Ah, my humble readers, I beg your forgiveness. I started this with grandiose plans, forgetting entirely my ADHD when it comes to playing games and keeping up with fiction for the ones that I don't often. I promise I'll have some things coming up soon on that front. Until then (first of many on this topic)...
After almost a solid year of waiting, watching spoilers, reading development updates, etc, my pre-order "Fallout: Wasteland Warfare" starter bundle & Red Rocket scenic set hath finally arrived from Modiphius. Let me tell you up front and right away - totally worth the wait. The PVC miniatures (I didn't spring for the resin upgrade, couldn't justify the extra cash) are better than any of the plastics that have been released for BattleTech in the past 20 years, and the box set also came with the bonus Nuka-Cola Girl & the Alien Zetan that was supposed to only be for retail pre-orders. Modiphius has (not past tense, they're still working on it) lots of issues with production and shipping, and they were trying to make it right by people. I respect that.
SO! The game itself is very set in Fallout 4 to start, and it's there that I'll begin with some of my thoughts. Wave 1 focuses on three main factions; Survivors, Brotherhood of Steel, and Super Mutants, with Minutemen as sort of a Survivor sub-faction, and both Robots & Creatures (Deathclaws, Radscorpions, etc) available for play as well. Waves 2 and 3 will be bringing expansions to existing factions, with more characters and Power Armor sculpts, as well as adding Raiders (which should have been Wave 1 IMHO), The Institute, and The Enclave (first Fallout 3 faction, including Frank Horrigan from Fallout 2 and yes, I will be switching my fealty over to here just as soon as it drops, believe).
The style is skirmish - true to the feel of the Fallout videogames, it's small parties of miniatures battling over objectives. That's where this game really shines for me. It isn't (usually) just a straight forward "kill the enemy, raaaaah!" kind of game. You might have to hack terminals, or search for the water chip (OLD SCHOOL, YEAH!), or rescue settlers. And, in addition to playing against your friends, Modiphius has created an "AI" for solo or co-op gameplay, which intelligently allows uncontrolled pieces to fulfill their own objectives and playstyles. I know that sounds weird, and I've only experimented with it a little bit, but it actually works fairly well. It's like playing something similar to Arkham Horror, where the game itself fights your every move.
If that weren't enough to be awesome, again true to Fallout 4, a "Settlement Mode" is added for campaigns, where you virtually construct a settlement, purchasing buildings and perks in between games. I say virtually because there is a checklist that you can follow but for the real die hard fan, you know buildings are going to be assembled and pictures taken. At least, that's my plan.
If one were so inclined to really learn a lot about the nuts & bolts of this, head to Modiphius.com and check out their development blog, or Modiphius.net to order (without any lower pre-order price points now, sadly). But, I wouldn't title something "Into the Wasteland" if I weren't planning on taking you, my dear, sweet, held-at-gunpoint-and-forced-to-read-this friends, on a journey into where I'm looking to go with this.
Since the default setting is Fallout 4's Commonwealth (and yes, there are a host of NPCs from the game available currently), I immediately started brainstorming a larger campaign than just what is featured in the "Settlement Mode." Best thing about the internet is that my greatest requirement for what I had in mind is a highly detailed map of FO4, which I found with a lettered/numbered grid, and plain text for locations.
Using the map, and the building of settlements, each faction is assigned a starting sector/location within that sector. Play can follow the "Settlement Mode," but with an increased bigger picture going on - control of the Commonwealth. That's the goal of the 4 divergent lines in FO4 (Brotherhood, Minutemen, Railroad, Institute), and I think it could play out amazingly well in an extended narrative. Yes, I know, it's basically what I think about BattleTech's 5th Succession War campaign, but this is a little different in that a) I can get WAY more people interested in FOWW, and b) each game takes WAY less time. Each campaign turn would basically be an individual settlement turn for each player, but including overall faction goals, and things that would push faction influence across a wider portion of the wastes.
For example - Survivors; begin play at Sanctuary Hills or Red Rocket Truck Stop (player choice). These locations are at D3 and E4 on the map respectively, and immediately from turn one, the Survivors influence the 8 squares surrounding either one. Which, if the Survivors chose the Red Rocket, this influence would include Sanctuary Hills, as well as Abernathy Farms. If, in turn two, the Survivors player wishes to fortify Abernathy Farms, depending on how turn one went of course, they would now influence the 8 squares surrounding that as well, which include things like the Ranger Cabin, giving them a good section of explorable locations and some other type of bonus, as well as a nice sphere. Because of AI, random events, co-op, and player versus player options, all based on "Cap Cost" of characters, units, and whatnot, this entire campaign can be played by 1 player or nearly infinite. Like in FO4, alliances can shift (with some restrictions) and unexpected enemies can appear almost anywhere if one is not leery...
It's still in a brainstorming stage, since I need to play more games and want more product released, and to get more people involved before I really go off the deep end, but here's some of where I'm leading;
Factions Available+ + Starting Locations
Fallout 4 Map
Brotherhood of Steel - T14 Boston Airport or J12 Cambridge Police Station
Creatures - None, can't make settlements
Enclave Remnants - D31 Sentinel Site
Ghouls, Non-Feral - P15 Goodneighbor#
Gunners - L23 Gunners Plaza or G25 Vault 95
The Institute - K14 C.I.T. Ruins (Or under it, as it were)
Minutemen - S19 The Castle
Raiders, Forged - T6 Saugus Ironworks
Raiders, General - T12 Easy City Downs or Q24 Quincy
Raiders, Nuka - A18 Nuka-World Tram (not on the map, from DLC)*
The Railroad - Q13 Old North Church/Railroad HQ
Robots - Per Leader, H12 Greygarden or N3 General Atomics Galleria otherwise
Super Mutants - I20 Coast Guard Pier or P25 Wilson Atomitoys Factory
Survivors - D3 Sanctuary Hills or E4 Red Rocket Truck Stop
Vault Dwellers - I17 Vault 81
+ - Not all of these are player-factions. I'll build in an AI to account for their growth later.
* - For the time, the campaign might not have any of the DLC locations/factions, until I can find a way to work all the area from their minimaps and stuff into things. This includes Far Harbor, and the Mechanist DLCs as well.
# - Ghouls require a Non-Feral as the Commander, but a Non-Feral can lead Ferals, and the Faction as a whole can include them.
So, each Faction that the game has currently available has a Faction Card for normal play, and I was thinking of a campaign perk or bonus or something for each one. Like easier access to certain weapon types or beginning play with certain items for free. Something to reflect their individual flavors. Like I do with all campaigns involving multiple factions. And since the game, currently, is divided into the factions I've listed above, certain characters will be available for multiple groups to use. As a Commander, they're considered to be "the" unique character, but can still be included in another force as a unique archetype.
Example - Sole Survivor in Fallout 4 can pick ANY Faction to join/questlines to complete, at the player's discretion. So, whilst Sole Survivor (Nora/Nate) are listed as "Survivors" on their unit card, they can be the Commander of a Brotherhood of Steel player force as Nora/Nate, and then included in another player's Institute force as Sole Survivor archetype. This also means that a single character can't be used as a Commander for more than one Faction. But it matters for characters like Preston Garvey, who was errata'd to be Survivors/Minutemen to be able to use his abilities with the Minutemen unit. I'll make a list as I can of who else a character can join using all currently available (mostly Survivors) uniques. This also allows for proxy forces for factions that haven't been released yet, like using a Courser and a handful of robots to start an Institute settlement or Cait and some settlers as Raiders, General.
Any can be a Leader for Robot Faction. Any not listed can only be a Leader for their assigned Faction.
Cait - Survivors, Raiders (Any)
Codsworth - Robots only (Can still be a member of Survivors)
Courser XC-88 - Survivors, Institute
John Hancock - Survivors, Ghouls
Nick Valentine - Survivors, The Railroad
Preston Garvey - Survivors, Minutemen
Ronnie Shaw - Survivors, Minutemen
Sole Survivor (Nora and Nate are individually unique, so each one can lead a different Faction); Any non-Super Mutant, non-Ghoul
Strong - Survivors, Super Mutants
Settlements
As I mentioned, the "Settlement Mode" has a whole system of Caps to balance forces, by paying a set cost for each character, weapon, armor, item, unit, so on and so forth. Victories in battles and more territory controlled, as well as perks of the Faction, will open new avenues here. I'll have to get a lot more familiar with how this whole system works before I go too far into that.
I have a copy of the mat that came with the Red Rocket scenic saved in my Dropbox. Totally planning on, at the very least, drawing where my buildings and whatnot are as my settlement grows. Then, if another player attacks my settlement, I'll be able to constantly put terrain pieces back into the same place. Outside of that, my goal is to only track expansion to starting locations as actual settlements, with other notable locations counting as outposts and influence expanding, unless players actually want to do multiple settlement turns in each campaign turn. Logistics would be a lot more to handle and more time for individual games would need to be devoted, but that is a possibility.
I'm building a variety of terrain pieces for whatever aesthetic a player might need, but I also invite anyone who wants to play to try their hand at doing their own unique interpretations of characters and buildings. It's a lot of fun! Even if I'm not the best painter, I'm really looking forward to eventually getting the robot core set and painting the crap out of a Sentry Bot.
