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Mutant Year Zero: Zone Wars has a bone to pick with your favorite wargames.
The trouble is, most of them don’t do ‘short.’
They aren’t always keen on more than two players battling it out at once, either.
That’s why this chaotic skirmish game from Free League flips the bird at tradition.
“That was the first design goal we had.
And the second one is that we wanted specifically to make a game that is made for multiplayer.
Almost all skirmish games out there always presume you’re [playing with just] two people.
And personally, when I play skirmish games, I always play in a group.
We have lots of fun.
It’s a very fun, social pop in of gaming.
So we wanted to make a game that kind of plays against [two-player modes].
It’s also been adapted into a video game, Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden.
That momentum is partially thanks to Zone Wars saying “fuck it” and throwing everything at the wall.
The game’s speed is also because of its aversion to faff.
According to Karlen, “one thing we wanted to do was keep bookkeeping minimal.
So in this game, we didn’t want to have a pen and paper.
In this game, we wanted to make the numbers a bit smaller.
And also, we want to make everything physical, like a board game.
Cardboard kingdoms
The Zone Wars models being pre-assembled and primed grew out of a similar desire.
That’s why Mutant Year Zero: Zone Wars includes all the cardboard terrain you need for your matches.
And if you add the Robots and Psionics expansion, you’re set for full four-player matches.
There are two packs available for Zone Wars at launch; the core box and an expansion.
Sure, Mutant Year Zero isn’t necessarily the most well-known IP.
It’s never going to topple something like Warhammer.
But it’s not trying to and that’s precisely why it’s so appealing.
Want some recommendations on what to play next?
Be sure to check out thebest board gamesor our guide to thebest card games.
