You know the drill 😉
This is the whole deck with the stats tweaked from yesterday’s version. I like them better this way.
The abilities are the same as yesterday with one minor change in Operator for clarity. Repeated here for convenience.
Big BOOM!
This works exactly the same way as BOOM! (see page 68 of the core rules) except that the effect of the explosion is a Massive Frag rather than merely a Frag.
Life Support
The model has an in-built automated Life Support system that does its best to keep them alive. If the model is injured, but not killed, by an attack then the Life Support automatically kicks into overdrive. The model is immediately returned to an undamaged state. This happens automatically and does not cost an action. This works once per battle.
Life Support cannot resurrect models that have been killed outright by a single attack. Also note that Life Support only works on the model itself and cannot be used on nearby models (unlike a medi-pack).
Operator
The Operator model can control models with the Remote ability.
When an Operator model is activated they must choose between taking actions as normal, or controlling one unactivated Remote from their own Strike Team. If they decide to control a Remote then the Operator does not act this Turn. Instead, their activation is transferred to the Remote which may take actions this Turn as if it was a normal model. The only limitation is that a Remote model cannot set Overwatch. If an Operator uses a Remote then both models are marked as activated.
An Operator may choose to control the same or different Remote models in each Turn.
Remote
The model cannot act without an Operator (see above).
A Remote is not counted as a model for purposes of working out how many activations a Strike Team has left.
Quirkworthy 
Is there an explanation for the Huscurl’s Shoot getting worse when he gets Forge Guard armour?
Huscarl’s aren’t all the same. In this case the one that’s got the fancy armour isn’t such a good shot because he is more focussed on the command functions.
Gotta protect you best leaders with the best armour!
To me the Brokkr are a little under priced. When you compare them to a stage 2A, a stage two is one point more expensive, has extra armour (1!), and has a little bit of a downside with the rampage ability!, they have fight and survival 4+
Now when you look at the Brokkr.. they are only have tough for armour, same stats as the stage two only it can shoot we also has two cool weapons. The stage two only has AP1.
I would have though the brokkr should be something like 10-11 points. They are pretty darn good for 9points. people will max out on them!!
I dont consider rampage a downside… provided it can give fast to the 2nd gen
I could have worked the points out wrong. I’ll go and check.
I´m finding a litle problem with the life support ability, being a once per game ability but multiple miniatures having it makes it difficult to track wich one has use it and wich one has not… and i dont think is a good idea to add more counters to the game
That’s what the roster is for.
Is slow missing from all the forge guard? They’ve got cheaper, and the huscarl has it, but the others don’t.
I was wondering this as well as they all seems to have the same stats but cost less(but I’m not complaining ahah).
It is. Uploaded replacement version with Slow where it should be.
I think that slow is a very bad idea
Why?
not shure yet, monday evening make a try then I tell you something.
uh, a question: if a model with melee “-” (like valkyr) enters in a cube with an enemy, what happens?
thks 😉
They trigger a Fight, but can only use Survive.
thks
and if a valkyr enter in a space with a judwan medic? what’s happen?
Easy – nothing, neither can fight.
so they stay on the sam cube and see each others? 😀
It’s a stare off – first to blink has to leave 😀
thks
and if a valkyr enter in a space with a judwan medic? what’s happen?
My instant thoughts were a lot of foul language or maybe a social chat…
Hmmm.
Very helpful!
To be fair I assumed the question had already be answered in that they both roll survive to resolve the fight, so was instead attempting to be humorous. Obviously I failed and should remember that humour is lost often as not when placed into text format.
I would say and is what we have played that the person that initiates the fight has 0 dice to fight with so has 0 success so don’t move them into a cube. It seems strange to initiate a fight and then not fight?
I had issues with the first version at a cursory read through, but now with slow and reduced points costs its looking really really good
I agree I’m very fond of this iteration. I like the addition of slow and I’ve come to terms with life support haha
Will the Peace Keepers get Life Support ? I love the idea 😀
I wasn’t going to give it to them. The FF may sell some of their nice kit to the Enforcers, but they always keep the best toys for themselves 😉
Restricting Life Support to FF is characterful and differentiates them from the other factions which is all to the good. Not giving Peacekeepers Life Support would also help keep their points down which may possibly enable us to field a force entirely of Peacekeeper armoured Enforcers (fingers crossed).
Maybe some FF traitor would have sold it to the Corporation ?!
Os some 1st gen life support with dice roll to check if it activates…
Really liking the look of the FF deck. Ive had 4 games ofDZ now and watched 2. Im hooked! I play rebs, but have a nice FF force for warpath. Any chance of adding steel warriors, drakkarim or stormrage vets, so we can play Ffathers before the next release? 😉 List seems nicely balanced, with lots of dakka and melee punch!
I’m sure that all the factions will get odds and ends added at some stage. We’ve barely even released the game so it’s very early days yet 😉
Really hope you and Alessio team up to make all these new (to Warpath at least) model/weapon/gear options available in Warpath. Same in reverse for existing Warpath models not yet made for Deadzone. Jotunn anyone? Hope to see a few more Brokkr types in there, as well as more non-human Plague types like from Rebs. Maybe adding a Corporation Faction Deck, so we can have the Rangers, Marines and Heavy Weapon Teams native to Nexus Psi attempting to survive there, maybe with Exploration/Research support staff thrown in, and the Major General Renton trying to coordinate the whole mess.
As I said above, it’s early days yet and I’m sure we’ll see lots of extras over the coming years.
I also hope mantic/Jake uses a modified deadzone ruleset for warpathv3. Its a really unique game design and makes dreadball and deadzone feel different, I agree with all Temo’s comments above!
Who knows what will happen to Warpath? Not me.
Wink wink, nudge nudge or you genuinely don’t know?
Genuinely don’t know. I assume I’ll find out at some stage, but for the moment I don’t think a final decision has been made by RR.
I notice that the FG missile launcher (ML) has Irresistible. I think that for 19 points the FG with ML is under-costed. It can reliably take out models costing over 20 points. Is the Irresistible ability listed on his card a mistake?
Missile launchers are just nasty and are capable of taking out all sorts of things. This is why they tend to be at the top of the enemy’s death list. If your mission is to survive they may be a bit too much of a bullet magnet.
Also, in terms of points, the Enforcer with a missile launcher is 11 points.
Irresistible isn’t a typo, it’s just a particularly nasty bit of equipment. Remember that the FG is Slow, which makes them easier to avoid or hunt (and reduces their cost a lot).
I’d agree with Slow balancing out the model if it were a melee orientated figure, but I don’t believe that Slow offsets the effectiveness of Irresistible as the ML has range 10. The FG can either utilise an elevated position with good lines of fire or Overwatch to get round being slow. Either way Plague players in particular will have difficulty justifying the cost of their Stage 1A when the FG with ML can easily blow it way in one shot – interestingly the Stage 1A has Slow which actually hampers it.
To me putting Irresistible on this figure will also create problems for the game in the future. For example will Enforcers in Peacekeeper Armour be worthwhile if their defensive advantage can be easily negated?
Wouldn’t it be better to wait and put the Irresistible ability on some of the weapons carried by the Striders/Iron Ancestors? I believe that would be more characterful and would enable you to balance out the effectiveness of Irresistible more successfully.
Thank you for hosting this forum and engaging with the player-base it is much appreciated.
Personally I like that the missile launcher got Irresistible. I would be a fan of Irresistible on all missile launchers tbh. It would differentiate them from other high-AP weapons, and cement them as the iconic anti-tough weapons they’re meant to be! ^_^
A model with Slow and a Deliberate weapon is quite hamstrung btw. Range isn’t the factor though, it’s the problem of getting shots off at the targets he wants. (Providing appropriate scenery I guess.)
This combination is a massive limitation. he’s very dangerous if you’re in his sights, so the trick is to stay out of them…. and that’s easy compared to many other shooters.
I generally like the cheaper prices, but one thought came up when I read them. Isn’t the Marauder Hulk completely outclassed compared to the Forge Guard with missile launcher? I know they are not in the same race, but I would suspect that such massive power difference in two similar units is a source of concern. The Hulk is 1 point more, but he is useless in melee(Support and no weapon, 6+), does not have Life Support, does not have Irresistible, has lower command. The only advantage he has is 2 more range and 2 more AP, both of which are never used in the game. The 2 range we know will eventually come up, but unless there is a huge influx of Armor 6 in the future, what is going on there?
I agree, such a discrepancy in power between those models is a huge source of concern. Worse, it will probably also be a cause of contention between players too – which is bad. It’s not just the Marauder Hulk that comes out badly compared to the missile launcher FG either. All of the other higher costed models in the game seem lacklustre by comparison. The Irresistible ability is extremely powerful and needs to be costed apropriately to reflect its potency especially on a weapon that has range 10! I really hope the inclusion of Irresistible on the missile launcher FG is reconsidered as I believe it will have negative impact on the game.
I have been thinking of using as a houserule that 2 points or AP can negate one level of tough, a sort of irresistible-lite for the available high AP weapons.
For exemple a AP3 weapon would have the following effect :
– stage 1 : Armor 1 cancelled, and the 2 AP left reduce the very tough to a simple tough, one point of protection is left
– stage 2 : both armor and tough are cancelled, 0 protection left
– plague terraton : cancel the 2 points of armor and the lone AP left has no effect on very tough, total protection left 2
– rebs Terraton : left with 1 protection
With a AP6 weapon, you would be able to prierce almost anything, cancelling both very tough and up to 2 points of armor, buth those weapons are rares and supposed to be powerful
Is the misson “Look Under Every Rock” correct while the objectives list “Scour” as the only one. The description has “Kill the opposing force. Earn VPs per model killed (depending on its points cost).”
Or do we have to do both?
this evening I play this list:
huscarl 19
Forge Guard with Heat Cannon 20
valkyr 12
Brokkr 9
Brokkr 9
ammo crate 1
70p
i’m not very confident about this faction deck 😐 😕
have a game last evening
my thoughts:
this faction doesn’t work. many models are overcost, expecially huscarl and forgeguard. compare with enfocers and they cost more or less 4, maybe 5 point more. they aren’t so immortal as they seem and they don’t kill anything on the table as it’s believed.
but the worst problem are missions. these missions are probably thought for a team with 6-8 models. with 5 models is impossible to win a mark the spot, for example. if I have to capture\control 3 objectives (with 3 models) and scour 2 items (with other 2 models) if I lose a model I can’t achieve my mission.
If Jake want that FF play with about 5 models, missions VP must think back. for example, capture 3, control 6 and scour 4. because if I have few models on the board, I have to make more VP with one of them and this prevent the loss of the game if the foe kill one of my warrior.
valkyr must have scavenger, in my opinion. it’s a bike, he can transport more than one item (and with many scour missions it make sense, for me).
another one: so few models and no blast\frag? how can I stop team with the double of my models? with blaze away? it target only a cube, FF need something that target more than one cube.
it burns! on heat hammers is crazy, they kill not anything but the most; probably cancel knockback to brokkrs and give it to heat hammers (and drop point cost).
or invent an “it burns a little” skill that make an it burn test with 2 dice instead 3 (meh, just a suggestion).
missile launcher for you is strong? for me is useless, something with slow and deliberate in this team doesn’t worth it’s cost and never see the boardgame, I can’t afford a stationary model with all these capture\scour missions. remove irresistible and give him frag for example.
tough is overpriced for me. foe just need an AP1 weapon and your forgeguards see some bad moments. but probably are the entire forgeguards that are overpriced and not one of them skill.
battle card deck: only ONE courage card? seriously? enemies make all the blaze away they can and I stop to play (my model go suppressed, get mean in my turn and go pinned, next another blaze avay of my foes and return suppressed). mmmmhhhh
and don’t tell me “use command action” because with only 5 models my leader is suppressed with his troopers, he can’t afford to use command points 😛
good job Jake, there’s much to do here 😉
and sorry for my bad english, I do the best I can 😳
Thanks Cultista, and don’t worry about your English. I’m pretty sure I can understand the general gist of your comment.
The size of the force is a question that will be answered in the next day or two, depending on when I get a moment to step away from holiday things and finish an article on that subject.
I’ll have another look at the mission cards.
The missile launcher is not something I think is overpowered. I’ve been arguing that the SLow and deliberate make it much more limited. It is, however, somewhat tasty on overwatch. In terms of denying an area to the foe it does a first rate job of making them think twice about going somewhere.
Hi Jake. Firstly, thanks for releasing these rules, can’t wait to play as these guys in Deadzone.
However I had a query about the composition of the force, chiefly that I wonder why the standard ‘Steel Warrior’-type guys haven’t made an appearance! Obviously the ‘forge-guard’ makes sense, but did the Forge Fathers not read the memo about the plague hitting the planet, and a lot of dwarves just wearing shorts (the brokkr) have turned up for a day at the beach!?
So – confused from a background perspective, and also that I won’t be able to use my existing Forge Father steel warrior guys! Is there likely to be any development in this regard?
Thanks,
Graham
Mantic decided to make Deadzone FFs a Brokkr based force. These are the sort of prospecting/mining hard nuts who go out and find the resources from which the FF make their many toys. That’s the background reason for this. The heavies are around to protect them and ensure that things get done. After all, if they don’t have the resources then they aren’t making anything.
I’m sure we’ll see expansions for the FF and other races in due course.
Many thanks for the reply Jake, that does make sense.
Probably my concern was over how the Brokkr are depicted in KoW – I hope these miniatures go for a kind of ‘utility/jump suit’ aesthetic, and can pass for a hard-bitten mining expedition, rather than angry dwarves in shorts with guns! 🙂
Out of my hands, I’m afraid. Think of them as mini-Rambos 😉
I do have to echo the sentiments of Cultista Pazzo. As it stands right now, there are definitely several problematic missions when you consider the unit costs involved.
If you include a single Forge Guard in the list you are throwing a minimum of 17 points in to it. This leaves you with 53. The cheapest leader options are 18 and 19 points which gives us 34-35 to play with. Which, almost without fail, will give us five models in some way, shape or form.
X/Y/Z Marks the Spot seems to be the most problematic. To reach the 10VP and win you need to Capture two points, Control a third and Scour for two. Since nothing in the faction has scavenger and Scour only gives 1VP each, this gives little margin for error. An enemy can basically force you to abort by sniping whatever the most vulnerable thing on the field is.
But Look Under Every Rock isn’t too much better for a five-unit list. This requires you to take no more than two casualties (which is still pretty tough).
The others largely look fine for the playstyle and I think Dig In, Prospecting and All They Understand give a good variety of ways to win.
The way I see it, there are a few things that could be done:
– Rejigger the objectives to account for most FF lists being five man.
– Sprinkle more Scavenger liberally through the faction (Valkyr do seem a good target for this, Engineers may be another good one) to make the Scour objective a bit easier to do.
– Re-assess unit costs to make it easier to hit a 6-man team if you are only taking one Forge Guard and the Huscarl or Chief Brokkr (5 with a FG Huscarl should be do-able). Possibly allowing for a 7-man “Brokkr Horde” with a good amount of remote support as a high-count archetype (since it is hard to fit more than a boombot without losing out on activations for the team).
– A fourth one I haven’t thought of yet. :p
Overall I like the flavour of the abilities and the play style of the faction. But they have troubles with the mission deck they currently have. I don’t mind that the archetype seems to encourage a minimum number of Forge Guard, though I would like it if a list could fit two and still be able to complete objectives (there are a swack of ’em in the starter after all).
As a last aside (not sure if this was brought up yet), the Forge Guard with a Missile Launcher is equipped with its missile launcher and heat hammer. But the concept art for the mini show it as having the missile launcher on a shoulder mount while still carrying a Hailstorm rifle and the heat hammer. Has the model been changed or was this an oversight in the stats?
Either way, keep up the great look. For a slightly tweaked first attempt this is looking to have good mechanical flavour. As with everything a little more tightening up with it will go far. This is by far the faction I am looking forward to the most (no pressure!) so I wish you luck in developing them (and I can’t wait to give the next revision a test).
Have a look at https://quirkworthy.com/2014/01/18/deadzone-code-13/
Should help cost issues a bit, though the move to 13VP could still be tricky. I do like that this method acknowledges that things may require intel for a quick win (so things are more likely to time out rather than end decisively).
If the FF and Asterians are designed for this level, do make sure to give a designer’s note about it. Perhaps even go so far as to state that Brokkr-heavy forces are more viable if you want to run them in a standard campaign.
I do have to say that 100 point lists allow for a more comfortable lists though the trouble-spot missions still require 6-8 units on the field to win (depending on intel), but at least Code 13 implies that aborts will be far more common in play. A pure Brokkr horde (no specialists or anything) can field 10 folks and the lower bound for this appeared to be 6-7 (even with a few Forge Guard thrown in). So the general range looks to be more workable (still easy to start a missions without enough folks to win it though).
I’d still recommend making Scour worth a touch more on missions and/or giving us a bit more Scavenger (which seems to fit the background of the Brokkrs: steal everything not nailed down, then steal the nails, then steal the rest of it). But Code 13 does at least help vary things a bit more and allow more list building options.
But I think Forge Fathers need to have a bit more focus on Scour being made viable as an option for them. It makes sense as an objective but they need to be better at it in general.
some hope to see new forgefathers soon?
I’m thinking to add some FF bundle to the Kickstarter, but if I don’t see the final deck probably I don’t take nothing
and new GW dwarfs are marching, it’s hard for me to restrain XD
Had a game if the Dwarfs vs Plague…
The Dwarfs had 3 Brokkrs in their force. I noticed that Individually, and in a pack, these guys are really powerful. Knockback is what I though makes these guys too powerful for 9points. Remember that knockback works unless your opponent doubles you, so that it will push an enemy into an adjacent cube of your choice (if in close combat- yes even if your opponent beats you, you still go flying). If there is a wall there, which there usually is in this game, you can choice to slam then into it, making them pinned almost always, as they need to double your roll to stop being pinned. This combined with knockback, which then reduces your opponent’s aggression further by -1 making the opponent suppressed! In the next fight your opponent will usually have -2 dice from being suppressed.
I could be wrong about the mechanics above, that is how we were playing it. If a Brokkr is in a fight and losses (not by double) there opponents goes flying into a wall and 80% of the time will be suppressed, even though they won! Yes cheese for 9 points.
My initial thoughts are that Brokkrs will be spammed.
Anyone else playtest Brokkrs and though they were over powered?
There can be times where knockback is negative. I had one knockback the only foe in my cube, evicting him to a neighboring cube, only to have an ally pop around the corner and now have a Clear Shot on the Brokkr, now sans the penalty he might have had if he hadn’t just sent his foe flying. BANG! Dead.
Also, if the foe is only pinned, and acttivates before your next activation, he can probably just Get Mean! then charge right back into the cube. Congratulations! You’ve given him a bonus dice for charging you. At least he won’t be Enraged unless you use a Battle Card in there somewhere, in which case sending him packing has just given him TWO more dice to beat your Brokkr up with. Or a clear shot if it was a model with decent shoot potential. Hmmm.
Brokkr are really good – Brawler, Fight 4+, Survive 4+ and Tough, plus a Weight of Fire pistol is really, really good for 9 points. Rather than seeing them get more expensive, I’d prefer to see them toned down a little – as it stands, a Brokkr can fight a Teraton to a stand still in hand to hand.
So hold up… The Knockback paragraph starts with the line: “When a weapon with this ability –>hits<– it's target it may knock it back." Then goes on to say "Resolve the attack as normal."
So even if I Draw (which ordinarily is an Attack-MISS for everything) I can still apply knockback? Interesting… So Knockback is essentially like a "one target Frag" with how it triggers directly-away-from Movement…
Was the Brawler trait removed from Brokkr troopers intentionally in the second version of the cards?
Also, A tie is not a hit, you actually have to beat the opponent’s roll.
… and it wasn’t. Brokkrs are really quite good Brawlers.
question…..
if forefathers have the best equipment, then why doesn’t their huscarl in forge guard armour have a 3+ save like the enforcer leader in peacekeeper armour?
shouldn’t he be on par with him when it comes to things his equipment helps him with like survival.
Just played an excellent tactical match. It was the first time using a REMOTE vehicle (BoomBot) I was a bit fuzzy on the rule, so we played it that any action the Engineer would take, he could instead transfer to the remote. So, it created situations where both the Engineer and the Remote would take short actions, or one or the other would take long. It seemed to work well, and not really come into conflict with the Mining Laser, which can only fire on long actions anyway.
I’m finding the remotes to have huge limitations in that they cannot be affected by command actions, and in order to field one, you also need an engineer and 2 troop choices to back it up.
The point costs are likely low because of this, but I’d rather the remotes be engineer add-ons that do not take up a rare/specialist slot on the roster.
Have there been any changes to the deck since the latest version above?