Deadzone

What is Deadzone

Deadzone is a sci-fi skirmish game from Mantic Games, set in its Warpath universe. Mantic calls it “a cube-based, fast-paced, tactical miniatures game.”

The setting is the containment zones: cities, or whole planets, that have been “erased from planetary maps and left for dead.” You lead an elite team into one of them to scavenge whatever is worth taking, and so does everyone else.

The first edition was written by Jake Thornton and Guy Haley and came out of a Kickstarter, shipping to backers in November 2013. The second edition followed in 2016. The current Third Edition came out in September 2021. Mantic called the changes “incremental”: it kept the cubes, true line of sight and exploding 8s, and tweaked keywords, damage and Command Dice. The rules now come in two books, a core rulebook and a Force Lists book, so the lists can be updated without touching the core rules.

The Force Lists cover factions from across Warpath, among them the GCPS, Enforcers, Forge Fathers, Veer-myn, Plague, Asterians, Marauders, Mazon Labs, Nameless and Rebs.

Halo: Flashpoint, Mantic’s Halo game, grew out of these rules.

How it plays

Cubes, not tape measures. The board is 2 feet square and divided into 3-inch cubes. A move stat of 1-2 means a model can advance into any adjacent cube or sprint up to two. Inside a cube you can place the model wherever it gets the best cover. Ranges count cubes too, so a gun with range 6 shoots up to six cubes away.
It’s three-dimensional. Cubes stack, so models climb up and down through buildings. Wargamer’s review notes that firing from higher ground can add dice to your roll.
One model at a time. Players take turns activating a single model until everything has gone. A game runs five rounds.
Eight-sided dice. Combat uses D8s, and 8s explode. Command Dice, which are six-sided, unlock special orders.
Small teams. A 100-point strike team usually has between 5 and 15 models.
Campaigns. The core rulebook includes campaign rules and 16 scenarios.

How to start

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Deadzone Getting Started Rules (free)

All the basic rules, so you can learn to play. Needs a free Mantic webstore account.

Read the rules for free. The Getting Started rules are a free download once you have a Mantic webstore account. If you register on the Mantic Companion, you can read the free Third Edition ruleset there too. A paid Companion subscription adds the latest rules and expansions.
Or buy the books. The Rulebook & Force Lists pair is £32.50 in print or £25 as a digital edition. Between them they hold the campaign rules, the lore, 16 scenarios and the lists for 10 factions.
Get a starter set. The 2-Player Starter Set is £100. It has 10 GCPS Troopers and a GCPS hero against 10 Veer-myn Nightcrawlers, 2 Nightmares and a Veer-myn hero, plus both rulebooks, 12 bags of Battlezones scenery, a paper gaming mat, counters, 8 Command Dice and 8 D8s. There’s a second £100 box, The Fall of Omega VII, with the Plague against the Asterians, but Mantic lists it as currently unavailable.
Or start with one faction. Each faction has a £30 starter on the getting started page. The Nameless one is £40.