Bloody brilliant The Walking Dead miniatures game All Out War is coming back in 2024
After being discontinued two years ago.
The Walking Dead: All Out War, the miniatures game based on the zombie comic series that later inspired the hit TV show of the same name, is returning to tabletops next year after a two-year hiatus.
All Out War released in 2016, adapting the characters and post-apocalyptic world of Robert Kirkman and Tony Moore’s long-running comic books into a skirmish wargame that combined player-on-player battles between bands of human survivors with their need to deal with roaming packs of flesh-eating undead.
Designer Mark Latham’s straightforward rules helped power intense, close-combat scraps between small gangs of survivors - whether Rick Grimes’ group or Negan, The Governor and their minions - with the added consideration that letting off any bullets or making noise might draw zombies towards you.
At the same time, the undead could be manipulated to cause problems for your opponents if used strategically. A survival-horror element ran through the gameplay, with limited ammo meaning players would need to scavenge their environment for supplies mid-fight.
Across a five-year run, All Out War expanded on its core set - named after the comic arc that sees Rick sparring with the baseball bat-swinging Negan - with seven waves of expansions progressing the miniatures game’s own storyline, adding foes such as the skin-wearing Whisperers.
The game also span out into standalone dungeon-crawling board game Here’s Negan and rulebook supplement Call to Arms, a variant of the rules allowing models to be used in larger-scale battles. Other alternate modes supported co-op and solo play, with the option to play through a campaign of scenarios inspired by the comic book as well as one-off skirmishes.
In 2022, miniatures studio Mantic Games and Walking Dead publisher Skybound announced that All Out War would come to an end, with the game’s miniatures discontinued at the end of that March.
Now, almost two years later, Mantic has revealed that The Walking Dead: All Out War will be returning with a relaunch and new wave of releases landing in 2024.
Mantic confirmed that the plans include both new models and new rules, teasing that the returning game will pick up where it left off with boxes based around the Commonwealth arc of the comics. Those releases will include a heroes pack and a pack of troopers from the walled city. The publisher added its plans to reprint older models for new players and existing fans aiming to fill out their collection.
Release dates for The Walking Dead: All Out War’s new releases and reprints are yet to be confirmed, with Mantic saying only that pre-orders will go live in early 2024 - so expect a likely release sometime after that.