Mantic Games Deadzone Kickstarter - An Unboxing

Today I would like to post a few pictures from the new Deadzone Kickstarter Strike Team Rewards Box. First of all, I was truly surprised on the size of the the box - 18 in x 12.5 in x 4.25 in. This box is huge!

This is the back of the box with the listed items to be included in the 2-Player starter Box. Now please remember the count of sprues and figures are higher than listed due to the bonuses earned for the stretch goals during the Kickstarter.

The first column of box contents and the corresponding pieces are shown below. The number of Scenery, Accessory, and Connector sprues are double the amount due to the many stretch goals achieved on the Kickstarter campaign.

The bottom of the box is lined with the rulebook, dice and cardboard counters. Added to the box are the signed lithograph and postcards as a stretch goal for the Kickstarter Backers. I had thought there should be 10 eight-sided dice (stretch goal) and sent a message to Mantic to confirm this.

The two standard Faction Decks include the Enforcers and the Plague. Marauders and Rebs are added as a Kickstarter Stretch Goal.

The rubberized Gaming Mat was folded in the box. I immediately took it out and rolled it to be stored in a gaming tube. I do plan to use this mat and the scenery structures in other skirmish games.

8 x Terrain Sprue 1

4 x Terrain Spure 2a

4 x Terrain Sprue 2b

 4 x Terrain Sprue 3 (Accessory Sprue)

2 x Terrain Connector Sprue

The second column lists the contents for the Enforcer Faction. From my judgement of the sprueless bags of parts, it looks to be the right amount of figures.

The last column lists the contents for the Plague faction. The Kickstarter stretch goals include additional Plague figures which is why there are more bags of plastic figures.

Again, as more strech goals for the Kickstarter, the backers recieved 3 additional factions: Marauders and Rebs were included in this shipment. I chose the Forgefathers as my fifth faction which will be delivered in a second shipment. I truly like the Rebs Faction as their figures and races are unique. They may be similar to certain PC Game characters but I have not seen these races in any other miniature lines of recent gaming companies.

The last two parts of the stretch goals include a bag of special characters and a random MVP (in this case Forgefathers) for the Dreadball Game also from Mantic.

As an add on to my Kickstarter package, I added the Chovar special character and all the Forgefather special charaters for Warparth (another game from Mantic).

Lastly, the gratuitous picture of the bases included for the starter box. By the count of all the figures, I doubt that there is enough bases for everyone. Maybe just enough for the starter box figures.

So, in short, a huge box with a huge number of figures in a well constructed starter box. The size of the box is more likely to allow the storage of the terrain even when pre-contructed. Based off of the last starter box I reviewed (Hawk Wargames 2-player Starter Box), many companies are learning to include a full game with terrain. I cannot wait to assemble the figures and put the to brush (hopefully before Adepticon 2014). Any comments are much appreciate. Thanks!

Hawk Wargames Dropzone Commander 2-player Starter Set - Assembly UCM Tanks

Continuing my review of the Hawk Wargames Dropzone Commander 2-player Starter Set, we present the Sabre Main Battle Tanks and Rapier Anti-Air Tanks.

Again looking at the sprue layout and instructions, you will get three sprues for each faction. One spure will have a Dropship, a personnel carrier, 2 tanks and 2 infantry bases.
  

The instructions for both versions of the tanks are the same.

This tanks comes in 6 parts each - main body, 2 tracks, turret, armature and main weapon. The Sabre gets the UM-100 'Avenger' railgun and Rapier is armed with the UM-28 'Vindicator'.

The actual assembly again is very easy and again no mold lines to worry about. The tracks glue to the body with contacts to the side chassis and top armor. With the contact areas hidden, you can easily over glue with out any overflow getting on the models exterior surface.

The rail gun is thin and may have a little warpage but a quick hot water bath will make it straight. The 'Vindicator' gatling gun is solid BUT the contact to the armature is a single ball joint. It was a challenge to keep the gun alligned with the body and armature while the glue dried.

I chose three configurations when assembling these tanks: no extension, low extension and mid extension. I decided not to go with the full extension due to storage and the height limitations when using foam trays I used. At the end of this series, I will show you the storage tray I used for the whole starter set armies and I was able to fit all models on one tray.