Delving back into Deadzone

19th February 2023

Last night I ran some more demo games at a local club (Camborne, Cornwall).

Among others I ran a couple of new players through the basic starter demo layout a couple of times (swapping sides), which they seemed to enjoy.

One player made a very bold first move, rushing a Veer Myn directly onto the objective! It survived a shot, getting wounded, was assaulted by the follow up and survived that. However it did get killed later in the round by the Ranger assaulting it with support (bonus dice for charge, friendly model and target being wounded). Eights were rolled all around through the games, and all seemed to pick up the core rules really quickly.

Later on I set up a larger demo game, using the full sized mat and a lot more terrain. 150pts per side built equivalent to what can be made from the starter box.

Ran through the full game set up, laying out objectives, items, using the recon roll and the command dice

The players again picked up the majority of it really quickly, with judicious use of the command dice throughout.

Due to the later start, and slightly slower pace with me teaching things (and checking things as well ) along the way, they didn’t get to finish the game.

However, some of the highlights were things like the very first item token being a booby trap, but actually blowing a veer myn back into the safety of cover. A bold ranger rushing for an objective early, but getting picked off by an AP shot from a Chem spitter. Plus a goodly amount of grenades being launched around the battlefield.

Some take aways for me – I think I will use a bit less scenery for the next one. It looked nice overall, but for an intro level play I think it was a little too much. It also made physically moving models in the tight confines a little more awkward (I may dig out my old GW ‘whippy sticks’ to use as mini pushers). I would possibly use 100pts rather than 150 too, and start a touch earlier.

Good things – the players picked it up well and seemed to have fun. The stat cards I printed out (from the Deadzone FB page pinned posts) were very beneficial, and the keyword notes I made for myself pre session helped speed things up too.