Games Workshop has been working on expanding their projects besides just 40k and Age of Sigmar. It was announced that they were going to be recreating their Specialist Games Lines and coming out with side products to expand the offerings to us, the gamers. We’ve seen several new releases already, the newest one being just announced. It’s Deathwatch: Overkill, a new stand-alone board game.
The kind folks over at Games Workshop were nice enough to send me a copy to look over and let you know about.
So grab your bolter and make sure your genes are secured, it’s time for another TGN Unboxing. This time it’s Deathwatch: Overkill from Games Workshop.
Deathwatch: Overkill is a 2-player, competitive board game. One player takes on the role of the Deathwatch, a group of Space Marines from different chapters who are working together to fight against a Genestealer Cult, played by the other player. The game takes place over the course of several missions, each one with unique objectives that the Deathwatch player must achieve in order to secure victory. We’ll get you a full review once I’ve, y’know, had a chance to actually play the game some more. But for right now, let’s get into what this game consists of.
First off, the box has some good heft to it. It’s about the same size as the Betrayal at Calth set in terms of box dimensions. Opening up the lid, we see that it’s got sprues on one side and some shrink-wrapped items on the other (rulebook, tiles, etc.). There’s also this air-cushion sheet you can see peeking out from under those shrink-wrapped items. They don’t want anything bruised in here.
Taking out the books and tiles (the aforementioned shrink-wrapped items), we can see the various card packs, bases, and dice underneath. These are the things they were afraid were going to scratch the tiles and I think it’s nice they put that sheet in there.
Looking at the books, there’s two. The first is the rulebook. It has all the rules, fluff, scenarios, and a model showcase inside. I can’t really think my figures will ever look as good as the ones in the ‘Eavy Metal section. At least, unless I really started practicing now and work at it constantly for a couple years. Anyway, the other book is the assembly guide. The back of the rulebook has a “cheat sheet” with all the turn sequence as well as the Genestealer Cult stats. The figures are all keyed, meaning there’s only one way to assemble them. Like the Age of Sigmar set, you are locked into building your figures one way (the opposite of the Betrayal at Calth set, which gave you lots and lots of options. At least this time around I don’t have to worry about magnetizing everything).
But how about those figures? There are five total sprues inside the box, though two of them are half the size of the others (so you could say there’s “four sprues” if you really wanted to get technical). The material is the same plastic that Games Workshop is known for. I’ve always liked their plastic, as it’s easy to cut and shape, glues together very easily, and there’s almost never any mold lines. You can see a couple close-up shots there, and the details is what you’d expect as well. High quality sculpts all around.
If there was one disappointment, it’s that the Genestealers don’t get a Limo. But that’s a bit of nostalgia for your really old-timers like me.
Going back to the paper products inside the box, we have the oversized stat cards and the Broodmind deck. The stat cards are just as they say they are. They give you all the information you need to know about the model in question. They can easily be separated out by the faction icon in the corner. Obviously, since the Space Marines are each unique while the Genestealers are supposed to represent a “horde of cultists,” the Space Marines have a lot more cards than the Genestealers. As for the Broodmind deck, they’re playing-card-sized. Though I did notice when getting mine out of the little fold-top package that they weren’t exactly cut all the same. You can kind of see it there in the picture. It’s not enough to tell when you really shuffle them together, and it certainly wouldn’t be an issue if you were to sleeve the cards, but it was worth noting.
The game is played on game tiles. There are 8 of them in the box and they are double-sided (so 16 total faces). They are very glossy. They are also slightly embossed. When I first was getting them out of the wrap, I almost thought they might be cut-outs. But no, that’s just the embossing. They’re nice and thick card stock. I had no warping of any of the tiles right out of the box. Each of the tiles is divided into smaller portions that indicate different locations models can be on the tile. Each scenario uses a different tile pattern, giving each one a different feel.
Finally there’s the dice and the range ruler. The dice are black with white pips and fairly unadorned. They’re the “smaller” size of the two “standard dice size” (I.E. – they’re the kind you get 36 of in a Chessex set, as opposed to the ones you get 12 of). There are 6 dice in this set. As for the range ruler, it’s clear plastic (hence the white background, otherwise you wouldn’t be able to see the writing). It reminds me of the range ruler from old Blood Bowl sets and is used the same way. Place one part over the model you’re trying to measure from and see what’s available. So even though the tiles are broken up into sections, you still use the range ruler for measuring distances.
And there you have it. As I mentioned above, I’ll be getting you a full review once I have played the game a couple times (hey, I just got it yesterday and I had to do my taxes, gimme a break. :P)
Thanks for tuning in and we’ll see you next time.
You can order Deathwatch: Overkill over in the Games Workshop webshop.