A little over 20 years ago, my father came home from work with a pack of cards for me. A CCG, my first CCG, called Doom Trooper...

He had purchased it for me because he thought it has something to do with id software’s DOOM and although he was wrong it was a happy accident and I instantly fell in love with the setting, portrayed through the works of Paul Bonner and Studio (aka Paolo) Parente.

Reviving A Universe

I had played Dungeons & Dragons a few times, but the first pen and paper RPG I ever owned was the Mutant Chronicles role-playing game (the new one is by Modiphius) set in the same universe. GW might have been responsible for the first miniatures game I ever played but when it comes to first loves, as Meatloaf sang, two out of three ain’t bad.

Warzone 1st and 2nd edition came and went; after that, the IP pretty much fell off the radar for most gamers. Did you know there was even an MMORPG in the works at one point?

When I heard Prodos was going to revive the miniatures game set in the Mutant Chronicles universe with the aptly named Warzone:  Resurrection, I leapt at the chance to back it and although it was a bumpy ride to delivery, I was extremely excited when my pledge finally arrived.

I rushed to assemble a few of my favourite characters and poured over the lovely new rule book. I absorbed the new fluff, read up on the stats for the army I would be fielding and searched for unit proxies that did not yet have their own models.

But now for a little confession. Until November 2014, all but a few of the miniatures I pledged for had remained in a box.

This did not happen because of a problem with the rules or the sculpts; It was me. I hadn’t played a proper wargame in the better part of a decade and between family and work commitments, my schedule left me with enough hobby time to paint maybe two miniatures a year. I had continued to purchase and in some cases, assemble, the latest releases from Prodos and I was happy to see how fast the company was improving the quality of their products.

Yet while I was an advocate for both the company and the game, without the opportunity to actually play Warzone, I couldn’t justify the time to prepare and paint those miniatures when I could be playing the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game instead.

However, in November last year, the remaining pieces of my pledge arrived and I resolved that in 2015 I would finally do something with all those Necromutants, Hussars and Ronin that were lurking in my hobby closet.

Prepare The Army!

A few months into 2015 and I’ve read the rules over a dozen times. My Dark Legion force is assembled (mostly) and the painting of my Undead Legionnaires is in progress. I have joined a local club where I will hopefully get the opportunity to help demo a few games over the coming months and perhaps more importantly, I will be able to get some practice in before the 2015 Warzone International Tournament at the UK Games Expo at the end of May. After all, what better way to motivate yourself than to commit to entering your first ever tournament?

Although I have a good head start with my Dark Legion force I won't be taking them to the tournament. They will be reserved for friendly/home games because thematically they are the clear-cut 'bad guys' that everyone wants to play against, not unlike the Germans in Bolt Action. Instead, I have drawn up two 1000 point Standard OOC Bauhaus lists for the tournament, each supported by it's own deck of Strategy, Tactic and Gear cards.

I will be building and painting my army to get it ready for the competition. At the same time I will be testing out my chosen units on the tabletop to ensure that they are capable of performing the roles I have selected them for; and if it all goes horribly wrong, I should still have time to swap out a few squads and revise my overall strategy in time for the tournament.

Next week I will report on the initial progress of my Bauhaus force and I will begin to look into the specifics of the Warzone tournament format and the missions I will need to be prepared for.

Ryan Chamberlain

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