Quirkworthy

A couple of tweaks in this section. Firstly, the strike force goes up to 140 points rather than 100. This gives a great deal more soak to the force and more choice to the player. Coupled with a change in the casualties (below) this will greatly reduce the likelihood of having to get green recruits from High Command to fill the ranks.

I’ve looked at the costs for improving models and they are already on the low side compared to the amount charged to models in their initial form. As the synergy of the extra stats and abilities is already an uncosted bonus for veteran models, I don’t feel that I can reduce these costs any further and pretend to stay balanced. As I said the other day, worth looking at again, but on closer inspection not a good idea to change it.

I have made some slight changes to the way casualties are dealt with that makes it a bit simpler and also removes some of the absenteeism. The easiest way to explain is to show you the whole section:

Resolve Casualties

Models that were killed during the battle are removed from the roster unless you bought a resurrect model upgrade for them. You need to buy one such upgrade per model and may choose to resurrect some and not others. If you want to resurrect a model you must do so immediately after the battle in which they were killed. If you cannot afford to pay at that time they are removed from the roster permanently.

Models that are resurrected must roll one dice on the complications table below and apply that result.

Complications Table

Injured models will recover on their own given the normal medical attention available. However, this will take some time and they will be absent for a single battle. If you do not buy emergency medical care for a model then mark them as absent for the next battle. You need to buy one such upgrade per model and may choose to treat some and not others.

Models that receive emergency medical aid are not marked absent and may fight in the next battle.

Reductions in Shoot, Fight and Survive game values make the number rise by 1. So, a 3+ becomes a 4+, a 4+ becomes a 5+, and so on. If the model already has a game value of 7+ and is reduced further then they fall into a coma and cannot be revived. Treat this as a roll of a 1 instead

Reductions in Command value move down the hierarchy listed on page XXXX. If the model has a 1/1 command and is reduced further then they fall into a coma and cannot be revived. Treat this as a roll of a 1 instead.

As we’ve talked about before, it makes some sense that damage should be possible with Blaze Away attacks. I’ve tried a number of solutions to this and had abandoned all of them for various reasons. The main problems were that it was making BA a better option than Shooting in so many cases that it was clearly going to create an imbalance in weapons use.

There are a lot of different model types in Deadzone, and in several cases the main difference is the weapon the model carries. Now there’s simply no point in going to the trouble of making all these models and writing all these stat lines if we then introduce a rule that makes one type flat out better than the rest. That would be silly.

The force selection process is very open to allow you to pick what you like from the models you have, but the flip side of this is that the balance must be pretty good. If one type is better all round then that’s all anyone will use. We’re aiming here for a selection of differently armed troopers, each of which has their own niche. Whilst you may have a favourite, they should all have a situation when they are the best at what needs to be done.

Anyway…

After I posted this there were several rather disappointed comments, so I went back to have one final look. Now there are several ways this could be done, but I really didn’t want to stick in a completely new mechanic that had nothing to do with the rest of the way the game worked. Then I had a new idea and this is what I’ve gone with.

When someone uses Blaze Away to attack they may cause damage to their target. Work out the attack as before with the addition of a triples result that drops the target 3 steps of Aggression. If the target’s Aggression is reduced to Suppressed and it still has steps left to drop then it takes those additional steps in potential damage instead.

For example, a Pinned target that is doubled would lose 2 steps of Aggression. One takes it to Suppressed and the other becomes potential damage. If it had been tripled it would have taken 2 points of potential damage.

This fits the damage process into the existing drop in Aggression and allows AP cards to be used with Blaze Away. It also gives you more reason to stack supports onto a single BA attack. All in all I think it works very smoothly to introduce the possibility of damage without making it overpowering or requiring radical changes in mechanics.

So I’m quite pleased. Hope you like it too.

My recent lack of posts has been largely down to sorting through all the comments and feedback for Deadzone and incorporating it into the final version of the rules. I’d like to say a big thank you to everyone who helped with that – it’s all been very useful

The book is in layout now and about the only bit you guys never saw is the campaign rules. Well here you go 😉

I’ve made some departures from what might be considered the normal campaign process you usually see in skirmish games, but don’t panic. It’s still pretty straightforward. These spins are aimed at making it easier for the organiser to join in, allowing people to join in part way through and avoiding the massive disparity between veteran and green strike teams on the tabletop.

One of the main differences is that there is a two level “army”: the strike force and the strike team. The strike force is the whole pool of resources you have to draw on. Think of these as the men and equipment back at base. The strike team is the subset of men you send on a given mission, ie play a game with. This key idea gains most of the benefits mentioned above.

I’ll come back and talk more about the why’s and wherefores later. For now, have a look at the rules and let me know what you think.

DZ campaign rules public