I played my first game of this last night at my club and had a lot of fun. There were four of us, working in pairs to play each 3-person squad and none of us had played this or any other Exploit Zero-related game before.

The fact that I was able to pick up the game rules in the early afternoon, print them out and prepare my minis etc later that day, and then 'host' a game for my friends that evening speaks volumes. There was plenty happening, lots of exciting close calls, definitely some tactical and other errors, all of which made for a memorable evening. I can see us trying this again before long!

Amongst the many things that made the game work was the largely pre-set units (which cut down set-up, 'list buidling' time) coupled with the quick to generate objective-focused game - it wasn't simply a "destroy your enemy" affair, which gave the game all the more depth.

A little gem of fast and furious skirmish Mission Critical is a condensed and sharpened version of Hostile Takeover, with only 3 units per side (Ronin, Razor and Specialist) fighting for the control of Tactical Assets on a battlefield of limited size (2x2). It is the perfect game for those times when you look for serious wargaming action but have only limited time and limited space. Dice mechanims are the usual ones in Patrick Todoroff's universe (3 actions, D6, D8, D10 - success on 4+). They are both simple and elegant, and allow for fast moving games. The three units are well differentiated and it rapidly appears that protecting the Specialist (who is best to interact with the Tactical Assets) rapidly becomes an objective in itself. Although probably designed with competitive play in mind, this set of rules is equally pleasing in a narrative style of play. Ease of play, elegant mechanisms, tactical depth... What else can we ask? Highly recommended to all the skirmish fans.