Arena Battles One: A PvPvE WWII Skirmish | Essen Interview
What’s more dangerous in a zombie apocalypse: the zombies or the other survivors? Arena Battles One, a new wargame expansion for the solo/co-op game Escape from Project Riese, is built entirely around that question.
It’s a “Weird-WWII” skirmish game where you’re not just fighting your opponent; you’re both being hunted by AI-controlled zombies. At Essen Spiel, our CEO Bart sat down with the team to find out how this three-way battle for survival works.
Our Interview with the Arena Battles One Team
A PvPvE Expansion to a Solo Game
Bart – Head of Studio:
Could you describe this skirmish in your game, and what makes it stand out from other skirmish games on the market? What’s its unique selling point?
Arena Battles One:
Okay, so this particular skirmish game is called Arena Battles One, and it is a PVP/PVE expansion for our solo-co-op, story-driven game called Escape from Project Riese. This is a small-scale skirmish game. You’re going to start out with a section of five people, and your opponent will have the same. It’s campaign-driven, so as you go on, your characters will progress in skills, abilities, weaponry, and they may also go the other way, too, if they get infected or whatever. It’s set in our history, which is a weird war set in World War II, where a zombie plague has broken out in 1942 during the Battle of Stalingrad. So everything between the Volga and the Danube is now a zombie-infested wasteland. And this expansion is the third part of the storytelling, which is the survivors in the midst of that zombie-affected zone.
Bart:
You’ve described this game as PVP/PVE. Could you elaborate on what that entails and how you incorporate the player-versus-environment aspect?
Arena Battles One:
Because it comes from a solo game to begin with, we’ve already got the mechanisms for the zombies to behave via the game AI. The zombies are a current and evolving threat in the environment through which the players engage. It’s available to play on a square grid set, or it can be adapted for 3D play as well. The maps have the spawn points and everything to control the zombie behavior, so the zombies behave independently of player control. The game controls them. At some points, players might find that it’s better for them to team up against the environment for a particular mission in order for the long-term goals of their crew to survive.
Co-op, Conflicts, and Gang Size
Bart:
My next question was about the possibility of a co-op game mode.
Arena Battles One:
Yes, it is. Although the main focus is on completing your goal. Whatever your goal when you set your team up, to finish the campaign, is what you want to do. So often times your goal will conflict with other players, and you’ll be fighting over resources and things like that, as they do in the movies, right? Zombie apocalypse seems like people always want to fight each other instead of the zombies. So, our game does kind of encourage that. But there may be cases where my goal is to complete a stronghold for a local warlord or something, and yours is to earn enough guilders to catch a freighter back home. And so it’s possible that we’ll both complete our victories on the same scenario, and then it would be a tie for the campaign.
Bart:
How many models does the player need to play a solid game?
Arena Battles One:
The players themselves will need between five and ten models for their own gangs, and then maybe 20 to 25 zombies of various types for the environment.
Terrain, Board Size, and Rules
Bart:
Given the density of the display board, how crucial are terrains during the game, and is such an abundance of them truly necessary?
Arena Battles One:
Well, that entirely depends on a player’s collection. That’s why we have the maps. The maps are fairly dense, but they are provided. A more dense terrain makes it better, because… but zombies function better at close range. So an open board is going to mean that the players are going to be shooting the heck out of each other, if they can find enough ammo. A close terrain does make for a better game.
Bart:
What is the typical board size needed for the game?
Arena Battles One:
Generally, that would be a 2-foot by 2-foot board would be the typical size. So, a table, a kitchen table. The maps generally have two of those maps spliced together. The game provides – in the map set – we provide a town, a destroyed town, an actual arena, and it has templates to place down for terrain and whatnot. And then there’s also the sinister underground complex, so beloved of movies. So this is really close terrain, like that’s like corridor fights.
Bart:
Is it standalone or do you need a copy of the board game to play?
Arena Battles One:
You need a copy of one of the core games to play. Yes.
Future Plans and Model Scale
Bart:
What are your plans for the future of this title? Is it a standalone game, or do you have plans for expansion?
Arena Battles One:
I think down the road… well, I know we’re working on more of the solo-co-op games. I’m working on one called Africa Corps ’41 right now, which is a prequel to the series. And we called it Arena Battles One because we think we’ll probably be doing Arena Battles Two, which will have more environments and perhaps more factions. And we’ll see what player demand is, that’s where we’ll go with that.
Bart:
Are the vehicles just for the show, or are they playable?
Arena Battles One:
Vehicles are not playable. It’s an infantry game. I mean, there are some scenarios in the campaign book where there’s a wrecked vehicle that you have to… you can climb into the fighting compartment and man an MG 42 in the back of an Sd.Kfz. 251 and that. But it’s not going to be vehicle-versus-vehicle and that sort of thing, at least not yet.
Bart:
Is it in 28-millimeter scale?
Arena Battles One:
It’s 1/48 scale. So 35 to 37 millimeters for the miniatures. And then the terrain is all our sized stuff is to the 1/48th scale.
Bart:
Are players able to incorporate their own models, such as those from Bolt Action, to enhance their gameplay?
Arena Battles One:
Absolutely. And I mean, it’s what you want. I know Scale 75 makes some beautiful 1/48 scale models. There’s another game called 48 Tactik or Tactik 48, an Italian game; they make some great 1/48 scale models. But if your whole collection is 28 millimeters, then you can play at 28 millimeter if you like. It’s what you like.
Bart:
Thank you for your time.
Your Gang, Your Zombies, Your Fight
Arena Battles One is a game for hobbyists who love to build a world. It’s a true “use your collection” game. You can pull models from Bolt Action, 48 Tactik, or any other 28mm-35mm range to build your own 5-10 model survivor gang.
More importantly, it’s a great reason to finally paint all those zombie miniatures you’ve collected over the years!
You’ve got a great idea for your survivor crew, kitted out with gear scavenged from the battlefield. You’ve got a horde of 25 zombies just waiting for a paint job. You just don’t have the time to paint two different “armies” before you can even play.
We can handle that part for you.
Your job is to be the survivor, figuring out how to beat your rival and the undead horde. Our job is to paint your crew and your zombie horde, giving you a great-looking, consistent set of miniatures to get your apocalyptic 2×2 board ready for a game.
Book a commission here.
