Well it’s been another month so now another article! The past month has been a wild ride with Survey Two for the Deadzone Kickstarter coming out and then the extremely successful Dreadball Xtreme Kickstarter. We'll have a look at them and then discuss what we hope the future bring for the Warpath universe and Mantic Games.

More From The Deadzone Kickstarter

Survey Two for Deadzone was a fun surprise. We all knew it was coming but the new stuff in it and previews of what was to come got us excited, all over again. Sure it was filled with all the old bits and pieces you might want to add to your pledge but it was the new things that got us going. And for those who didn’t pledge for the kickstarter last year, no worries because all these miniatures should be available this summer for all of our drooling maws!

First up we got to see the sprue for the Deadzone Zombies. Some people might not like the fact that each body part is a separate piece but we love the idea of mixing and matching to create some awesome looking undead. Also note that these walkers have guns! I’d like to see Rick and Carl (The Walking Dead) deal with that!

Also new are the yet unseen Dead Figures which includes one of each of the four main factions. And if you haven't guessed, they're dead. We guess it adds a little gore to the battlefield but we're not quite sure how useful they are.

Here is where the survey got my pants tight, as Jack would say. A Female Enforcer Pathfinder on and off her bike. Personally I’m not sold on the monocycle she’s sporting here. It seems a little clown college to me but I guess they had to do something different from the Forge Father’s bikes. It is different, I’ll give it that but I’m a sucker for vehicles so this is a no brainer buy.

Also another auto-buy are the Striders. Due to some material changes the great men at Mantic have decided to give us two Striders for the price of one! Irresistible.

Now for a little comparison; as a kickstarter exclusive they have made an alternate sculpt of The Survivor. The exclusive one is the arm down version but personally We like the proactive look. Post below which one you guys think looks cooler.

The Enforcers were short changed in the initial release due to problems with the hard plastic but now we get some much needed back up in Survey Two. There is a new offering of a Warpath Enforcer with Thermal Rifle/Fusion Gun and also we get to see the much anticipated Hard Plastic Enforcers in Peacekeeper armour!

These guys look super tough and we hope they keep the dynamic poses! No longer will the Plague laugh at their puny armour!! No longer will they be called skinny twerps and have sand kicked in their faces!!!

Another new unseen mini is a poor Enforcer who got all Plagued up holding an “experimental weapon”… whatever that is. Also the guys at Mantic listened to the fans and have added the option to buy Reb Soraks for cheap and a whole new type of Sorak called a Swordspawn. Maybe his combat knives will be a little more effective than the Blaster the regular Soraks wield! The Marauders also get a un-cyberfied version of the Mawbeast if you want one of these cuddly guys running around.

The Marauders also have something called an upgrade pack which includes five Metal Helmeted Heads, BFGs and other Special Weapons. What this will do for these guys is unclear. We had hoped it would improve their foolish, greenskin mugs but maybe we can wish for at least balaclavas to hide their shame.

The Asterians and Forge Fathers are getting some new minis too with something called a Pulse Bombard Weapon drone for the space elves and a Jotunn Urban Demolisher for the Dwarves. What these are is up for debate but I’m sure we’ll get some concept shots soon. The Forge Fathers also have a couple of Warpath heroes to choose from which we hope come with Deadzone stats cards thus bringing the two games together (but more on that later).

Lastly, the big surprise with the Survey is a new type of scenery sprue appropriately called the Deadzone Scenery Expansion Sprue.

It’s nice to see the line of terrain expanding already even after getting the Fortification and Landing Pad sprues and before we get our hands on the Damaged scenery sprues. More fun toys to build blocks with!

It looks like we will be receiving all this in June so until then we’ll just have to play with the old stuff that most of us are still assembling and painting. Speaking of new stuff…

Dread-zone!

Right now the Dreadball Xtreme kickstarter is just ending. We thought we’d talk a little about all the new stuff it will be adding to the Warpath universe that Dreadball, Deadzone and Warpath share. It seems Mantic likes coming up with new races for their pantheon. Every time we turn around there are new aliens inhabiting the ever expanding galaxy for the Corporation to exploit and turn into enemies. With all these new races we can see the future for Deadzone expansions laid out and we can’t wait for some stat cards for these guys. Lets have a look at them.

The Asterians

So it seems the previous incarnation of Asterians in Dreadball were just a bunch of posers and the real ones are here to fight. These guys are described as brutal, warlike Asterians; maybe more of a Dark Space Elf? We love the Mohawks and mean looks and we’d kill to see these ladies toe to toe with some Plague.

The Plague

Sure they are genetic experiments mixing the Plague with other aliens and (sort of) tame, trained Dreadball players but the opportunities for modding are endless.

These guys are entirely modular so more mix and matching or even add some new arms (or tentacles) to your existing Plague!

The Mechanites

These guys would be awesome to use in Deadzone as some kind of Robot Security Force. Once again they are all individual parts you can choose to assemble how you want and they even come with weapons, which makes adding them to Deadzone even easier.

The Crystallans

Another new race/team is the Crystallans. These guys are arch enemies to the Forge Fathers, who blew up their home planet and will be made in blue, crystal plastic.

The Rebs

Not to be left out are the Reb aliens playing DreadBall. This gives Reb Deadzone players more options for your forces. Just add some weapons and you have a whole new unit.

There are new and old alien types in here. Imagine a centaur race running around with your Rebs or the four armed guy! Also there is a Sphyr team with their own axe to grind against the Corporations.

These guys used to live on a water world before a Corporation weapon test turned the place into a desert. There seems to be a lot of world ruining going on in the Warpath universe. Someone might want to check into the safety practices there!

Along with the teams there are also tons on free agents with enough back stories to fill books.

Vlorox Spinpede & Avaran Treebeast

Brute Force

Lyra the Fixer

Pusk & Nameless Bloodsucker

Now we can just hope for some Deadzone stat cards for all these guys! These worlds keeps expanding even when the core games aren’t in the limelight. It’s what Mantic has perfected in their systems. Just look at Warpath. There hasn’t been an update to the core system in years and yet the universe has expanded immensely. This brings us to the question, what is next?

What the Future Holds

Mantic has already promised a Warpath kickstarter, which will probably happen late this year. With it we can assume a new rule set and a whole bunch of new armies to play. As Deadzone players; what can we hope for in the future? Personally, as we have stated many times, we would love the addition of vehicles beyond the bikes and Striders we’ve been given so far.

We can also hope for a system similar to Dust Tactics/Warfare where each unit has stat cards for both systems and maybe even rules for DreadBall play. As there are today I’m sure the armed forces of the future have sports teams. They would go out to play exhibition games or even be college teams like Army or Navy in the US College Football system. Imagine Corporation Marines vs. a Nameless Team on the pitch.

If Mantic doesn’t give Deadzone players the opportunity to buy Warpath minis to use in Deadzone or Dreadball figures in Warpath I think they’re really missing out. Then again they’ve already proved that they understand what there fans want. In the Mars Attack kickstarter they added stat cards for Deadzone and a Martian Dreadball team. Lets just hope they keep up this cross pollination and expand it to all their Warpath universe games. Then again we've already spend too much on Mantic, maybe they shouldn’t do it, maybe we want to be able to clothe and feed ourselves instead of buying into everything Mantic does.

DAMN YOU MANTIC!!!!

Rob Harper & Jack Fyke

Deadzone THE Podcast

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