By Ed Fortune
Mantic Games has a solid reputation for fun miniature games that are easy to pick up and are very, very replayable. Deadzone is Mantic’s sci-fi small model count skirmish game, comparable to games such as Corvus Beli’s Infinity CodeOne or Games Workshop’s Kill Team. Now in its third edition, the game has developed into a solid and fun option for those looking for futuristic sci-fi fun.
Deadzone Fall of Omega VII is the latest starter set for Deadzone, and it’s a heavy, packed box that fits neatly on the shelf. Opening the box, we get two full armies and a pile of terrain. The terrain itself is interesting because it’s Mantic’s famous modular kit. These are flat plastic panels that clip together to form small buildings, platforms, street vendor cabins, etc. We also get urban furniture such as crates, rubble, ATMs, and so on. There’s a lot of this, and though it’s configurable in lots of ways, we advise glueing and painting them up if you intend to play this game often.
The rules have come a long way since the first edition and have refined into something fast, fun, and brutal. The game should take about an hour to play, which means you’ll likely slot more than one game in an hour. Measurement is worked out using the terrain and the map provided, and the paper map also contains handy rules summaries. The game uses eight-sided dice and rolling an eight means you get to roll another die (which means you could end up rolling a lot). We also add dice for things like elevation, equipment etc. This means both players are rolling lots of dice all the time and quickly. This actually makes the game really fast.
The Deadzone setting is also pretty interesting; humanity is basically a capitalist-driven, expansionist society that doesn’t really know much about the horrors that await it in the stars. As they push out into the stars looking for fortune and glory, they uncover things such as The Plague, a horrific space virus that owes more the movies like Event Horizon and the Dead Space video games than it does to the zombie movie genre. This means Mantic have produced clean-looking and interesting human factions and also sorts of freaky aliens, such as the effete and mysterious Aesterians.
Speaking of which, we get 13 Aestarians in the box. These are mostly the spindly warriors known as Marionettes, as well as two slightly more tank-like drones. They’re led by a lizard alien (called a Matsudan) known as Ota Sora, basically a huge turtle dude in samurai-style power armour. The troops and drones are in plastic, are quite easy to put together, paint easily and have a good range of assembly options. Their leader is made out of resin, so requires a little bit more skill to put together, but looks fabulous once you’re done. Rules-wise, they’re better at shooting than hand-to-hand, though Ota Sora can keep any enemy unit occupied for a long while with a wrestling-style body slam. We also get 17 Plague models, split between zombies and ghouls, as well as Plague General and a ‘hellhound’, which is a super-cute zombie dog.
Deadzone Fall of Omega VII is the smart choice for those looking to get into a new miniature skirmish game. The box is jammed full of minis and pieces, the rules are fun, and everything you need is in one box. If you’ve grown bored of the dark ages in space style that dominates UK wargaming and just want something that looks cool, isn’t too pricey and won’t take over all your free time, check this out.
