A first version of the Dedzone FAQ is up now. I’ve gone through about half of the comments so far (down to 56 from well over 100). As is my wont, I’ve deleted the comments that have been incorporated into the FAQ.
I’ll do some more tomorrow.
As always, if you find anyone asking questions elsewhere (and not getting answers) then please point them back this way so I can collate them all in one place.
Thanks 😉
Just so you aren’t surprised, I’ll be sorting through the DZ FAQ page today. In common with the other FAQ pages (which all need tidying) the intent is to delete comments once I have dealt with them in a FAQ. That way you won’t have to read through hundreds of old comments to find an answer.
And yes, I know, the DB FAQ needs some love. My only defence is that it’s a huge time sink that has no funding attached and I need to eat first 😉
Anyway, back to DZ.
As you’ve only had the rules a few days there are a number of queries coming up that are really just a lack of familiarity with the book and are quite clear when you know where to look. As these aren’t really FAQ fodder (but still want answering) I was going to deal with them by writing some short designer’s notes articles. That seemed like a good way to discuss the ins and outs of the way, for example, movement actions and abilities interlock.
So stay tuned for an initial version of the DZ FAQ to download today, and some more DZ articles shortly.
Well the Mars Attacks Kickstarter is finished, and what a finish it was. After the reverses and turbulence of the penultimate week the last few days saw a dramatic turnaround and a big rush to the end. Thanks to all of you that pledged your support for the range. You’ve added loads of exciting goodies for me to write rules for and I’m sure that the game you get in the end will be far more entertaining as a result of the extra options 😉
I’m just reworking the card deck to incorporate a better balance of events, bonuses and other cards. It’s doing quite a lot in the game so deserves a fair amount of attention. This iteration will probably be the basis for the final version. At least, that’s how it feels.
I think the core rules are almost nailed down too. Playtest will doubtless reveal a few clarifications to add and some tweaks perhaps, but the bulk is solid.
All of which means that I can soon move on to getting to grips with the many additions the Kickstarter generated: Novas Vira, giant robots, mutated insects, stealth marines, science division, and loads more heroes among others. And, while I’m writing the rules for all these and getting some proxies on the tabletop to test things out, the Mantic team are turning the concepts into reality. It’s exciting stuff and all thanks to you guys. Can’t wait to see the final result on the table.
🙂
Well it’s been a turbulent KS and no mistake, but the final waves of invaders are almost upon us. The Mars Attacks Kickstarter ends in a few hours, so if you’re still sitting on the fence now is the time to make your decision!
As ever with these things, I’m looking forward to the end so I know exactly what I’ve got to write. We always have a plan to start with though the comments and feedback change that as we go along. Only when the dust settles do we know for certain what’s been locked in and needs writing 😉
The core of the game is finished already, but what else do we need? Giant bugs, shrink rays, Novas Vira characters are all on the cards, and there’s more up Ronnie’s sleeve (got to store them somewhere).
Still time left for a few surprises 🙂
Following on from yesterday, this is the first in a series about restic¹ and what I learn from my experiments with various means of cleaning up models made from it.
Before I start I’ve got some things that need covering, so you know where I’m coming from. If you have different experience or goals then you might want or get different results.
My aim here is not to tell you that restic is the best material ever, nor is it to say it’s the worst. I think those slots are already taken. Given that restic is a family of materials that is plainly going to be with us for some time I’m interested in learning how to deal with it. I’m sure that cannot be beyond the wit of man. Or even me, if I put my mind to it.
Speaking of me, what would I know? Well, despite not having finished painting a whole model in the last decade, I have been messing about with toy soldiers for a very long time. I’ve also worked with a lot of professional sculptors, manufacturers and painters and have interviewed quite a few of them over the years to pick their brains for various articles or my own interest. Over recent weeks I’ve decided to spend some effort getting back into modelling and painting, so I’m a funny combination of experience, knowledge and lack of practice. A veteran newbie, perhaps.
In the last fortnight I’ve prepped some non-restic models for this painting project. I’ve cleaned up an old GW Mordheim plastic, a new Perry War of the Roses plastic and a fiddly Rackham metal among others. This means that I have fresh experiences to compare with.
The restic models I’ll be using for these experiments are the latest batch of Mantic miniatures in the material. This is a slightly tweaked version of restic as Ronnie and the rest of the Mantic crew continue to refine the process. Most obviously, it’s a darker grey.
Now because I wrote Deadzone² I can occasionally do things like swan in and ask for some of the new and unreleased shiny toys to chop about. The models I nabbed were taken from the boxes in the warehouse that were waiting for the rest of the components to arrive so they could be packed and sent out to the Kickstarter backers. In other words, these weren’t samples cherry picked for quality, they were just the ones at the top of the first box we opened. It’s not all of the DZ models, but a fairly wide selection of the figures from several ranges.
So, where to start?
To keep things as simple as possible, I thought I’d pick a piece of sprue (some of the smaller pieces come on mini sprues). That, I reasoned, would be reasonably straight and smooth as a starting point and allow me to see the effects of my scraping and scrubbing without being distracted by whatever the model was actually trying to be. I also thought that I’d be best off picking the absolute worst bit of flash I could find as that would make my progress (or otherwise) most obvious. Happily these two coincided.
Oh, a word of warning. I’m going to leave these pictures very big so you can see everything really close up. That way you can really see what’s going on, warts and all. Remember though, that this is all way larger than real life.
So my first test subject is the worst case of flash I could find in over 200 pieces. Even this isn’t that terrible.
Strangely, and I’m not sure you can see this on the picture, the flash is worse on the sprue than the actual bits of model. Mind you, that’s just perfect for this test.
Before I show you what I did, just for reference, the body of the Orx that goes with this sprue (this is the pyro, by the way) had such subtle mould lines that it took me a minute to find them. Can you see the mould line here?
Eventually, with the help of raking light and several attempts I got a picture that shows it. I mean, it has to be there somewhere, right? Every model that comes out of a multi-part mould³ has mould lines.
Remember that this is larger than life size.
Spotted it? As you can see, it’s in the middle of the previous shot too. Most of the models I picked up were more like this than the sprue. I’ll show you some of the other ones later.
So, after asking for thoughts yesterday and trawling about the net looking for comments on the subject, I came up with a few generally received “facts” about cleaning restic.
So, I tried both knife and file. Taking one side of this sprue as a test, I cleaned one half with an old scalpel blade, first trimming away the bulk and then scraping with the edge. Then I filed the other side – no trimming back to start with, just filing away. I very quickly ended up with this:
Filing to the left of the central nub, scraping to the right. I thought I’d done a cleaner job than this, but then a great deal of magnification will make things look a bit ropey.
To make it a bit clearer I painted it. I tried ivory, but that wasn’t covering, so I switched to grey. The filed half is at the peaked cap end.
Now this looks perfect, even if I do say so myself. Whilst it was tempting to leave it like this, another angle makes my work look a bit less good.
So, what do I take from this? Quite a lot, actually.
Whether this is a change in restic recipe (possible) my deft and cunning skill (doubtful) or something entirely different I don’t know. However, in this experiment, with this restic, I have to say that I honestly cannot see a problem.
I have to confess that I’m a bit perplexed. After hearing the horror stories I was genuinely surprised when it went so smoothly. I was expecting far more drama (and some swearage).
What was most striking was that it felt like cleaning anything else. It’s somewhere in hardness between hard plastic and old metal (not the nasty and tool-breakingly hard pewter). It’s far nicer to work with than I expected.
I am sure that someone will decide that these pictures are an example of the disastrous flashing on Mantic models and run about with their hair on fire. It always happens when I try something like this. If they do, then they’re missing the point. The worst example of flash I could find in over 200 pieces took no more time to clean than the same piece would in metal or plastic and can be cleaned with the same tools.
Next time I’ll try it on a whole model and see how that works. It’s the same material so I don’t see why it would differ, but you never know 🙂
1: Restic, in case you don’t know, is a term for a form of what is commonly called “resin-plastic”. It has the advantage of being relatively inexpensive to tool and produce when compared to both traditional hard plastic and white metal, which is why Mantic, Fantasy Flight, Privateer Press and others have invested in it. Restic isn’t one thing but many – a family of plastics that share some properties of resin – at least that’s what I’ve been told. I’m currently researching the exact chemical description.
What I am sure of is that you can change the properties of restic by varying its exact chemical composition, primarily with regard to how hard/bendy you want the end result to be. This has a bearing on all manner of production issues, most important of which for figures is that a degree of “give” allows for undercuts. This, in turn, allows models to be made that either could not be made in hard plastic or would have to be made in many more pieces. So there are advantages other than cost.
2: In case you are new to this blog, I am a professional game designer and have written several games for Mantic. I suppose that means that I have a vested interest in the models being nice. Perhaps. I definitely do have an interest in models that I want to use being nice, which is rather more where I’m coming from here. Plus, like I said earlier, restic isn’t going away anytime soon and whether it’s Mantic or FFG making it I want to know how to deal with the stuff.
3: That’s pretty much all of them. If someone tells you that a model has no mould lines then the chances are that they haven’t looked hard enough. They can be subtle, but they can’t be absent. Not in a multi-part mould.
I’m just back from Mantic where I was running down a number of loose ends. This is just catching up with some of them.
First up, the Deadzone rules are now available digitally for KS backers. I’ve put up an FAQ page to catch questions as they arise and I’ll have a concentrated go at answering them tomorrow when I can sit down with the printed rules.
Also, many of you have realised that the DZ rulebook doesn’t include a stat list. This means that you need the cards to play, which you haven’t got yet. At least, not the final versions. This was an oversight on our part and not intentional – we want you to play it!
Having looked at the final files we have for cards, they’re not in a printer friendly version at all. Well, they’re printer friendly, if by printer you mean the guys who have a factory that knocks these things out in high resolution by the tens of thousands. Not if you want a single copy without eating 3 whole toner cartridges. It’ll take them a little while to sort out all the decks into a friendlier format and with the Mars Attacks KS finishing this weekend they just aren’t going to have time till early next week. Sorry about that. It’s not forgotten though.
I took a moment to snaffle myself a few bags of the Deadzone production models. Not all of these have arrived in the factory yet, but there are a selection. As regular readers will know, I’ve not been doing any painting or modelling of late and haven’t any personal experience to speak of with restic as a material. However, as I’m slowly getting back into this and have cleaned up both metal and hard plastic models in the last week, now is the perfect time for me to see how restic compares. We’ll come back to this over the next couple of days.
If anyone has any particularly good recommendations, suggestions or experience on how best to deal with restic, please comment below.
Now, back to Martians. Apparently they need Deadzone stats too…
The internet being the internet, it was inevitable that there would be a conspiracy involved somewhere. This one’s quite fun. Apparently, Mantic weren’t simply busy running a Kickstarter for Mars Attacks and hadn’t had time to post some pictures, oh no. In fact they were intentionally hiding their (supposedly) terrible Deadzone models out of shame and dismay, hoping that nobody would rumble them before the Mars Attacks Kickstarter ended, whereupon they would all run off into the sunset with their ill-gotten gains, cackling with glee.¹
And then there was reality.
Having read this I nudged Mantic this morning that they really needed to get some pictures up, and here they are (I swiped them off Dakka). The first one is a bag of figures tipped onto the table. No trimming or other prep work. This is how they come.
The next one shows some cleaned up and put together. The ones on the left have been primed too.
So, as you can see, quite the contrary to these models being an insane relative that needs hiding in an attic, the Deadzone miniatures are looking pretty smart. Personally I’m not seeing anything wrong with them at all.
I will snaffle a few when I’m in the office next week and take some more pics of my own. Until then, if any Secret Tibetan Masters send you an email from the Illuminati telling you that Mantic are hiding out on the Grassy Knoll, please just press delete…
1: I paraphrase, of course.
For the big battles in Mars Attacks we’ll be using a simple points system, as mentioned earlier. This will give you a chance to tailor your army to suit your style of play. If you want lots of robots, go robot. If unstoppable waves of grunts is the way you invade, then go for it. Fleets of saucers? Knock yourself out.
The following points may change slightly before the final version as we’ve still got more playtesting left to do. However, I don’t anticipate radical changes, just minor tweaks.
So, Humanity’s noble defenders first:
And the Martian invaders:
There will be a system for balancing the odd point or two left at the end if you can’t quite get exactly the right total (starting with extra cards in hand, support cards in play, etc).
I know that you haven’t got all the stats for everything yet. However, these points will help you work out what you want your force to look like and what you need in terms of models.
There are two of these: one for a single mat and the other for a four mat game (2×2). Again, this is the initial draft and so it focuses on whether the core of the game works properly at this size rather than fancy frills. There are some refinements to add in, most notably a random roll at the start to see what sub-mission you’re on.
Single mat games are played at 40 points per side, and four mat games at 100 points each.
For the moment we’re using this simple victory condition. Count the number of models in your army at the start of the game. Count each soldier as 1, each hero, saucer or truck as 3 and each robot as 5. Using this same calculation, the first side to reduce their foe to half or less of this total remaining on the battlefield wins the battle.
With the information above, you can see what sort of combinations you can get on the tabletop. On a single mat you could have a couple of saucers flying over a ground wave of two squads backed up by a robot. Or, you could have two robots, four saucers and forget the ground forces! Hmm, maybe that’s a bit excessive. Maybe…
On the bigger board you’ve got room to really indulge your megalomanic fantasies. You can happily have General Tor leading three robots, three saucers and fifty Martian infantry. Now that really does look like an invasion!
On the human side you’ll be wanting a fair amount of infantry and those missiles are great for taking out the big things. At the same time, your heroes are where you have an edge, and even though they’re small they can turn the tide on a flank, which can then domino through the rest of a battle. Trucks can be mobile cover as well as mobile pill boxes, so don’t forget to take a couple. however, if you want elites who have actually been waiting for the martians invasion (and preparing and training and… ) then the Novas Virae are on hand. They’re much pricier than your normal infantry, but they are good.
Both sides have a number of approaches they can adopt, and if you play the same opponents regularly you can have fun trying to second guess what style of army they’ll be fielding this time. You could also play “winner stays on” and not allow the winner of the previous game to change their force. That way you can test out tactics and get to know both how your force works and how your enemy responds.
Now you’ve got the Heroics rules and a couple of Heroes, here’s a sticky situation for them to try and get out of.
Oh, and here’s another Hero before we start:
The Sarge is a veteran of more wars than you can count.
His stats are:
Heroic Ability: Follow Me!
The model is a born leader, or someone with unquestioned authority over the troops.
Complete the model’s activation as normal. Then, if you want to trigger this ability, nominate up to four other unactivated models on the same side no more than 2 squares away. One at a time, these models are now activated. Complete each model’s activation before moving on to the next. As usual, all models are marked as activated once they have completed their actions.
As these additional activations are all triggered by the original model’s ability, they only count as a single model for purposes of working out what that player can do this Turn.
The latest version of the Brave ability goes like this. Note that this isn’t a Heroic ability so it doesn’t cost anything to use it.
Brave
The model has a strong sense of duty and honour. They feel it is their duty to protect the weaker civilians from danger.
A model with this ability will dive in front of the enemy fire to save civilians. If a square containing more than one model is the target of any attack, a Brave model must be targeted if possible. This applies to both shooting and fighting. If more than one Brave model is a possible target then the owner of the Brave models may choose which one leaps in to save the civilians. Obviously, if the shooting model cannot see any Brave models then it cannot target them.
Attacks that hit all models within a square at the same time (such as artillery) are not affected.
In this scenario, Eva and Troy are surprised by a large Martian attack. Will the brave counterattack by hopelessly outnumbered soldiers buy them enough time to get to safety?
Stats for a couple of Heroes. I’ll put up a scenario for them tomorrow. However, before we get to their stats, you need the proper rules for Heroics.
Heroes do heroic things, but even heroes have limits. To keep our Heroes suitably dramatic (but not overpowered), each one has a number of points to spend on Heroics. Each point of Heroics can be spent on a number of different options that varies depending on the individual hero. Use the Heroics counters to keep track of the amount left to each Hero. This limit is for a single battle, and will be renewed at the start of the next game.
Heroics are used in three ways:
1) To avoid damage. Whenever a hero is “killed” by an attack from any source, they automatically spend a point of Heroics to ignore the damage completely. This happens immediately. If the hero has no points left to spend then they are killed. If you can think of any suitably heroic last words that would help them rest easy.
2) To get more done in their Turn. In addition to taking a Turn in the same way as a Soldier, a Hero can spend up to one point of Heroics to either:
This is in addition to any movement, shooting or fighting already done by the Hero in their Turn. This may be used at either the start of their Turn or at the end, but not in the middle.
3) Use a Heroic ability. If the Hero has an Heroic ability then they may trigger it at the cost of a point of Heroics. See the list of Heroic abilities for individual effects. When this point is spent depends on the ability. Each time a model uses one of these abilities it costs that model a point of Heroics.
First up, Eva. Greenville’s 5-0 in person.
Her stats are:
Heroic Ability: Authority
The model is in control!
A model with this ability may take the first Turn in a Round for their side, regardless of which side would normally start. This model must be the first to act in this first Turn. Other than that, the Turn is completed as normal.
If both players want to use this ability then the model belonging to the side that would normally go first in a Round gets the first Turn. Both models would pay a point of Heroics in this situation.
Then we have Eva’s favourite perp, the wayward teenager Troy. Yeah, whatever.
His stats are:
Heroic Ability: Too Many Late Nights
The model has spent thousands of hours playing online games as a deadly assassin, and understands the cunning involved in the perfect hit.
A model with this ability gets a free move of one square if it fails to kills its target with a shooting attack. The “duck back” move must be taken immediately or it will be lost.
Quirkworthy 