Prodigal here.
There are a lot of reasons I've
enthusiastically adopted Deadzone as a game of note, but much of
the focus of enthusiasm has been on the value and convenience the out-of-the-box game. But how does it actually
play? Well, not enough has been written about that here yet, so
let's get into some of the distinguishing features of this game that
set it apart from other skirmish systems.
Grid movement
Unlike most other wargames out there,
Deadzone uses grid movement as opposed to free measuring. But here's
the thing: it still uses real line of sight. That means that while
judging movement and ranges can be calculated quickly and without
hassle, you still have to consider the true line of sight your units
maintain, so where you place your forces within a square still feels very much like
it does in a free-measuring game. In other words, you may move your
Enforcer two spaces, but that's not all you must consider. You need
to think about what sort of cover and LOS that you can set up in that
destination square. It's a very clever system and it works.
Psychology
The manipulation of the psychology of
each of your units and that of your enemies is key
in Deadzone. There are 4 different levels of aggression in
Deadzone. In ascending order, you have suppressed, pinned, alert, and
enraged. Your default state is alert, and your units act normally in
that state. If you go to enraged, your close quarters fighting gets
better, but your shooting is worse. If you are pinned you need to
waste an action (you get two per unit per round) to get back to alert
status. If you're suppresed, you are totally tapped out for a round.
What is interesting is that it's not an entirely good/bad sliding
scale. Enraged vs. alert have trade-offs, but being
pinned/suppressed will sometimes give you benefits for surviving as
well. There is amazing tactical depth in managing all of this, in
spite of how straight forward it is as a system.
Shooting
vs. Blazing Away
There
are two different ways of using ranged weapons in the game. Targeted
shooting, which works in a manner we are all familiar with, but then
there is "Blaze Away", which is just a colorful way of
saying suppression fire. When a model blazes away, it takes aim at a
single square on the map (it doesn't need line of sight on a model
within the square, just line of sight on the square itself) and lets
rip. Instead of calculating regular damage, a unit in the targeted
space suffers psychologically. In other words, if you are getting
advanced on by a horde and you need time to set up defenses, blaze
away at your enemies and make them hit the dirt. It'll make them
waste actions and time getting back up, thus slowing their advance.
Meanwhile, rush them and finish them off in close combat while they
are down and vulnerable, or get into cover yourself!
In
certain circumstances you can even cause damage by blazing away,
because once a unit's psychological state starts to dip below
suppressed they take damage instead. You can even use other models
as spotters to increase the volume of fire you pour into a given
area.
It
takes a while to get used to finding the right times to use shoot vs
blaze away, and becoming familiar with this system is critical to playing the game properly. I like that suppression plays such a large role in
the game, since in real warzones something like 97% of fire exchange
is suppression fire.
Secret
agendas
Each
side is trying to score 10 victory points, but neither side knows how
the other is supposed to do it. Your opponent may be trying to
assasinate your team leader, or get his forces off the board through
your deployment zone, or by capturing and controlling certain spaces,
or even just survive a certain number of rounds! You need to be
attentive to how he is behaving because if he's just hiding on his
side of the board, you're probably losing! Meanwhile you need to be focusing on your own objectives, so there is a lot to consider at any given moment beyond what to shoot at. I really like the
assymetrical nature of the objectives, and I think that it creates an
interesting sense of narrative even in a non-campaign session.
Those
are some of the more interesting and distinct ideas that Deadzone
brings to the table, and I think that in each case it carries them
off with aplomb. Hopefully I've given you some ideas about what the
game is like to play, and piqued your curiosity a little!
