Demo Game Failure

Moving to Oregon from San Antonio meant leaving our D&D group and everyone I knew who played tabletop war games. I've been itching to get back into Kings of War and Deadzone. I recently found that there are KoW players up here, though not many. I have yet to find any Deadzone players.

However, my wife and I both used to play Mordheim, that out-of-print GW gateway drug into miniature gaming. So I convinced her ti give DZ a try. I made up a couple of 100 point lists, Enforcers for her and Forge Fathers for me. It went poorly. To start with, the tactical dice were generous to me and rude to her. Then the d8s said, "Hold My Beer!" and tried to top them. Every shot I took killed a model. Not a single shot of hers resulted in a wound to mine. I left models wide in the open, with her models elevated, doubling her chances to hit. No luck.

Needless to say, after I killed the third o her five models in two turns, she declared the game over. I don't think I have a convert for this game.

Second Attempt at Deadzone

On Saturday, I played in my second Deadzone tournament. I debated playing Enforcers instead, but they were not painted, so Forge Fathers it was. My list hadn't changed at all, mainly because I hadn't done any painting since the last time. The only thing that changed was I started naming the minis since the rank and file look very similar. I decided to go with Norse names since the fluff gives the Forge Fathers a little bit of a Norse feel. So, taking the field for the Star Realm were Jarli, a Steel Huscarl, three Steel Warriors, Lodinn, Hrodi, and Balli, and two Stormrage Veterans, Bjorn and Valbrandr. The only one of these named after someone specific was Valbrander, named after a certain viking in the SCA who really would like to have a flamethrower.

Rather than post a blow by blow, I'l just give the high (low) lights and/or lessons learned. We had three players show up, playing Forge Fathers (me), Enforcers, and Plague, As I'd asked about Marauders before the Plague player showed up, the organizer threw together a Marauders unit so we'd have an even number. 1) Snipers suck. FF don't have them, but Marauders and Enforcers do. Two of them really suck. 2) Protect your leader. Losing tactical dice sucks. 3) Don't forget your special rules. My first two games (both close losses) change dramatically if I remember that my rank and file get armor piercing 1. 3) Zombies suck. At six points and no VPs, you can have a lot of them. my opponent in game two had 12 or 13. The only reason he didn't have more was he didn't own enough figures to do it. If the Plague player can make the zombies threatening enough, you HAVE to deal with them while he scores points. That was a vicious beating. 4) While flamers are not especially effective against many things, flaming a square full of zombies pretty much empties that square. Good for clearing off an objective, but that's about it. 4) None of the FF had surnames, but Valbrandr earned the name Minetripper by tripping the booby trap in three of four games. The only one he didn't trip was the one against the Plague when it was tripped by a zombie.

I ended up in third place (because the organizer refused to claim first as he was running the tournament) with a record of 1-3. My only win was in the last game where I played the Marauders again, who'd beaten me in a close one in round 1. Shawn, who organize the thing and was undefeated at the time, was a little to generous and magnanimous in the first turn, trying to promote fun and make sure I had a good time, which resulted in me killing one of his big nasties, a sniper, and his leader in the first turn. That and me remembering my armor piercing dominoed into a very lopsided win for me and the only loss for him.

All in all it was a fun day. I only felt helpless in one game because six space dwarves, even in armor, have a hard time answering anything that can put 18 models on the board. There's gotta be a way to do it, though. The enforcer player, also with only six models wiped him off the board the next round.

So I May Have a Problem

When I bought the Deadzone starter box, I was drawn to two things. First, I had been looking for sci-fi based skirmish game for a long time. 40K Kill Team didn't quite fit the bill, as it was still a game of using the incredibly nonsensical system of special rules of whatever 40K codex the armies came out of. Like Mordheim, the rules for Deadzone are all in one book, which helps in learning the gameas you are not conastantly moving from book to book to look up rules. Expansions can be added or not, and you can make an effective strike team out of a single box of troops. For example, having never played a game, I was able to make a strike team out of the starter box that I took to a tournament and went 2-2.
 2) Space Dwarves are awesome, at least these are. They don't have the comic look that Squats did, as did so many models of that 40K generation, and the designs are fairly clean and well thought out.

So here we get to the problem. A week ago I decided to go to that tournament. I had five models assembled, so I drew up a strike team using those five models as a base and was able to fit in one more model, which I assembled that day as well. I based them Tuesday, and began painting Wednesday so I could have them painted enough so I wouldn't embarrass myself on Saturday.

Saturday evening and parts of sunday were spent binge watching Daredevil and assembling more Deadzone minis. I've assembled the rest of the boxed set, including terrain, and half of the Forge fathers faction starter as well, along with a couple of Merc models I picked up as swag at the tournament. I've also base coated the Enforcer models that came in the boxed set. Yeah I may have a problem.

Mantic Comes Through Again.

I went to a local Deadzone tournament today and I think I'm a fan of the game. I like the way the turns work with the players taking turns activating a model at a time. It keeps a first turn alpha strike from essentially ending the game before the other player even gets to play. I also am a fan of the command dice which throw a little curve into the game and add a slight bit more to the plate than standard turn by turn action.

What I think I really like is that the game has a feel similar to Mordheim, which was, by far, my favorite GW game. My entire strike force at 150 points consisted of six models. My last opponent only had five in his strike force. All in all, the game's a winner.

As it was, the forces of the Star Leaue, (know in common circles as the Forge Fathers) stood at:
Steel Warrior Huscarl
3 Steel Warrots
Storm Rage Veterans with a  missile launcher
Storm Rage Veterans with a flamer

Game one saw the good Space Drawfs get shellacked 16-0 by a Rebel force. I hadn't played a game yet, so I learned some harsh lessons in that first beating. 1) Teraton's suck. They can teleport into combat and mess you right up. Two of them mess you up even worse. 2) Command dice are vital. re-rolling the ones you KNOW you will not use is also vital. 3) Space drarves shoot better than they fight. Really. 4) Movement and managing it is important as well. 5) Lots of terrain is key. This game changes dramatically if he doesn't have enough cover to get to me without having to run across an open board.

Game two saw the Forge Fathers square off against the Enforcers of the Council of Seven. I improved to a 9-16 loss, but again learned some valuable lessons. 1) Elevation makes a difference. 2) Use of cover makes a bigger difference. 3) Objective are important, but eliminating the other side's ability to do damage is more important. I nabbed the major objective, but I left myself in position to get shot off the table getting it.

Game three was against the space rats, AKA Veer-myn. I put the last games lesson to good use and set up fire lanes completely covering my opponent's objective, which was a great plan. However, he used his big nasty HTH beasts to jump my closest models to that objective. Fortunate dice rolls not only allowed me to survive that rush, but to take out the two big nasties as well. He nabbed the VP for the objective by nabbing it and getting it off the table, but I won the VPs by wiping out the rest of his strike force while only taking one casualty. Final score was 18-9.

Game four was against an apparently renegade faction of Forge Fathers. I mean, clearly the RED ones are the good guys and the BLUE ones are the bad guys. This game was quick and bloody. We essentially traded off killing models. Fortunately I had six models to his five. The game literally came down to one model from each side that was already wounded. I happened to go first and killed his last model before he got mine. Final score was 15-12.

If you've ready anything on this blog before, you know that painted armies  (strike teams) are important to me. I won't begrudge unpainted models a a small shop tournament, but it was nice to play my last two games against armies that looked to be fully painted, though the Veer-myn player insisted he had more work to do. For that matter, my six models need some touching up as well.

While I'm not sure I'd want paint and such to be such a major factor as it is at big GT's, I'd like to see having a fully painted force factor in a little bit. Then again, I started miniature tournaments when fully painted was required to enter.

Trying Something New

After the frenzy of Getting an army ready for Bayou Battles, I'm ready for a change of pace.  With that in mind, I decided to try to paint some Forge Fathers from the Deadzone boxed set. First, I based them in black with Valejo primer using the airbrush. My experience has told me to let that stuff set overnight for best results. Iwanted a gunmetal finish, and had a bottle of Model Masters Gun Metal Buffing Metalizer specifically formulated for airbrushing. I wanted to test it out first, so I tried it on a couple of Age of Sigmar minis.

I liked the result, so I went ahead and sprayed the Forge Father minis; a Steel Warrior Huscarl, three Steel Warriors, and two Stormrage Veterans.

They came out brighter than I expected, and testing the dark wash on the AoS minis was a bust so I went with dry brushing the crew. This is about the time that I discovered what a pain the Model Masters paint is to get out of the airbrush. (Won't be doing that too much more.) That was also about the time I discovered what a "Buffing Metalizer" was. Apparently you are supposed to buff the paint when it's dry. The act of dry brushing changed the effect on the metal. I kind of like it. 

Above we see a little detail added. Who knew the space dwarves were wearing pants? It wasn't until I started dry-brushing the metal bits that I noticed that their leg armor doesn't cover their pants entirely.

Above is a little more detail added. Texture to the bases and a touch of Chestnut Ink added to the beards. (Yes I still have a tiny bit of a bottle of  Chestnut Ink.) Overall, the bases blend too well with the dark metal armor. I need to do something to differentiate the two.

Restraint? The Hell You Say!

So my preorder Deadzone box came yesterday. The urge to jump in, dig out the new models and begin painting them is powerful. However, I still need three units painted for my Orcs for Bayou Battles. I also need to multi base those three units as well as some repairs to another unit. 

Any bets on how long I make it? I've opened  he box to make sure everything is there and that is it. 

Of course, I could totally play a game or two using Space Marines I already have as Enforcers...