The club got really stoked about the new v3 of Deadzone, with the promise of fast-play exciting skirmish and no tape measures. I’m not really into scifi but always happy to throw dice with friends, so when my mate MP offered up his Space Marine collection to use as Enforcer proxies, I was in. JR went crazy with his 3D printers and churned out two entire tables worth of terrain, AC crafted a campaign structure and narrative, and I made some campaign tracking spreadsheets.
(Just one of JR’s technicolor tables. Note how I strategically chose the tableside with the sun at my back to demoralize my opponent. Muhwahahaha!)
Now, there’s a delightful story seeded by AC that feels positively Coen Bros-esque as six different factions unwittingly stumble into each other and things go sideways, but I can’t do it justice here. For now, I’ll just say that my opponent’s Asterians were attempting to capture an old Armory (Scenario 8: Occupy, but with Fortified Outpost as the stakes for reasons) and I needed to stop them and hold it for my own ends.
From my Battle Force I assembled a Strike Team with Jump Packs and Defender Shields galore with a mix of ranged, AP, and assault weapons. My plan was to get onto the objective tower ASAP, rack up VPs every turn, and weather the ridiculous Asterian shooting. If they closed in to contest the tower, I’d probably have the advantage in close combat.
(Back to front, left to right: Hämrye, Reuben, Monto Crispy, M. Croak, Bombmi, Capt. Dagwood, Gyro. For some reason one of the scrolls on a model has “Ham” and “Rye” written on it, so now my names are all sandwich themed.)
My opponent certainly had a say in that plan. Yeesh! Despite my confidence in SV 4+ HP 2 models, he still got 3 kills pretty quick. But once the close combat models got stuck in and the Medi-Bot fortified the tower, I just barely eked out a win.
Sort-of! Despite Deadzone being a pretty elegant system there are some fiddly bits with a learning curve, so we got quite a few things wrong. It could have been anyone’s game, so we’ll leave it asterisked.
(We couldn’t actually fit the model through the window so we just left him here for a turn. He ordered two tacos and a diet Coke. )
It was a Pyrrhic victory anyway. Post-game unfortunately resulted in one dead troop (RIP M. Croak), another crippled, and all my profit going into replenishing supplies. Good thing I’ve got a deep bench to draw from!
