The concept of cover is very important to
Deadzone, yet can be quite difficult to understand.
While the rest of Deadzone is based on a literal representation of models and buildings, cover is partially abstract.
In reality, a Deadzone battlefield would be covered in all manner of debris, from smashed bits of walls to abandoned vehicles, damaged street furniture, scattered remains of building interiors, and so on. You can imagine that the innards of every damaged building have been strewn across the streets. All those desks, sofas, chairs, cabinets, etc have to go somewhere, but in a game it simply isn’t practical to model every last piece of this battlefield detritus. So, we use the concept of cover.
Cover is represented on the gaming area by a few pieces of scenery within a cube. This could be almost anything, but players commonly use barricades, crates, barrels, and rubble. These scenery elements act like buildings to block the lines of sight between models. However, they also act as a visual reminder that the whole cube they are in counts as cover. Cover is a way of saying that we know there is really a lot more stuff to hide behind, but that we can’t show all of it. Quite apart from anything else the models would fall over all the time if we had realistic amount of bits of rubbish all over the place.
So, a cube counts as cover or it doesn’t. Use the scenery to show cover by placing it inside the cube, not along its edges (as buildings are). This means that you should be able to tell at a glance which cubes are cover and which aren’t.
To make the scenery elements stretch further and as a useful guide, cubes inside buildings count as cover too, regardless of what scenery is present. These are the locations where the piles of rubble and smashed furniture are likely to be at their highest, and so it looks right in game too.
Decide before the battle starts which cubes count as “inside” buildings. These are usually fairly clear as the shape of the walls shows where the buildings once stood. If there is any doubt then come to an agreement with your opponent before anyone knows which side they are setting up on.
4. DETERMINE DEPLOYMENT
Decide which way up the board will be viewed. One of the players then draws a random Mission Card from his remaining (unused) deck. Use this only to determine the deployment zones. The result can be one of the following four layouts. Using the agreed orientation of the board, the player that drew the card takes the red zone and his opponent the blue. The grey central zone is used for random item deployment, and each X marks a cube where an objective must be set up (see below).
Items
Take the 16 item counters with crate designs on the back and shuffle them face down. Each player takes 2 at random and without looking at them places each in a separate cube in the central grey area. The player who drew the card for deployment places the first two and his opponent the last. In this step, each item must be in a separate cube. Items can be placed on any level.
Then take 4 more counters at random and without looking at them place them one at a time on the board using dice to determine a random position for each. For each counter, roll one dice and count that many columns across; then roll a second dice and count that many rows down. Place the counter on the top level of scenery in the resulting space. Re-roll a dice if it would drop the
item in either player’s deployment zone. We can assume that anything that has been left lying about in the
assembly areas has already been used up or removed to the rear. The only items remaining would be in the no-man’s land between the forces.
When eight counters have been placed in total (4 by the players, 4 at random), put the remaining eight counters to one side. They will not be used in this battle.
Objectives
There are three octagonal objective counters marked X, Y and Z. Shuffle them face down and place one at random on each of the positions marked X on the map.
They remain face down. Objective counters may only be examined by a player who has a model in the same cube at that time.
Deployment
The player who did not draw the card for deployment now draws an unused Mission Card from his deck to determine who deploys their models first and starts the battle. “Friend” means that he does, while “Foe” means his opponent begins.
The starting player deploys his non-Scout models anywhere within his deployment zone. His opponent then deploys all of his models, placing any models with the Scout ability in the white area of the map between his own deployment zone and the central grey sector.
The starting player then places any models with the Scout ability in the white area of the map between his own deployment zone and the central grey sector.
If any models start the game with an Aggression other than Alert, place the relevant counter next to the model now. Also place Overwatch markers for Sentry models together with any other counters that are placed “at the start of the game”.
Models can be deployed on any level. .
5. START THE GAME
The starting player takes the first Turn.
A B
C D
During a game, each player attempts to collect Victory Points (VPs) by completing mission goals. These vary from mission to mission. Some focus on killing the enemy, others on holding ground or moving to new positions. As the missions are kept secret, part of the challenge is to hide what you’re up to whilst working out what your opponent is trying to do and counter it.