The early 21st century saw a rise in religious and economic tensions and fanaticism. New powers were formed, including Europa in 2036 (with Britain, which was now calling itself the Commonwealth, and Russia only joining as partial members), the Americas in 2041 and the Vatacina, risen from the remains of the Church, seven years later. By 2050, the world was still recovering from the Religious Wars that had shaken the earth. The wars had left millions homeless and natural disasters had been left unchecked. Global warming, pollution, rises in sea level, poisonous clouds of smog and heightened solar radiation all took their toll on mankind. Because of the squalid conditions on Earth, Asia Pacific made a fortune by purchasing the abandoned Moon Project in 2051 and establishing habitats on our one natural satellite. One year later, the Central Security Organization (CSO) – an independent military and law enforcement body funded by all member states and corporations – was formed and the UN was replaced by Unipol.

During the next few years, advances in drive technology made the colonisation of Mars possible. On one of its larger asteroids, a penitentiary for hardened criminals dubbed the Rock was founded.

In 2072, Asia Pacific (APAC) became the first incorporated state. Three years later, the CSO closed all of its precincts in Russia. Nothing could have prepared the world nations for the Pale Horse virus, however. Released by a secretive cult called the Beholden, it devastated the African continent. Eventually, the remains of the African countries united in the Nile Empire, inspiring the remnants of the Indian states to form the Raj in 2086, only two years before Russia dissolved and warlords started to fight one another for territory.

The end of the 21st century saw the Commonwealth sending sleeper ships to the Alpha Centauri system and the Vaticana recruiting teenagers born with telepathic powers as God’s children. By now, the Grid – a series of Earth and Moon-based supercomputers that made wireless communication to anywhere on the planet and off-world settlements possible – had become fully operational and most citizens started to receive their first fully integrated neural interfaces by the age of 13 starting in the year 2101.

The early 22nd century saw Mars getting a breathable atmosphere thanks to terra-forming, as well as the first murder of a human by a robot, the first automatic marker message from the Commonwealth sleeper ships that had now reached Alpha Centauri, the first submersible city (New New York) and the creation of the Market, a huge AI-controlled space station that became a star in its own right.

In 2124, Arvunk Enterprises and Havat became engaged in the first Corporate War. Later, Elysium Inc. started using technology based on sleeper tubes used for deep-space travel and neural interfaces to suspend the bodily functions of their clients while leaving their brains functioning to enjoy fantasies of their choosing.

The Robot Rights Movement and the first live messages from the Commonwealth colonies (in 2141), revealing the discovery of habitable worlds and non-sentient life, sparked several exoduses into outer space: the Dalai Lama and 8,000 of his followers moved to Mars in 2147, a number of artificial intelligences emigrated to the Uranus system in 2150, and after the Replicant Wars, a large group of replicants stole four sleeper ships and headed off in 2162. Meanwhile, the Sword of the Stars and its crew of 3 million had disappeared through a wormhole created with new technology and transmissions of unknown origins had not been made public by the colonies of Alpha Centauri.

In 2148, Rezolution DT – the premier underground meeting place for ghosts and hackers – had gone online, spawning several legendary ghosts during the next three decades.

It is now 2175. During the previous year, unidentified craft were recorded near the Sigma Prime colony on Centuari, tensions between the Commonwealth and other Earth Nations increased, the CSO reported incidents within corporate-controlled areas have risen by 120%, the Gate Project finally came online and vicious storms were reported to have claimed a number of settlements on Mars, leaving the Commonwealth to believe that foul play and corporate subterfuge is involved.

What is it?

Rezolution is a fast-paced miniature battles game. The focus is on individuals and not on rank & file troops, which means that players usually take control of small groups.

At its core, Rezolution presents four different factions: the Central Security Agency (CSO), which is the world’s military and judiciary force, Asia Pacific (APAC), the world’s first incorporated state, which blends honour and tradition with state-of-the-art technology, the Dravani, aliens who arrived on earth accidentally centuries ago and now adopt disguises to keep man from finding out about them, and the Ronin, a very diverse group of people who don’t seem to exist within the system and thus make ideal operatives for many countries or corporations. Ronin can be used as an individual faction or as mercenaries.

Mechanics

Rezolution uses six-sided dice and the very handy Deviation Dice, which consists of a small die within a larger transparent d6. It is used to determine deviation for template weapons and random movement. Each side of the inner die shows an arrow representing the direction of deviation, while each side of the outer die shows a figure representing the number of inches of deviation. This is a great help, even though it basically accomplishes exactly the same thing as a standard deviation die showing only arrows rolled together with a standard d6.

Opposed rolls are made by rolling 2d6 and adding the required attribute and any modifiers. Other actions require rolling a number of six-sided dice (usually 2d6), adding the appropriate attribute and trying to equal or beat a static target number. A lot of actions or items grant re-rolls or additional dice. A roll of double 1 is a critical failure, while a roll of double 6 is a critical success.

Models are mounted on round bases and are assumed to have a fire arc of 180°. The three possible sizes are small, medium and large, with average humans being medium-sized. All minis come with their own data cards, so players won’t need to flip through the pages of their books all the time. A group of miniatures (called, for example, a warband in other games) is called a crew. The data cards also include the Crew Allowance (the number of independent models or teams of that type you may have in an entire crew) and the Team Allowance (the minimum and maximum number of figures of that type allowed in a team). Of course, each model also has a point value.

A crew can belong to one faction only, but 25% of the point value can be made up of Mercs or Ronin.

Independent models can operate autonomously, but can also join teams (giving them the benefit of their leaderships and skills) or form teams with other independent models. Minis within a team must usually stay within a distance of 3” of each other. A crew cannot include multiple named characters with the same name. Certain actions require a model with the Leadership skill to give an order within 6” of the active model. Independent models don’t need to be given orders, though, and teams can only be given or receive one order per round. Ranged or close combat attacks don’t need an order to be given.

Certain models have a HAK attribute, which means they can connect to a terrain feature that has been designated as a Hard-Point Terminal before play starts to become hardwired. This adds a very interesting dimension to the game, adding more tactical options and possible assignments.

Minis have the following attributes: Movement (the number of inches it can move, although it can also run at double speed if it performs no other actions), Ranged Combat Attack (RCA – added to the opposed roll when shooting), Close Combat Attack (CCA – added to the opposed roll when defending or attacking in close-quarter fighting), Size and Agility (SAG – added to the defender’s opposed roll in ranged combat), Body (BDY – the target number needed to be damaged, also used to add a number of six-sided dice of damage in close combat equal to the difference between the BDY of the attacker and the BDY of the defender if the attacker has a higher Body), Nerve (NRV – a character’s mental toughness and leadership abilities), HACK (HAK – skill at cracking security and computer systems), Craft (CRFT – the ability to use mental powers), Reputation (REP – used to help determine the order of play).

Each data card has a handy damage gauge. Boxes are checked when taking damage. At certain levels of damage, a model will receive negative modifiers to its attributes. When the last box has been reached, it is considered dead or grievously injured and removed from play.

Each game round consists of a single control phase, followed by a number of turns equal to the number of teams and independent models in play. The order of play is determined at the start of the round. During his or her turn, a player activates one model or team, after which the next player chooses one model or team of his or her own to activate. Turns alternate between players, making for a fast-paced game with not many dull moments. There’s no entire army that needs to be moved before the next player can do something, so there’s not much time to get bored, which is excellent. Also, because of the opposed rolls needed during combat, all players stay actively involved in the game. This is an advantage Rezolution has over other games, where a fixed target number needs to be rolled.

There are rules for encumbered movement, random movement, compulsory movement, rallying, carrying other models, jumping, climbing, falling, prone and stunned models, different types of terrains, orders and special actions, guards, automatic fire, firing at multiple targets, using double weapons, cover, thrown and template weapons, indirect fire, armour, elevation, charging, parrying, multiple combatants, free strikes and breaking off, back strikes, using the Grid and inner abilities, and much more. All of these rules are very elegant. Without becoming too complicated, a lot of tactical options are available, making for an involved game. In fact, all of the rules and the assignments fit on the 44-page booklet included in the boxed sets, and that’s including a table of contents (which this rulebook is sadly lacking), diagrams, a few photographs and templates. The setting information and the statistics and flavour texts for all of the factions in this rulebook isn’t included in the booklet accompanying those sets, though.

Assignments

The assignments included in Rezolution are more varied than the missions presented in most miniature combat rulebooks. Ranging from ‘king of the Grid’ and infiltration to demolition and extraction, these assignments should inspire players to come up with a multitude of possible scenarios. In addition, this rulebook provides information on the Butcher of Baker Street (presented as an audio diary entry by Adjudicator Emily Harrington) and three types of robots (including sentinel turrets).

Factions

The factions take up about half of the book. There’s quite a lot of flavour text and background information here. In fact, even the statistic blocks include flavour text. For example, before the Ghost’s remote board statistic block, a boxed text reads: “Yeah, I know it looks like a basic Rad Shop model, but believe me this honey’s souped – I’ve even got a APAC crystal matrix drive in it”. CSO Rangers have a garrotte, with the boxed text reading “The mono-filament wire sliced easily through flesh and bone; he stepped back to avoid the arterial spray and caught the accusing eyes of the guard looking up at him from the floor as his body, still standing, swayed before crumpling next to his head”. Fun! These texts lessen the readability of some statistic blocks somewhat, but are much appreciated and definitely add something extra to this game. Again, this is a miniatures game about individuals and small teams, and everything here – rules, texts, short stories – is geared towards more personal, fast-moving, small scale combat. Everything fits and it’s tough to find false notes here, which means the designers focused heavily on the concept here. This is excellent game design at work.

Excellent game design, that’s what was needed to give all of the factions a distinctive flavour. Ronins look like ‘standard’ cyberpunks and are a very diverse lot, CSO troopers are appropriately militaristic with some 1920’s-style private eye (ranger) types and robots thrown in, the Dravani use human Vassals (dressed as if a top fashion designer has made their outfits), but look like something out of a Giger nightmare, crossed with German existentialist art and Lovecraftian imagery and the APAC consists of really cool-looking Japanese characters based on violent manga, ninja symbolism and stylised art, including two sleek Tactical Assault and Defense Suits. And then there’s the Mercs: Shadow Assassin (think Dark Angel ninja merges with Spidey’s black costume), the Cadinal & Sister Carmine (Queenrÿche’s Mary meets gothic doom), the African Emissary of the Empire (black heroine gets Jaffa staff), Captain Doyle (Nathan Fillion finally gets dual energy pistols so that he won’t puncture the hull of Serenity), Toxic Zombies (desert mutants invade Mega City One after being redesigned by Romero) and SecuriClones (who don’t get statistic blocks).

Look & Feel

There’s a lot of flavour text sprinkled throughout the book. Short stories, boxed texts, reports, ‘audio recordings’ and more, it’s all in there. Players familiar with Shadowrun or BattleTech will be familiar with this approach, but the presentation here is more coherent. There’s not much really new here except for some very interesting concepts (such as the submersible city New New York and the intelligent and very famous spaceship Market), but in only 216 pages, game designer Simon Mackenzie and his team of writers deliver a fluid game system AND an interesting setting. The entire background feels very consistent, which is a very good thing. In fact, this could be the framework for a role-playing game, so maybe we can look forward to an RPG being released in the near future. It’s no wonder that Rezolution was nominated for an Origins award.

The soft cover may be a little too soft and can’t stand too much punishment, but the lay-out inside is pretty good, with a two column text on a grey background. Illustrations are used liberally and range from decent to very good. Some illustrations have been cut to fit their allotted space, though, which is a shame. The 16 full-colour pages in the middle of the book look great and include illustrations and pictures. Even though reading or even flipping through the book just once should familiarize readers with the order in which all information is presented, there’s one oversight here: no table of contents is provided, and neither is an index. Mostly, the writing is good, but there’s some poor use of the English language. Too bad, but don’t let that deter you from buying this game, as this is one of the better small-scale miniature combat games out there. In addition, there’s a lot of (free) support on the Rezolution website and there’s even a nice-looking free (16 page) magazine available as a PDF. Excellent!

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