So to continue the theme of Late Roman cavalry, here are an other 4 bases of them ready for the table. To be honest these can and will also be used for Republican Auxiliary cavalry, as they are formed and armed suitable for that as well.
Their shields are simple but in a style which works for a long historical period. The pattern which can be seen in various books. Of course they are better at doing a true circle in the center but heck I tried. I am not sure who the manufacturer is for these models.
You can see from the back these are all uniform so will work better for more structured troops (such as those from the Eastern side of Roman territory) and as mentioned even the Republican Roman army vs the true fall of the west. Still this gives another set of troops which can be used for big battles or when I provide troops for both sides in a game.
The simple basing style match the other troops I have for the period so these should be able to morph with relative ease as I need for various forces.
A quick post today showing off some more of the Deadzone terrain I completed. This is a decent sized building with some roof cover. I have based this on hardboard, like all the terrain I have done for this to give it some stability. The Deadzone stuff in theory allows you to build up what you want but that is too fiddly and time consuming for me.
But it makes a great shanty town/deserted outpost. This should work for everything from Tatooine (the desert planet in Star Wars) through to the underhive of Necromunda. I put a GW chaos ganger in the picture for scale.
Yes, another post with more cavalry for the Late Roman army. This one include two units of 4 bases each -so 8 in all. As mentioned previously the Late Roman army started to use more cavalry to counter the threats coming from the Huns, Franks, Goths etc. It just did not have the resources to have enough foot legions everywhere to protect all the empires citizens so it started to add more mobile units to the armies. To be honest the impact of these many of the Hun, Franks, Goths settling and becoming Roman citizens also had an influence on the amount of cavalry that the Roman armies had available. But anyway…
The first set have fairly simple red theme and shields. These can be heavy or medium cavalry depending on the need for the army list.
You can see from the rear shot That they are wearing armour so likely these would be more heavy troops. I kept with a fairly simple red and green theme for these and that ended up looking good.
You can see here I messed up a little with the basing of the closest two and did not add a second type of flock on them. It’s not a huge miss but one that I did correct after the pictures were taken. It is amazing how sometime looking and things you just miss items until you see the picture of them.
Next are 4 more bases in a unit style. These again are done in a green and red theme, but this time with all the figures having green cloaks. These guys seem lighter armoured as well so are more suitable for medium cavalry. They have a less formal Roman look so will work for medium cavalry for Romano-British and opposing Goth/Frankish forces etc. They would even work Carolinian and other Dark Age armies at a push.
The shields are a simple design. These are copied from some I have seen on the web and do match quite well to what we know about actual Roman cavalry shields. These also have a a much more active look in their poses – with spears down low and ready to, or even in the process of charging their opponents.
So, a final shot of the rear of these – where the cloaks are very visible. Not all the figures have a cloak but enough do that they become can become an obvious unit for games like Hail Caesar.
So this is the last game of the season and I need a win. For my sins and due to a mix up in organization I get to play the league leader again in the final game of the season… We (and our league admin) are still learning tour play in the league. So this was a mess up thatwe face each othewr twice in a season but hey ho thats life. ‘Roma the Coma’ as we nicknamed him – my opposing coach is a very good player and a good die roller as well. That makes this an added challenge, but lets see how this plays out. His really well developed Orc team does not help either. I was down a Bull Centaur from the last match so took Fungus the loon and Varag Ghoul-chewer as star inducements. Last time out (against these Orcs) Varag injured himself in a block he threw, so let us see if he can redeem himself.
The rain pours here in Short and Sweet (S&S) home stadium. Thats not good for the Chaos Dwarfs with their poor ball handling skills. The Chaos Dwarfs now wish they had paid a wizard to cover their stadium or even better had invested in a stadium underground where such weather could be avoided.
S&S kick off to the Orcs
The S&S won the toss and kicked to the Orcs. The Peon Orc thrower had no issue with the rain and picked up the ball we ease though. They also have no issues with the S&S front line, KO’ing one Dwarf and stunning 2 others in the first three hits of the game. The game then settled into a cagey defensive stand off. Neither side really pushed things too much and for the next 4 or 5 turns. The Orcs would probe in one area and the S&S would react and then recover and do the same.
However, the blocking game was not working in the S&S favour. By turn 6 the S&S were 3 players down on the field vs. Orcs. This allowed the Peon to make a move up field and the S&S had no real way to stop the Orc cage going in for a turn 8 score. The S&S bull centaur had marked the potential scorer making them throw dice though. Unfortunately this resulted in an injured bull centaur. Just like in the previous game the S&S used their apothecary to keep him in the game. This was a risk but one which I felt I had to take, as the Orcs just had more skill and speed without having a bull centuar on the field.
The second half started with the S&S needing to score for the draw. Things started ok with Fungus doing his stuff and stunning a couple of Orcs. The S&S Dwarfs were back to full numbers as well and started ok, knocking out an Orc. The Orc kick was long but the problem was that the 2 Hobgoblins could not pick up the ball in the rain. This continued for the next 4 turns! They kept failing to pick up the ball, even with rerolls etc. This started to look really bad as the Orcs had started to put some some pressure on the defense.
Hobgoblins who can not pick up the ball
Finally, a hobgoblin got the ball in his hands. By this point Fungus had been tripped up by a 2 die uphill block which worked and KO’ed himself. The bad news that that once again the Orcs were up on player numbers on the field. So, with 4 turns left the S&S tired to run the ball up the field. Because of the delays they had no players in a good position to hand off the ball, too and the bull Centaur who could go fast would need a 5+ to get it in the rain. So they started a simple cage and run up the sideline move. This could just make the end zone by the end of the game – jkust but iot would be close.
For 2 turns this looked like it may work. The S&S moved the ball up to the middle of the field in a rough cage and even crowd surfed one Orc and killed another. But then disaster struck. Varag rolled a double skull, doing a block and then injured himself out of the game! That freed up 3 Orcs to move in and block any chance of progressing the ball up that sideline.
In a desperation move the Bull Centaur moved back and to the other side of the field. The ball carrying Hobgoblin then tried to throw the ball to him/away from the Orcs. This was the only chance they had to still tie up the game. But of course the Hobgoblin fumbled the throw (yes this Hobgoblin may have the Pro skill but in reality had no ball handling skills all game). The fumble might still as it work though in the S&S favour, as the ball bounced out of play. A long throw-in in 2 of the 3 directions (across the field or towards the Orc end zone) would actually do what the throw had been attempting! But of course the ball went instead back towards the S&S endzone and a short distance at that, ending near various Orcs.
A perfect throw in of the ball for the Orcs after the Hobgoblin fumbles the throw
That meant the Orcs could put up a good move to score again. Of course, there were no ball handling issues for the Orcs in the rain. Still it was not a given and the game ended with the S&S defense just holding out and stoping the Orcs scoring. This limited them to a single TD win, but even with this there had been an additional cost of more injuries to S&S players in the last turns of the game.
So, the S&S season comes too and end with a loss as they see their opponents head to the playoffs. It definitely was a season of 2 half’s. The first set of games with them had a series of good wins. The second half though was plagued by poor play and die luck on my part. Still thats the way if goes with Blood Bowl.
I knew this would be a hard game but had hoped to pull out a draw at least. But in reality this was a game where I was really out played and out rolled all the way through. I could and maybe should have been even more ‘elf like’ in defense in the first half. But Chaos Dwarfs should in theory be able to mix it up with Orcs. I hung back a bit but obviously not enough. The much more developed Orc team game me little chance for that as well. They had the strength and skills advantage. Right from the start hanging back too much would had just allowed the Orcs to foul more than they did. My opponent did have some poor rolls but had a lot of good ones – way more than I did. But in the end skill and team play came into that though as well, as he maneuvered to roll a lot more blocks against me than I threw against him.
The reality was after the first few turns of the first half when I started to loose players numbers on the field it was always going to be tough to stop the Orcs scoring in the first half. I was 1-0 down at the half but that really that was nothing to worry about. I could field 11 players in the second half and the draw was still quite likely and a win possible (but unlikely to be honest).
The second half was much more of a disaster for me – my dice, I think, just wanted to Orcs to win…
I could not roll a 4+ to pick up the ball no matter what (rerolls, pro rerolls etc.) over 4 turns and that put me on the back foot. My blocks started ok but soon turned into lots of pushes as well. That gave the Orcs more options to put the defensive pressure on. It also gave me fewer options when I finally got the ball. When Varag for a second game in a row vs. the same opponent took himself out of play on a 2 die block (double skulls) it really was the end. He had been holding up 3 orcs which were then free and could block the scoring move.
Still it was a fun and challenging game. I wish Roma well in the league playoffs. I wanted to play the Chaos Dwarfs and have had fun with them. After quite afew games now I admit I find them challenging and frustrating at times as well as fun. Their slowness and poor agility is a real handicap – for a player of my skill level (and die rolling ability). They have advantages but their two strongest/fastest players being the key ball carriers makes this quite a risk with their poor agility. If things go wrong they go wrong quickly, but I guess that is the case with all teams.
OK a quick one today. As mentioned previously I finished a load of terrain I got from Deadzone Kickstarter a long time ago. These including a load of barriers. I believe in the system they are supposed to be put together for games but I glued these so they are easier to handle. You can see they are done in a rough, stained look – like my buildings.
These should work for various settings/games and you can see the 1 GW cultist for scale. I thought about doing graffiti on them but in the end decided to just leave them for now. That allows them to be used for pretty much any location of games.
Another quick post showing the progress I have made on getting some more figures done for ALDG Arab/middle eastern armies. I have been trying out the Fatimids and they can have pike blocks (just 2) I thought I had to get some mini’s which work for that. So here are 2 bases of pikes.
These are all Mesuem miniatures figures. They are one of the few manufactures I found which do a nice 15mm Arab mini which really would work for a pike block. To me pikes bases of this period need to have loads of figures on them to show they are different than spear blocks. These figures also have the nice defensive pose of a pike usage which helps.
The Fatamids are one of the few armies which allow these and they are mediocre, so I wanted to have them being varied and look dirty. This is opposed to the clean and drilled look of some of the figures I have done for the swordsmen etc. I think these thus work for that.
Next, are a few spearmen bases. I had some of these in my collection but not a lot. Not enough for if I wanted to do a real Arab etc army. Many lists have quite a few spearmen in their lists. So here I have another 3 bases of ‘mixed rabble’ spearmen.
I believe these are Old Glory 15mm figures and they again work great for the mass troops of a force. I was not sure if their hats would be felt or metal. I decided to do metal – which looks ok but may be wrong. I did a variety of colours on these but nothing too extreme. These will be levy or citizen troops vs. real professional forces for my armies anyway.
So there we are a few more bases for my middle eastern armies who will fight the crusades.
So another report on a Blood Bowl game – this one vs. a well developed Norse team. Yes Norse back to back as opponents. This one though had both Valkyries as blogers with various other skills and other players developed as well. One of the Valkyries was move 9 as well, so overall a dangerous and fgast team indeed! As it is getting to the end of the season stakes are getting higher and the Bacon Club paid for Cindy Piewhistle (a bomber) as a star. The Short and Sweet were underdogs and so using this extra cash got bomber Briddlesnot and Fungus the Loon for their star inducements.
The game started with the S&S electing to receive the ball. They wanted to try to pound the Norse early and often. That plan was derailed by a Club blitz though. But the blitz was a fairly ineffective. Soon the S&S game plan started to pay off and they caged up and started to remove Club players and stun more. But the S&S pushed their luck and a blatant foul (stunning an Ulfwerener) got a hobgoblin sent off. This evened up the player numbers again. By this point Fungus had been taken down by one of the big guys on the Club team. He had stunned quite a few players before this though.
First turn kickoff -S&S receive the ball
Then, Cindy made a difference in the game. She had thrown a few interesting but not decisive bombs untill this point. Mid way through the half though she threw a bomb which took down the ball carrying Hobgoblin. The ball bounced around and ended up in front of the S&S cage. In ran one of the Valkyries who scooped up the ball (out of marked square) and ran with it back to towards their end zone. So a huge setback for the S&S and their slow march to the end zone.
They reacted and tried get the ball back, A bull centaur ran up and took down the blodging ball carrier close to the Club end zone. It followed up onto the ball but.even with a reroll it could not pick up the ball. So the ball was loose and although close to the Club end zone the S&S had no other scoring threats. The Valkyrie stood up and in turn not only took the blodging centaur down but I injured him. In a risky call the S&S coach used the apothecary on this baldy hurt player. Brining him into reserves. Would this bold move to keep the centaur in the game pay off or not… only time would tell.
Unfortunately, for the S&S the major thing that happened in the later turns of the first half was the Club die got really hot. Their were single die blocks always working and they were making great armor rolls. This meant that the other S&S bull centaur was injured… the crowd went silent as there was no apothecary to save him. It ended up a Niggle- so could have been a lot worse. But at this point that risky move to use the apothecary early had not paid off. The ”hot die’ freed up the Club in the last turns of the half to move the ball down and score. There was nothing the S&S could do to stop this other than hope for a failed hand off. But the Club Ulfwerener (unlike the Bull centaurs) had no issue with a 4+ ball handling roll to get the ball into the end zone with time expiring…
The second half started with both team back to 11 players. The Club’s luck continued to be good as they argued the refs call successfully and Cindy would be back on the field for them. The S&S failed that with Fungus. But this meant both teams had a bomber on the field. Things looked a little grim though for the S&S were down a Bull Centaur and the score, as well as facing such a fast and skilled team who started with the ball.
The kick was deep and initially the Valkyrie failed to pick up the ball. But she soon collected it before the threatening Hobgoblin got anyway close. The initial volleys of bombs knocked a few players down but did nothing that significant. The club looked to set up for a hand off from one Valkyrie to the other to run through the S&S defense and secure the win.
But Bomber Bribblesnot saw an opportunity. He threw a bomb onto a downed attacking hobgoblin who was not surrounded by several club player’s. Those were the ones preping for this handoff move. Luck was with him and his bomb KO’ed the Valkyrie in this group. Oh he took off the hobgoblin as well but thats Blood Bowl. This result was being echoed around the field as luck had turned for the S&S their blocks had started to remove a few Club players from the field- including injuring Cindy. All went to the KO box but it was making life harder for the Club.
This meant the one remaining Valkyrie tried to run the ball through midfield herself. But with the limited players they did not have enough to completely protect her. The remaining Bull centaur blitzed in but only managed to push her back. She in turn blitzed to continue to move up the field – the centaurs dodge skill kicked in save it though this time. So, the next turn the Bull centaur chased her (requiring a dodge roll) and this time took her down. In a key roll this KO’ed her, meaning thatthe Club now had no Valkyrie on the field of play.
This allowed a Hobgoblin to pick up the loose ball and tuck in close to other players their player. By now it was now 10 S&S vs. 7 Club players. It was not a great defensive position but it would be hard for the Club to take the ball carrier down being outnumbered.
S&S collect the ball in the second half and try to secure the ball
The S&S started to again move the ball up the field – putting out a defensive screen around the ball carrier. The final chance as it turned out for the Club to take the ball carrier down was lost by the Yeti who KO’ed himself trying to make a hole in the screen to the ball carrier.
So all that was left was for the S&S to run the ball up the field to score for the draw. The could have scored with 1 turn left in the game but learning for the last game they did not push it. The Club had too many good players in the KO box who could return if they scored early. So they left no time for the Club to do anything as they scored as time expired. That meant a defensive score for each team and a well earned draw for both.
Well that was not the result I think either side expected after the first half. This game had nearly everything – including wild swings of luck for both sides and bombs galore. It was a fun game overall. Initially the game looked good for the S&S and then around when they lost the ball in the first half their die went cold and the Clubs got hot. At the end of the half the Club moved the ball the length of the field in 2 turns to score. They had nearly every S&S player prone while doing it! The second half started even but the threat of the Club speed meant the S&S played containment. But the attrition started to work in the S&S favour in the second half. That meant the Club had to take risks. But the biggest factor was when both Valkyries were KO’ed. That allowed for the S&S to take control of the ball and move it up to get the draw, The last couple of turns were safe for them with a significant number advantage to use, but it was touch and go until then.
After 2 game reports last week I thought I’d post some more figs I have finished. This time it’s another quick post showing some extra bases I have painted for my Arab(ish) armies. This one showing medium swordsmen.
First I have a set of 2 ADLG bases of medium swordsmen. These have a somewhat uniformed look and so will work well for specific good and powerful units. Many forces have small numbers of elite swordsmen in the crusader period and that is exactly what these are aimed at being used for. I think the figures are from Old Glory for these.
The second set are 4 ADLG bases of more generic medium spearmen. I based these on some general pictures I found on the web for soliders of the Sultans etc. I kept the colours similar so they are not a complete rabble as I do have a few bases of just random clothed units. So they stand out and can be specific units in a force if needed. But they are likely not the same elite style as the ones above. That was also done because they all have the same type of shield – and I painted them all the same.
I believe these are all from Forged in Battle – but I may be wrong on that and they could be old glory 15mm as well.
These give me a nice group os additional medium swordsmen for list building. Some lists need a whole swath of these but I am not creating those lists – medium swordsmen in a time of knights have a limited life and usefulness. But having some in a command allows them to control terrain and depending on the opponents get around the flank of the battle line etc. They can at a push fight other infantry on the battle line as well. Oh and if I really want I could call these spearmen – there are a good mixture of spears in the figures as well. That would be only is really needed but heck why not.
OK so another quick game report from my Blood Bowl league. This time playing a Paul’s Norse team. Both teams were the same team value and about the same amount of development. The Norse had 13 players including a couple of beer pigs and the Yeti. To be fair my track record in Blood Bowl has taken a dive recently and I think I am on a run of 7 or 8 straightlosses in all game formats. The S&S team position in the league has also dropped because of that but I still have fun with the game and that is the main thing.
So another game day being held at the Wally Stadium – a local bar where we play some games. The lighting is not always the greatest for the game, but they have good food and beer which helps. The S&S won the decision and kicked the ball to Arsenal at the start of the game. While the ball was in the air one of the S&S dwarfs ran up and stunned the Yeti with a quick snap blitz move. So a decent start to thew game. The Arsenal team took this in stride though and a Valkyrie picked up the ball and started to move towards midfield on the right on the field. The S&S center line kept the Norse at bay and they moved to block the right side of the pitch. Blocking by both was fair ineffective, with a few stuns each side. The only removal was a KO of one of the Norse Ulfwereners (strength 4 player) and a S&S chaos dwarf to the KO box.
The Norse then moved the ball to the left side of the field and made a play for the end zone. Over the next few turns the S&S made multiple (rerolled) block attempts to take the ball carrting Valkyrie down but even with rerolls (8 block dice rolled in total) they failed to get a single pow or trip result do that. That allowed, with a couple of successful dodges the Valkyrie to run in for a score. So Nuffle was definitely favoring the Norse so far.
The Norse kick to the S&S in the first half
This meant there were 3 turns for the S&S to try to tie up the game at the half. The Norse kick was deep but an S&S hobgoblin picked up the ball on a forst attempt. It then started a move on the right of the field. There was a good opportunity for them to level the score, but the poor agility of the S&S players hurt this. They could complete the required handoff of the ball to a bull centaur and so the half fizzled out with more ineffectual hitting/fouls as neither side able to score.
So the S&S received the ball in the second half down 1 to 0. The ball dropped straight to a Chaos dwarf who caught it and then with support of the rest of the team slowly moved up the left side of the field. Now the S&S hits and guard started to pay off and they began to remove a few Norse players. So half way through the half they had a choice. They could try to delay and then score – likely giving a 1-1 tie result for the match, or score as quickly as possible and kick to the now somewhat depleted Norse team hoping for a defensive take away and the win. Ofcourse that second option also had a decent risk of loosing the game as well.
Deciding to go for the win (why not playing for the draw would be better for league position but heck it was more fun to try to win), they scored. This gave 4 turns for the Norse team to try to win and 3 for the S&S to get the ball off them. But now it was 9 Norse (including 2 beer pigs) vs. 11 S&S players. The kick was perfect for the S&S and ended right by the touchline, with multiple dwarfs covering it. Still a Valkyrie ran in and on a 5+ picked up the ball. The S&S managed to take her down though and the ball scattered. This lead to another scrum around the loose ball, where the Norse could not pick up the ball.
So with 2 turns teach left it the S&S had a way of clearing the Norse from around the ball and then having a hobgoblin pick it up. But to try to do this a dwarf blocker rolled double skulls (after an push result on the same Norse player from the prior attempt). With no rerolls left that (they had been used on at least one double skull rolled previously in this half as well as failed rushes to score), it was a turn over.
Chaos Dwarf double skulls leaving a path for the Norse to pick up the ball and get the winner
This left it open for a Valkyrie to run in and pick up the ball on a 4+ and dodge out. The S&S scrambled and tried to stop her scoring. They made another 2 die block again in defense – which of course failed and stunned the attempting hobgoblin out as well, So, it just took a dodge and multiple rushes for the Norse to get the 2-1 win in the dying moments of the game.
That means another loss for the S&S and they managed to grab a loss out of a pretty certain draw and maybe even a win. The S&S team now suspect the coach has some how insulted Nuffle – the god of Blood Bowl and he hates me… I need to do a cleanse or something to appease him and get some decent die luck back (although this is me so it’s unlikely to happen as die luck is not my thing).
Thinking back I think I played ok in placement and moves and did nothing really I regretthere, but my die failed me at all the critical times. Meanwhile Paul made all the rolls he needed with ease. The 10 block die rolls and not getting with a TRIP or POW result (think a 5or 6 on a D6) to stop either of the TD was just appalling die rolls (I believe there is about a 1% chance ofthat happening). I also rolled atleast 2 double skulls in the game and had a load of ineffective hits. I suspect in games I pushthings a little too much and need to get betterat when to use rerolls and when to take the rolled resultdie. Multiple times in this game I used rerolls but they did not turn into successes.
The better league position decision would have been to play for the draw – that is the ‘safer’ option, but it was not guaranteed even then. I could have made it much harder for the Norse to win doing that though. However, I’m not all about the game/league results and having fun is more important than purely winning. So the quick score option made it much more entertaining and memorable a game – giving us both a higher chance to win vs. just trying to settle for the draw.
So it was a good game and overall fun and challenging – if not somewhat frustrating when the die do not go your way, but that is blood bowl.
I got Deadzone from Mantic on the 1st edition kickstarter (wow over 10 years ago now)and painted up all the models etc. after that. You can see the post for those back somewhere in my old blog posts here. But, I never played it till this week. One of my regular opponents has a later edition and fancied trying it so we have dug it out and played a couple of games now. This was also the trigger for me finally to finish the various terrain which came with the kickstarter. So you will see this below but I’ll be doing more blog posts showing that soon.
So here is a quick write up of the game this week and some comments on the rules. We played using the 3rd edition of the rules. Deadzone is Mantic’s game of skirmish style sci-fi combat. So a Necromunda/kill team level game. A skirmish typically has 5 to 20 or so figures per side. Deadzone is a simple set of rules, so the opposite to kill team which I seem to feel wants to make things more complicated if they can. The mechanics are easy and you don’t need massive books and loads of specific, complex rules or movement markers to play it. The forces available in Deadzone are those for the normal Mantic sci-fi world – so their space dwarfs, space rats, plague victims, stormtroopers, mercenaries etc.
Interestingly, you play on a 2 x 2 table which is marked into 3″ squares. Thats is quite small for these types of games but it works. There is no measuring just counting and moving via the squares. All figs move a specific number of squares and they have a basic stat line with move, shoot, fight, size, armour and then weapons. The turns are done using alternating model activation, with each activated model allowed 2 actions (shoot, move etc.), Each turn roll some tactics dice which give additional actions or other bonuses you can use during the tune. Some provide additional move or shoot actions other results give a bonus die in an action or allow you to move 2 figures sequentially vs just one. These also include the possibility to trigger the faction special ability. That adds quite a bit of tactical choice and as its somewhat random means you have to adapt to the results in the game – dealing with those options available. Thats a nice factor in the game.
Combat, either shooting or melee is an opposed die roll. Usually its 3 die (D8’s) vs, your own figs target number counting and comparing successes. Bonuses such as shooting from above or having friendly figs in the square where the melee occurs gives you extra/less die vs changing the target numbers etc. The difference (minus armour) are hits and a model dies if it takes more than it’s size of hits, otherwise it’s just injured. That means most models die at 2 hits while big ones and leaders take 3 or even 4 – after armour. The system has an exploding 8s, so any roll of an 8 counts as a success and you roll again until you don’t roll an 8. So in theory even unlikely rolls can succeed.
There are different scenario’s in the game which all have different means of getting victory points. Those are for such as securing specific locations or retrieving up objects etc – but the largest and common source of those seems to be killing the opposing teams models.
So, in the game we played we had the object of claiming Intel items from the objectives scattered randomly around the table (the black and yellow tokens in the pictures) and getting them off the board. I played the Plague faction (infected monsters with weird abilities) and Chris played the Enforcers (super tech stormtroopers).This was a medium sized battle (200 pts) and I had 14 models to the Enforcers 11, I believe. We set up at the opposite corners and started the game.
The first turn or two had both teams spread out and claim the objectives very close to their own zone. There were a few of shots fired between the teams as often the line of site was blocked. Still a Plague member was injured but in return their heavy weapons did no damaged to the Enforcers but suppressed a couple of squares – reducing the number of actions the enforcers could do next turn.
The Enforcers cautiously advanced but kept together, aiming trying to take out the plague force with their firepower. This started to work. Slowly they were removing the plague numbers with first 3 then 4 of the gun toting and/or plague dogs were eliminated. But they had still not moved much and were bunched together which allowed the suppression shots from the Plague heavy weapons specialists to make sure they kept their heads down.
The Enforcers continued doing a good job of taking down the weaker plague members but that left the bigger and more hand to hand members of the plague force to move forward. The only successful shooting by the Plague by this point had been against one of the Enforcers who left himself without cover in a building. The enforcers had also gained several of the important intel VP counters.
Soon though, with the aid of some helpful tactics die results the bigger plague members were in charge range and then into hand to hand fighting. I had purposely tried to avoid giving too many shoting options on these which had added to the number of weaker Plague guys who had been taken out by the Enforcers.
The plague leader – a stage 1A monster climbed a tower and took out 2 previously pinned Enforces in one turn. That used a lot of tactics die to achieve the extra move and combat actions but was effective. All the while a pack of three Stage 2A Plague victims (large but not huge) models moved around the other side of the central building and started to attack the enforcers there.
Things looked bad for the enforcers as this point with the Stage 2A models working in combination with one remaining the heavy machine gun to charge and fight previously pinned Enforcers. It seemed they were unstoppable as the Plague die had become hot and the Enforcers once hot die had gone cold. In melee the multiple Stage 2A Plague big guys were killing enforcers each turn.
Deciding to try to play for a ‘winning draw’ as their best option, the Enforcers tried to withdraw off table with their Intel items. This would give them VP’s and reduce the amount of VP’s that the plague could have killing them. They were still up in VP’s due to all the weaker plague figures they killed – but only just. If they could get enough live figures off the table with the intel they could not win but could stop the plague winning – and would have enough VP’s to win the draw.
But they were not fast enough or luckily enough to survive the hand to hand with and the Plague big guys, who rushed forward. Those managed to kill enough of the Enforcers that with their single intel counter they could claim a victory in the game as the last Enforcers left the table.
So overall what do I think of Deadzone V3?
Well it’s a fun little game. We likely will be playing more of it. But it’s not the perfect game either. It’s simple enough to play and not get stuck on all the stats/complexity of the system. Thats great and there is also enough tactical depth of choices which makes the game interesting. Use of D8’s and the adding die to rolls for factors is different, but works and makes for a pretty clear system. This tactics die mechanic is good as well. It feels ‘fast play’ in some ways as it moves along at a fair pace. So from that side of things it’s great.
The scenery really adds to the game but maybe the rules for this are a little too simple IMO but they work. I could see more depth in that would be helpful. Also not really part of the rules review but I can see this being more for the ‘hard core’ gamer though than a typical just play once type of player. This is because of the effort needed to make the terrain to get the most from the game. However, I hopefully will get a load of use from this now it’s done – which was the plan anyway.
The different force lists allow a variety of play styles and force builds, although I have not played enough to work out if there is an ‘overpower’ combination of units etc. I also don’t know how well the points systems holds up – those always have issues at times. Overall, though this is a fun game and especially works if you don’t have a lot of space for bigger skirmish games which often need 3×3 or even 4×4 foot tables. It’s simple enough to learn and plays well for a fun game. I could see this being great for occasional games or games with people do do not have the pertinence to learn a more complex game like Kill team.
Adventures in painting miniatures 