By Dom Westerland, Game Designer
Photo by Bethesda Softworks

You’ve made a Hero. You got a warband full of valuable and expendable followers (as appropriate). You’ve stuck your flag down in the Wasteland and got yourselves a settlement. Let’s get to travelling!

Fallout: Wasteland Warfare’s Campaign Map is a nine-by-nine square grid, which starts almost empty. Your starting settlement sits at the centre of the map, and from there, you travel out across the Wasteland and claim it as your own. For those of you who have played the earlier 2D Fallout games, such as Fallout 1 & 2, it may feel similar to navigating those world maps.

Before describing the actions that let you move around the map, it’s time for a brief geography lesson. Sections of the Campaign Map are divided into Regions. Regions consist of multiple map squares. In each square, there is a Location: a notable place in that area that you can visit. These locations are the focal point of your clashes on the battlefield. 

To get around the map, you take one of three Campaign Actions. The Campaign Action you decide to take each time will depend on the location you are moving to (or staying in).

Explore actions are normally taken when moving into an unexplored location. This Campaign Action acts as a bridge between the Campaign Map and the battlefield. Within this action, you’ll start by seeing if you have crossed a Region Border into a new Region. A Location will be generated from among iconic Fallout staples, such as deserted crossroads, ruined towns or factories that are long out of use. The final half of the Explore action will spin up an Encounter for you to play, along with the Opposition you will face.

The counterpart Campaign Action to Explore is the Travel action. These are normally used when moving between two locations you have visited previously. Even though there is less to resolve, you still want to tread carefully during your Travel actions, as the Wasteland is never truly conquered. During a Travel action, you have the option to either look for trouble or avoid notice. The former will generate an Encounter, while the latter represents your warband attempting to sneak past any potential foes. This can end up with you in an Encounter… just don’t be unlucky, right?

If you are lucky enough to find a spot in the Wasteland to rest your head (such as your settlement or an allied settlement), you’ll want to use a Rest action. Imagine this Campaign Action as what your player character does in a settlement during the video games. Healing up, buying or modding equipment, or recruiting new valuable/disposable friends all happen here.

This is only scratching the surface of what there is to know about travelling around the Campaign Map in Fallout: Wasteland Warfare. We can’t wait for you to experience it for yourselves! Next up, we’ll run through an overview of how enemy behaviour works. See you then!