Mantic’s Deadzone: Necromunda Reborn?
I am starting to get a little too excited about Mantic‘s new sci-fi skirmish game: Deadzone. I’ve been an interested observer of Mantic’s products since they started. I love plastic models so seeing someone do fantasy and scifi in plastic was of great interest to me. So far they hadn’t produced anything to break me out of my current focus. I love Infinity and want to paint and play the game. Any other game is just going to reduce my time for Infinity.
This game may just make me cheat on Infinity.
Deadzone starter set. Image copyright Mantic Games.
However recently a couple of friends were reminiscing about how good Necromunda was when we were in school. We play boardgames but they’ve drifted away from miniature wargames. Of course, I’m always trying to drag them back in so my mind immediately turned to alternatives to Necromunda which didn’t require spending $50 for 8 metal miniatures.
This post on Tabletop Gaming News caught my eye as I was trying to get caught up on my blog reading. I think it was the tiny image of the terrain in the background that caught my eye, seeing as I had Necromunda on my brain. A bit of digging later and it looks like this is indeed the game I’ve been looking for.
The question, however, is can I get my friends to play?
Anyone else interested in Deadzone? Did you back the kickstarter or do you plan on pre-ordering? Are you going to wait for your gaming group to commit or run the risk of investing in a system with no-one to play with?
Better Get Painting
If I am going to pick up Deadzone I better get my Infinity army painted. It’s much easier to justify picking up a new game if I’ve already painted everything for my current game. Considering how long it takes me to paint, painting Deadzone while I play Infinity could be said to be ideal.
On the subject of painting I’m thinking I’m going to smash my WIP posts into a weekly post. This way it’ll be more than a single image and some musing.
This is pretty much how I felt about Deadzone and in the end five of us got together and split the kickstarter investment. We all used to play Necromunda back in the day and have often talked that some kind of game like it where you could have long running campaings would be fun! Judge Dredd looks good as well, but Deadzone seems more accessible in a way.
Originally I was only looking at the terrain for use with Infinity, but the more I read about the game the more interested I became. Now, the campaign rules are fairly simple in the base game. There are some hints that a more fleshed out/detailed system might make an appearance later on, but right now it’s pretty basic. I don’t really see the kind of emergant, organically growing and very story oriented campaigns like you used to see in Necromunda. Still, basic is good to get started.
I’ve written about my thoughts and impressions on Fire Broadside, and there will of course be a lot more when the whole package arrives in a couple of weeks. 🙂
Sweet. I look forward to your impressions. Most likely if I pull this off it will be by painting the factions myself.
A basic campaign system isn’t a killer. In my “old” age I find simple is often better.
Hehe! Yepp, even though we look back at our sprawling Necromunda campaign with nostalgic eyes, I don’t think we could actually repeat that today. A simpler campaign format with a clear cut end condition is probably the best for us.
Will keep you posted!
I picked up the kickstarter and some add-ons, I’ll do an unboxing on HoP but as I’m across the Atlantic I think the Brits will beat me to it.
Ditto all of what Martin said.