Deadzone Strike Team Builder - GCPS

Hi All,

I finally added the GCPS Faction to the Strike Team builder (for the second time after my live database decided to die on me).I am just finishing off adding the last weapons but everything else is selectable and ready to use.

http://deadzone.freecluster.eu/

Rules and GCPS Stats are found Free:
http://www.manticgames.com/free-rules.html

Let me know if you find any errors.

Deadzone Strike Team Builder - Moved

Hi all,

Strike Team Builder has moved!

http://deadzone.freecluster.eu/

🏡...............🚚..............🏡


Please let me know if you if you experience any issue and I will look into them as soon as possible.

Details/Why:
If you have tried to use the Deadzone strike team builder of late you my have noticed it was down. This was due to the hosting platform version being upgraded and having to migrate to a different hosting service. To enable me to keep the usage of the Strike team builder free I have simply moved it to a different free hosting service.

Kings of War - Route/Waver Calculator

I am building a new online tool for Kings of War that will calculate chances of Routing or Wavering Units. No sign up or adds it's literally just a single page application designed to work well on phone or tablet.

http://chargecalc-grich.rhcloud.com/

Seen a fair amount of people have made excel sheets which do basically the same with a  bit more functionality (which I will be adding in the future). The main difference here is this will function on well on a phone. So can be used easily at table side to give a player a better prediction if their unit is going to bounce or not real time.

The target users are newer players, those using a new army or playing against an unknown army. Just to even the odds for newbies helping them to weigh up the odds. Should I soften up the target with more shooting before charge in?

Testing tonight at the club for the first time so will go by the calculator traffic lights and report back on who won.

All feedback is welcome. I might then expand further for Ranged attacks and/or magic attacks if it proves useful. If you have your own calculator I would really appreciate having a look to see how you have done it so I can check my calculations.

Deadzone - Overkill Tournament

Deadzone Overkill Tournament nearly upon us!

Remember to use the Aftermath - Deadzone Strike Team Builder to build your tournament teams!

---

Tickets still on sale here: http://www.manticgames.com/mantic-shop/events-and-tickets/product/deadzone-overkill-tournament.html

Mantic Games HQ
193 Hempshill Lane
Bulwell
Nottingham
NG6 8PF

Date : Saturday 22nd July

Kings of War - Edge of the Abyss

New campaign supplement for Kings of war available for pre-order soon!!! Really can't wait to see how the new concept of formations is going to work. Also new heroes are always welcome especially for Kingdoms of Men.

Still building my Night Stalker army so hope they get a good look in. Also hoping it'll change things up for my old Kingdoms of men Army.

Pre-order available on mantic site here : Kings of War - Edge of the Abyss Summer Campaign Book

Deadzone - Strike Team Builder Fixes

Hi all,

I had a message letting me know that Frenzy was missing. I also found Tough was missing. These have now been added to the Abilities descriptions on PDF, Print View, etc. Let me know if there are any others please.

I have also fixed a bug with the Figure addition which meant that Injuries, xp, rank and V-dice were not added. This affected the PDF generation. All fixed now but as above let me know if you find any problems.

I have realised that there are still no Merc's in the lists so might look into that next.

Have fun folks!!

Rich

Kings of War - Narrative Campaign

Night Stalkers vs Herd 600 points - Bounty 

Feel the integrity of the ether veil weaken as our dimensions inexorably dance and intertwine. The fluttering boundary between planes at once being thicker here then thinner there. From solid oak to thin smoke we slip between to your world. Dream now mortal for nightmares come, I am legion for we are many.

The following is an excerpt from annals of Mage Walter C. Gould chronicler of Bilvade Magical Atheneum:

Whilst passing through the dark marshes beyond Faulkmar. The travelling Sage Medulla tells of a cairn circle in which he found himself. On sitting upon the central mound voices of spirits whispered to him speaking the the history of the marsh and deep scars of an evil past. The Herd peoples of the Remane's tribe that dwell in that land found themselves set upon by creatures which stalked the night. From Medulla’s account a small war band consisting of two centaur units armed with either bow or spear had been marked with a nightmare curse drawing the creatures to them. A small troop of fawn hunters bearing bows along with a pack of howling werewolves came to their aid.

The dank of marsh and swamp land went cold and silent until a piercing chittering from the undergrowth surrounded them. As the darkness approached, shapes could be seen through the shadowy mist. Shifting forms suggested teeth and terribly malformed figures slowly shambling towards them. The bravery of the herd however, shone through as they called trophies upon the biggest of these nightmare creatures.

As they set too, the herd lines loosed arrows upon the largest of the hulking Shadow creatures to little effect. Giant blood leeching worms sprouted from the ooze, ugly fang filled mouths sort to suck the herd folk dry. A human sized horror could be heard casting incantations upon a group of giant cleaver wielding butchers surging them forth.

Swift manoeuvring centaur archers along the werewolves drove down the night stalkers right flank. A further volley of arrows fell upon the blood worms, killing many and sending the others slithering deep into the bog from which they had come. Unperturbed the shadow hulk and butchers continued towards the centaur spearmen. While chanting the horror unleashed gouts of flame upon the fawn hunters causing them to scatter. 

The herd flanking units could now swept round behind the large beasts need to collect their trophies. Spurred on by confidence centaur an werewolf duel changed the four armed shadow hulk. But the beast shrugged of the attacks as if batting away children, tearing the werewolves limb from limb. Meanwhile the butchers tasting hot blood in their nostrils trapped the spear centaurs within the marsh, hacking them to pieces while they wavered mired in the mud.

Thus the battle ended, the shadows stalking onwards leaving the broken and quivering bodies of the fair herd folk in their wake.

Forever after the shadow hulk would be known as “Umbra Limb Ripper” gained additional an attack. The butchers now known as “The Carnificor” gained rallying (1).

Kings of War - Night Stalkers

So I have started work on a Night Stalker army. I really liked the theme of evil nightmare creatures. And the army special rules are a brilliant contrast to my Kingdom of Men Army.

So far I have:

• Regiment of butchers - Hordes Everblight Nephil minus the wings 
• Regiment of Blood worms - 40k Tyranid Ripper Swarm
• Shadow Hulk - Malifaux Neverborn Lord Chompy Bits

I tried to go for a evil thorns and vines look inspired by a Elder scrolls Oblivion Plane. Managed to get some good looking plant material from an old rose bush I found dead in the garden. Purple being the main colour associated with nightmares had to be the theme.

These are the guys in action decimating a small Herd war band in a narrative campaign. My Shadow Hulk is about to tear those Werewolves limb from limb.

 

Deadzone Strike Team Builder - PDF Generation

Hi All,

Have added a PDF generation feature to the Deadzone Team builder which you can use from the edit screen and no longer need to print to file to create a PDF. Please let me know if there are any issues and/or if you find this feature useful.

Deadzone Strike Team Builder

Happy Gaming

Rich

Mantic | Warpath Firefight - First game thoughts

Finally got to play my first game of Warpath : Firefight last week

I found the following to be useful before I played:

• Easy Army Firefight online builder EasyArmy Firefight 
• YouTube Channel for battle reports DreadPathZone - YouTube

Rules
I had a little time to go through the rules before hand which was useful. I would strongly suggest you try to allocate a good block of time to read through before your first game. I found it more difficult to get straight into than say Deadzone or Kings of war which for either I barely check the rules for now.

At the start of the game the added complication of secondary objectives added too many variables for the first game in my opinion. What added the most rulebook checking was the orders system. This is  a great system which adds a huge flavour to the game but there is a big learning curve on how and what can be used.

For the rest of it the stat lines are slim lined and simple. Basic action concepts were intuitive and easy to grasp. The rule book was sensibly laid out so it was relatively easy to find the relevant sections. I really wish I had printed out my Force Stats etc though as constantly flicking between the Force section and core rule section was a bit time consuming. Once we got into the rhythm of the game though it flowed really well.

Forces
Both my opponent and I were playing Enforcers which for a first game was handy, as we both had a chance to see what the other was doing with their units and were using the same stat lines. I like the system where there are no limitations of what unit types you can take. Each unit having its perks and flaws being the reason you take it.


 My Force
 2 Jetbikes
Strider with Polaris Cannon
Strider with Flamer and Chainsaw
Captain - Peacekeeper Armour
Enforcers & Commander
Pathfinders & D.O.G. drone




Opponent Force
4 Jet Bikes
Strider with Polaris Cannon
Peacekeepers
Pathfinders
Heavy Weapon Enforcers & Forward Observer

Outcome
The game started in my favour heavily with some unlucky roles from my opponent and some lucky ones for me. My Polaris Strider basically took his out in two shots. This then meant that my Assault strider had little threat getting stuck in with his flamethrower on his Heavy Enforcer unit with devastating results. Taking out the forward observer, significantly limited his order options.

I lost my Enforcer unit and Jet bikes but had positioned my Pathfinders well allowing me to shoot his Peacekeepers from behind as they charged my main line.

I won out right by destroying all his units but also accrued a good amount of victory points from objectives.

Let me know your thoughts on Warpath and any good combinations for Enforcers.

Deadzone Team Builder

Hey All,

Just deployed a load of fixes around user login, turns out by adding Google Login I broke some other bits else where. Any way all sorted now and back up and running.

http://deadzone-grich.rhcloud.com/

Let me know if you encounter any issues as always.

Rich

Warpath animated trailer : Mantic

This might get you all interested in Warpath and Dead zone. Can't wait for my enforcers to get some games under their belts.

Deadzone Strike Team Builder | Google Login Added

Hi All,



I finally managed to add google login for the Strike Team builder.

http://deadzone-grich.rhcloud.com/

Hopefully this will mean that lots more users will be able to start saving teams and running campaigns more easily.


If you want to know why I'm using Google and FaceBook Read on:

I have stuck to using FaceBook and Google Logins because then don't have to store either emails or passwords on my database which is more secure for users. This is because all the authorisation stuff is done by those FB or google.

However, if you want to be able to login without Facebook or Google let me know I can sort you out private login for you. Just send me a private message and I will auto generate a password and username. This means that I still don't have to have your emails or potentially common passwords. 

As a Web dev I encourage people to use different passwords for everything and store them in something like KeePassX.

Scratch Build Deadzone Board

So here's my first attempt at a custom board. The mats are really nice but I wanted something with an additional level. I've seen several much better boards than the one I have here but I thought I'd post it any way.

• The base is 3mm MDF which seemed to work fine was cheap and strong enough. Tiles are a thin tough card cut smaller than 3"x3" to give a well defined edge. I used a paper guillotine and set square to get consistent sizes with straight edges quickly. 

• After cutting assembly didn't take a great deal of time and PVA held well.

•  I then used a mixture of PVA, black paint, sand and filler to coat the tiles leaving the road. I could had done with using a runnier mixture with a lesser amount of sand to give better differentiation to the road texture later. I did apply some to the vertical walls, but this was a mistake and is unnecessary if you use something else to cover them as I do later.

•  I then did a basic PVA and sand road, Next time i might use sand paper and cut into tiles as my sand layer wasn't as consistently flat as I would have liked. I then shaded between the tiles with a homemade black wash. The wash was standard CIF floor cleaner, water and acrylic paint.

•  I thought all that grey looked bland, so added hazard strips on the road edge. The strips are made from wooden stirrers painted yellow. Taped laterally together to allow me to draw 45 degree angled lines with thick marker and set square. I found this was really fast and looked reasonable enough for me. There's a tutorial here for doing something similar with scotch tape and paint.

• Finished off the hazard strips and clad the sides of the platform with textures plastic. Because I'm tight fisted so I used divider file I had lying around but the spray paint is peeling so next time I'll invest in Plasticard or use pillars to support the level (like a high rise carpark).

• Finally I thought I'd show it with some of the basic out of the starter box terrain. It adds a nice big line of sight blocker between the sides of the board. In addition to giving height before even putting the buildings on.

In summation it cost me ten pence and a button and was a fun build. I might add a few more detail bits but the Mantic deadzone scenery is such good quality and price I think I might just buy a ton more rather than do too much more work on it. Maybe next time I will just build a base with the card and MDF, really want to try an alien jungle as I have loads of fish tank plant bits.

Let me know you thoughts and as always check out the Deadzone Builder.

Deadzone - Team Popularity

Hello All,

I Just ran some quick stats on team popularity on the Strike Team Builder so thought I'd share if it interests anyone.

Faction	Teams*
Enforcers	39%
Forge Fathers	13%
Plague	13%
Rebs	11%
Marauders	9%
Asterians	7%
Veer-myn	7%

*I normalised the data by removing multiple teams of the same type for one user. Therefore the numbers are calculated for each Faction unique to each User (e.g. 10 Enforcer teams for 1 user counts as one).

The outcome was not overly surprising with Enforcers being the most popular faction by far. This is reflected in reality at least for me as the most popular team at my club are Enforcers. Everything else is pretty much at the same levels with Asterians and Veer-myn teams being created less.

These are only teams which have been made on theStrike Team Builder by logged in users, but fits with what I have seen at the table. I think players probably own more factions but actually use specific ones more frequently and for Campaigns.

Let me know your thoughts and if you think we need a more even spread. Personally I would like to play against a diverse range of Factions but I'm not helping the issue I guess as I only have enforcers that I really play with. I think I have about six unpainted Forge Fathers together, the rest are still on sprue 😞

Deadzone Enforcers - My Stardust Cola Redplates

Been catching up on my painting and finally got round to taking a picture of some of my Strike Team.

Theme : These Enforcers work for the massive multi-system drinks company 'Stardust Cola Company'. Many of their missions involve preventing the loss of, or retrieving Stardust Cola's assets and/or drinks recipes.
Rumours abound to the secret ingredients of their best selling cola and their competitors are ever keen to obtain the evidence to back those rumours. Whether their motive is to extort the company or inform the consumer, this cannot be allowed to happen. After all "Stardust Cola Company is a cheerful, family orientated company" (what could be more wholesome). It has its employees and consumers best interests at heart above all else. Sure it makes a large profit for its investors but it sponsors many charities and sports too. As companies go they truly are a paragon of virtue in these dark times.
.......Soylent Green is people??

Still need to paint up the pathfinders. Then Buying some Peacekeepers & Jet Bikes (Super cheap now Warpath squads are out). Will be getting a squad of Striders at some point but not in the near future.