Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Coming from a thread in the main discussions forum, I'm tempted to start Deadzone.
I've even bought the online basic 84 page rulebook to read through and I'm more than tempted to get the mega deal with all 4 factions. However...

1. I saw these minis on pg 50 of the rules book and would love to get some https://www.dropbox.com/s/awdo713t66hv2fz/enforcer%20shields.png but I can't find them anywhere on Mantic's site. Can someone point me where to get them. They remind me of some troops I had for Void a long while ago.

2. With Deadzone being a Kickstarter thing, does that mean there's gonna be tons of "exclusives" out there I'm never going to be able to get for normal prices (as opposed to silly money on ebay). I'm annoyed with Zombicide already for that where I have access to 16 characters of the over 70 made. That ruined it for me.


Thanks for any answers.

1. Those guys are coming out in October I think. Plastic Enforcers and Enforcer Peacekeepers with Defender shields.

2. I think there's been very few exclusives. Maybe just a couple?

Very few exclusives, and Mantic makes them available by way of loyalty exclusives (point system on their site) so they don't "sell" them. If you want an exclusive, you can get it, and at a fair price too

Thanks for the helpful replies.

Another few questions... :-)

I've read through most of the rulebook now and skimmed the rest but I can't find any stats or skills for the different races and figure types. I don't see any codex type of books or files available. Are these stats only on the cards? If so it means you'd have to buy a bunch of figures in a set before you know what those figures play like. I was kinda hoping a single appendix page might have shown the different stats. Have I missed a file or book I should have looked through?

The stats are on cards only - each army has a stat deck that fills the same role as a Codex. You get the stats, gear, special rules and point cost for each model on its card. However, each faction starter set includes all the cards for nearly all the models in the army, including ones that come in separate booster packs. So, for example, the Enforcer deck has cards for unreleased models like the Defender or Medic, while the Plague deck has cards for things like Swarms and Mortars that are sold separately. So, if you get the megadeal, you'd have the starter sets for all four armies, meaning you'd get all their decks too!

Since then, some more models have come along that weren't covered by the original stat cards, like the Striders - these are in the second wave deck. The second wave deck also has a couple of corrected stat cards for Rebels (the original Rebel Commander card gave her type as Specialist when it should have been Leader, and the Kraaw Warrior card originally had the wrong point cost) as well as stat cards for scenario-specific characters.

There are also pre-release versions of the faction decks as free PDFs on the Quirkworthy blog. I don't know how these compare to the retail versions, but they might do for trying them out in the meantime.

Yeah, basically, if you like the look of say, the Rebs, you'd get the Reb starter box, and it'll have cards for allllll of the Reb models in the "first wave of releases"

You can also check Boardgame Geek for a sheet that has a rules summary for most of the models released to date.

Thanks again.

With regard to getting the exclusives with Mantic Points.
These Mantic Points seem to be listed for most items on their website *except* Deadzone purchases - the only Deadzone stuff with MPs seems to be these new large August 1 click collections. So in other words to get DZ exclusives I'd have to start investing in games I don't play in?
I was thinking of moving to DZ to get away from GW style wallet raping.
Have I misread? Even the 100 quid mega DZ deal gives no MPs but a 15 quid Orcgreatax set for KoW does.
/confused

The DZ sets do have Mantic points on them. If I recall, you get 4 in the starter and two on a faction box. It takes a while to get enough, but they are there.

Thanks for all the help.

I intended on buying the 2 player starter when I got home from holiday in a week's time. However while on hols I found a gaming store - although warmachine and 40k seemed to be the in game in the area, they did have the Deadzone Marauder starter faction on a shelf so I bought it in anticipation of playing (already bought and read the digital rules).

And wow was I dissapointed. I've been tabletop gaming since starting WHFB 2nd edition in 1984/5. I've seen in the first plastics by GW with little detail around 1987. But these are the worst cast mouldline filled pieces of gak I've seen ever.
I've painted over 60 single piece plastic zombicide figures this summer with barely a mould line on them.

Are all mantic figures this bad? I'd have to do so much work on them I'd nearly be creating them from a solid block myself.

I'm rather gutted as I read both Deadzone and the starter Infinity rules and was more impressed with Deadzone rules. I was hoping to get my pals into more tabletop gaming as I'd moved them from weekly D&D to playing Zombicide. Going to a skirmish game was my next step.

Are Infinity figures better? Should I wait till the 2 player starter for that next month?

/sigh Feel like I'm back to square one again.

I really do not think that the Deadzone miniatures are that bad.

There is a fair amount of flash, but it cuts off cleanly if you use a sharp knife, and the material can be softened with hot water.

One thing though - cut the flash off, don't try to scrape it.

But then I am old enough to remember what Minifigs looked like in the mid seventies....

The Auld Grump

 Gimgamgoo wrote:


Are Infinity figures better? Should I wait till the 2 player starter for that next month?

It really depends - I play both, but if I had to choose I'd probably go for Infinity since I myself am mainly in the hobby for the models, which IMO are several rungs above anything produced by Mantic, unless you hate working with metal.

Even if you leave aside the different designs (you either like the modern/manga influenced style or you don't) - Infinity's posing, dynamism and casting quality are far superior. But they're also more expensive.

As for the games themselves - they scratch pretty different itches with me. I found Deadzone more boardgame-y (it's a tabletop/boardgame hybrid) and really liked the campaign system, whereas Infinity is a straight skirmish tabletop game (movement and table setup are more freeform and I found some elements to be more granular than they are in Deadzone).

I think once you clean them up, the mantic models are pretty solid. Infinity minis cost much more, and you get what you pay for. So yeah, Infinity models are probably "better", especially if you Jive with the aesthetic, but they cost quite a bit more. Deadzone faction starters run similar to 3 infinity models. Neither game requires a lot of models, both are cheaper than a proper wargame with 50+ models on a side.

If I'm looking solely to paint something, I'll probably reach for an Infinity model, unless I don't want to spend as much time/stress to make it 'just so'. I've still had fun painting the deadzone models I've done so far.

In terms of gameplay, infinity offers a lot more nuance and seems like a battle of tricks and countermeasures. Deadzone is probably the first one I'll reach for, especially if I'm trying to get someone new to play with me. I can't say Deadzone is necessarily faster than Infinity, infinity games can end pretty damn fast when things start to go south for someone, but you've gotta learn more rules to streamline it like that.



Infinity is all about beautiful models and nuanced gameplay. The game is freaking brutal, I think I kind of hurt my opponent's feelings at the Infinity learn to play event we attended this year at GenCon. One of my guys had an item that gave him mobile cover and he had a powerful gun so I advanced him through the open and mowed down three of my opponents mans in quick succession. He had had enough by that point. The game tends to have a lot of tricks and techniques to ply, and the first games of most players end very bloody and one-sided as even a basic trooper can take out nearly anyone. You may set up a game and be done after a turn 1 AD combat dropping mini with an HMG clears out half of your dudes. Or you might think your opponent was sneaking up a stealthy infantry only to have a huge camo-ed T.A.G. (big robot suit, but not giant, 2x man height, maybe 3x on the very biggest, maybe) pop out of the camo marker with twin flame throwers, who then proceeds to annihilate your forces. Another game you kill most of your opponent's good units by using tricky Nomad hacking/otherwise to carpet bomb your opponent with guided missiles. I think this all levels out and it comes down to who can outmaneuver who.

A ''hidden'' cost of infinity is that you need to fill up a 4x4'-ish table with multi level terrain, a lot of buildings with stairs, roofs, insides and outsides, scatter terrain for the clear paths, and so on, it's more an obstacle to starting Infinity that the models

Deadzone is a lot more casually accessible of a game. The rules are a lot simpler but they can still have depth. There are a lot of buzzword "cinematic" upsets due to the exploding dice, a grunt kills a specialist who started with more dice, a really well set up attack simply fails horribly, and so on. Deadzone is built to play pretty fast and you can usually fit in a few games. It also has the neat aspect of hidden missions so you never know *exactly* what your opponent is going after. The campaign system is fairly simple but still a nice change of pace to just playing one-off games. Nexus psi gives you another type of campaign. They've got rules for increasing the size of the table, 2x2' by default, increased by adding 2x2' mats, and the number of players. They've also got rules for playing solo vs an AI opponent or a solo mini-campaign to survive a zombie outbreak left in the wake of the plague.




So a lot of that was probably unnecessary, sorry got on a thing.

One thing about the Infinity starter, look into preordering if you are gonna get it, there's a limited edition model and it's supposedly a limited run (but they'll probably make more if it does well enough, which it is likely to).

Thanks again for the replies.

I spent an hour cleaning up a single Marauder model and painting it up. Ironically, the painting took me less time than the tidying up of the figure.
Although it's not awesome (I knock up pieces I use for gaming quick and use Army Painter dip as it protects them like a tank) - I decided to get the box set.
Anyway, I have this week off work, so on Saturday afternoon I ordered the Deadzone boxset to come (Sunday Amazon delivery).
Amazon delivered the goods.

AND...

No bases at all in the box for Plague or Enforcers.

Mantic can't be contacted by phone. Their online complaining about missing parts form says it will take a minimum of 10 days to deal with missing parts.
What a waste. £7.99 for extra speedy delivery only to have enough parts missing so as the box set is rendered useless.

And now a week on holiday with a box set of figures to paint which I can't actually build.
Guess I'll have to get cracking on the scenery. :-)

Oh, and my 1st effort at a Marauder - the one that took longer to remove mould lines than paint. lol

Nice work on the Marauder! Simple but vibrant and effective!

Bad luck with the missing parts, hope they get it sorted relatively soon. I suppose you could start painting/building them using Integral Bases if you want to get going.

Yeah they've totally got mini bases built in, they just slot into the bigger ones. Well most models. You didn't get the grey plastic sprues or the chipboard 40mm bases? Shame.

A trick I have found for cleaning up the models is to use a brash brush usually found in gun cleaning kits or the welding section of your local hardware store. Scrape the mold lines as normal and then brush the "fuzzies" off. It also buffs the surface and functions sort of like a file.

It made assembly much easier on my 4 factions.

The mould lines and flash was far worse on the marauder faction starter I bought. The Plague/Enforcers in the box aren't quite so bad. They'll take some work, but having seen the Plague figs irl now, I'm quite impressed with them. Not sure about that leaping one though. The Enforcers look like it's going to be a bit of a jigsaw sorting some of their weapon arms out though.

My wife looked through the rule book and said "Oooo, I like those, can I be those". Pointing at the Rebs. The faction I didn'y buy. /sigh


As for the game, although I haven't played yet. I do have a few questions already :-O

1. It states "To move up there must be a full cube height wall to provide handholds to climb". Is this a solid wall? There were only 2 of those I think in total in the set, or can you climb a wall with a window or door?

2. Re: The standard 2 level tower. How do you move from the middle (level 2) to the top floor (level 3)? It says you can't move through a solid panel (obviously), and moving to a section that can be climbed would mean a movement to "outside" of the tower which wouldn't get you to the roof. Is it just a single move action or 2 moves or can it not be done?

3. If a leader has 3-2 command. You draw 3 cards at the end of the round, then put 2 to the bottom of the draw deck. I was unsure if this means draw the 3 to hand and then replace 2 from the entire hand, or, draw 3 and from those 3, put 2 back.

4. Looking at those standard towers (eg the one in the rules on page 13). Is it impossible for a size 3 figure to get onto any of the levels? They'd have to move through one of those X shapes that say they only fit size 2 or less though. Is this right? Size 3's can never climb towers?

I'm sure I'll have loads more questions when I've eventually played a game. I'm putting the scenery together at the moment and will probably try to have a learning game with the wife using proxy figures, till I get the bases from Mantic and start on the real figs.

 Gimgamgoo wrote:
1. It states "To move up there must be a full cube height wall to provide handholds to climb". Is this a solid wall? There were only 2 of those I think in total in the set, or can you climb a wall with a window or door?

It just has to be one of the 'full' ones that would take the entire side of a Cube up (even if it has a window/door).

2. Re: The standard 2 level tower. How do you move from the middle (level 2) to the top floor (level 3)? It says you can't move through a solid panel (obviously), and moving to a section that can be climbed would mean a movement to "outside" of the tower which wouldn't get you to the roof. Is it just a single move action or 2 moves or can it not be done?

As long as access is available, you can climb the outside.

3. If a leader has 3-2 command. You draw 3 cards at the end of the round, then put 2 to the bottom of the draw deck. I was unsure if this means draw the 3 to hand and then replace 2 from the entire hand, or, draw 3 and from those 3, put 2 back.

You choose. so you have 3 cards. You draw 3. From those 6, put 2 back.

4. Looking at those standard towers (eg the one in the rules on page 13). Is it impossible for a size 3 figure to get onto any of the levels? They'd have to move through one of those X shapes that say they only fit size 2 or less though. Is this right? Size 3's can never climb towers?

It's hard for Size 3's to climb that kind of stuff. They're big!

They added ramps and stairs in Incursion, the gist of which is that they can be used to change levels just like climbing. Stairs are for everything of all size except vehicles, ramps are just for everything.

Units get no special bonus if you balance them somewhere on the stairs or the ramp, except for whatever LoS bonus you're trying to achieve.

Glad you went with deadzone, while the models do take a bit of extra clean up they really do come out nice in the end, they also grow on your really fast. I'd just started with the base box but after about a week I found myself ordering the the Orxs and Rebs both. I really enjoy the pieces, only one I didn't really like was the jumping stage 2 and even then he's ok.

I ran into some issues with missing pieces, filled out the form on their website and they were really good about getting me the parts. Got a confirmation email that the request was received then replacement parts showed up about two weeks later.

Really nice paint job on your mini, looking forward to seeing more.

Built up my scenery this afternoon (yay for a week off work). Painted one small piece up to see if the colour scheme came out as I envisioned in my head. It was close enough :-)
Going to get cracking with the scenery painting tomorrow. (+ I ordered an extra scenery pack which will be due soon)

Thanks for answering game questions.

But, here's 1 more for you on the card drawing mechanics.
I've flicked back and forth between sections (the rulebook seems a tad unorganised) and it seems the cards are going to be a lot less useful than I thought.

Let me get this right...

eg.
Enforcers with a Ccaptain with 3-3 command.
You start with a pile of 20 random cards in your deck.
Draw 4 to begin with at the game start.
You may use some during your turns, if not, you discard one at the end of the round when every figure is activated.
You then draw 3, and replace 3 at the bottom (from the 3-3 skill)
You are never going to gain any cards.
You will only ever have 4 cards to play in the entire game, and if you don't use one, you lose one each round anyway.
So in 4 game rounds, you're out of hand cards whether you used any or not. And they'll never be replaced.
You have 0 in hand, draw 3 and put all 3 back.
It all seems a waste of time.
Enforcers and Plague have all their leaders with equal command values like 3-3, 2-2 etc.
Ok, for Marauders with a boss with 3-2, you'd gain a card each turn, but not the other 2 factions.
I just don't understand why make so many cards, all very useful, if you only get 4 ever in the entire game.
Plus the mechanic that says the game ends when the draw deck (and hand) are run out will never happen. You draw 3 and put them back if you have a 3-3 leader. Thus pointlessly cycling through the deck for nothing when you are down to 0 cards in hand. The 16 left over cards in the deck will just cycle over and over.

Did I miss something?

I kind of wish there was a Summary sheet or something with the turns and rules (like GW try to do) to make the game play a little less "book flicking".

It's draw, keep. Draw 3 keep 3. So a 3-1 is draw 3, keep 1. 4-3 is draw 4 keep 3.

 judgedoug wrote:
It's draw, keep. Draw 3 keep 3. So a 3-1 is draw 3, keep 1. 4-3 is draw 4 keep 3.

Hmm. I may have been doing this wrong. :(

Re-reading the section over and over has helped. Wow I must have been asleep on my first read through.
I'm going to take a 3-3 as draw 3 and keep them all.
A 3-2 seems like draw and look at the next 3 but only keep 2 of them to put in your hand, the other goes back to the bottom of the draw deck.
Hope that's right. And thanks for the help again. :-)

Yep, that's correct. The first number is how many you draw, the second is how many you keep from that. The difference between the two is how many go back into the deck.

Don't worry, it took me a few games to work out cards as well.

Yup it's why high command stats are awesome - you keep more cards in your hand and you activate more models (combine the two stats) at once.

A 3-1 is like "has a lot of situational awareness but can only go through with one or two strategies at a time" (get three new things to do but only stick with one), whereas a 3-3 is like "a tactical master who can figure out what to do at any moment" (get three new things to do and be able to do all of them)

More cards in your hand also means you have better chance of card time out ending the game when you want to versus your opponent.

I convinced the wife to have a game with me tomorrow night. Wow the excitement of a Friday night when you're stuck in with a little kid :-P
We're going to try the quick demo game on the 4x4 grid to see the basic mechanics and see if we get a full game after that.

We'll be using 1 painted plague and 4 unpainted along with 3 Space Marines for the Enforcers.
I built all the buildings which I figured would be more important to the game than figures.

I painted a building and a wall up to see if the colour scheme I had in my head worked out. I was happy enough with it. I know I can add more highlights and edges etc, but tbh, these days, (with a small lad) I don't get the time to finish them all to the standard I would have done 10 years ago. First try at a plague and 2 plague hellhounds as well.

Anyway, there should be a pic below. :-)


Also, the title of my thread should no longer be "Thinking of trying Deadzone but..." to "Well engrossed painting Deadzone stuff"

Terrain and minis looks sharp.

For your first game, I'd leave out cards and command rules, and focus on getting the basic mechanics down.