Sedition Wars: First Impressions

Convinced my roommate to play/try-out Sedition Wars on a weeknight! It was fun! Since then I've played it like 6x (mostly scenario 1) and I am pretty happy with the game.  More after the jump:



Some comments from the first time we played Campaign Scenario 1: 

 My roommate picked Strain with 2 revenants (basic zombies), 2 quasimodos (phase 2 shooting zombie), and 2 stalkers (phase 2 melee zombies).
 I picked Vanguard with 3 troopers (basic), and medic hero

What i liked: 1.5 hrs for set-up and first time play explaining the rules and looking up rules. Not bad for a first game. knowing the rules would probably hit pretty close to the 30-45min expected playtime, which makes it a fast (relatively) game. This is good.

Asymmetric forces: The play style is completely different, which is great. However, both of us felt we had to use everything we had to win/survive. Although the Strain had numbers, my opponent (who played them) felt he needed every one since my troopers were hard to hit. And i felt since i only had a few troops, every time one died it had a big effect.

Tactical choice in starting force: I started with the medic Hero 'cause it would allow me to heal and generate 3 Tactic points per turn! that's a lot. However, i really only had 3 effective shooters because of it (and my medic spent most of the time healing a corroding trooper). Without the hero, i could've had 3 more troopers, but i would generate only 1 tactic point per turn. I like this trade-off, it makes it an interesting starting force choice. For the Strain, my roommate started with lots of phase 2, strong zombies. But that means much less basic Revenant zombies which are the only ones that generate nanospores. And these spores are vital for generating more spores and raising more zombies from corpses (which was the Strain win condition of the first scenario). So i think that's an interesting tactical choice as well. (Well, he didn't actually know, we thought all Strain leave behind spores when they die. This trade off makes a lot more sense).

Low-model count but strategic positioning. Since there are tons of doors and tight corridors AND every model blocks line of sight, positioning each unit is key. Even with the reactive "overwatch" shooting, you can never really cover an entrance with lots of guns since the corridors are so tight.

Scenario encourages aggressive behavior/action. The Troopers always felt like a time-crunch cause if you wait too long, the nano-spore generator will eventually generate tons of spores, which are used to just raise enough zombies from corpse counters to win. So the troopers can't just wait around. But if they fight and die, they generate a corpse counter as well. You basically have to kill enough zombies to temporarily weaken the line, then run in and hit the life support system switch to win. and the zombies have to start with sending at least one revenant to get killed in order to generate the first spore.

 So yeah, fun game. Rules plenty complex already, it doesn't need any more combat details. But not too complicated, and it flows well and the tactical choices are plenty. and it's got good miniatures. nice detail, nicer than i expected in plastic. they say the plastic miniature manufacterer is the same that does Warmachines, or was it Wyrd? Glad i got the BioHazard level, with the bonus set of troopers. I assembled the base set minis so i can play with them. The bonus set of minis i'll set aside to paint slowly. Instead of assembling all the phase 1 Revenants, i simply used HorroClix zombies which i already rebased to use in a Star Wars zombie scenario. Pre-painted and fits in just fine! Come to think of it, some of those star wars minis maps might work great as alternate Sedition Wars rooms. And vice versa. Particularly, the sedition wars rooms may be well suited for Infinity, with all the cover.

 Tips: We used microdice (from the defunct Star Wars PocketModels) to track wounds on the model bases instead of individual cards. This meant less stat cards overall, so that each player was given one of each friendly and enemy unit to review. Turning the model away from the enemy (or into a wall, Derp!) indicated use of Overload or Reflex action.