UK-based games maker Modiphius is taking pre-orders for a brand new Fallout wargame, Fallout: Factions Nuka World, which pits gangs of raiders against one another as they battle for control of the Nuka World theme park. We here at Wargamer are particularly excited because the game’s designer, James Hewitt, is one of the best game developers to ever work at Games Workshop.
James Hewitt worked in the Games Workshop design studio in the mid 2010s, where he was responsible for a huge number of truly excellent miniature wargames and board games.
Hewitt designed the excellent Horus Heresy board game Betrayal at Calth, relaunched the Warhammer Quest dungeon crawler line with Silver Tower, made the vicious arena combat game Gorechosen (since re-implemented as Combat Arena), brought epic-scale wargames back with the remake of Adeptus Titanicus, and designed the current edition of classic gang-fight wargame Necromunda.
For those not familiar, Necromunda is a very granular skirmish wargame set in the Warhammer 40k universe, which pits scrappy bands of gang fighters against one another in the industrial ruins of the underhive. According to Hewitt in an interview with Goonhammer, he had to finalise the game design for print in just four months to meet a production deadline, meaning it launched in a rough state that took years of support to tidy up.
The bones of the game are strong though: I’m currently playing in a Necromunda campaign and having a riot in every single match.
Hewitt’s design pedigree is strong, and the fact that he’s releasing a new sci-fi skirmish wargame without facing the same absurd deadline is very exciting. A set of free starter rules is already available to download from DriveThruRPG.
This video from September 2023 shows a Fallout: Factions Nuka World demo game, using prototype minis and terrain from Modiphius’ current Fallout model range:
Games of Fallout: Factions will be “linked together in an ongoing narrative arc” – quite how this will be represented remains to be seen, but a tantalizing promise for fans of skirmish campaign games.
Fallout: Factions features three factions of raiders: the well-dressed Operators, animalistic Pack, and cruel Disciples. New multipart plastic miniatures for each gang will be available, and the starter set comes with a crew of 10 miniatures for both the Operators and the Pack, plus push-together cardboard terrain.
Fallout: Factions joins the existing Fallout: Wasteland Warfare miniature game, which Modiphius describes as a “detailed, granular tabletop experience that mirrors the in-depth narrative gameplay of the Fallout video games”. In contrast, Fallout: Factions is a “tighter, more focused PvP experience” that “uses simple mechanics and minimal components”.
The Wasteland Warfare miniature range will be compatible with Fallout: Factions. That’s good news for people with an existing collection, and frankly good news for everyone else: the Wasteland Warfare miniatures are gorgeous.
The terrain range is particularly good, with things like the Red Rocket gas station, Nuka Cola vending machines, a crashed Vertibird, and for those with 3D printers the option to make your own Fallout Vault.
In short – we’re excited, and Fallout: Factions is a high priority for us to review. Now if Modiphius will just let Hewitt loose with the Skyrim license, we’ll have something new to consider for our guide to the best fantasy wargames…