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FFG Previews Combat In Fallout Board Game

Fallout Game

Will you have what is takes to survive? Fantasy Flight Games has a preview of how combat in the Wasteland will flow in Fallout: The Board Game. 

Fallout: The Board Game is less than a week away from releasing and we now have an idea of how combat will work with the latest preview from Fantasy Flight Games. As you traverse the wasteland, you’ll run into all sorts of Critters, Humanoids, Robots, Super Mutants, and Monsters. Their are six traits you’ll need to be prepared to face as you take on the vicious beasts:

  • The Take-Charge Attacker: Enemies with an Aggressive icon will attack anyone who crosses their path without hesitation, so don’t plan on sprinting past them without a backwards look. Common Examples: Radscorpions, Raider Psychos, Deathclaws.
  • The Sniper: Ranged symbol indicates an enemy who can not only attack from a space away but who will do extra damage if you’re unable to respond in kind with your very own ranged weapon. Common Examples: Bloatflies, Mr. Gutsys, and Super Mutant Skirmishers.
  • The Tough Guy:  Some of your combat opponents, featuring a Armor icon, will come with an extra layer of damage resistance, making them way more irritating to defeat than other creatures of the same level. Common Examples: Raider Scum, Protectron Medics, Yao Guais.

Wasteland Board game Legend

  • The Cautious Combatant: Once they’ve done a little damage or evaded enough of your poorly aimed shots, enemies featuring the Retreat symbol will politely wander off, waiting for some other unsuspecting wastelander to mosey on through. Common Examples: Mole Rats, Radscropions, Looters.
  • The Pack Brahmin: Any enemy you successfully finish off featuring a Loot icon will allow you to draw one card from the loot deck! Though the items you pull off of your opponents won’t be the shiniest, you may find some valuable stuff, like companions, Chems, Caps, or low-level combat equipment. Common Examples: Raiders, Super Mutants, Protectron Medics.
  • The Glowing One: If your rival has a Radiation symbol, not only will their hits strip you of HP, you’ll also take radiation from the fight! Common Examples: Radroaches, Feral Ghouls, Glowing Ones.

On your survivor board, you have three pegs: red for HP, green for Rads, and gray for XP. Fight actions in the game are all driven by a simple roll of the three V.A.T.S. dice, which feature two things: targeted areas and Hits. Each enemy you face will have vulnerable areas, and you can only hit them by targeting those areas. For every die face that shows an area of the body matching your enemy’s vulnerabilities, you inflict one hit on them. There is a catch: every hit icon showing is equal to damage times the enemy’s level. Meaning that if you are fighting a level three Sentry Bot and five hits are showing, you’re going to take fifteen damage, moving your HP peg down fifteen spots!

Wasteland Dice

Dying is not a bad thing since you will simply have to move back to the starting tile and lose everything in your inventory. It will not be easy but with great risks come great rewards. Your ability to change the results of a fight is all dependent on the items, companions, and traits you’ve collected throughout the game. Most often, you’ll be able to take a shot at better results by rerolling dice. Weapons let you do this if you know how to use them properly.

zx02_card_plasma-gun

There are some abilities associated with weapons, armor, and companions that will adjust the results of your dice as well. The special properties of these items can change your die rolls by adding hits, blocking damage, increasing your number of hits, or influencing the icons your enemy possesses. The downside is that some of these weapons do have a downside that will have to be considered. The Plasma Gun, for example, has range and has 3 re-rolls but will dissolve loot as well.

Fallout: $59.95

Fallout box

A sprawling wasteland lies before you, wiped out by the centuries-old atomic blasts of The Great War. Beyond a smattering of hills, you can see the charred remains of a society you remember shiny and new. Through the bare foundations creep a collection of mutated critter’s whose origins you can only guess, attaching whoever and whatever crosses their paths. Beneath the overgrown soil, vault-dwelling communities fight to survive on limited resources. It is across these abandoned spaces you must now travel, building a new life atop the crushed glory of a destroyed world.

Fallout is an adventure board game based on the hit video game series by Bethesda Softworks. In the game, one to four survivors will begin at the edge of an undiscovered landscape with one primary objective: to survive. Staying alive, however, is just the beginning. Players must explore the hidden map, fight ferocious enemies and build the skills of their survivor as they attempt to complete challenging quests and balance the feuding factions within the game. To win the game, players must collect influence, thereby securing their spot in a society struggling to thrive in a world forever changed. Welcome to the Wasteland.

Fallout: The Board Game is available for pre-order and will launch on November 30th!

For more on Fallout and other great board games, visit Fantasy Flight Games!

About the Author: Juan Lopez