There was a great haul of hobby goodies here at Deathwatch Studios over the hobby period, with the most exciting for me being Deadzone! My lovely wife managed to get a hold of the boxed game for me and immediately lamented the decision as I went into hiding to build it all :D. Today I’m going to give you a run down of how I found the contents of the box as well as the Rebs Faction Booster :).

Tokens – The card tokens that come with the game are a much higher quality than expected, and look like they would have a much longer life than the Dreadball ones. They’ve got a good design asthetic in keeping with the game and you get more than enough to see you through. The acrylic version on the other hand is a bit more disappointing than the Dreadball equivalent, with hard to see designs. It’s not the end of the world though, as they are very vibrantly coloured, so it’s just a case of learning what colour means what.

I also picked up a set of the resin equipment crates as they add that little extra character to a game. These are very good for the £8 they cost, with great quality casting on both the crates themselves and the lids which include the different equipment designs.

Terrain & Mat – The playmat the game comes with is the same kind of mouse-matty material that the Ultimate game uses, and as with that it is nothing short of superb. It’s easily stored, looks great and has the advantage of a good amount of traction for both the models and the terrain.

The terrain is also absolutely superb. The connector method that Mantic have gone with works very well. Each section as sets of two holes in the same areas which the connectors then plug into, giving the opportunity to build/dismantle the terrain with ease. Although I’ve gone down the gluing route (I’d rather get more terrain to have a few options than have to sit and poke out connectors after a game :)). Another great thing with the terrain is there is next to no visible mold lines due to the way it all tapers at the edges, meaning it can be built up with minimal effort. Finally it’s amazingly modular, even when glued up. I had an amazing amount of fun after building up the two sets I have just making up different board layouts, figuring out where walkways could go and building up the levels :). Here’s a couple I came up with:

The Factions – I’ve now built up both the Rebs and the Plague, as these are the factions I would like to play with. I originally was going to go with the Enforcers, but due to the high cost per model, it would mean a very restrictive force, where as the Rebs especially have a huge amount of variety and a good amount of cheapness.

Both Factions were very easy to clean, with the only real problem being a mold line right down the Reb Commanders face and all look fantastic. My only big gripe is some of the models are placed onto the disc with tabs on their feet, as I would rather have them flush to the base, but a wee bit of careful cutting got rid of those.

As you can see with the Rebs I may have gone a little crazy and got a few extra troopers. This is because they are so cheap I wanted a lot more flexibility in what I could take, and considering all of these guys wouldn’t fill up the roster in a campaign, I can’t wait to get the extra specialists that aren’t available yet.

The Rules – The rulebook is much the same as other Mantic books. It looks great, with a nice crisp feel and great graphics. The rules themselves read well, with only a little confusion that works itself out when you have a play through and feel very unique (if you discount Dreadball). The only problem I have with the book is a lack of a reference page, which would have been really handy saving time flipping through the book.

I’ve only played a few games so far, so keep your eye’s peeled, as I will do a wee right up once I’ve played a bit more and have got my head around it a little bit more 😀