Kicking it into Overdrive

There are times when a company makes some great models, but they just don't work for the ruleset they were originally made for.  An example of these are the Dreadball Giant models.  While some great sculpts, they just end up being too expensive so are rarely, if ever, taken (and of course that means they don't sell well).  So one way to help with this is to find another way to use these.

Enter Overdrive.  

This is a brand new game based off of the popular Dreadball game - but it now focusses entirely on Giants!  (Plus they got rid of that fiddly ball as well - because we all know the crowd wants to see these big guys simply slug it out!)

So what do you get with Overdrive?

First there is a single sheet of cardboard tokens (including a single cardboard ball, for one of the variants if you must have one :-) ).

The board is similar to the one for Dreadball XTreme, but the 'sin bin' is a bit bigger to accommodate the larger models.

Each model has a two sided card with it's stats and abilities

And of course, there are the models.  These all come pre-assembled, so all you have to do is to glue them to the bases and you are ready to play (well, painting them IS recommended, of course).

Brank Reborn is a Forge Father Iron Ancestor, outfitted for Dreadball

Dozer is a female Teraton (the females are bigger than the males)

Skarathron is a giant half mechanical spider

Synechdoche came out in the Dreadball Xtreme kickstarter

No one is sure what the Nameless Spawn actually looks like under his dreadball armor

Karadon is a huge shark/man (though the smallest of the models in the box)

Of course you get dice, and tri-hex bases for all the models

And the rule book

If you pre-ordered the game, it came with special resin rush and score counters

I have to be honest, and I haven't actually had a chance to play the game yet, so I can't really talk about how it plays.

If however, you want to get more than what comes in the box, there are two expansions packs already available, and a third to begin shipping in December.

The first is a card pack with coach abilities and sponsorship deals.  These are new abilities that are either model or team based, to add a bit more variety to your games.

There are only so many ways to split six models into two teams ( well 20 ), but people may want to try other variants as well, so Mantic is producing Rival Packs.  The first is Tigrax v Shadow

Rival packs provide two more giants to use in your Overdrive games, and also give Mantic a chance to add new sculpts to the range.  For this first set, both of these are brand new resin models.

Of course, they have cards giving the rules to use them.

The idea is that these are famous rivalries in the circuit - but just like any 'professional' sport, rivalries can turn to alliances from one match to the next.

The models are pretty nice as well. One of the nice features of the these is that  both of the models come with variant parts to use them in Deadzone as well (Shadow can be built as an Asterian Phantom, and Tigrax can be made as the Tigrax Outrider for the Rebs) (and the stats for each are already up in the Deadzone list builder on EasyArmy (though they may only be available on the pay version - but if you play Kings of War, Vanguard, Armada or Deadzone then the subscription is definitely worth it (and while it is officially sponsored and endorsed by Mantic, it is still just one guy doing all the work, and Gregg definitely deserves some praise (and a few bucks) for everything he is doing).

Shadow is the simpler of the two models to assemble.

The final resin spruelette has the alternate arms and head for making the Deadzone version (and is even nicely labeled with DZ on it).

It took a minute to figure out how the body went together.

And where the 'wings' went on the back

But other than that, the legs, arms and head all were easy and obvious to assemble.  If you wanted to, it looks like it would not be difficult to magnetize the arms, head and base so you could swap the model out depending on which game you wanted to play (or heck, just buy two of them :-) ).

Tigrax is a man/lion riding a cyborg lion.  It is though, one of the more complex models to assemble, as some of the pieces are not immediately obvious to assemble.  

I did slightly different angles than normal for this picture, as the back of the head is basically flat

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The only difference between the Overdrive and Deadzone variant is whether he is holding a dreadball glove or a gun in his left hand.

The mount head and rider left arm were pretty obvious how to assemble.

The lower jaws for both the rider and the mount are separate pieces, with the mount being the jaw on the end of the spruelette

And the rider being the one in the middle

The thin tail goes on the rider

While spruelette R5000304 are all parts of the mount, his cyber left foreleg, right fore leg and thicker tail.

There are some thin gaps, especially on the mount, but these should be quite easy to fill in with just a little bit of green stuff.  My only question though is Tigrax the name of the rider or the mount?

Anyway, some nice new variations to your games, and some awesome models usable for Deadzone 2.0 as well.

The second rival pack is Gnaw v Alpha Simian.  Gnaw is a brand new model, while Alpha Simian is an existing Dreadball giant.

That just leaves out two of the existing Dreadball giants - Barricade and Big Mech - and I would be expecting those to be in future rival packs (hopefully each paired with a brand new figure).

Because it is all fun and games . . .