Zona Alfa: Salvage and Survival in the Exclusion Zone: 25 (Osprey Wargames)

Product Information

Zona Alfa is the latest iteration of my fast-play house rules that were titled ‘Cleared to Engage’. I’d been using them for years here to introduce people to miniature war gaming. It’s a skirmish game that uses D10s and was made with 28mm miniatures in mind, but 15mm or 20mm will work just as well. A fairly simple system, it’s played in a 3’ x 3’ or 4’ x4’ area with a set turn limit, so games typically run one to two hours. At this advanced stage of my hobby-life, I meet plenty of people who enjoy gaming but don’t have the time to invest in large, painted armies, terrain, or learn a complex rule set. They want fast and fun games with a high coolness quotient, lots of adventure, a bit of competition, and an excuse to hang out and eat pizza with friends.

This was a one shot game. We all agreed we would be much more cautious with our crew if we were in a campaign. Those three elements form the core of Zona Alfa game play and should allow anyone to form a crew and start exploring the Zone. Elsewhere on the battlefield, savvy players were using the distraction provided by the Zone hostiles to move forward and secure other objectives. When a figure searches a hot spot, the player rolls randomly to see what has been uncovered. Often it’s salvage worth cold, hard cash outside the Zone, but occasionally you’ll run across equipment or other gear. In Zona Alfa, players start by forming crews of 4 -12 miniatures, each with special gear, weapons, and abilities, with the intention of salvaging valuable items and artifacts in the dangerous and eerie quarantined area known as the ‘Exclusion Zone’. Game play rests on three pillars: Streamlined Game Stats, Alternating Activation, and Troop Quality Levels. the following is an edited version of my recent interview in Miniature Wargames magazine. It offers an overview on ZONA ALFA development and game play.So, you decided to sneak past the Cordon, eh? Slip by the patrols and the towers, through the minefield, under the electric fence, to take your chances in the Exclusion Zone. There were some casualties, two Serfs who got caught in the open by my sniper. Evil Landlord Matt was unfazed. “Plenty more where they came from.” Zona Alfa draws inspiration from the crumbling, abandoned Cold War industrial heaps that you might find in the hinterlands of Eastern Europe. Players muster crews of stalkers, scavengers, and mercenaries and pit them against similarly motivated bands on the battlefield. But the Zone itself plays a huge role in each game … Zone hostiles can appear at any moment, and the very environment itself can suddenly erupt in violent fashion.

The game is played on a 3×3 or 4×4 space depending on scenario, and lots of scenery is necessary as it is unforgiving for idiots who stand out in the open. So the more scenery, the better. You’ll need some models of course, and about ten per side should cover that if you want to run a gang of fresh-faced noobs. What it comes down to is a sandboxy feel where you can do anything that’s more or less realistically possible. The shooting action reflects this pretty well. You modify your shot by using red dots or scopes, but a shot is harder to take if there’s cover or the target is obscured. Kontraband is not a stand-alone game and so first and foremost, you need a copy of the Zona Alfa rule book. Zona Alfa is my attempt to fill that bill. My first goal was to create a set of solid, straightforward wargame rules for 28mm tabletop skirmishes. I wanted a game that would allow anyone reasonably familiar with miniature wargaming to be able to stat out appropriate figures from their own collection, plunk down terrain, review the basics, and get started straight away. When you do hit, there are armor saves. Depending on what you pulled from a dead stalker or bought in the stalls, this will drastically improve your chances of survival. Some weapons or ammunition are also better at penetrating armor. If you fail this save, you’re down unless you have a med kit. If you do make the save, you have to take a Will test to see if you have to change your underwear after getting plugged with a 7.62.We found that the rules for Zone hostiles were satisfying but not overly oppressive. This was probably because we were playing at Zone Threat Level 1, the “easiest” setting in the game. As you get closer to the Zone’s enigmatic center, the threats become much more dangerous. Near the perimeter, the Zone hostiles were just a nuisance. But those zombies definitely tied up Lawrence’s leader for a good portion of the game! The combat ability, which covers both melee and shooting, gets worse the greener you are. You roll under combat ability on a D10, so a Vet with combat ability 6 will have a better chance than a rookie with 4. A roll of 1 is a natural success, which should give hope to players like me, who shouldn’t really be playing wargames with dice. The crew head up the board and Sukova (a Scientist) is best equipped to search the anomaly, which she does. Here, a skill roll of 8 would normally fail but Sukova is equipped with a Detector which gives her a +2 bonus and she recovers an artefact, which would count towards a campaign goal. Kontraband only adds to the fun, and while it’s not the most polished book in the looks department the content is great and adds more stuff, skills, artifacts and scenarios to uncover in the zone. It also lets you play without interacting with other people if that’s your bag or some sort of worldwide event has you sequestered at home. It’s also one of the only solo games I genuinely enjoy. Characters. With a focus on a single squad of individual characters rather than larger gangs or crews, Kontraband players can choose to venture in the Zone either as Stalkers or Scientists. Generally speaking, Stalkers are stronger at tactical skills while Scientists excel at technical ones. Details about each character class, specializations, and a list of new Skills can be found further in.

That’s basically all the math you have to do, and usually it comes down to common sense. It should be clear that this is not a game intended to be played in a tournament setting or mindset; the mechanics here need at least some agreement between you and your opponent about what “makes sense.” John gives a the low down on the Kontraband expansion for Zona Alfa, and a prize winning battle report on one of the scenarios from the book.I created some basic starting crews for the players, and then we got started. We set up a 4×4 foot table, slightly larger than the 3×3 size recommended in the rulebook, due to our surplus of players. Each side alternated by activating one figure, performing actions, and then passing play to the opposing team. The first couple of turns were focused on learning the basic game system and moving out of our deployment areas. But before too long, the players got close enough to begin exchanging some ranging volleys of automatic rifle fire as they slipped through the ruins. As far as anything left out, no. Zona Alfa is meant to be a simple, reliable system. Over four decades playing table top wargames, board games, and RPGS, I never ceased to be amazed at the imagination and creativity of the gaming community. I felt the best thing I could offer would be a set of tools for people to stat out their miniatures, form salvage crews, and undertake their own missions in the Exclusion Zone. At each turn after turn 1 a D10 is rolled. The die roll is added to the turn number and if the result is greater than 10, a zone event occurs the subsequent turn. No zone event for turn 3.

What was the biggest challenge in designing Zone Alfa? Were there any scrapped features you’d have wished could have been included?

Meanwhile Ali’s search triggers a Zone Hazard – cobwebs. Ali avoids the effect of the Zone Hazard, collecting a sample and retrieves a Lithium battery, Med Kit and heavy weapons reload. He will need this for the grenade launcher next mission. Troop Quality is the final support. To reflect varying expertise and experience, there are three kinds of soldier in the Zone: Rookie, Hardened, or Veteran. Each has corresponding ability to act in battle.