Summary
Mutant Year Zerois a game that’s never crossed my radar. In fact, when the tabletop skirmish game from Free League Publishing arrived at my door and I unboxed miniatures including robot warriors, pig mutants, and a duck with a crossbow, I had to Google what this game even was.
Turns out it’s anXCOM-like, and the tabletop version is keen to stay true to these sensibilities. It’s arguably the easiest genre to convert to the tabletop, and with strong characters such as Moose Man, Dude With Dragonfly Wings, and Hamlet Robot, I was eager to get playing.
Luckily, I could do so very quickly. The Mutant Year Zero: Zone Wars (henceforth Zone Wars) starter box includes ten miniatures – two opposing squads of five – a 24 page rulebook, some cardboard terrain pieces, a paper board, and a bucketful of cards and tokens. I’m not usually one for token-heavy games, but I gave it the benefit of the doubt and headed into the apocalyptic Zone.
Zone Wars is very easy to get started. The skirmish battle game is simple, but effective, with rules from industry veteran Andy Chambers and miniatures that come pre-assembled and with a lick of coloured paint to denote their faction. Feel free to use them as-is or slap some colours over the basecoat, but either way you’re getting into the action quickly.
I immediately thought of Games Workshop’s boxed skirmish games like Kill Team. While I love the customisability of Workshop kits (which is unfortunately being phased out for monopose miniatures), it’s a major barrier to entry for the actual game. From cleaning up mould lines, to clipping pieces of the sprue, to assembling the models with glue, to painting them in even a basic scheme, there are hours of work before you can put your models on the board.
For many veteran players, myself included, this is part of the fun. I like converting kits, and that’s far more difficult to do with monopose models. But if you’re buying Kill Team or Zone Wars for the game itself, rather than to increase your collection of plastic dudes, that doesn’t matter so much. And you’re more likely to buy Zone Wars for the game than you are Kill Team.
Part of that is marketing. Kill Team is an expensive way for Games Workshop to release cool new miniatures for your larger armies. Not many people buy Kill Team to actually play Kill Team – althoughthey should. The Zone Wars skirmish game doesn’t feed into anything else, it’s completely self-contained. Sure, you can supplement it with the Robot and Psionic forces or use the models to represent your character in the TTRPG, but it’s not necessary. You could juggle with it if you want, too. That is to say, all of this is optional.
Zone Wars clearly has a rules-first approach to game design. Chambers and fellow lead game designer Tomas Härenstam were clearly focused on making a robust, easy to learn rules system, rather than ensuring the units were lore-accurate or powerful enough to sell new models to competitive players.
Ivan Sorensen also designed a solo mode for the skirmish game, which details rules for how the opposing models interact with you on their turn.
Kill Team is fun, but it could be so much better if it was built with a similar design-first strategy. Instead of thinking about which models need refreshing, think about which units would bring something new to the system.
While Zone Wars is easy to understand, even for players new to skirmish battle games, it has a few systems that are really fun and interesting. Your models can mutate on the battlefield, as the effects of the Zone take their toll, for better and for worse. In-game, these take the form of powerful cards played by spending M-points, a limited resource. These can turn the tide of a fight and help sell the narrative of matches in a single action.
The details of the game are nothing short of fantastic. While I’d like models to represent the monsters that can spawn in the Zone (perhaps as additional purchases rather than inflating the cost of the regular box, which includes them as tokens), there’s a system for making custom characters, converting your character from the TTRPG, and playing a campaign using the book’s scenarios.
The models are lovely, too. Building on the excellent designs of the video game, the factions are creative takes on mutant warriors, each plenty unique and distinct. The one-colour paintjob sells them as different forces but allows for you to customise the look of your roster however you please. While I had a couple of issues with bent rifles, I’m sure it’s nothing a bit of hot water can’t fix.
Zone Wars also credits everyone who worked on the game in the back cover of the rulebook, something whichGames Workshop infamously doesn’t do. It’s a small detail, but something which should be standard practice across the industry. Do you think Andy Chambers would have graduated to such great things after leaving Games Workshop if he couldn’t point to his name in Necromunda, Gorkamorka, and Warhammer 40,000 Second Edition?
If you, too, are getting a little sick of Games Workshop games, of the constant ‘buy this new thing’ instead of taking the time to develop fun game systems, maybe give a smaller game a try. Try Mutant Year Zero: Zone Wars as a Kill Team alternative. Pick up Arena Rex for gladiatorial combat. Build on your Fallout hype with Fallout Factions. There arelots of alternatives out there, and there’s nothing to lose in giving them a go.
