Stats:
No. of players: 2
Amount of time to play: 60 min
Age requirements: 12+
Set-up time: 10-15 min

Deadzone is a miniatures skirmish that just released its second edition. Read on to see the rules changes and whether they are good or bad.

Deadzone 2nd Edition Rules Description:

It might help for you have some context for this post. So if you have never played the first edition of Deadzone read my overview and review here. The rest of this post is going to cover the changes the second edition rules bring to the game.

The first thing you’ll want to know is that all miniatures from the first set can be used in the second edition. The new starter set again has miniatures for the Enforcers, but the Plague faction has been replaced by the Forge Fathers (dwarves).

The Battle Cards and faction cards are gone too. Miniature stats are now in the rules instead of on cards. And the Battle Cards have been replaced by Command Dice. You roll three Command Dice (or more depending on your leader) at the start of each round and then may re-roll as many as you like. You must keep these results and they let you activate another unit, gain an extra dice on shoot, fight or survive checks, or move once for free.

Your leader also gets a special ability that may be activated by one of the results on the command dice. This ability can help your entire army and makes the leaders unique.

In the second edition units can take wounds until they have more than their size stat. The three states of damage are the same, but now large units can take more than just two damage.

Blaze away has been replaced by firing for effect which can pin a unit. Pinned units must stand as their first short action. Some of the abilities for units and weapons have been replaced or revamped too.

There are no longer defensive modifiers to attacks for cover or suppression. In fact the whole aggression mechanic and get mean actions are gone. So are the overwatch, aim and climb actions.

The campaign rules have been revised and now you create one large army from which you create strike teams. And every unit is completely customizable.

There are some other rules changes but these are the major ones that stood out to me after playing the game a handful of times.

Quick Review of Deadzone Second Edition:

The second edition of Deadzone features more streamlined rules for quicker games and removes some of the fiddliness of the original game. This lowers the learning curve to help new players get involved and ramped up.

The components are great. The miniatures and terrain are made from hard plastic resin and look really nice on the table. I wish the miniatures had some assembly instructions, but they are very customizable which is cool. The rulebook has a hardcover and is well organized. I miss the stat cards for ease of use, but there is a roster sheet you could copy or print out. The bigger issue to me is the lack of command dice. The game comes with six but in the suggested first scenario one player needs four and the other needs five. We wrote down one player’s results but that is not optimal.

The command dice seem better than the Battle Cards. They can’t be canceled and there is less reading for new players.

I like that the streamlined rules speed up the game. Removing the complexity of the aggression mechanic and defensive modifiers does a lot to keep the dice rolling and the action flowing.

If you have enjoyed the first edition of Deadzone, you don’t need to buy the new starter. Mantic sells a bundle with the new rules, command dice and tokens you need to play the second edition.

If you have not played Deadzone before, the second edition starter set is a good way to get into the game. Just like the original it has everything in the box to play. If you want to give the new rules a try you can download a pdf of the new rules for free.

Score and synopsis: (Click here for an explanation of these review categories.)
Strategy 4 out of 6
Luck 5 out of 6
Player Interaction 6 out of 6
Replay Value 5 out of 6
Complexity 4 out of 6
Fun 5 out of 6
Overall 5 out of 6