By Jon Webb
“Change is the only constant in life” - Heraclitus
Welcome to April’s Fallout Friday. This is the one many of you have been waiting for as the long rumoured, speculated and denied New Vegas expansion rides into town seeking its fortune.
That’s right, as of now, you can pre-order the New Vegas rules expansion as well as the initial boxes for both the NCR and Caesar's Legion as well as some money saving bundles with a free promo figure (the unstoppable Burned Man) to further sweeten the deal.
Orders will start shipping in May when the rules set and two core sets will also arrive in gaming stores across the globe.
I wanted to take a moment to give players a little more detail on the contents and nature of the rules pack as it will be both familiar and yet slightly different to what has gone before. The reasons for which I hope to explain below.
Firstly, you should immediately notice that the cards are now on a die cut set of sheets. This means that you will need to carefully pop them out before use. This will leave a small bump on the edges but for those who want a really flush finish, I’d recommend using a steel ruler and sharp knife to separate the connection points. Sleeving your cards is always a useful extra step if you want consistency and easy shuffling across all your decks.
This change in manufacturing came about as a result of corona. The quick version is our original plan to make these in China as a more typical card pack with accompanying booklet hit a wall as the pandemic has caused months of delay in production and more importantly shipping. Add in the recent Suez Canal incident and shipping costs have skyrocketed and delays are inevitable.
Were we to have continued with the original plan, we likely wouldn’t have seen stock of the rules/cards until the end of 2021 and there would have been a sizeable price increase on top (as a guide, every $1 of production costs adds $5 to an RRP of a product, and no that doesn’t mean we see $4 for every $5 of a product’s cost).
Even if you do manage to find space on a ship (containers and boats are currently scattered across the globe and are out of sync, so everyone is scrabbling to get things shipped on ever decreasing boat space), you might find your slot bought out from under you by someone with deeper pockets.
Therefore, we took the decision to slightly amend our plans and by going with the die cut sheets were able to produce in the UK at a price that meant we could keep to our planned RRP and more importantly rough release schedule.
For those who want to go digital, we will of course be providing free downloads of the core cards and the app continues to go from strength to strength as Jamie and Stacey work their magic.
With that note aside, let’s talk about the booklet that accompanies the cards. This is the first step onto the next phase of the Wasteland Warfare project. We want to include content beyond the cards (not that the cards are not a huge and central part of the game) and going forward we will be expanding on this concept.
The New Vegas book includes photos of the first half of the wave (damn those pesky print deadlines) so you can see and track all the cool releases, as well as some painting guides to help you choose colours and get your troops battle ready.
On the rules front, we introduce a new concept with Storyline Events, adding even more narrative to your games and allowing for linked games set in the New Vegas region.
There is also a five mission campaign that refights part of the major New Vegas arc, but you can use any of your factions as allies (willing or otherwise) to the ambitions of the NCR or Legion.
Finally, there are some fun achievements you can try to unlock through your games. Sadly no gamer points or cute sound will ring out when you hit them, but you can still track your efforts. From surviving a mini nuke attack to making best use of luck, there is something for any player to try out and bring some new ideas and options to their tested battle tactics.
So, lots of new things but also the familiar for those who have been with us for the long haul. Hopefully the release of New Vegas will bring in new audiences as well as letting our fans add their favourite characters and stories to their wasteland. If nothing else we won’t have to keep dodging the question of when it’s coming.
Now, on to the Community round up. As ever, please tag your social media posting with the #FalloutFriday so I can seek you out. If you are running games (where safe to do so), making terrain, painting forces or just hanging out and playing some Wasteland Warfare I want to see it and share it, so use the hashtag or send us some photos via support@modiphius.com marked for the attention of Jon.
First up, Raffaele Du Marteau from Cosmic Group got in touch to show us this stunning diorama. Featuring a pack of grim Raiders roaming the streets no doubt looking for trouble, this is a great piece that really shows off the mean side of the Raiders and their grim environment. Nice work!
Over on Instagram, gal0n has a growing collection of images of their table and miniatures. Featuring some really punchy terrain (and a lot of it), these tables look like a blast to fight over.
Long time player, Simon Sterz, has put together an intriguing package. Project: Lunchbox is a fan mod that lets you more easily manage the setup and card content for the game as well as providing a levelling system that grows your troops, upgrading their stats and skills along the way.
While we can’t officially support any fan content, it’s great to see players take to modding in much the same way the Fallout community does with the computer games and there is a lot of love here, so thanks Simon.
Another great fan resource, Giulio and Matteo have a channel/blog for Italian players (though anyone can check out their work of course). They have unboxings and reviews of the line and are currently working on an RPG campaign that will be hosted on the site.
I’ll be on the lookout for hobby and gaming content linked to the free Automaton Assembly scenario in the coming week, so if you want a shot at some free store credit, make sure you tagged your efforts with #FalloutFriday so I can see them.
It’s all in on New Vegas for the next half year, so looking forward to seeing your NCR, Legion and Nightkin starting to hit tables soon.
Till next month.
Jon