Cyberpunk Red: Combat Zone
This page is about Cyberpunk Red: Combat Zone, a 32mm cyberpunk-themed, skirmish miniatures wargame by Monster Fight Club set in the time of the Red - 2045 in cyberpunk lore.
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Faction Breakdown
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Arasaka wear heavy armor- less models - powerful weapons.
Forgiveness level> 5 out of 5
Description: Armor. ‘Nuff Said. Their on-card armor does incredible things to keep characters alive, and yes that is important. Their second feature is their ability to interact and back each other up in a battle – reacting when others do something is a great specialty. Armor, keeps the characters alive to do what you need and when not in position, their armor protects them as you correct for that.
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Bozos are crazy- steal your Gonks and make them there own. Crazy grenades and fun interactions- another strategic faction
Forgiveness level> 1
Description: Bozos are all about tricks and fun. Their weapons have fun names and sometimes do incredibly fun things, when you attempt them at the right time and roll well. Incredibly fun to play against as the unexpected truly happens, but also hard to play with for the same reason.
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Danger Gals: definitely do not “fight like girls”. Super interactive and fun
Forgiveness level> 4 out of 5
Description: Having a character than can heal the full length of the limiter immediately adds forgiveness points, you keep them in a central position and they can heal minis that find themselves in a rough spot. Additionally, their rocket launcher is one of the best in the game and lets you impact your opponent to buy yourself time to strategize.
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Edgerunners have tons of models to choose from, great faction for those who never like to play the same character twice. This allows for both very complex and super easy to play combinations of characters
Forgiveness level> depends on the build
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Gen Red: crazy fun to play with speed and some “different” twists to their play.
Forgiveness level> 3
Description: Speed, fun, and true kid grit help this faction do what needs to be done. Some of them can be fragile, thus the FL of 3. While others have special rules that make them tough to target, some are designed for the risky – getting Izzy out of cover so she can blast you twice as hard being the perfect example.
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Lawmen are defensive and have some neat combos
Forgiveness level> 2 out of 5
Description: Lawmen has the most variety of all factions excluding Edgerunners. This means some combinations are just not as good as others.
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Maelstrom (Core set): heavy armored beat sticks
Forgiveness level> 3 out of 5
Description: Low EBs cost per model allows for additional activations, allowing you to try different things during the same game. Special rules allowing others to gain activations for things that will happen during normal play add to the forgiveness. Gear is important, may take a bit longer to learn what is good for each character.
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Tyger Claws (Core set): brains- need strategy to make them good but when you have it, they have it
Forgiveness level> 5 out of 5
Description: They are here to play. Options include some of the best characters in the game, Oyaban and Ronin Sniper for two. This faction starts basic as almost any combination of models will be effective, as you learn more about how they interact, you will start to use more influence than you would with other factions. Easy to learn the basics, hard to learn the intricacies.
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Zoners are a street gang and speed if they’re super power. Lots of added activations.
Forgiveness level> 5 out of 5
Description: With Zoners action economy, you have the ability to recover from poor positioning quickly. Risk is Gonks can be huge for this faction when ran properly. They also can be pulled from the game quickly due to poor planning.
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As per todays ruleset (11/16/23) Trauma team is not a stand alone faction and is only playable as Mercs.
Locally, we have created house rules to allow for them to be played as a stand alone faction - see the below Play section for more details.
Description: Using our local guidelines, overall, Trauma Team is fun to play- they definitely play well with each other. If you like a stay back and shoot army, this is it. One of the best snipers in the game plus another sniper as good as most. Add in the “I can react if you are wounded” characters and the synergy is pretty cool.
Cyberpunk Faction Review
Select a faction to see more details.
Each faction has a Forgiveness Level listed. The scale is 1 to 5 where 5 is the most forgiveness. Forgiveness defined as, when you are doing something that isn’t working, can you recover the game.
For more in depth faction notes, continue further down this page to the Faction Tips area.
Game On!
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Demo it.
15-30 Minute Demo Experience
“Hi, welcome to Night City and Cyberpunk Red: Combat Zone. Here, in the combat zone, we have a small skirmish.
For Maelstrom,. we have… [list characters]. For Tyger Claws, we have [list characters]
Please roll your red dice and let’s see who goes first.
Your leader sees my leader from a distance and they are good at shooting. You’re going to take a shot at [Insert target]. Let’s walk through how you do that on your card. You have a Green Action, so that means… [walk through the steps for taking the shot] and have the target defend as normal.
Now you finished that action and therefore your activation as all you wanted to do was take one shot this activation.
Now, my leader is mad because you just took a shot at them so he’s going to use his actions to close range with you. They can use their green action to move so that he’s now in red range. Next they are going to use their green action to punch you with his close combat weapon. [walk-through that punch with the close combat weapon.] and defend as normal.
Be sure to explain ReAct - in both instances, even if no wounds are inflicted.
Facilitator Note: Hopefully by going through a shoot action and a combat action, you will have at least one person get wounded, and therefore show ReAction. By showing Shoot, Combat, and React the players will have a good basis for playiong the game. Everything else is additative - special rules, added gear, programs, list composition, etc.
Should you have additional time in this demo, the next piece to add would be talking about the cards themselves and how it’s similar to an RPG were you have a character they have skills that make them better. They have special rules that enhance what they can do and then of course you can add gear and programs etc. etc. etc..
RESOURCES:
Cyberpunk Red Combat Zone Demo Resources: Includes large size character cards for display while explaining card details, starter box card imagery to help facilitate new players using starters and a Turf War Scenario card for explaining how scenarios function.
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Play It.
Card Sleeves:
Standard size for characters and gonk cards
European Mini size for gear and program cards
Ultrapro 80mm x 127 mm for scenario cards
LOCAL HOUSE RULES
If a scenario does not have a campaign bonus for the winner, refer to “Turf War” Scenario and use those benefits.
Trauma Team as a playable Faction for casual play: As per the “Danger Gal Dosier RPG book, the leader for Trauma Team is Paramedic. Then, use Edgerunner Gear and Program Cards. Additionally, you can run Edgerunner Gonks as they partially fit the story -either a gonk who is tech able and can assist with that or the exec who can act as a sales person for Trauma Team contracts. Think ambulance chaser as an accident scene.
Tournament Play: Cyber-Enhanced Security (Trauma Team) is not allowed as a MERC in local tournament play.
RESOURCES:
CBPR Quick Reference - One Pager: Double sided resource to assist with game play and learning. (Updated 08APR2024)
One Day Campaign Session: Three rounds using Core set scenarios to weave a story of intrigue, espionage, and hacking! Structured for beginners, increase EB’s for more experienced players.
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Compete With It.
Sample Tournament Structure:
Description:
Experience the new skirmish game from Monster Fight Club set in the Cyberpunk reality from R. Talsorian Games. This three round fun tournament will be facilitated by Mack Martin, the game designer for Cyberpunk Red: Combat Zone!
Force Creation:
• Create your force from all items available in your faction starter. This means no gonks as they are not part of those.
• 100 EBs Team
• 4 Street Cred allowing you to bring up to 4 stars of promotions and access to higher EBs gear/programs. These four stars are free ignoring the 5 EBs cost normally part of one off games.
Miniatures: Your miniatures should be Monster Fight Club produced, if using proxies, please be sure they represent the characters they are being used for. Example, if they are a sniper, they should have a rifle.
Schedule: 1.5 Hour Rounds with breaks between.
1:30 Check In
2:00 Round 1
3:30 Break
4:00 Round 2
5:30 Dinner Break
6:30 Round 3
8:00 Awards
Additional Ideas for tournament play:
Scenarios: choose scenarios in advance and have them tell a tory through the event. remove scenarios that may be beneficial to specific factions if possible.
Escalation of EBs through the rounds, start at 100, move to 125, then 150.
End the tournament with the two highest street cred factions playing Prove their worth scenarios
Play It: Campaign Sessions
Cyberpunk Red: Combat Zone has a campaign format as well.
Themed Campaign Session:
Click the image to access a one day campaign using three of the core set scenarios to weave a story of intrigue, espionage and cyber hacking!
Tournament Campaign Session:
Click the image to access a one day Escalation Campaign Event. This session was created by JonJon The Wise.
Faction Tips
Tips and ideas for playing your favorite factions.
More factions will be added in the future.
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Lawmen can be a bit overwhelming when you first pick them up- so many options, so many different play styles. Do you fight with awesome hand to hand K-9’s? Do you focus on shotting and the Sniper is the centerpiece of the team? Which leader do you choose? Three leaders? Two different Gonks? Oh my!
Here are a few tips to help with list creation.
Leader: Try using Hard Boiled Detective - lower EB cost and better staying power due to Embittered.Sarge - When I first started, I didn't think he was a key player. Now, absolutely. His ability to share his Skill helps those who aren't prepared - example, 2 Shooting is nice to share. This also helps with characters like the sniper who do not have combat skills - they can now use Sarge's.
Gear- when you hit 2 SC, a must include is Restraints. I have lost key characters due to the unwieldy zap the card can do. ,
If you like Gonks - use the Ride-A-Long card to pull two gonks from deployment into the battle with Sarge - then use the Tactical Response Rookie and their Stun 1 attack with Sarge's combat skill.
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Ok, first, more gear... more gear... more gear – include as much armor gear as you can afford to stop wounds and help your characters progress across the field so they can do what they do best – smash.
If you run Flenser, have her activate other models to keep the pressure and move your force into brawls together. – yes, it is a roll - but worth the attempt. Remember – it is a command action so once the other model is activated, Flensers activation ends.
Both Warlord and Crusher get actions back when their special rule is triggered - be sure to take advantage of this - to move faster and then to punch more. Warlord should be punching as often as possible in brawls to flip Maelstrom action tokens. You can delay one, maybe two inspires when he is fighting well.
If you have Munitions Specialist – equip him with Netrunner to bring the Puppet Master Program - this either makes one of your own models take a free action or you can activate one of your opponent’s models and have them attack their friends – very Maelstrom like.
Spikey Leathers and Sledge Hammers are great gear to include. Spikey Leathers is a gonk killer.
Playing one-off games? Pay the veteran fees for Warlord to be two stars - three green actions and his stat bumps will be worth the 10 EBs. Crusher Veteran - extra punchy for 5 EBs. Lastly, if you want 4 Street Cred for gear access - bump Berserker one star for the extra green action.
These veterans now have a lot of green to move you where you need to be and 3-4 Street Cred to take more enhanced gear.
Playing campaigns? Early on, it may be better to focus on completing objectives vs winning battles. Winning is important, however, objectives give your faction long lasting boosts that can make winning easier.
Strontium Cow
The Strontium Cow, originally released as part of the initial Kickstarter launch, is a beast of a close combat warrior, with more actions, stronger combat skill and stronger armor value than most of the characters in the game.
Locally, we developed this addendum to the Cow scenarios to address some opportunities we found in the current versions of those cow specific scenarios.
Strontium Cow Scenarios:
• Activation Order: The cow is last in cycle of player activations and will use all available actions based on the below.
• Actions: When the cow activates, before or after the move, if a model is within red, the cow must do attack actions until the red range is clear of rivals.
• Movement:
o Each activation, the cow must try to move, if rivals are within red range, the cow does not move and will fight.
o The cow moves in a random direction using the obstacle die as a directional unless it has a rider then follows saddle rules
o The cow moves the distance of the action token used in a straight line based on obstacle die until it hits any piece of terrain or another model. This may mean the cow does not move the full green distance. The cow cannot walk off the board edge unless that is specific to the scenario.
• Reactions: The cow always reacts if it has active tokens- if reacting to being hit with a ranged attack from outside of red range, the cow reacts by moving randomly using the obstacle die as a directional
• Inspire: The cow will inspire whenever it activates and has no actions
• Special notes:
o The cow cannot climb or jump
o The cow can be hacked, as farmers put chips in their animals
• Optional: Include ramming rules from the Vehicle Beta ruleset for when the Cow moves into a rival model.
2 Player Starter Set: 2nd Printing VS Original
MFC recently released a 2nd Printing of the Cyberpunk Red: Combat Zone 2 Player Starter Set. Let’s look at the updated parts.
I tried to catch them all, if you find other functional differences please email len@expandedrealmsgaming.com and I will add them here.
Multi-part Combat Zone Terrain Set: New building imagery and cutout patterns - see front and back pics. Plastic corners arrive in a bag instead of on sprue! (THANK YOU!) Additional scatter terrain used a x-slot system instead of the plastic Y-E-S clips.
22” x 30” Double-sided game board: Now folds into a rectangle vs almost square
Now includes 2x Purple D4 dice
More Game Tokens: 24 additional Green, 17 additional yellow, 6 additional Red
Updated Rulebook.
New Scenario Booklet replaces Scenario Cards - (perfect for people like me who use readers. :-)
New instruction sheet for terrain and miniature building
Miniatures:
Crusher - V2 - mini looks very much the same, but the tab says V2 - possibly a crisper print?
Ripper Arms sprue is dated 2023 - arms look the same, possibly a new weaponless arm?
Character Cards:
Skull icon has been moved onto the action icon for weapons.
Assault Rifle format has been changed, while remaining functionally the same - See Onee-San.
Flenser and Beserker point values corrected..
Ronin Sniper No-Star and One-Star are now printed the same - Possibly a mistake - reported to MFC.
Gear & Program Cards:
Cards sleeves for these are now American Mini sized instead of European mini
Text format has been changed so fluff text is now at the bottom of the card.
Generic: 4 fronts, 2 backs have been functionally updated - see images for old vs new pics..
Coordinated Surge range changed to Red only
Coordinate Surge text “+1” changed white to black
Nervous System Overload changed to Red only.
Buffer Zone text updated for clarity
