This will be along next week. I’m currently collating the results of my latest round of playtesting as well as all the feedback and comments I’ve read here and elsewhere. If you have any more comments from your Alpha games then please let me know and I’ll add them to the mix.
When the layout ninja gets back to the office first thing next week I’ll be ready to pounce with a new iteration of the rules. Once he’s made them all pretty then they’ll go up on the Kickstarter again. So, sometime middle of next week at a guess 🙂
Quirkworthy 
Hoorah !!
Just a Idea for Leaders
Maybe you could show leaders through two cards.
Leader “rank” stat cards + “Race/type” stat cards
rank card would show the abilites of every leader of the choosen rank that all different “races” of leaders will have.
“race/type”-card shows the stats of abilities of a choosen “race/type” of leader for each rank.
One row all the stats for a rank.
for example
Plague would have three possible leadertypes:
1. the known 1st gen
2. a infected Teraton
3. infected asterian
If I would choose a “elite” Teraton
i would take the “Plague elite card” (with all basic informations for a elite Plague char.)
and i would take the “Plague Teraton leader Card”.
i would take the elite card and lay it on to the Teraton leader card so it would hide the information for the highest rank. First two rows would lay open( normal+elite stats for Teraton) and bonuses for legion would be hidden.
Thanks Robert. An interesting idea, but I don’t think we need to be this elaborate. I’m planning on having a separate stat card for each separate type of model and the leaders work fine like this.
Is this gonna be Alpha rules again, but without errors, or is it going to be Beta rules with new ways of working? 🙂
It will fill the gaps identified by comments and feedback plus add a bunch more rules and stats for you all to kick about. Whether that makes it a late Alpha or an early Beta is kind of moot. I’ll probably call it a Beta if I can get it all done in time.
Jake, here is a batch of test games I’ve run that I’ve commented on over at the Kickstarter comments section. It’s a huge amount of text (sorry), but the short of it is that we are experiencing a high number of plague victories currently in our home test games. The Move card has been instrumental in many of those victories, allowing the 2nd Generations to cross 6 squares in two turns or to let a model one square away from an enemy use the Move card for a free attack and then follow that up with a full attack.
And please don’t take anything as harsh criticism or cried on unbalance. We only planned on playing 2-3 test games, but our running tally is up to 17 now just because we keep having fun and finding new things already!
First four games were runaway Plague victories as we took the number of buildings and cover from the picture in the rulebook and doubled it. With almost no firing lanes, the plague had little trouble getting personal with the enforcers.
Fifth game had a Tactical Enforcer nail an early Overwatched Head Shot on a Gen2, and then proceed to wipe the rest of the plague models out.
Sixth game was a nail-biter that ended by no cards left and the Plague up a single victory point due to grabbing a piece of Intel.
Seventh game had a cool cinematic moment when a Tactical Enforcer missed his Overwatch shot on a Gen3 with a grenade, who proceeded to blow three enforcers off a roof in different directions and let his buddies clean up the mess.
Game 8 – Plague roll over enforcers. First turn move cards for both Gen2s, second turn move cards for both Gen2s and Distract on Support Enforcer. Since the Plague went first this resulted in the Enforcer player (me) having a dead Tactical Enforcer, an injured Assault Enforcer in combat with 2 Gen2s, a Support Enforcer with no action and another Tactical Enforcer staring at a horde of Gen3s coming at his position on turn 2.
Game 9 – Draw? First Gen2 eats a Tactical Enforcer on top of turn 2 (move cards on both turns again), but then a booby trap kills 3 Gen3s! A missile takes out the first Gen2, but the second charges back in and mauls the Support Enforcer. The Assault Enforcer moves around to slash the remaining Gen3 while other Tactical Enforcer only injures the last plague member with a headshot. A ticked off zombie bashes the enforcer and then runs out of cards.
Game 10 – Plague lose a Gen2 to the “Enforcer Overwatch Death Star”, but set up a brutal turn where three of the Gen3s use a Move card to get a free attack and then use their regular action for another attack. Needless to say, 7 attacks of 6 dice to 4 dice is fairly lethal.
Game 11 – Enforcers try to stay back and control firing lanes. The Support Enforcer had a couple unlucky die rolls against some Gen2s, and the Plague ended up winning 5VPs to 3VPs in a battle where the enforcers only barely left the starting row.
Game 12 – Enforcers use Distract on a Gen2 before it can move, and force the plague to funnel through an alley with little cover as the enforcers can set up positions before the plague arrive in force. Well timed overwatch shots keep the plague at bay.
Game 13 – Enforcers set up positions, plauge tries to overload one firing lane. A Tactical Enforcer nails a headshot on a Gen2 and Distracts the other, making things look grim for the big guys. However, a Gen3 finds a grenade in the heat of battle and pins 3 enforcers in poor positions, buying time for the plague horde to swarm into the enforcers. Final tally was Plague with 4 VPs and Enforcers with 3 VPs.
Game 14 – We move terrain around again. Enforcers end up on high ground with no cover in the pieces around it. An Assault Enforcer tries to move extra to grab an item, and is rewarded with some Booby-Trapped Intel that actually propels him towards the plauge horde. While he is quickly overwhelmed and devoured, the rest of the enforcers stay frosty on overwatch and are able to keep the rest of the plague at bay.
Game 15 – The Assault Enforcer uses the Move card on each of the first two turns, and finds the Intel on the second turn. The enforcers then turn around and book it for a wide open area in one corner of the board with a good view of any advancing plague. Because they are behind on victory points, the plague are forced to try and overwhelm the position but they are promptly slaughtered upon doing so.
Game 16 – (This was a turn-by-turn posted in the comments section):
Terrain had been setup to closely resemble the mock-board from Mantic’s earlier video, with a few more 1-square walls with roofs along the edges of the board. The Item counters were shuffled and placed facedown in a zig-zag pattern across the middle of the board. Enforcers won the deployment die roll and chose the side that had a building with no cover directly in front of it just outside the deployment zone. The Enforcers deployed close to the building, and the Plague then deployed close to the opposite corner of the map to stay out of firing positions. The Enforcers then won the starting die roll as well.
First turn, the Enforcers all move up to the second story of the building in front of them. They use the “Change of Plans” card to force the Plague to randomly discard something, and the Assault Enforcer chooses to move again to get closer to an item. The Generation 3 (G3) Plague move three models to a point of cover that the Enforcers can’t see, and one G3 up the side of the map to try and flank the Enforcers. Both Generation 2s (G2) move twice and then use a Move card to get to a closer cover point that the Enforcers can’t see
Second turn, the Assault Enforcer grabs an item (Ammo), then moves back to his original square and uses a Move card to move back with the group. The rest of the Enforcers go on Overwatch. The G2s are able to move behind some buildings twice and get within a couple squares of the Enforcers. The main body of G3s move, with the first being shot and killed by a Rocket, and the second being missed by the remaining Enforcer. One of those G3s moves twice into cover (grabbing some Ammo), while the second moves once, gets some Intel, and attempts to Blaze Away (but fails to impress anyone). The lone G3 on the map edge moves twice to get behind a barricade with a view of the rooftop the enforcers are on, while picking up a Grenade.
Third turn, the Assault Enforcer shoots and misses a G3, then Gets Angry in preparation for melee combat. The first Tactical Enforcer wounds the G3 with Ammo, and the second kills the G3 Blaze’d Away last turn. The Support Enforcer goes on Overwatch in preparation of the incoming G2s. For the plague, first a G2 comes around the corner and eats a Missile with a +1 Shoot. Then, the G3 on the edge of the map uses a Move card, the moves once and chucks a grenade up where the Enforcers a bunched! He nails the throw, and gets three successes on the damage. The Assault Enforcer gets pinned in place, the Support and one Tactical Enforcer both go flying TOWARDS the G2 that hasn’t moved, and the other Tactical Enforcer goes flying behind the building. All are now pinned in place. The G2 uses a Move card, demolishes the Support Enforcer with his free attack on the move, then injures the Tactical Enforcer with his full attack. The injured G3 moves to try and finish him, but isn’t able to penetrate his Armor. The plague then Distract the injured Tactical Enforcer.
Fourth turn, the Assault Enforcer gets up and charges the injured G3, but fails to kill him. The Tactical Enforcer can only get up and move back to the high ground. The Enforcers then manage to Distract the G2. The injured G3 then mauls the injured Tactical Enforcer. The other G3 moves in and finds a Weak Spot in the Assault Enforcer and kills him with some exploding 8s.
Fifth turn, the Tactical Enforcer lines up a Head Shot with a Clear Shot bonus, but rolls miserably and only injures the G2. The G2 then giggles a bit (probably), gets a free attack off his free move and pummels the Tactical Enforcer into the ground.
I know it’s not for me but it was a great read and i have some questions.
1.would you say the Plague is too strong so far (enforcers too weak)
2.have your players changed Factions?
Hey Bombad! That’s a great set of feedback and very useful. Thanks 🙂
It sounds like you’re actually quite evenly matched. Both sides seem to be using terrain and the models are supporting each other as intended. The terrain set up makes a very big difference to the ability of melee troops to close on their targets, and the lack of a good reason for the Enforcers to come out and play allows them to sit and overwatch at times.
The full terrain deployment and mission rules should make things a bit more even handed in terms of layout.
To answer robertb’s first question, the Alpha was never expected to be perfectly balanced so it’s not a big worry if they’re not entirely evenly matched yet. The next iteration will start dealing with more detailed balance issues.
Overall, they sound like some great games. Thanks again!
One interesting idea which popped in the KS commentaries was to make the “lairs” or hideouts, or whatever are called the places where the soldiers live, customizables in a campaing mode. I mean, you not only get to improve the skills of your men (or marauder, or…) but also the place you live, in a Heroes of Might and Magic style. 😉
Someone else was talking about Necromunda territories for the campaign, and I’m not sure how appropriate that would be to the fluid combat situations in Deadzone. Are they likely to be based in the same place for a long time? Generally not.
It’s worth considering and the campaign system needs a discussion with Ronnie about a couple of aspects that might impact the cost. That’ll happen next week.
It’s just a “rules upgrade” I think. At least my view of the thing is that you would only need some advancement rules for your lair as for your soldiers. I don’t think it would be very costly 😉
I’ll stay tuned! 🙂