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Uncle Atom and Vince are at it again, this time in partnership with Knucklebones Miniatures.

Here's the announcement.

New game Deth Wizards is:

Necromantic dark fantasy mini-agnostic
solo/co-op skirmish miniatures wargame

Available here

Knucklebones Miniatures have made necromancer stls for Deth Wizards.

I love the idea of this. Send your undead minions against groups of heroic adventurers, then raise the ones you kill and add them to your horde. Sort of a reverse Rangers of Shadowdeep.

Any gameplay info yet?

 lord_blackfang wrote:
Any gameplay info yet?

Not yet, but I'm sure there will be a slew of it soon.

I have to say - the concept is pretty fun.

 lord_blackfang wrote:
Any gameplay info yet?

There are now gameplay videos at the bottom of the Deth Wizards page.
With a turn summary and battle report.

 lord_blackfang wrote:
Any gameplay info yet?

In summary (as I have the books): All units split into 2 categories, Necromancer and minions. All units share Movement, offense (with a range component if it's a range attack), defense, and resistance stats, minions have a durability stat, a Rating (functionally points cost), and a "type", while necromancers have "necromantic Power". All stat spreads are set, though necromancers have 3 spreads to pick from and then can bump 2 stats by 1 each. You build your army by building a necromancer and 7-ratings worth of minions. To make a necromancer you pick your stat spread, you pick one of 6 necromantic legacies (functionally what kind of necromancer you are, decides what kind of build you go for.), and then you pick 3 "necromantic powers" out of 24, plus 3 extra all necromancers have innately. These are attacks, heals, etc. Finally you pick your "lair", which gives you a buff, how many undead you can accommodate, and then slots for upgrades. (these are primarily in story mode). Then you pick your minions, you start with rating 7, and you pick from 19 different monsters. You can gain more via the story mode, and you can bring no more than 15 rating to a given battle, regardless of how many are in your lair.

For actual gameplay, there's 2 modes skirmish and Co-op/single player (or story mode). Both have their own unique missions, and story mode uses some heroes (functionally powerful minions) based on dnd classes+villagers. Game works on d10s primarily.

SKIRMISH MODE: Each turn all players begin by regaining 3 necromantic power (afterwards called NP) up to max, then bidding NP away to get priority. The one who win activates heir necromancer and 4 rating of minions. When that activation is over, you bid again, and the winner activates similarly. Minions may only activate once a turn but the necromancer may activate multiple times.

STORY MODE: Each player gains 3 NP, then each player activates 4 Rating and their necromancer. If there are multiple players they may optionally alternating activate their minions. Then, 2 heroes per player activate and act according to their AI (functionally roll a 1d10, do what it says on the sheet). Repeat back and forth until everyone is activated. Necromancers must activate a minimum of 2 times and minions may only activate once.

BOTH: Upon activation a unit moves, then preforms one action, for minions; Attack, Move, or ability. For necromancers; Attack, Move, Necromantic Power. For Heroes; Follow AI. Movement is their stat in Inches, cannot move through friendly or enemy models unless they can fly, teleport (mummies for example) or are Ethereal (ghosts and the like). Climbing is measured in a 2:1 ratio, and if you cannot stand firmly you cannot climb. Terrain under 1" does not require climbing, and fliers do not pay the extra cost. You may also jump in a move, two platforms must be within 1" vertically, and the distance between is again, counted at a 2:1 ratio. Fliers are not effected by terrain effects, and teleporters cannot teleport where they cannot see, Ethereals can walk through walls and ignore terrain effects. All moves must finish so that the model is stable.

Combat is straightforward, melee range is 1" or stated value. look at the offense stat and roll that many d10s, then, compare the opponents defense rating. Every dice-roll above the defense rating is a hit and 1 damage is dealt. Rolls of 10 do +1 damaged and rolls of 1 auto-fail regardless of modifiers. Minions may have modifiers that effect this. Damage is dealt to the durability stat and when it hits 0 the unit is dead. Necromancers work differently, instead damage is done to their NP pool and if it hits 0, excess damage must be splashed to the nearest friendly minion. (Friendly to the necromancer defending). When a minion or Hero dies, the closest necromancer gains NP equal to the minion's rating. (there are edge cases but they are accounted for and not relevant here)

Necromantic powers require a expenditure of NP, and if you don't have enough then you can't cast it. You need Line of Sight to cast a power. (Line of sight is Model's eye view, if you can see any part of the enemy model you have LOS) If needed for the specific power, roll power dice (1d10s), each dice after modifiers that beats the opponent's resistance rating is considered an success. Some powers require a certain amount of successes to work, and some powers gain extra effects for certain amounts of successes. There is a counterspell Power out there your opponent may have. Otherwise as long as the needed amount of successes is reached then he power has full effect. Like with combat any deaths give the minion or hero's rating back in NP to the nearest necromancer. Some powers or ability inflict conditions, Cursed (damage on activate), Slowed (-2 movement), and weakened (-2 offense and defense). Healing is possible, but healing can never be increased past the relevant minion's durability stat.

Cover is determined by the players prior to battle, and gives +1 defense. If unsure about cover, measure from the closest point of the attacker's base and both sides of the defender's base, if either path through the terrain piece then the defender gets cover. If the attacker is within 1" of the terrain piece or the attacker and defender are within 3" of each other then cover does not apply. Cover does not protect you from necromantic powers.

There are optional extra terrain rules and a post-game progress mode for campaign play, where you can replace and add minions, upgrade your lair, and buy new powers and abilities for your necromancer.


Hopefully that's enough? I'm very much looking forward to it myself, and if you already have some undead models for AOS, Fantasy, KoW etc there's no real reason to not give it a shot.

Undead as ''good guys''? Sounds like my kind of game. Looking into more examples of play, and reviews from various players.

Sounds bloody good.

I'm not particuarly interested in the theme of be-a-necromancer, but I do like the art style and I bought "Space Station Zero" last year to support Adam and Vince.

I hope to check it out at TMX next weekend and if it (or even just the scenarios in the game) looks good I may pick it up.

I have an old GW game that came in, I think it was, in a White Dwarf once upon a time... Same concept. You had the choice of figuring out your army and it becoming a "Come as you are, with allies, different groups of figures, and using monsters and giants and all the other stuff.

We used to have a ton of fun wearing each other out as you'd start this type of skirmish as a base to begin your armies... We ended up correlating it in Mighty Empires, and building a ladder campaign out of it based on the factions. What was that, 2nd, or 3rd edition Fantasy? They had other mini games as well, like a Joust game, or the one where we had the campaign in Lustria, when you started with a couple of survivors off of a ship, and cobbled together some gangs, for a Mordhiem type of Ladder game in the Jungles and caverns under the Islands and South America continent that you explored.

Lizard Players had their pick of the litter, everyone else had to go through the scrap boxes and pay your 20 bucks.

Back in those days, these kinds of concepts were what we got into wargaming for...

I'm picking up the whole lot, just on account of supporting Uncle Adam and the project. Those minis are top tier, along with the rest of that range. There are some really tight sculpts in the selection. Anyone know how to get in contact with him, I got plenty of Ideas that he can have for free.

Question for 3d printers out there- can you customize figures that come out of the printer, or is there a way to jazz the sculpts up to personalize them before you even print them out?

I know it says multiplayer, but how many players does it comfortably support in a session?

As in, my group is usually 3-5 of us that show up on any given day. Will all 5 fit into one game? Or would we need to do two (or three?) setups to make that work well?

On a similar note, how many of the hero and villager models do you need per game? I should have plenty of D&D types lying about, but civilians are in shorter supply.

Hatemonger wrote:
On a similar note, how many of the hero and villager models do you need per game? I should have plenty of D&D types lying about, but civilians are in shorter supply.

There's a post up about how many minis you might need on the website.

Sounds very McCullough

(Frostgrave/Rangers/Bayonet)

 ProfSrlojohn wrote:
and you pick from 19 different monsters.

Could you please list all the undead that are available for a necromancer? Mummies and ghost were mentioned but what else? I assume that zombies and skeletons are a given.

 Shadow Walker wrote:

 ProfSrlojohn wrote:
and you pick from 19 different monsters.

Could you please list all the undead that are available for a necromancer? Mummies and ghost were mentioned but what else? I assume that zombies and skeletons are a given.

The are 6 different necromancer styles:
Dread Horde Master - Quantity over quality
War Reaper - Fights too
Controller - Steals minions
Monster Master - Quality over quantity
Spirit Caller - Likes it spooky
Stitcher - Does repairs

Those can get the following minions:
Skeleton
Skeleton Archer
Vampire Spawn
Zombie
Ghoul
Revenant
Shadow
Specter
Wight
Ghast
Ghost
Giant Skeleton
Giant Zombie
Mummy
Wraith
Banshee
Flesh Golem
Vampire
Death Knight

 DarkBlack wrote:

 Shadow Walker wrote:

 ProfSrlojohn wrote:
and you pick from 19 different monsters.

Could you please list all the undead that are available for a necromancer? Mummies and ghost were mentioned but what else? I assume that zombies and skeletons are a given.

The are 6 different necromancer styles:
Dread Horde Master - Quantity over quality
War Reaper - Fights too
Controller - Steals minions
Monster Master - Quality over quantity
Spirit Caller - Likes it spooky
Stitcher - Does repairs

Those can get the following minions:
Skeleton
Skeleton Archer
Vampire Spawn
Zombie
Ghoul
Revenant
Shadow
Specter
Wight
Ghast
Ghost
Giant Skeleton
Giant Zombie
Mummy
Wraith
Banshee
Flesh Golem
Vampire
Death Knight

Awesome, thanks!

Errata and FAQ https://static1.squarespace.com/static/6034194bcc742035e7f8d93e/t/66587fb922cc5c3fb411619b/1717075897669/dw_FAQ_v1.pdf

The sequel/expansion had better be Megadeth Wizards...

This really REALLY appeals to me. I have Dungeon Saga Origins, Hellboy, and Hero Quest for creature and Hero models and I think the Morticians Guild from Guild Ball would make some very thematic Necromancers.

I'd rather have a printed book, though, but I'm thinking importing from the US to the UK will be a pain in the wallet.

edit - well, I was wrong. It was only about £4 or 5 to have it sent 1st class via royal mail. 5-13 days. Oh no now I have to paint a load spooky lads, lasses, and beasties.

another edit - Just remembered I've got a massive Nighthaunt army too. Bonus!

 Tabletop_Magpie wrote:
This really REALLY appeals to me. I have Dungeon Saga Origins, Hellboy, and Hero Quest for creature and Hero models and I think the Morticians Guild from Guild Ball would make some very thematic Necromancers.

I'd rather have a printed book, though, but I'm thinking importing from the US to the UK will be a pain in the wallet.

I'm tempted too. Could look into splitting postage? Where abouts in the UK are you?

Yooo.

Mate it's basically royal mail delivery prices, pretty reasonable considering. I already pulled the trigger.

edit - I'm in greater Manchester

 Tabletop_Magpie wrote:
Yooo.

Mate it's basically royal mail delivery prices, pretty reasonable considering. I already pulled the trigger.

edit - I'm in greater Manchester

They mentioned on stream that, for the books, they have UK print shop they use for UK and Europe, cards though are only in the US.

 Tabletop_Magpie wrote:
Yooo.

Mate it's basically royal mail delivery prices, pretty reasonable considering. I already pulled the trigger.

edit - I'm in greater Manchester

No worries, if it's RM prices then that isn't prohibitive. I was up in your part of the country last week; in Salford. Makes Nottingham feel tiny.

Recently discovered a sculptor on MMF by name of Novac Dawn who does some stunning skele stls that I've just bought. Might be just the game for them.

Ah ok yeah that makes sense! Thanks for clarifying.

Another video

 JamesY wrote:


No worries, if it's RM prices then that isn't prohibitive. I was up in your part of the country last week; in Salford. Makes Nottingham feel tiny.

Recently discovered a sculptor on MMF by name of Novac Dawn who does some stunning skele stls that I've just bought. Might be just the game for them.

Glad you made it back safe from Salford

I'll have a look, I'm not really sold on the HQ skeles for this and quite like the idea of more 'indie' look for the shambling horde.

 Flinty wrote:
The sequel/expansion had better be Megadeth Wizards...

agreed. one could say that would be a real... symphony of destruction if you will.

How does it work with choosing your undead? Is it totally up to you what your force will contain, assuming rating level is met, or are there some limits for particular undead, like no more than X of Y? Can all 6 variants of wizards choose any undead or do they have some different limitations?

I picked up the physical copy and digital copy combo and this game looks AWESOME. I cannot wait to get some models together and give it a go.

I really hope they make an expansion for when the heroes assault your lair. I love how they handled it in the rules, but that could be a ton of fun as an optional set of scenarios.