Now that GW is releasing lines of board games that link to 40k or the heresy my juices are really flowing. Battle at Calth, Execution Force and Deathwatch have all been recent hits with the added bonus of being able to use the miniatures in games of normal 30/40k. Absolute genius from a marketing perspective and even better as the individual board games play great too. My only big problem with these 'board' games is that they are expensive coming in at around the £80-100 mark which is still very prohibitive to entice newer players into the hobby. Also they are fairly complicated and so take quite a while to play. As a dad my time is limited so if I have a couple of hours I'll play 40k but a lot of the time I have an hour tops so I have been gravitating towards something quicker such as Magic or X-Wing.
This is where Lost Patrol caught my eye. A board game of sorts with miniatures that only takes 30mins for only £35!! Now we're talking, so what is it exactly? Here is the write up on the website:
Moraz III – a deadly jungle world filled with danger and fear, populated by ferocious aliens who wait in the undergrowth to pounce on the unwary and mercilessly kill anyone who stumbles across them. Even the plant life itself is malignant here, constantly twisting and growing in unnatural ways to trap its prey.
A dropship containing vitally important surveillance files has crash landed on this hostile planet. It’s up to you and your squad of Space Marine Scouts to retrieve these files, activate the dropship, and hopefully escape with your lives!
Lost Patrol is a two-player boxed game, set on a hostile jungle world on which nowhere is safe! One player controls a squad of plucky Space Marine Scouts, and the other controls a swarm of horrible Genestealers – it’s a fast-paced game of kill-or-be-killed between two iconic sets of warriors! Inside the box, you’ll find five Space Marine Scout, twelve Genestealers, six Infestations: the markers of imminent Genestealer appearance, and thirty hex tiles.
This is actually a re-release of the game from 2000 with rewritten rules and updated miniatures and game board pieces. Looking at it it has some great genestealer mini's (who doesn't like them?), some scout mini's (let's skip them shall we) and some great looking board tiles. The game looks fast and fun with an interesting randomness if the board tiles get pulled out blind which provides some interesting variation to avoid boredom. My only wonder is whether the game has longevity as the description only provides info on a single mission. Is there any more missions? Is there a campaign element? Also as the price mark is only £35 could there be fantasy flight style expansion packs? This would be a first step for GW but is perfectly possible with this type of game. An expansion with more missions, tiles and some 'boss' mini's is perfectly feasible for a £20-25 price mark?
In conclusion I am glad GW is going down this route as well as supporting its core games, it opens up more opportunities for people to play and is exploring an interesting price point. What do you guys think? Have you played the old version of Lost Patrol?
Let me know and happy gaming,
James
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