Ralph Villahermosa
- Daniel Jiménez Villalba
- Inna Vjuzhanina
- Bryon Wackwitz
- Elliot Whiting
- Mario Wibisono
- Chris Wilson
- Larry Wilson
- Michael Wolmarans
- Robin Wouters
Publisher
- Alderac Entertainment Group