Budget wargame Skirmish gives you Warhammer-like battles for a tenner
The only miniature thing here is the cost.
A new game has launched on Kickstarter that aims to offer the tactical battles of wargames such as Warhammer for only a tenner.
Skirmish: Wallet-Friendly Wargaming is the debut game from Biscuit Fund Games, a studio co-founded by designers Chloe Montgomery and Alyssa Ridley.
Unlike the miniatures-heavy armies of Warhammer and other wargames, all Skirmish requires is an eight-by-eight grid - the designers suggest a chess board, or simply drawing a grid on paper - and some dice of differing values, from the familiar six-sided cube up to the d20 favoured by the likes of D&D.
The dice represent different units, with the visible face displaying the unit’s remaining health - making a d20 much tougher to eliminate than a d6. The game can also be played without dice, by using components such as scraps of paper or other makeshift tokens.
Players can compete either to complete specific objectives, such as protecting a particular unit or reaching a target space, or wipe out their opponent’s army. The two players then take turns to issue movement and action orders. Skirmish includes rules for full and half cover, which can be added to the battlefield during setup by both players.
Skirmish’s core rulebook includes the game’s rules along with the first in what its creators have dubbed narrative ‘chronicles’ set in the world, The Tamerlane Wars. The Tamerlane Wars sees the magic-using Ventrasse Alliance, led by the eponymous witch-queen, and war machine Mordaunt Empire clash, with five different armies for each side of the conflict.
The softback book also includes guidelines on creating custom chronicles, units, armies and gameplay variants, with making custom content said to be as straightforward as completing a table. The game’s flexible rules are said to support a range of themes and settings - velociraptors and battleships are suggested as two of the varied factions possible to create.
The Kickstarter campaign for Skirmish: Wallet-Friendly Wargaming has already passed its £700 funding target with almost a month left on the clock; the campaign will run until September 16th. The campaign’s stretch goal of £1,500 will unlock a second book, the Collaborator Chronicles, featuring armies created by contributors to the game.
Skirmish’s PDF rulebook can be picked up for £10, while the physical A5 rulebook is £15. The game is expected to arrive with backers in January 2021.