Lockdown 2.0 Day 35: Down the Warzone Rabbit Hole and Orks!

 Hi!

Despite myself I seem to be getting increasingly hopeful for the rerelease of Warzone by Res Nova and have spent quite a bit of time re-reading my old 1st edition rulebooks.

It's possibly a bit daft as there's no website, no art, not even a tentative release date but despite all that, having watched several videos of the games designers and the folks of Res Nova I'm finding more and more elements of what they are hoping to do just what I'd hope it to be.

There is something pleasingly retro about the feel of Warzone with it's Megacorporate powers, small forces of over the top units and characters who were capable of wading through entire armies with one hand tied behind their back. 

Having re-perused the original rules, I was struck by how good a skirmish game it is, troops can fling themselves onto the ground to gain cover from incoming fire, the three action system allows for all manner of interesting tactics and each force has a noticeably different style of play. 

Coupled with a really fascinating setting that is both sci-fi, fantastic and pleasingly recognisable, being it is our solar system but largely either terraformed or at least colonised by the megacorps. Each planet has a different theme to it, be it Mars and it's arid deserts, Venus's lush jungles, Mercury's subterranean labyrinths or even Earth's irradiated wastelands, it's a setting that really lends itself to playing small, narrative scenarios, campaigns and an immersive sort of game that I've been really looking for.

Despite coming out in the mid 90's, Warzone feels like a love letter to the action movies of the 80's with corporate greed and shenanigans dialled up to 11, shoulder pads that can take out an eye and horrors from another dimension seeking to invade our reality. 

Yes there are similarities with the Mutant Chronicles universe and 40k but having picked up the book for the first time in years I'm absolutely hooked on the struggle for supremacy between the Megacorps and the Dark Legion, the Brotherhoods enigmatic manoeuvres and the heroes and villains duking it out across the solar system. 

Is the new endeavour for Warzone going to be able to keep the essence of everything that was awesome about the original and update it for a 21st century audience, and more importantly will it be a success following the curse of Warzone? I really, really hope it is and am finding myself really rooting for it! Certainly it seems to be trying to appeal to fans of the original from what I've read thus far and I am super excited to see how things develop over the coming months.

If it gets a release this year, I will absolutely be picking up a copy, if for no other reason than to get the figures that will allow me to play the original but hopefully the new rules will be just what I'm looking for too, especially as they are supposed to feature a couple of squads a side, a 3'x3' board and can be played in about an hour. If this pans out, it would allow me to play a mini campaign in an afternoon and that is exciting! 

The only downside to all this Warzone enthusiasm is that I don't have any of the figures to paint at the moment apart from a single Wolfbane. I'm thinking I may have to proxy up a couple of units and play out a game of 1st edition to see if it's as good as I remember it being.

But enough of my Warzone enthusing! There's only a whisper of what it's going to be like yet! I've got some Orks to look at:

Ork Boyz

Some of these are from my last Lockdown Project but have been rebased onto the lipped bases I've settled on using and I've added a new Boy and a Grot to bulk out the numbers a bit. I've got a fair few more old and new Orks still awaiting a coat of paint and will keep plugging away at them (I'm not sure I can cope with painting all the mono pose Gretchen but we shall see how I get on!). 

Tomorrow should see some more scenic gubbins painted and I may have a couple more odds and ends done but we shall have to see how things go.

In the meantime, All the best!