Zone Mortalis

Zone Mortalis could be the best Warhammer game expansion yet, basically by bringing plenty of line-of-sight blocking terrain to the game as well as a number of fun space cruiser boarding action rules into play.

Personally, ever since the 3rd War For Armageddon campaign Games Workshop ran some 10 years ago, which included a battle report of Black Templars fighting their way through an Ork infested Space Hulk, this kind of close quarters wargame has been something that I have always craved.

As for playing Tau in Zone Mortalis, bringing focussed firepower to bear is more important than ever.

But let's not forget that Smart Missile Systems on our Broadside Battlesuits do not require line of sight! So as a Defender, you could sit their with 3 units of Broadsides and just pelt everyone with as many Smart Missiles as possible.

Another thing I like about Zone Mortalis is that the game is infantry based, which makes for a much more fun and tactical game.

So driving metal boxes towards one another is no longer an option, cos you can't have them!

Warhammer 40K becomes so much more interesting at squad level and I really do hope that vehicles take a bit of a beating in the next edition so that the squads can really shine once again.

Mind you, Tau Crisis suits are going to be pretty disgusting, being able to Jump around a corner, unload with their Plasma Rifles and Missile Pods, then Jump back behind cover in the Assault phase, as they were always intended to.

Am I going to buy Zone Mortalis? For £98 you get a 4x4 gaming board with lots of gothic walls to assemble paint.

But what's to really stop me from making my own terrain for this game? Only time, imagination and my resources.

Ork and Tyranids players are going to be throwing together whole gaming boards very easily, because it doesn't matter if theirs are messy. Tau, Eldar, Space Marines and Imperial Guard may have a tought time creating something suitably fitting for the Warhammer 40K universe. But perhaps you could do it with rocks, dense jungle or even a Necrontyr labyrinth?

So there's plenty of scope to build your own Zone Mortalis board quite cheaply.

Anyway, you can get the Zone Mortalis Rules here and start playing.