Blood Berets (1993)

Overview

Blood Berets was Target Games first entry into the American gaming market. It preceded the later, more popular boardgames (Mutant Chronicles: Siege of the Citadel and Fury of the Clansmen) and the English release of the roleplaying game on which it was based. Blood Berets is only slightly more complex than Siege of the Citadel and Fury of the Clansmen because it is really not much more than a streamlined version of the roleplaying game's combat system.

This game included many of the rules of popular wargames, including a chit-based initiative system, cover, hidden deployment, and model facing. It too used Target Games's one hit, one armor roll system (with a d20) for fast action. This game was distinguished by a card for each character. When the character was hit once (or twice, for the Nepharites), the card was turned over, revealing an injured portrait and lower stats for the injured character. When the character was hurt twice (or four times, for the Nepharites), it died. The game is enjoyable, but since it has only three mission scenarios, it does not lend itself to much variation upon repeat plays. The human player is aware of the general location of mutants through the use of his "scanner" - which is counters placed on various tiles (revealed when a tile is overturned and replaced with the appropriate miniature). Even so, the game is an enjoyable introduction to the roleplaying game and is very adaptable for those gamers who like to tinker with rules systems to develop their own variants. The subsequent development of Warzone as a tabletop miniatures wargame added a large number of metal miniatures that could be used in variants of the game.

Probably the most innovative part of the game (for its time) was the inclusion of 18 plastic miniatures for playing the game, each in its own foam compartment neatly stored in the bottom of the box. Six Blood Berets were included (1 Sgt., 1 Medic, and 4 Grunts), 10 Undead Legionnaires, and 2 Nepharites (bad guy leaders). Heartbreaker produced a limited line of miniatures suitable for use with Blood Berets shortly after the game was released. These miniatures were lead and featured the Bauhaus Rangers with the Deathlockdrum machine gunner and Sgt. with 4 Grunts. There were also lead minis of Nepharites and Undead Legionnaires.

A rare poster-magazine called "Sinkadus" 39 & 40 that was produced by Target Games AB only in Sweden, added an expansion to Blood Berets. New scenarios, rules, items and pretorian stalkers.