Zona Alpha

Welcome back to my blog, over a month since my last post. Life has been hectic. Earlier this week the rulebook for Zona Alpha landed on the door mat. So I thought I would give a quick review. 

As a long time fan of the Stalker computer games I was thrilled to see a rule set aimed at gaming expeditions into the zone. 

Now if you are wondering what the Stalker computer games was all about, the background mixes the novel Roadside Picnic and Andrei Tarkovsky’s Stalker movie fluff with the real life Chernobyl exclusion zone. 

There is a second explosion in the centre of the “Zone”. Then things get weird. The Zone is thought to be alive. Generating anomalies in the laws of psychics to act as traps. These anomalies move, vanish and arrive often instantly. Then the mutants arrived (called Children of the Zone in the movie). The mutants in the computer game are far more horrific. The zone attracts criminals, fugitives and adventurers. 

Zona Alpha is by Patrick Todoroff and published by Osprey Wargames. The game is aimed at 28mm scale figures but there is rules for using them for 15mm scale. This is simply changing the rule measurement scale from Inches to Centimetres (a conversion that I have often used in the past).

There is 64 pages dedicated to gaming in the Chernobyl Zone Exclusion Zone. There is plenty of game pictures and art to inspire games. There is also plenty of examples of the rule mechanics. 

The game is story driven and focuses on your team of Stalkers from one of 6 factions. You are looking for salvage and adventure but ultimately looking to get rich. The games have mission objectives with additional hotspots that may hold loot or mutants or deadly anomalies. Or sometimes a mix of them.

The Zona Alpha game looks quick and fun to play with not much number crunching or chart checks. There are four main stats for figures Movement, Combat Ability, Armour & Will. Your figures can be of one if three levels Rookie, Hardened and Veteran. As well as stat improvements higher level figures get extra action points too. As missions go on there is a system to improve your crew and promote them. There is even a a 10,000 Rubel retirement plan. You also have to pay dues to your selected faction. 

Zona Alpha uses GW sized templates for grenades and flamethrowers. Hopefully you will probably have some laying about. If not you can buy them from GW or many war games accessory suppliers. If you are handy you could probably make you own from cardboard. 

Back in the day, way before Lead Adventure Miniatures began making their wonderful figures I made one of faction from the Stalker video games for gaming “the zone”. Mainly converting figures from various ranges. I look forward to getting them out and on the table again. 

Zona Alpha could also work in the Metro-2033-averse as Metro took inspiration from the Stalker video games. Instead of the zone it will be teams looking for loot to trade at the Metro stations deep below the ruined city streets. There maybe a few faction tweaks. As Metro uses pre Apoc cartridges as currency the pricing may have to be adapted, possibly using a tenth of those in the Zona Alpha rules. Also the mission rewards should be reduced by the same factor.

I am looking forward to getting some games of Zona Alpha in. Thanks for reading. Take care out there.