War Never Changes: Learn How to Play Modiphius’ ‘Fallout Factions’
Apparently war does change. Fallout: Factions is a new quick playing and highly tactical skirmish game of battling in the wastelands.
Today we’re taking a look at Fallout: Factions! The starter box is hitting shelves this week, so check out our Unboxing video below and Gabe’s review of the game. But for now, we’ll go over the bare bones basics of the game, taking a turn, and how to make an attack.
Fallout: Factions Overview
Fallout: Factions is an objective-based, tactical combat skirmish game from Modiphius. It’s obviously based on the Fallout series of video games. Two players go head-to-head with small squads of around 5 members, both trying to complete their own objective, as determined by the chosen mission for that game.
For example, players might score points by being next to objective markers at the end of the round. After 3 rounds, whichever player has the most points wins! Simple enough, but as with most skirmish games, that dang ol’ opponent of yours is going to be doing everything they can try to stop you from doing that.
Taking A Turn
On each player’s turn, they choose a model to be the Active Model for that turn. The most popular actions are Get Moving, which allows a model to move up to 8″, and Open Fire, which allows the model to shoot one of their weapons.
Once a model takes an action, it gains Fatigue and becomes Weary, which has no immediate effect. The player can decide to end the turn and maybe activate that model again later in the round. However, the model can take another action in the same turn and become Exhausted. An Exhausted model can’t take any more actions in the round.
Also worth noting, models usually can’t take the same action twice in a round. But many special rules and modifiers allow it. For example, the Fast trait on a weapon allows firing twice in a round.
Making An Attack
When shooting, the player chooses the weapon they want the model to use, picks their target, and rolls their dice pool for the Attack Test. Fallout: Factions uses d10s for tests. The number of dice is determined by the weapon. For example, the Handmade Rifle has a Test of “4P”. This means roll 4 dice. The P means to check against the firing model’s Perception stat.
But Fallout: Factions also has a Luck mechanic as well. When rolling an Attack Test, also check the firing model’s Luck stat. For each point of Luck, use a Lucky Die in the dice pool, then use standard dice for the rest. So Eddie has 3 Luck, so his dice pool will be 3 lucky dice and 1 standard dice to fill in his dice pool of 4 dice.
In Fallout: Factions, rolling low is good. So, after rolling, any die results higher than the tested stat is discarded. In this case, with a Perception of 4, any results of 5 or higher are Duds and are discarded. But when a player rolls a hit on a Luck die, they roll an additional standard die as well, discarding any Duds as before.
There is no armor roll or defense save or anything like that. If you hit, you hit. But you have to hit enough to break through their armor. The number of successful hits is compared to the target’s Endurance.
- If there’s zero hits, nothing happens.
- If the number of hits is lower than the target’s Endurance, they are Harmed. This adds an additional die to any attack tests against them. Models can have up to 3 Harm. Additional Harm causes Injury.
- If the number of hits is equal or greater, the target is Injured.
Most models can only take one Injury before they become Incapacitated and removed from the game, but some tougher models can take two or three before they’re knocked out.
Ending the Round and Game
After a model has taken its actions, its turn is over, and the other player takes their turn. This continues until one player Passes. They take the initiative token and will go first next round. Then, the other player continues until all models are Exhausted or they don’t want to take any more actions.
Models clear their Fatigue (weary and exhaustion), but any Harm remains. Then the next round begins! This continues until the end of the third round, and the player determines who wins based on their chosen mission objectives.
There are options for full wider campaigns as well, where your gang grows and changes from game to game. Your gang will gain experience points as you and your friends can battle over various territories, and each drive towards your own goals and objectives. It’s a great option for fans of the series to get the iconic video game series onto their tabletop.
Fallout: Factions is a quick-playing skirmish game that never has too much downtime for any one player. The you-go-I-go style of turn taking is great for maintaining balance, but the Fatigue mechanic allows players to use a higher level of strategy in how they use their actions during the round.
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