Deadzone: Third Edition – New units and minis

Is it October 25^th already? Come on, we need that sweet, sweet Third Edition goodness. Well, while we waiting patiently for the rules to drop, we’ll carry on teasing out some of the details about changes in the new rules.

As a reminder, let’s see what we’ve covered already and what’s still to come up. Also, let us know if there’s anything else you would like to see.

• September 13th – what was the aim with Third Edition?
• September 14th – What’s new? Building your Strike Team
• September 15th – What’s new? Changes to line of sight
• September 16th – What’s new? Cleaning up keywords and abilities
• September 17th – What’s new? Units and minis!
• September 20th – What’s new? Moving the narrative along
• September 21st – Bonus blog! Calculating damage
• September 22nd – Bonus blog! Campaigns

Today’s one of the fun ones – because it’s new toys. Hooray! For Third Edition, we’re going to be reviewing the entire Deadzone range and each faction will get some love… although we don’t envy the person that has to give the Nameless some love. All those tentacles! Anyway, this could mean some entirely new models or some models changing materials, e.g. moving from PVC to resin or metal to resin (rejoice Murderbird fans).

The slightly bad news is that it’s going to take a while to update everything. We’ve got a long list of things we want to do and a schedule of when we want to do them. Each time we come round to a full faction release though, you can expect to see some of the sweet, sweet new things. Here’s the current roadmap of releases…

• OCTOBER 2021 – Veer-myn (full release with new minis)
• OCTOBER 2021 – GCPS (full release with new minis)
• OCTOBER 2021 – Asterians (starter release, Marionette Phantom new mini)
• OCTOBER 2021 – Forge Fathers (starter release, no new minis)
• OCTOBER 2021 – Enforcers (starter release, no new minis)
• NOVEMBER 2021 – Forge Father Artificers (booster release, awesome new minis)
• EARLY 2022 – Marauders (full release with new minis)
• EARLY 2022 – Plague (full release with new minis)

As you can see, it’s a pretty action-packed schedule for the next few months. Initially we wanted to make sure we had plenty of faction options for new players at launch – thus the release of the Asterians, Forge Fathers and Enforcers – but we’ll be adding to those as well.

VEER-MYN

The rats actually have quite a few additions in Third Edition – so clearly they’ve been breeding in the nest. Firstly, there’s the awesome Pack Leader that comes in the two-player starter set and the new Strike Team starter.

If you like to get stuck in with some fierce combat, then the Pack Leader is your go-to leader for the Veer-myn with the new Feral Rush ability. Now you can get those Nightmares into combat easier than ever before.

GCPS

Just like the Veer-myn, the GCPS are gaining quite a few minis ready for the launch of Third, including the new Ranger Lieutenant leader (who can also be used as Living Legend Therese Washington), TAC Drones and Riot Troopers.

The Riot Troopers are the best close combat option in the GCPS list and those Defender Shields are likely to come in handy for protecting your other soldiers as well.

Another interesting addition to the GCPS list is the inclusion of the Ogre Terminator as a Specialist. Originally the Ogre Terminator was a merc that could be hired by anyone, however we thought that as the GCPS encounter more threats throughout the galaxy, it’s likely they could do with some hired muscle to taken on the likes of a Nameless Ogre. After all, the last time they hired some muscle it was ABSOLUTELY FINE*

FORGE FATHERS

Springing into November and we’ll have the release of the Forge Father Artificers. These have been a long-time coming for Deadzone and we’re delighted to see them finally get a release. The Artificers are engineers sent into Deadzones to extract as many resources as they can, before the Enforcers catch up with them.

As such, their equipment is mostly designed for mining… you know, massive lasers that can shoot through Strider armour, hammers that can smash through an Aberration’s carapace, etc. Totally designed just for mining. The Artificers will be released as a booster pack (similar to the Matsudan) and the Juggernaut will be a separate purchase. And yes, you could potentially run an Artificer-only list because there are Troop and Specialist options, while the Juggernaut is a Support.

LOOKING AHEAD TO 2022

Ok, so we don’t want to spoil too much for 2022 but we will say that the Plague are getting a massive overhaul. A lot of these models have been around since Deadzone: First Edition and we thought it was time they got a bit of attention. As a result, many of the PVCs will be making the move to resin as, typically, you only need one or two of some of the tougher specialists – like the Plague Teraton below. Even better news, Murderbirds will finally make their return so everyone can stop asking me in Deadzone Fanatics :p

We’ve also teased that fact we are working on hard plastic Marauders! That’s right orc fans, we’re finally doing a sprue of hard plastic sci-fi greenskins and they are looking tasty as hell. The hard plastics will also be accompanied by some new resin miniatures too so we can bulk out the range… and perhaps see the Marauders finally get their own army list in Firefight.

As you can see the future looks extremely bright for Deadzone and this is really just the tip of the iceberg for future sci-fi plans. Exciting times ahead!

* see Mandrake Rebellion