Mission Critical Exploit Zero

Earlier this week I hosted a trial run of Exploit Zero's Mission Critical', a cyberpunk skirmish game, at my local wargaming club, Axes & Ales. As usual, it was a was a relaxed evening filled with good friends, strategic choices, and even a little surprise art in the mix.

Pre-game Preparation

Earlier in the week I had painted up six Japanese Kabouchi-inspired cyberpunk miniatures. I actually believe they originated from the Zombicide game, and they came to me courtesy of my mate Rob. It was great to surprise him on the night with the newly painted minis, featuring bright patterns that nod to traditional Japanese prints. As for the rule book, I printed out the 16-pages, grabbed a handful of dice, tokens, my cardboard shantytown terrain, packed my kit, then rode down to the club 🚴

What's Exploit Zero and Mission Critical?

Exploit Zero is set in a cyberpunk future and designed by Patrick Todoroff, who's written a heap of great games. Mission Critical is its quick, six-turn match that emphasizes tactical decisions and hidden objectives rather than just straightforward combat. In a game where every turn counts, that extra layer of strategy makes all the difference. It's played on a 2x2 board and uses a total of 6 miniatures.

 

The Agents

Each team in Mission Critical fields three Agents, each with their own role and specialities:

• Ronin (Shooter): This character gets a bonus die when firing, comes with a small stash of grenades, and can run a one-time Combat Augmentation Protocol (CAP) to saturate an area with fire.
• Razor (Melee): The specialist who thrives in close combat
• Hacker (Cyber Warfare): The go-to for handling digital operations and hacking tasks.

The limited team coupled with specialist roles means every decision is important, and coordinating each Agent’s unique abilities makes for a dynamic and engaging game.

Hidden Objectives and Tactical Gameplay

One of the features in Mission Critical that caught my attention was the use of hidden objectives. In our match, my team’s secret mission was to hack a Data Node while our opponents were busy trying to set detonation charges near our deployment zone. This meant that rather than just trying to eliminate each other, both teams had to juggle standard combat with achieving their secret tasks.

The game uses an interesting dice activation system to keep things engaging:

• Activation: Every time you activate an agent, they get a free move plus a set of three dice—a d6, d8, and d10—to use on whatever action you choose.
• Action Resolution: When you decide on an action (like moving or shooting), you pick one dice and need to roll a 4 or higher for it to count.
• Damage Impact: If an agent takes a hit, they lose dice from their activation pool (the d10 goes first, then the d8, etc). This adds an extra layer of decision-making throughout the game.

That individual Dice Pool that's used for each Agent is a great touch - how it's used for both Activations and Damage/Wound tracking is clever. It is really suited for small, skirmish games - I've tried similar mechanics in bigger, higher model count games, but I don't feel they really work at that scale etc. Not that it worries me - I'm a fan of skirmish games first and foremost.

Another cool element is that every agent starts off incognito. Their actual role only comes to light once they engage in combat or take damage, creating an interesting layer of uncertainty.

How the Evening Unfolded

Playing Mission Critical brought to mind several other games. The dice shift mechanic is somewhat reminiscent of what's used in Terminator Genisys, while the multiple activations and target numbers echo elements from Rogue Planet. Finally, the compact board and resource management aspects have similarities with my experiments with Skullcore.

We played the game over the standard six turns. Mission points were awarded for not just battling it out but also for completing those hidden objectives, hacking Tactical Assets (which also impacted the game too), and avoiding our own casualties. The game ended in a tie, which was fine and exciting all the same. While we were all still getting the hang of the system, it was great to see different strategies emerge as each of us experimented with the mechanics.

Looking Ahead

I’m already looking forward to trying the game again some time. In a couple of weekends, our club is hosting a swap meet and gaming day, and I’m considering running another session with a cyberpunk twist. Besides giving Mission Critical another try, I’m also curious to see what Hostile Takeover has to offer which is less 'quick' and a little more detailed with a cooperative campaign too.