Road to Deadzone: Third Edition – Martin’s Asterians

Hi everyone! After going through some of the exciting rules changes in Deadzone: Third Edition, today we’re kicking off a new series of blogs that will hopefully inspire you to start your own Strike Team. Here at Mantic HQ we’re obviously extremely excited about Third Edition and a number of us are undertaking a Strike Team Challenge – in other words, to build and paint a Strike Team ready for launch. We’ve got almost a month to finish… what could possible go wrong? Today Martin (Trade Marketing extraordinaire) is kicking things off with his Asterians!

Ahhhh Deadzone, you beautiful, beautiful game. With Third Edition quickly approaching, and with the staff strike team challenge underway, I saw it as the opportunity to paint a miniature I have wanted to do since it was launched a couple of years ago: the Spectra. Mainly because it’s absolutely stunning.

Sorry, I’m getting ahead of myself a bit. I have loved Deadzone forever and, as we all know, #Deadzoneislife! In fact, I have painted strike teams for most of our factions. Probably everything except the Marauders, and we all know my feelings on painting dirty goblins [Ed – you love them, as you know they’re the greatest faction in all games]. So, with that in mind I looked at what I had and how I could use this opportunity to add some units to a strike team to make them even more deadly or interesting to use. And what is more interesting than Sumo Space Lizards? (the correct answer is nothing *tick*)

A couple of years ago, I took my Asterians to a brilliant Weight of Fire tournament up in Manchester. That weekend I had taken a mixture of Cyphers, some weapons drones and my old favourite, the Kalyshi! These units are hardcore killers if they get into close combat, and with that in mind I wanted my 200 point list to reflect supporting the Kalyshi to take damage and potentially keep heads down to enable them to get up close and personal with the enemy.

For my strike team challenge I have built the ‘Blademaster’ version of the Spectra. Having multiple threats of close combat violence is my plan, which also includes a selection of Matsudan. These will help with some damage absorption  and a little bit of shooting.

The Kalyshi Deathstrike (new name for the Leader) has a fantastic command ability which, when activated, allows me to do multiple assault attacks in one activation.

I will try and stay consistent with the basing, but I will paint my new models with a slightly different scheme to represent the different sub factions that exist within the Asterian army list.

My first list is bang on 200 points, although it may need tweaking to add some more ranged attacks or some equipment.

• Kalyshi Deathstrike 24pts (Leader)
• 5 x Kalyshi 16pts each (Troop)
• Matsudan Sekiwake 16pts (Troop)
• Matsudan Yokozuna 24pts (Specialist)
• Matsudan Inashi 24pts (Specialist)
• Spectra Blademaster 38pts (Support)

Can’t wait to get them on the table and get up close and personal with the Spectra!

Tune in tomorrow for another staff blog – and make sure you let us know what faction you’re planning on starting for Deadzone: Third Edition.