Lockdown 2.0 Project Log Day 37: Warzone Eternal Update

 Hi!

I had hoped to have some more painted miniatures to show today but alas the big guy I'm painting at the moment isn't finished yet so I thought I'd take a bit of a peek at Warzone Eternal.

Res Nova Games have released their first update with regards to the new version of Warzone and thus far it's sounding quite an interesting, skirmish based game.

Here's  a bit of what we know for the present in no particular order:

Warzone Eternal will be a small unit skirmish game featuring 5-10 elite troops duking it out on a 3'x3' board with approximately 60% coverage of terrain. For me this is really good news as I haven't got much space for a big board and my painting approach is best described as super slow but painting five to ten figures for a force shouldn't be too difficult.

The scale will be heroic 32mm and heavily inspired by the original Paul Bonner artwork but modernised sculpts (we've seen an early render of a Blood Beret already).  

The game takes a nod to the original 1st edition so it's likely to use D20 dice but is doing away with templates, instead giving area of effects to weapons. This is an interesting choice as previous editions have had loads of templates but it's been stated that they don't want to force folks to buy templates or print out stuff or worse yet, cut up their books!

It isn't going to be a single shot kill sort of a game, instead troops become injured which makes them less effective so things like medics will become more important. I like this approach which seems to be reflecting a small scale firefight between covert operators rather than a big battlefield.

Also each squad member can specialise in different things, with some being experts with heavy weapons whilst others are close combat trained and still others are more like basic grunts. This is going to be interesting to see and could lead to very interesting squad creation options but the designers have already stated that all models will be useful so there won't be the traditional must haves or never take options.

The initial release is going to have squad boxes with the troops and modular weapons options so you can field different weapon loadouts. I think it's been stated somewhere that one box may well be Blood Berets and Golden Lions which will further add to the options as both are Imperial special forces but are differently equipped. 

As of launch, the figures will be special forces types so no Trenchers or Hussars initially so it's going to be interesting to see what comes out. Similarly, there won't be an initial release of the big guys like Ezoghouls for the followers of Algeroth so I'm guessing they'll get Undead Legionnaires and Necromutants. This is quite an interesting decision but it will allow for some really iconic infantry units to see action and apparently as the game grows the basic troop types will appear along with bigger stuff.

The original plan was to have a kickstarter in Q1 2021 but due to the Covid lockdowns this has put a bit of a delay in things but they do plan to have all the figures, rules books and whatnot ready and made for the kickstarter and aren't promising things they cannot deliver. Essentially we've got no definite date of being able to get our hands on the game or figures but Res Nova are being more prepared than other kickstarter games makers who promise loads and then don't deliver.

It's still early days but its sounding like Warzone Eternal is going to be a really interesting game and if the miniatures are half decent, well worth a peek.

I also contacted Res Nova direct and they are aiming to have the figures available in the UK and Europe as so many of the Warzone fanbase is this side of the Atlantic which is good news as I loved the look of things like Darkage but it only got a US release. 

Here's a link to the WARZONE ETERNAL facebook group which will hopefully start giving us more information soon, especially artwork, miniature previews and some idea as to when we can expect the game!

Tomorrow will hopefully se me having the big guy I've been working on finished followed by some scenery, some of which may even be Warzone themed as the assorted planets of the solar system could be quite a good fun project and eminently usable with my other, Rogue Trader stuff!

In the meantime, All the best!