For once you’re not going to hear me prattle on about something. Instead I’m handing you over to Chris (@Darth_Crumble), a semi-regular contributor to The Shell Case. He shall be waxing lyrical about the Warzone Kickstarter. Enjoy.
Many years ago in the far of era known as the nineteen-nineties, when I was still young and pretty and had my whole life ahead of me, there existed a wargame by the name of Warzone.
Warzone was the wargame spin off of the Mutant Chronicles RPG and detailed the struggle for dominance between various megacorporations for control of the solar system. This was further spiced up with the eldrich abominations of the Dark Legion from the exoplanet Nero and the church militant that had risen to oppose them.
This was all produced by Target Games who also produced the dark fantasy game Chronopia and for a while Target were the biggest competition being offered to the Games Workshop. That is until Target fell foul of their parent company’s bankruptcy and had to fold. An event which, rumour has it caused the folks in GW HQ to break out the bourbon.
Time marches on, pages fly from the calendar and I accumulate frown lines even as I am divested of my hair. But what should I see this very February but a Kickstarter called ‘Warzone Resurrection’.
The Kickstarter campaign is being run by Prodos, the company which relatively recently acquired the rights to the Warzone intellectual property. The campaign started in February with the target of raising £35,000 to finance the development of new models for the prussian-themed megacorporation Bauhaus ( to join the new models already designed for the Dark Legion, church militant Brotherhood, and the cyborgs of the Cybertronic megacorp). At time of writing though, the total pledged stands at a whopping £86,884 pledged by well over 600 backers. Several stretch goals have been broken, unlocking extra character models, extra units (including tanks, walkers and a gribbly spider roboit) and even unlocking development of the USA-themed Capitol faction. The Kickstarter still has over two weeks to go so there’s no telling what the final total could be.
Of course, wargaming Kickstarter projects are nothing new. There has been the recent Godslayer campaign, Kingdom Misogyny, I mean Kingdom Death, and the various Mantic Kickstarters. But this is probably the first attempt to use it to bring back a game that has been off the radar for the better part of twenty years. Also, this does appear to be a ‘genuine’ Kickstarter, in that Prodos are genuinely trying to raise the money to brink their project to fruition, rather than it being used as a glorified pre-order or to allow a company to do something they could do anyway, just quicker.
I’m quite excited by this campaign. I’ve been really impressed by the model renders I’ve seen so far and I quite like seeing an old game brought back, especially as it folded before through no fault of its own. I’ve been looking to get into a skirmish scale game as a more manageable way of balancing gaming with the time and money restrictions of parenthood and this could well be the one. I have read the beta rules and they are clear and straightforward and the D20 based system allows a bit more granularity and more subtle distinctions of abilities. Also, the optional Strategy/Tactics/Warhead card rules should help keep the game fresh after repeated play.
I’m by no means an expert on the Warzone/Mutant Chronicles universe but what I have read sounds pretty cool. There are thematic similarities to 40k but without anything like the same amount of unremitting grimdark. Also, it is very much a human war without any pesky aliens (so far).
I would encourage all #warmongers to take a look at Warzone Resurrection a as it could be a really good new addition to the wargaming scene. Plus, the number of old Warzone players who will no doubt want to renew their acquittance with Max Steiner, Dr Diana, Big Bomb Watts and the rest mean there could be a sizable player base very quickly.
Check out the Warzone Warzone Resurrection site here and the Kick starter page here.
