I DID THE THING!

Sorry, but as someone who is terrible at finishing literally any project, I feel like there is some celebration to be had at me bucking that trend and painting a full Deadzone Strike Team. Which I did. Go me!

I completed 150 points – consisting of four Marionettes, two Cyphers, a Support Drone, two Weapon Drones, and a Cypher Prime to lead them. Plus, they look pretty good now that they’re all together.

For replicating an existing scheme, there was a surprising amount of creativity in working out how to paint not only existing models but also the newer ones that were unexplored. I found that throwing in a bit more of the blue helped to break up the colours and make it less monochrome.

Although I said I wanted to paint the Spectra, because Spectra, I’m still working on it at the time of writing – probably another week off. It’s one of the larger models I’ve painted in my time and it takes about as much time to do one limb of the Spectra as it does to almost finish one of the smaller models.

With my freshly painted force in hand, I even managed to get a game in recently. Here’s a list for those who like to see those.

• Leader – Cypher Prime with Light Blade and Noh Pistol
• Specialist – Cypher with Light Missile Launcher
• Troop – Cypher with Force Rifle
• Troop – Marionette with Noh Rifle (x4)
• Specialist – Support Drone with Communications Relay
• Specialist – Weapons Drone with Plasma Vortex
• Specialist – Weapons Drone with Shield Generator

I tried to apply some tactics, despite my inexperience. The Support Drone acted as a redundancy for losing my leader with its Tactician (1) rule. I found that although the single wound Cyphers looked fragile on paper, they can take a beating – unless you leave them in the wide open like I did. Making use of your toxic gas cloud is key, as well as timing it right. Look, here’s the proof of an actual game being played…

I played against Veer-Myn and although I think I held my own well in early game, I didn’t move up on the objective fast enough, which meant I ended up getting isolated and picked off. My opponent, Ian #Deadzoneislife Davies, was also using his explosive weapons to his advantage, moving my models around the board and disrupting a concerted advance. That, combined with the Veer-Myn’s natural speed got him the game, I reckon. It was still a lot of fun, especially when one of my Marionettes obnoxiously one-shotted Ian’s leader.

Going forward, I’m not sure if I want to make any changes to my list yet. I’m unsure if I lacked punch or simply didn’t apply said punch when I had the opportunity. Finish the Spectra, then get some more games in. Then maybe do a few more Marionettes for a Firefight force…