With only 1 person out of my regular gaming group managing it last Friday, I figured I'd try something out that I hadn't tried before. - The first mission in Deadzone: Contagion. In short. ZOMBIES!
Though technically a 'solo' game, it was pretty easy to play as a cooperative one, with me having experience of the traditional version of Deadzone and my mate being pretty new to things that were closer to Wargame territory than board games. As there was 4 models, we just gave 2 each. I had the Sergeant and the Trooper with rifle. My mate fielded the Defender and Sniper.
I set up the board to start off with, without looking at the scenario. - I ended up getting rather lucky with that.
The way the scenario worked out, the Enforcer got to deploy all on the high ground in the center. Only a handful of zombies start on the board too (Only about 12, against the 4 Enforcers.) This... would soon change.
We have the Enforcer with Rifle up on one tower, already aiming at a zombie.
The Sniper, naturally taking the high ground.
Finally, the Sergeant and the Enforcer Defender take the hold the access ramp to the high ground. I made a slight booboo here, having some item crates in the deployment zones. - I should have rerolled them.
The mission objective was to get my troops off the board edge, specifically the one which the Defender and Sergeant were facing. Victory was classed as getting *1* guy off the board edge, but the game ended when there were no friendly troops on the table. Additionally, this was 'supposed' to be part of a campaign, so keeping your troops alive was important.
However, as the zombies all react to sound and music... The distance was actually quite a lot to cover...
First kill went to the Enforcer trooper, after the sniper completely fluffed his rolls. This started pulling the zombies towards the towers and letting the combat troops push forward.
Unfortunately, the Sarge got wounded quite early on in. - This 'encouraged' him to make a quick exit, leaving the rest of his men to fend for themselves.
Most films do have military discipline breaking down in a Zombie Apocalypse, after all....
Things started getting complicated. The zombies were now climbing up the towers to get the Sniper and Rifleman, who abandoned their positions.
The trick was though, the Sniper is a rather expensive and limited model... The Rifleman was... More expendable. So, for the Sniper to survive... The Trooper had to lure the zombies away from the evac zone.
Falling back, the Trooper sprayed dozens of bullets, drawing hordes of zombies towards him.
I wouldn't say he 'held them off...' But...
He certainly got their attention, managing to pull them even further backwards.
Until he was completely overwhelmed.
I can't help but think even Daryl Dixon would have trouble being outnumbered 20 to 1 with his back to a wall.
However, The Enforcers do have an advantage over the cast of The Walking Dead...
Jetpacks. Leaping from rooftop to rooftop, the Sniper managed to avoid the ever growing horde of zombies, simply due to the fact of him being on higher ground. Not that it'd stop them forever of course, like in World War Z... The zombies could, eventually, climb over each other and scale any wall.
However, the Enforcer Defender, having shotgunned some zombies down a staircase to their final deaths, managed to lure enough of the others away from the Sniper, before making his escape.
The sniper was 1 turn away from victory, but the zombies hadn't been fooled completely. One had reached him.
But only one... Trusting in his armour, the Sniper was successfully able to break off from the close combat before more zombies clambered up the roof to end him.
Retreating off the table, legions at their heels, the Enforcers were victorious and had survived... Mostly.
Conclusion
Deadzone is great fun, as a fun expansion and alternative game mode to an already existing game. - Which you could add zombies too, for a third game variation. However, if you don't have any interest in X-Com style skirmish warfare, the Deadzone: Contagion expansion probably isn't going to sway you.
Also, it seems very dependent on what terrain you use and how you set it up. Thanks to the Enforcers Jet packs, they were able to sprint quite happily from roof to roof, avoiding many of the worst of the zombie hordes. On the other hand, this probably balances out their terrible combat potential. Like in The Walking Dead, guns make noise! Noise is bad. You don't want to be firing guns when you don't need to.
In saying all that, it was a good evenings entertainment and this is just the first mission of 4 in the campaign, plus it worked perfectly well as a cooperative game. Additionally, even though there's only 4 missions, you can play the campaign with any of the 6 available factions right now and no doubt have a very different experience. - I'd like to see how many zombies a Plague Stage 1 can take on before being dragged down.
So, to summarise, if you have Deadzone and are looking for either a new experience or something to freshen up your games. Or heck, if you just love zombies, have a good at the Deadzone: Contagion expansion and take down a few Walkers for me while you do so.
I played the first mission myself and thought it was pretty fun.
