Into The Combat Zone Pt. 3 – The First Battles!

Winter has come to Ye Olde England, and with it the desire to shift game night from the shed to the more civilised and centrally heated realm of the kitchen table – and when one chooses to sacrifice space for warmth and ready access to the drinks cabinet, that means smaller skirmish games become the order of the day.

In anticipation of this – because, as it turns out, winter actually happens every year – Dan & I acquired a game we’d long tried to hunt down, EM4 Miniatures’ Combat Zone, and after our YouTube debut and painting the forces of the Corporate Troopers and the Ginger Ninja street gang, it was high time to get these lads out on the table top and start working our way through the mini-campaign outlined in the rulebook. And so, for your delectation, here is a run down of the first couple of games! The plot (such as it is) centres around the street gang trying to ensure their survival by acquiring some new heavy weapon-toting robots, and in the first two games the Ninjas would be trying to break into the warehouse where a damaged machine was being stored with the intent of nicking it.

Game 1: Operation Security Strike

This would involve two mobs of gang members trying to shut down the alarm system in oder to allow their comrades to get into the robot warehouse, with the Corporate Troopers of Bionetica Inc. trying to stop them:

The photos are a bit of a jumble on this one, but basically one mob tried to keep the Troopers heads down while the second made a dash for the alarm – unfortunately for the gang, the Troopers were a bit too well disciplined and devastated the first group resulting in everyone piling hell for leather into the area where the alarm was, with the surviving handful of gangers attempting a desperate and fruitless last stand… ending with a wonderfully cinematic moment when Trooper Wyler, whose mate Staples had been the first to fall to ganger fire, swooped in and shot the sole remaining ganger through the head at point blank range!

The Ginger Ninjas attempt to engage the Troopers from behind cover..

Troopers hit the deck (the ones lying on their front are Dropped Down, lying prone – but poor old Staples takes one through the chest and goes down hard!)

As the casualties pile up, the gang decide to hell with the plan – everybody forward!

Into the warehouse – the objective is in sight…

Trooper Zukovik goes up close and personal!

It’s too much for Ringer, who bottles it and Routs!

“Eat this!” Sergeant O’Connell brings the pain to Klingfilm (seriously X-D)

An illustration of the efficacy of Ganger supporting fire….

Klingfilm goes down – that double denim look just doesn’t cut it out on the streets

It’s all over – Sergeants O’Connell and Anderson survey the scene… 3 troopers down but the Ginger Ninjas are annihilated!

Game 2: Robot Robbery

Despite the failure of their comrades to stop the alarm being sounded, there was no going back for the Ninjas, and the second game had them trying to get one of their three Techs (Nancy, Wing Nut & Hard Drive) into the warehouse where the damaged Enforcer mech was being held… we managed to do an even worse job on the photos here, suffice it to say once again it don’t go well for the Ninjas who left most of their number on the battlefield.. still managed to drop a couple of Bionetica Corporate Troopers but by the time the Techs had made it to the warehouse, they were pretty much on their own…

Having activated the Enforcer, Nancy climbs up on it’s frame for cover as her remaining gang members fall to Corporate Trooper fire…

It takes the combined fire of three Troopers at close range to bring her down, but bring her down they do!

So that’s 2-0 to the Troopers and given how badly mauled the Ninjas got, I’m wondering how well playtested these scenarios were… but s till, it was great fun to play and when you’ve got your head around the mechanics, Combat Zone is a LOT of fun as a pick up and play skirmish game – so we’ll be making our way through the rest of the campaign and seeing how it all unfolds as the nights continue to draw in and get colder…

Stay thrifty out there, we’ll be seeing you soon!