"The Space Between" - Space Station Zero and Zombicide: Invader

In the heart of deepest space – 

millions of light years from the nearest system, 

star, or planet – resides an improbable structure, 

floating in the silent darkness. 

Massive and ancient beyond imagination, 

it sleeps… waiting for wayward travelers 

to find their new home.

- Snarling Badger

Hello Caesurians one and all! Welcome back to The Art of Caesura!

Way back in 2019, CMoN (R.I.P.) launched the next in their long line of Zombicide games...Zombicide: Invader, which featured zombies IN SPACE! 

Having already bought, painted, played and loved Zombicide: Black Death and Green Horde (a fantasy version of the game - with both vanilla and orc and goblin flavoured versions), I jumped right into Invader when it arrived. 

As is my wont, I got really excited by this game, read the rule book and planned which characters I would "main" before being dazzled by other shinies (my Black Templar neophytes, in this case) and moving on. 

Then, fast forward a few years on, to 2022, when Snarling Badger Studios (Vince Venturella and Adam Loper) released their new game, Space Station Zero (which was something of a miniatures-agnostic Blackstone Fortress). Note the "miniatures-agnostic" part...

I was really drawn into this game, I read the rule book and took great delight in crafting my team - coming up with identities and roles for my crew members, as well as deciding on their special skills and equipment. The fact that the game was miniature agnostic (you are encouraged to use whichever miniatures you have lying around) really sparked my imagination.

I decided from the get-go that I wanted to use as few Games Workshop minis as possible because, as seems to be the case with the minis used in the photography in the rule book, GW minis are just too recognisable and for me they are too entrenched in 40k. It would be hard for me to suspend my disbelief of seeing a Techmarine charging up to a control panel and tell myself that he was just a "combat engineer" rather than a subject of the Omnissiah interfacing with a Servitor. Anyway, that was just my hang-up, but it meant that I got to delve deeper in to my miniatures collection...

And here we come full circle. I dug out Zombicide: Invader and started looking through the tremendous diversity of minis to see which ones would fit my idea of what would work for Space Station Zero, and the answer was...all of them! They are all so fun and full of character (and pop culture references)!

I took great joy in planning my crew: I planned the various identities and roles and equipment and skills they would have within my team and then compared these traits with the actual physical traits of the Zombicide miniatures to ensure that they were appropriately represented. 

So fasten your seat belt as we boldly go back to the future of 2019, 2022 and now 2026 as we spend the next bunch of weeks looking at the painting of these minis, as well as their stats and roles within my crew for this Space Station Zero / Zombicide: Invader mashup. 

Tune in next week as we begin our look in earnest right here on The Art of Caesura!

Watching: Vladamir (Netflix)

Reading: One Hundred Years of Solitude - Marquez

Next Week: 

I AM THE LAW!