Preview: DEFCON ZERO; Realistic Modern Combat
BATTLE REPORT: DEFCON ZERO
EASTERN SYRIA, NEAR FUTURE
SYSTEM: DEFCON ZERO
Eight Russian contractors crouch against the wall, preparing to rush into a building. Eight men—each veterans of countless undeclared wars—know their enemy awaits on the other side. It’s unclear what unit the American infantrymen belong to, but they’re well-trained, well-disciplined, and a threat. That’s what brought the Russians here in the first place—an Iranian-backed oil concern paid Vladivostok Security Solutions a hefty fee to clean out the American military presence. As the squad leader gives a hand signal, asking for ready, gunfire erupts from the flank.
A squad of American infantry has infiltrated unnoticed, and opened fire on the Russians. Two men go down screaming while the unit returns fire. In a matter of minutes, the gunfire ceases, and the only sounds are the cries of the wounded.
This is DEFCON-ZERO in a nutshell. It captures the grisly bleeding edge of modern warfare.
DEFCON ZERO by is a miniatures-driven squad-based game defined by an uncompromisingly realistic approach to modern infantry tactics. I had a chance to play it this past weekend at Games Tavern in Chantilly, VA, with the game’s creator, Reid Denton, as the opponent. I didn’t play by myself—each of the three squads of Russian contractors had a different commander, working towards one unified objective. After two hours of learning, and an appropriate slugfest between Russians and Americans, I was floored by how good the game was.
The game began with both sides secretly selecting a mission. The missions are all based on real tactical tasks such as “Raid,” or “Search and Attack,” each with different win conditions. The enemy only sees your mission card if you break the 15 VP necessary for victory, or at the conclusion of 12 turns. Each mission has different victory conditions, and some give the player additional capabilities. Myself, Nate, and Rob selected “Search and Attack,” which had us tasked to primarily control areas of the board, engage different enemy units, and leave no enemies in their deployment zones, all while attempting to keep our own forces intact.
We began with a crash course in infantry tactics—I had foolishly set up my squad of troops in a neat line, as if they were on parade. I made the bad assumption that the deployment zone would be safe. It was not.
However, luck paid off. As the American troops began firing on my squad, I got an opportunity for an interrupt. Interrupts are the game’s mechanic to simulate how fast modern warfare can go, avoiding the traditional “I Go, You Go” dynamic of tabletop gaming which creates artificial “holes” allowing people to game the system and move troops across roads, or into buildings with impunity. When an enemy interrupts, both sides take a capability rating check to determine who gets to go first. I won, so I ended up shooting at the Americans engaging my squad, wounding both the enemy shooters and narrowly averting disaster. In DEFCON ZERO, when you score a hit on an enemy, it’s not a guaranteed kill. The enemy goes down, and a d12 is rolled to determine how many turns they’ll survive without medical care before they may bleed out. This can be a bit obnoxious if you’re used to guaranteed kills, but does an excellent job of representing the importance and reality of battlefield first aid in modern combat.
I pushed the squad up to cover along with Nate’s squad, while Rob’s squad set up a support by fire on the opposite side of the board. We prepared to hammer the American squad when Reid revealed his mission choice—Raid—and the special circumstances the mission allowed. Suddenly, my troops had to deal with Americans with a perfect firing arc into our stack, and good shots at Nate’s forces as well. Once again, the dice favored us, but both sides took losses. Given the raid deploying into a dangerous position with no cover in order to gain a similar advantage on our forces it felt realistic that luck in reaction time and landing hits played a large role in which side won this gunfight.
The Russians ended up carrying the day, though largely because the dice favored them and because the flanking Americans had taken an aggressive gamble entering on a flank with no cover or concealment. The scenario provided an excellent insight into the DEFCON ZERO system.
I like the game’s realism. The game is well researched and uses realistic weapon ranges, so an M4 can reach out 300cm, and systems like a PKM or M240 can go much further. The game represents kill radii from explosive weapons to scale as well, forcing smart placement of individual models rather than a simple cluster, just like professional soldiers must do to survive on the modern battlefield as well.
DEFCON ZERO also has an overwatch mechanic that helps both with the game’s realism and the overall flow of the game. A unit in overwatch forfeits its movement, but can interrupt any unit in its line of sight conducting any action. This represents the principles of overwatch used by modern militaries to maneuver soldiers—while one element moves, the other covers them.I did have some trouble with the casualty rules. While it was nice to see a game that treats combat first aid as a big deal (as opposed to a one-line afterthought on an apothecary or medic special unit), it is a bit disheartening to hit an enemy with an RPG only to realize that you’ve actually killed neither of them. Talking with my teammate Nate, he agreed, it would be nice if the game had a “double tap” rule allowing elimination of downed enemies. This violates the laws of war, strictly speaking, but playing Russian PMCs, whose very existence is inherently grey in the realm of international law, it was hard for me to imagine that would be something they’d care about. Given that there is a Nu-Khaliphait faction in the works as well it seems a useful add for the game rules.
Right now, the system has explicit rules for the United States Army, the Russian Federation, an ISIS follow-on called “The Nu Khaliphait” and their Aslan special forces. Reid already has sculpts ready to go along with plans on more factions, and the ultimate intent would be to allow players to play any modern infantry force and some Non-State Actors. There’s also plans for vehicles, though with realistic ranges, I’d need a lot of tables for a good tank battle. I’m looking forward to my next game of DEFCON ZERO!
Editor’s Note: We have been talking to Ried about this game for a long time now and NDNG will bring you updates as the game nears release. We are excited to support such a game changing miniatures game that brings modern warfare to your table in such a realistic manner.