Chromium Chargers Unboxing

I picked up Season 2 of Dreadball from Mantic at the weekend and the Chromium Chargers team to go with it. Here's what you get in the box:

I found during construction there was a fair bit of flash to clean up and two or three mould lines on each model. They were easy enough to tidy up though and the models, being only three pieces each, are really easy to put together.

The major drawback of the set is, of course, their gameplay gimmick. Although the team take the field as Jacks, they can transform into any role, provided you roll good dice and have the tokens to spend. You get six jacks in the box, plus two strikers and two guards, but a) this may not be enough models if you want to go heavily one way or the other, and b) the models all look pretty similar. Unless you paint them distinctively it may be hard to tell which model is which. Plus, if you do choose just swap out the jack models as needed, how are you going to number them? Basically this will put you out of a lot of tournaments unless you buy several boxes full and paint up variations for each one. Its a pickle, to be sure.

I got in a game with the robots against a Marauder team on Tuesday night and managed to squeak in a win in overtime.

It turns out the transforming is a bit of a handicap in the early game as you have to pay a token to do it, leaving you short one to spend elsewhere and having burnt one of the two you could spend on that player. More thought is needed into how to handle the hurdle of getting players out of Jack mode for future games.

The 'bots are expensive too. You only get 6 in your starting lineup, making you very prone to being shorthanded, particularly if you're against orx. I finished regular play with two dead players and two in the box. Luckily I had been holding the ball with a Striker in the opponent's end and it was simple enough to run into a scoring zone and get the win when overtime ticked round.

But perhaps losing players is part of the expected strategy for robot teams. After all, one less player on the pitch means more tokens and cards to play on the others and this might make their role-flexibility really worthwhile. Again, more thought needed to figure this one out.

Anyway, enjoy the video and feel free to ask any questions.