Fallout Board Game

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Iguana on a Stick, Nuka Cola, Radscorpions...

War.  War never changes.

The Fallout board game from FFG, not zombie gaming, but a fairly obvious post-apocalypse game.  Fallout has a pretty well known alternate history world with a post-apocalyptic series of adventures set some 200 years after a massive nuclear war has destroyed civilization. Fantasy Flight Games has published a board game based on the various iterations of the game.

Just out of the box, open rules

In typical FFG fashion, the components are top-notch.  The cards are well finished, the card stock components are nice and heavy and everything has a finish that feels like it will stand up to plenty of playing.  The miniatures that come in the game to represent the players are well detailed and represent several iconic characters from the video games.

Initial Setup

The game board is made up of randomly placed hexagons to create the 'wasteland' which allows for some variation from game to game.  Each game has different factions vying for control of the wasteland, slowly gaining influence as the players each try to increase their own influence by helping or hindering the factions.

Solo game underway with a vault dweller character

oh yeah, enemies will come after you!

On the surface, it works much like the video game and does capture that feel, at least early in the game.  Running around the wastes killing bloatflies, raiders and mutants, gathering loot and caps, trading and interacting at the settlements  and exploring ruins all give a nice immersive feel.

The railroad wins...

The end game is not as climatic, with one of the factions reaching a milestone on a tracking chart of influence, or one player having finished enough quests to achieve a required level of influence.  It doesn't trigger some sort of final quest, the game just ends.  Probably the only part of the game I feel actually fails.

It can be played by 1-4 players, so if you have a hankering for a board game and Fallout, this is a good game for you.  I enjoyed it, I am curious to see how it compares to the Fallout Miniatures game that is coming out.

Fallout! and Zombie 15'

Things have been a bit slow here, work has conspired to keep me from completing any sort of gaming related goodness, and the holiday weekend (Memorial Day here in the US) threw a family monkey-wrench into my plans...

The Fallout series of games is one of my personal favorites, and Bethesda announced Fallout 4 today.  I have to say it looks pretty.  I am a bit concerned by the rocket powered pirate galleon, but Fallout has always had some oddball stuff, so I won't worry until I see it in action.  Hopefully they have done a decent job on the story, which was a bit dubious in New Vegas, IMHO.  It will be interesting to see Boston after the apocalypse, I expect it to be wicked cool.

Dawn checks a damaged car

About the only thing I managed to complete was a ruined car, a VW Bug.  I found it for cheap, as it was already broken, missing the doors.  It wasn't very hard to make look much worse.  I am very happy with the damaged windows, I think they look like they have 'spiderwebbed' like safety glass is supposed to when broken. 

A box.  There is a game inside.

In more zombie related news, I did get a copy of Zombie 15' and have unboxed it.  It is an interesting concept, with the game played in real time.  Each mission has a time limit, and the game comes with a CD with three different timed tracks (with zombie groans signaling an increase in the 'horde') at different time intervals.

Zombie 15' Heroes

Heroes next to a WF survivor, a LNOE zombie and a Reaper Horace Jackson

The minis for the zombies look okay, and I think will scale well for 28mm.  The survivors/heroes are lacking a bit in detail, and are on the small side.  They are supposed to be kids or teens, but I don't know if even a good paint job will make them fit in well for miniature gaming.  I'm hoping to get a chance to play it in the next couple of weeks.  I will post a game report once I get a chance to play it.  I wish it had an option for solo play.

One behemoth, 33 of each of the others...

Next to the LNOE zombie and Jackson again.

I have a ton of projects underway, hopefully I'll get something done and get a game in as well.

Oh, and this craziness:  Kung Fury!