Deadzone - Kickstarter

Gravius here with a little nudge to all our readers in the direction of the Deadzone kickstarter from Mantic Games.

If you're reading this blog then Deadzone should be right up your street. Miniatures, sci-fi, wargaming, it's pretty much all the things we love here on Games Knight rolled into one skirmish-game-shaped package.

Deadzone - by Mantic Games

For those who don't know, Mantic Games are a British miniatures company who already produce a few excellent miniatures games and began life not too long ago with the aim of creating big armies, without the big pricetags. However, last year Mantic launched a kickstarter for the miniatures sportsgame Dreadball, which I am proud to say I backed and have since reviewed here on Games Knight. The Dreadball kickstarter was a great success, and the money pledged to that kickstarter allowed Mantic to take the game much further, much faster, than I think would have otherwise been possible. In less than a year, Dreadball has become my game of choice for an hour or so's entertainment and is something I can pretty much guarantee I'll get a pick-up game of, if I just head down to my FLGS.

Now Mantic are back with their latest product; Deadzone.

So What Is It?

Deadzone is a sci-fi skirmish game played with 28mm scale miniatures.

And?

A small force from the 'Plague' Deadzone faction

Well, there are a couple of things that I think make this game stand out from the crowd (and I acknowledge there is a bit of a crowd) in the sci-fi skirmish game market.
     Firstly, Mantic are producing plastic modular terrain with which to fill the board for games of Deadzone. This is something i'm really looking forward to seeing more of as the kickstarter develops and I believe something the minatures wargaming community has been crying out for. There are plenty of companies that produce terrain, there are a few companies that produce good quality terrain pieces, but there aren't any i'm aware of that produce good quality, modular terrain, that can be constructed in various ways.
    Secondly, the game has more of a fast-paced 'boardgame' feel to it, with units using squares on a 2ft x 2ft gaming mat to measure distance rather than the traditional tape measure system. This should be something different from the majority of skirmish games and I think, provided people are open minded about putting the tape measure down, could make for a much faster game. That's not to say fast is always best, but if the game can capture a sense of frenetic action, then the faster paced movement and measuring will help add to that.
     Finally, it seems as though the 'campaign' aspect will be a high priority for this game, with individual units gaining experience and advancing as you play more games. As a roleplayer at heart, any opportunity for me (or my squad of guys) to level up and it doesn't take a lot more to get me on board.




I'm very happy to say the kickstarter reached its funding goal of $50,000 in just 33 minutes(!) and has been rising steadily since it started 7 days ago. However, the funding target is merely the start, and each and every stretch goal surpassed allows Mantic to create more units, more terrain, more goodies immediately and come release day have a more complete product with which to take the miniature gaming world by storm!
So, without any further ado, I urge you, if I have in any way peaked your interest and for some reason you haven't already stopped reading this, go now, click the link above, watch the trailer, and get involved in what could be the most exciting miniatures game this year!