Dead by Lead: Fast Western Skirmish

https://www.electi-studio.com/blastervol05

If you like your tabletop gunfights quick, lethal, and dripping with Old West flavor, Dead by Lead hits the spot. It’s a miniatures-agnostic skirmish game set in the boomtown of Bloodstone, designed for tight 3'×3' tables, small gangs (about 6–12 models), and a rules engine that uses a d12 + a standard deck of cards (“Aim Deck”) to handle shots, tempo, and tension. 

• Fast and approachable. Games that teach quickly and play fast—think two to four games in under an hour once you know the ropes. Parents - even kids can pick it up easily.

• Slick card mechanic. Some veterans of other cowboy rulesets specifically call out Dead by Lead’s card play as the bit that hooked them.

• Indie coverage & tutorial content. Guerrilla Miniature Games did both a review and how-to-play/let’s-play videos, which are great primers if you want to see the flow before printing rosters.

• 6–12 28mm Western minis, d12s and d6s, one standard poker deck (no jokers), a 3'×3' table, and some scatter/city terrain. The Wargames Atlantics Markets & Barricades is perfect.

• Default crew construction uses cash; a “standard gang” starts with $100 to hire and equip, which keeps model count tight and decisions meaningful.

• Want solo or co-op? Grab Rival Guns, the official supplement that adds AI rivals, naming tables, and three scenarios.

Kitbash Candy: Build Cinematic Posses with SprueDude Picks

Dead by Lead is explicitly miniatures-agnostic, which means the best experience comes from mashing kits and making characters. Here’s the sweet spot:

1) Great Escape Games Gunfighters (foot)

Lean on the plastic Gunfighters sprues for classic poses, pistols, repeaters, and scatter of hats/holsters. Tons of builds from a single sprue—ideal for heroes, deputies, or ornery town toughs. (We stock ’em.)

2) Great Escape Games Mounted Gunfighters

The kicker: the Mounted Gunfighters kit is designed so you can mirror your foot builds on horseback. Make the same character in both versions (on foot and mounted) and swap in scenarios with chases, getaways, or dust-ups outside town. (Yes, we stock these too.) 

3) Wargames Atlantic French Resistance (Partisans)

Need civilian coats, caps, scarves, satchels, and non-cowboy weapon arms to sell “townie,” “miner,” or “Pinkerton-in-plain-clothes?” The French Resistance set is a kitbash all-star: 32 bodies per box, heaps of heads, and a buffet of arms to splice onto your cowboys. Build barkeeps, railway men, or “respectable” villains in seconds. 

4) Fireforge Folk Rabble

Yeah, yeah, I know.. but the arms on this sprue have picks, and shovels and all manner of farm implements that kitbash with the above to make farmhands and old coot miners. 

Tabletime Tips (Start Smart)

• Keep it 3'×3' with lots of hard cover—barrels, horse troughs, boardwalks, crates. The rules specifically call out that the board size shapes lethality and long-gun dominance, so start at 3'×3' while learning. 

• Aim Deck discipline. Shuffle tight, remove jokers, and draw clean; the duplicate-draw rules are a core pacing lever, so don’t skip them. (The sample packet previews the card subsystem.)

• Start at $100 and 6–8 models. That budget sweet spot keeps upgrades meaningful without bogging down the first few games. 

• Go mounted later. Once your group has a couple games, add a horse or two for cinematic movement spikes—your mirrored mounted/foot heroes make it seamless. 

• Try solo/co-op with Rival Guns to stress-test posse builds and teach friends. 

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhA0yaDBN00

TL;DR verdict

Dead by Lead is fast, cinematic, and friendly to kitbashers. Start with 6–8 models on a 3'×3' and a $100 gang budget; add mounted versions of your heroes once you’ve got the basics down. For parts, Great Escape’s Gunfighters + Mounted Gunfighters handle your core cast, and WGA French Resistance and Fireforge Folk Rabble gives you all the civilian/crazy townie vibes you want—perfect for a lawman vs. outlaw campaign in Bloodstone.