Deadzone... Any Good? Any Pics of Finished Forces?

[rwwin]

I was a backer and managed to get some basic plague and enforcer models cleaned and painted.  I played a few games before losing interest.  As others have said, it's certainly not a bad game, it just wasn't enough to keep me interested.  I think the game was trying too hard to hit the middle ground between tabletop and boardgame, and couldn't really pull off either.

The 2' x 2' board space and the movement grid felt very artificial and cramped (probably my tabletop roots showing through).  Also, "restic fatigue" set in and kept me from prepping the rest of the figures, which dampened enthusiasm to play even more.

I don't regret backing the game though, the terrain and the figures are generic enough to recycle into other projects I have.  It's too bad it took Mantic so long to crack the hard plastic nut.  If the hard plastic kits (zombies, enforcers & forgefathers) had been delivered concurrent with the main game and not a year later, the game probably could have gained more traction.

[Knightofspades]

I painted up some plauge but you did not want to see them?
Those halo like enforcers painted green above do they have custom heads or something? Very nice miniatures and painting.

[Major_Gilbear]

@ Knightofspades:

If you have some pictures of painted DZ models, please do post them up!



As for the game rules, I've considered doing a re-write... I'd like to keep as much as possible from the original rules, but I'm not sure that's necessarily going to work. It'd also be a good opportunity to rebalance the factions and re-do missions too (I'd like to have more open narrative missions, as well as secret secondary missions). That said, it's a *lot* of work, and I'm not sure the community is big enough to be interested in anything I might produce anyway.

[Malebolgia]

Well timed thread! Two weeks ago I bought a big amount of Deadzone for only 85 euros (box with the hardcover LE book, all four softcovers, regular tokens, acryllic tokens, 20 resin objective markers, two mousemat-citiy boards, four paper city boards, buildings, ruins, lots of accessory sprues, Enforcer starters + boosters, Plague starter + extra troopers, Rebel starter + lots of extra models, Marauder starter + some extra models, some Forgefathers, almost all Mercenaries, 10 zombies, loads of dice, loads of cards). This Thursday will be our first game and I have read the rules once now. So far the rules are...different. They have some nice tweaks, but in general they seem a bit odd. Can't really say why though. Thing that annoys me the most is the "bloated" style of writing. I like my rules short, to the point and factual. Deadzone uses way more text to describe something than necessary. Don't like that.
But even if the game sucks I have the Rebels, Marauders, hardcover and two playing mats for myself (for Rogue Trader Pulp Alley!). The rest will go on sale soon for cheap

And then Sedition Wars: horrible restic material for ace sculpts. I bought the set for 50 euros with everything prepped (well, kind of) and assembled. Played the game three times and loved every game so far! The rules are excellent and really tense. Each game came down to a single dice roll to determine the winner. So a real nailbiter with some excellent game mechanics. But the restic sucks and the cardboard material also isn't the best you can get. But if you can find this game for a good price: BUY IT. You can always proxy the models

[Major_Gilbear]

Funnily enough though, I did find that increasing game size to something like 100pts was better, even though everything else is still as I described. Also, even at 100pts, keep the VP conditions the same.

What this does is allow more models into the game (duh!), and specifically allows more tactics, and more faction variety too. Otherwise, you tend to find that all Enforcer gangs look the same, all the Marauders look the same, all the Plague look the same, etc - because there are only so many "optimal" ways to build a 5-model force within the limits proscribed.

It also means that the advantage of number or small elite forces can be better leveraged. As it stands now with 70pt games, Rebels never seem to win initiative ever, whereas Enforcers normally have it and keep it all game. It might be fluffy, but it's also dull.

More models on the table also makes it more likely to have multiple models in a cube too, and makes actions like Blaze Away more "worthwhile", and so weapons like Burst Laser and Flamer actually seem a little more attractive compared to Fusion Gun and Sniper Rifle. It also helps to stop CC rampages that chain across several cubes.

Finally, I'd let Rebs win on 8VP or 9VP rather than the normal 10VP. Not only does it fit their fluff a better (i.e., the risks are high and resources are limited, so any victory however small is worthwhile), but it also helps balance them against more efficient factions like Marauders or Plague.

[cheetor]

My Marauders plus Chovar:









Im working on a lot of the terrain at the moment.  I should have the first batch ready to game with within the next week or two. 

After the fun that we had with DreadBall a few buddies picked up Deadzone when I did (the KS) but with illness in the family of one of them and pregnancy in the other, we just didnt get to it yet.  Even if I never play the game, lots of the terrain and miniatures are useful to me, but obviously actually playing the game would be good.

[Major_Gilbear]

I really like your stuff Cheetor, and those Marauders have inspired me before to do something very similar with mine - they're very "Third Edition" if you know what I mean?

[cheetor]

I really like your stuff Cheetor, and those Marauders have inspired me before to do something very similar with mine - they're very "Third Edition" if you know what I mean?

Thanks. 

I decided on a simple colour scheme for my orks a few years back - a black and red "uniform" with quite vivid green flesh and occasional yellow detailing - and I apply that to all the space orks that I paint, regardless of who manufactures them.  It dod mean that mu DZ Marauders ended up looking a little similar to the Mantic studio paint jobs, but I got over it.

[Knightofspades]

Here they are. I wetbrushed the big guy but used wash on the three second biggest guys. I am not sure what is best.

[Hrothgar]

@Rehlyk - that was some ace work on those Enforcers! Love the Halo-esque helmets-where did you find those?

[Major_Gilbear]

@ Knightofspades:

Dark pictures make it hard to see, but they look good - I especially like the bigger models where I feel the extra effort in your painting really shows.

[spacecowsmith]

Hi!

Not a complete force I'm afraid but here's a bit of a mix of Deadzone Marauders and classic GW:

[Major_Gilbear]

@ spacecowsmith:

Wow, they look really cool!  

//Edit//

I also really like the little nod to Bloodaxes given the Marauders' similar background.

[Lawful Evil]

Not played it myself. Started cleaning and building some of the restic models when the first came through the door and that was mind numbing enough that it all went back in a the box and has sat under the bed pretty much since.

I'll read the rest of the thread in a minute, but I wanted to quote this right away because it is word for word my experience. I want to like it, but no miniatures should have that much clean up involved.

[eilif]

I'll read the rest of the thread in a minute, but I wanted to quote this right away because it is word for word my experience. I want to like it, but no miniatures should have that much clean up involved.

I would mostly agree with this, but there are a few ameliorating factors.
1-With a sharp knife and a wire brush cleanup can be a bit faster
2-You don't need too many figs to play the game.

For those who went in on the KS or pick up the figs 2nd hand the price of entry makes the cleanup a bit more worth it, but despite all this the clean up is far more than I would like.