Mantic’s Deadzone is starting to take off in my FLGS. One reason is that it’s quick, the rules aren’t complicated and a starter sets is reasonably priced. You don’t need a lot of models to play. A core box and expansion is more than enough. (For some reason, Halo isn't as popular here because not many played the PC games that IP is based on.)
My FLGS has invested in the terrain for DZ so I took advantage of this to try and play with the Nameless, a faction I got from the Star Saga board game Kickstarter years ago, but haven’t yet managed to play with them or the Veer-myn.
I got 2 games in.
The first was against the horrendous Matsudan. According to their lore, they were a client race of the Asterians (Space Elves) but it seems now Mantic will be spinning them off into their own faction. They are terrible because they have the Stable rule, which means they can fall down or be pinned so my Rebs shenanigans are useless and that means I can’t play with them.
My other faction is Forge Fathers but the pricy models means I get fewer models on the table and also they have a size disadvantage when it comes to melee combat since the Matsudans are Size 2.
Anyway, we played a 150pt game. Nameless vs Matsudan.
I had 6 Troops (3 Inkers, Gunslinger, Assassin and Rifleman), 2 Specialists (Caratid and Magnumite) and 1 Leader (The Blight). My opponent had 7 models.
The Mission was Breakthrough. We each had to exit off the other’s Deployment zones.
Things went badly at first for me because my Troopers were extremely squishy. One shot and they were down, even with 2HP. My gunners weren’t doing much damage. My Inkers are practically useless save for causing smoke when they die.
But then my Specialists got into range… and the Magnumite especially devastated the Matsudan. The leader went down and a couple others, especially the horrendous Gun Platform with AP5 and a minimum of 5 dice each time it attacked.
That gave me more bodies to rush for the Breakthrough point (7) compared to my opponent’s 2. Also, my Assassin was poised to take out another Matsudan.
My opponent conceded since he couldn't muster enough bodies or kill enough of my models to gain more VPs.
So that was fun.
My second game involved the standard Recon mission vs the Enforcers. 150 points.
This was really bad… for me! Enforcers get a 4+ save and a 4+ shoot across the board. My Magnumite managed to do some damage but my other models couldn’t make a dent in the Enforcers.
They kept shooting me down and I couldn’t do a thing about it as my shooters were kind of bog standard. Even with a Prey capable shooty guys, it didn't make much difference because you need to get into melee to take advantage of that +1 die it gives you.
I did manage to take out the Enforcer Captain and was neck and neck for VPs until round 4 where I ran out of bodies to camp on VP zones and couldn’t catch up any more so I had to concede.
All in all, the Nameless need more play testing to see what the other troop types do. I didn’t manage to get the Goliath on the table… can’t hide that monstrosity. And I do need to get the STL models for the Troopers (Needle Drones) and Specialists (Feromites) I’m missing. They are still fiddly to play with as each model has a role.
I’ll probably replace the Inkers with the Scuttlers for melee. They are pretty crap but at least have the horde rule which gives a +1 die to each model in the cube above and beyond what you already get for outnumbering the foe. Their melee stat is still a pretty hopeless 6+ on a d8 die.
Magnumite is good… as long as I can get rid of the Enforcer with the rocket launcher that has AP5 that can nullify any armor my models have. Getting rid of the Rocket Launcher is priority #1. The Sniper is #2.
Other than that… a fun day and some fun games.
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