Welcome to Spustoshenyy

Population: 0 There you are, a veteran crew returning from a five-day mission. Sore backs, sore feet, tired, hungry, half your ammo gone – but still alive. And there’s a payday waiting. Even better. The Institute wanted Anomaly readings and environmental data from an area in the Deep Zone, so they hired you to babysit […]

“The one with broken windows…”

A ZONA ALFA Bat Rep Turns out Supply Convoy S37 wasn’t lost at all; a notebook in the jacket of one of the drivers (the half-eaten one) revealed their detour into the Strashnyy Ublyudok facility was deliberate. Seems they had been sent to drive-by recon the area and locate a specific office building. “The one […]

“Wrong Turn, Alexei.”

A ZONA ALFA Battle Report. Help! This is convoy S37. Can anyone hear me? We’re holed up in an old industrial facility by a swamp and these huge rats and ghoul things are swarming us. The drivers are dead. So are the scientists. Now there’s only two of us left. Anyone, come quick. We’re running […]

Skirmish at the Luhansk Bunker

A ZONA ALFA BAT REP Luhansk Bunker. Exclusion Zone Alfa. North Sector: Threat Level 1. Remote, fortified, at the edge of the Luhansk Forest near a swamp, there was little attractive about it. Bugs, mud, vermin… not even decent salvage. Rumor was it had been cleaned out months ago. So why go? Well, the Ministry […]

Ushanka Security

“We got you covered.” After a pair of near- disastrous jobs, Yuri Bonyev, the Exclusion Zone’s premier tour guide, decided to shift his operation from a one-man outfit to a full blown salvage and security crew. For all its danger, the Zone is a busy place: Scientists, Corporations, Traders, PMCs, Criminals, Cultists, Loners… So many […]

In the Zone

*the following is an edited version of my recent interview in Miniature Wargames magazine. It offers an overview on ZONA ALFA development and game play. Can you introduce Zone Alfa? Zona Alfa: Salvage and Survival in the Exclusion Zone leans heavily into the fictional STALKER/METRO 2033 settings. If you’re not familiar, think Post-Apocalypse Soviet-style, in […]

New Recruits and Comparison Shots

With ZONA ALFA slated for release next month, I’ve been painting and modifying miniatures to equip my Zone crews. I need plenty of warm bodies (and ammo ) if I’m going to clear those Hot Spots and turn a profit. Here are several recent recruits: Nothing fancy or complicated, they’re a mix of Assault Group, […]

ZONA ALFA crews

A History It’s no secret I’ve been fascinated with the STALKER game setting since ‘Shadow of Chernobyl’ released back in 2007. 30 sq km around the Chernobyl Nuclear Reactor site reproduced for a single-player, first person shooter/survival/horror sandbox game, S:SoC was quirky and buggy as hell but it was also moody, atmospheric, smoldering, dangerous, and […]

ZONA ALFA: Yuri’s Crew

After a spate of recent Zone tours turning sour, Yuri Bonyev is shifting away from working as a freelance guide and moving into what is euphemistically known “retrieval work”; searching the Exclusion Zone for valuable salvage and artifacts. In preparation for ZONA ALFA‘s official release, I started modifying figs from The Assault Group’s Modern Russians […]

ZONA ALFA: Refinery Number 3

Large ZONA ALFA game last Friday night as a handful of the Cape Cod Wargame Commission met for Chinese take out and a quick salvage run into the Exclusion Zone. Other Pat managed to break away from baby duty to join Max, John, myself, and a visitor from Virginia, Drew K for a few hours. […]