Played InCountry (modern-day BLKOUT) with one of the BLKOUT reps at Adepticon and he described it as Infinity for people who don’t have time, and it feels like a perfect elevator pitch.
This sort of thing, along with the 'why I like it' series, are my favourite videos you do. It's not always easy to find out about games and they really help to highlight some stuff I would like to try. Particularly skirmish games on a 24x24, fits nicely on my kitchen table and I now have a decent sci fi cityscape to fight over.
I'm waiting on Swill. The Turnip28 game has been a blast. And it's not really full armies either. It's a bit somewhere between army and skirmish. But a skirmish game set in the same world is really appealing to me.
I cant recommend burrows and badgers highly enough. Has a fun roll-off mechanic and a light but fun persistent campaign rules. It's like mordhiem with animals. great minis too
There are some B&B solo rules available free from the publisher’s website. Rules for creating villain warbands, enemy AI flowcharts, and several mission types. I haven’t played them
B&B is very unbalanced. The crit system is horrible and just makes bigger creatures even more dangerous. I've lost whole warbands in a game and in a campaign you'll never recover.
Mythic Earth by mythicos studios. I currently own a Maya, Aztec, and Inuit force. Real world cultures with some fantasy thrown in the mix such as quetzalcoatl, camazotz, undead giants, and massive wolves. Rules are free and they even have a skirmish game.
Lmao "Neal Blomkamp style" is a super apt description for the style, I've generally spoken of it as "artstation scifi concept art photobash weta workshop call of duty black ops 3 style" which is admittedly more of a mouthful. Tho weta workshop specifically I think is why Blomkamp's scifi looks the way it does. That movie last year, The Creator, also had a very similar visual styling, and they also worked with Weta workshop.
Some of the models remind me of the robot soldiers from Titanfall. Honestly, if someone made proxies for BLKOUT using Titnfall designs, I'd probably get into it.
If you like the "Neal Blomkamp Style", you can get something from the "original" designers. Weta Workshop did designs for Chappie, District 9 (and many other movies) and offer a skirmisher (boardgame) with giant killer robots in this style: "GKR Heavy Hitters". Its end-of-line, but now you get it from them really cheap, and if you like a quick skirmisher, its very casual and quick to play. (They just obtained some warhammer license, so if you want you can drop down 1.2k$ (NZ) for a Lieutenant Titus Mini (in scale 1:6, so not so mini))
Feudal Patrol is a game I’ve been considering for some time. It’s by Buck Surdu, author of the WWII skirmish rules Combat Patrol, which I own but have not played, and, like CP, published by Sally Forth in the UK. It is equally suited to historical and fantasy settings, with card-based mechanics.
It may not be super new, but Cyberpunk Red Combat Zone is amazing. The ReAction system is so fun and makes combat feel alive, and there’s a lot of room for roleplaying and interactivity. The main negative is the model’s material of soft plastic and its tendency for nasty mould lines that need a very sharp hobby knife. But that’s pretty minor overall
Thirded. it's the most clever, quick to learn and to run, and straight-up fun skirmish game I've played in years. Future generations of game creators will be stealing from Combat Zone.
I picked this up at adepticon and love the rule set. I call it Necromunda if it was designed by Fantasy Flight Games of the 2010's. All your stats are on cards and upgrades are also on cards. There's also a good number of factions to choose from. Minis need some quality control but the sculpts are great.
Warsurge is worth a look. Can be played from Skirmish to Army depending on points and how you build your force. Various play styles from easy/beginner to a much more advanced game. Fully customizable to any minis you have and also provided with many army lists to dive right in. Another cool feature is the app you can use to build forces/weapons with.
Currently running a Tanks for the Apocalypse campaign, we have had two practice games with no objectives and 7 participants, we go campaign Tuesday. Ran a Silver Bayonet campaign over Christmas. Just bought my second copy of Majestic 13 to give as a birthday present to one in the group. And lastly, for now, just got in the Quar starter set, such a cool looking game.
Ttcombat (the company behind dropzone commander, dropfleet commander and a lot of mdf terrain) has been teasing striketeam commander as a skirmish with infantry supported by vehicles. We don't know much beyond that yet, but the premise seems fun and they'll probably unveil more details in 2 weeks at ukge.
I've been enjoying CORE Mech Warfare from the Nth Level. It's played with 1-3 1/144 gunpla models per side and hast a simple ressource Management component. Your mech generates energy each turn and everything you do is paid with energy. As you Store unused energy for later turns, you have to decide when to burn your energy. Really easy to pick up and I like to assemble 1/144 scale gunpla models like the 30 Minutes Mission series from bandai.
Blkout is sick. My friends and I all got into Killteam a few months ago, and after a few games, I said I wanted to try Blkout. The rules were free so it was easy to just use our Killteam minis as standins. We haven't played Killteam again since. It's such a great game! It's so streamlined and punishing. It's dead easy to learn, and puts a lot more weight on strategic positioning instead of the abilities and stats of whatever team you ended up going with.
Blkout is definitely one I'm going to try out. Patiently waiting for my work bonus to get the 2 player set. Seems like a fun skirmish game to play when I don't want to play giant army battles.
Picked up Actung Panza from Warlord which I very much am enjoying and picked up Verretwood because of the the folklore aesthetic, the core rules cant be classed as new but the old west supplement looks really interesting and I can use my wild west terrain in it.
I'm waiting on Five Parsecs: Planetfall. Solo Planetary exploration and colonisation mini-agnostic skirmish with procedural campaign. I've playtested it and it's another winner. (Yes, I'm a Nordic Weasel fanboi). It takes the best of 5P and 5L and scrunches them together beautifully, with the world map being generated through play, colony events and development, scientific research, all good stuff.
I have to say, I love the design of the BLKOUT infantry, especialyl with those blocky angular helmetsmade up almost entirely of visor. that'S some good shit.
New...ish : HALO : Flashpoint by Mantic Games. Ok, it's a re-skin of the tried and proved skirmish game system for Deadzone but it might make it more popular with this new IP stuck to it. It's a great skirmish game played on a 2x2 board that started up, if I'm not mistaken, with Mars Attacks. The movement and ranges, calculated in 3''x3''x3'' cubes which is a great accelerator. The system is, for me, the perfect mix of crunchiness and simplicity. Definitely worth a newish look...
Cheap in what sense? The quality of the pre-primed minis, which look great IMHO? The fact that they're putting hardstock scenery instead of their regular plastic one to lower the buy-in cost and reduce the time/skill set necessary to have a nice board? The production value of the rulebook? The proven simplicity and efficiency of the ruleset? Might not work for you, but it might for a lot of others though...
I was all for it until they revealed that its basically an emulation of Halo multiplayer, and in the less popular 343 era to boot. Not interested in any of that at all. The multiplayer for Halo Infinite is free to play, so why would I spend hours painting models to get a lesser experience? They said that other units and factions will come if it sells well enough but I'm like...idk Halo hasn't been relevant in like 5+ years. The only attention its gotten recently have been regarding its terrible show and lackluster gaming experience. They should have come out with a Bungie-era REACH box or a HALO 3 multiplayer game to really pull in the long time fans with that sweet sweet nostalgia bait. I'll stick with the fan driven Halo Ground Command.
@@DarthP00P00 valid opinion... but why spend hours painting models? Because I like it :) Same resaon I paint historicals even though I do reenactments. Same reason I paint modern stuff even though I play Milsim airsoft. If you like miniature wargaming and you like the subject : it's might be enjoyable to reproduce the subject on the tabletop, no? Especially if the game rules are a good match for you.
One additional thought to add, a lot of these games are independent small games ran by small companies. The support for Steel Rift, from Death Ray Designs, from this video has been awesome! We’re a small company with a handful of employees and all of you who have taken the dive into the game? You’re not online helping us grow the game, you’re making sure we have food for our tables. Thanks for the shout out Uncle A!
I'm getting obsessed with BLKOUT. Read the free rules, tried a few games with printed cards and proxy minis (yes, even the big bots) and it's just so much fun. As the new big box from GW doesn't really click with me at all, my resources will be diverted towards this title.
I bought two 4 man squads for blkout a while ago and forgot (this was before the 2 player starter set). I’m painting them up now and got the starter set as well, joined the discord etc.
Its not skirmish, but I'm liking the rules/models for 'Full Spectrum Dominance' by the STL creator The Lazy Forger. 6mm small band wargame with reinforcement waves and picking from pre-rolled dice pools for actions and special actions. Its nice to be able to print off a full force on a single build plate on a 3d printer.
Thank you! I definitely consider FSD a Skirmish, but I imagine it wouldn't fint the criteria for many. And people are sadly diffident rergarding small-scales! :S
As a Mutant Chronicles fan since the 90s I am waiting (and actually already playing with the Beta Rules) Warzone Eternal from Res Nova Games, the skirmish version of the Warzone game from 1996. Warzone was huge in Italy, and I think as well in the US, and I hope it will be possible for all the people who enjoyed the game in the 90s (and afterwards with the subsequent versions) to play Warzone Eternal: it is a very good skirmish game from what we tested so far.
Trench Crusade! Been playtesting it for a month now and it's the most fun I've ever had in a TT Skirmish Game. Tuomas and Mike are onto something amazing.
I frickin' LOVE BLKOUT :D been playing it a bit and getting my butt handed to me lol. I think I'm the only one who's uploaded batreps of that game; one out now, one in the edit. Word of warning; man isn't lying. BLKOUT is VICIOUS and even the toughest of units can get overwhelmed and slapped pretty easily. I play mainly UN Raid Team and they fold like wet paper if you misstep. Another fun bit: their rules are free and have a print friendly black and white version for an easy booklet and TTS has mods for them already. I've been letting a friend of mine throw Infinity models in as proxies and we're having a blast.
for new wargamers: "wizzywig" = wysiwyg = "what you see is what you get" It just means the physical model accurately reflects any gear options you've taken
Blood, Bilge, and Iron Balls! It’s an Age of Sail skirmish game that uses card drawing to determine where on the ship was damaged, almost in the style of BattleTech. Works on 1v1 ship battles up to about 6 or 7 per side. Not super granular like many historical rule sets can be.
I've loved the simple very swingy, not too serious One hour Skirmish rules by John Lambshead (black powder onwards). He is now putting out a swords and sandals version "One-hour Ancient and Medieval Skirmish Wargames" due for release early September 2025. These are miniature agnostic published rulesets. I've also got Half Tilt from TTCombat coming, they are saying it will ship at the end of May, if you can call a jousting tourney a skirmish 😀
I'm pretty excited by steel rift, quars war, and blkout. I thought Warcrow might be cool but I went on their website and watched some videos about how it works, and I think its going to be far too complicated for me to enjoy it. I prefer just the right amount of crunch, and a lot of games just have a bit too much for my tastes. I feel like the basics of moving and fighting should be really simple to communicate. I move X inches or w/e and roll X dice to see what happens when I attack you etc. Then the spice is what special weapons and abilities do. Warcrow looks like it has lots of custom symbols, and markers, and game aids and rules about morale and special characters doing X when in a unit vs Y when on their own. My eyes were glazing over with just 6 mins of watching a person talk about the rules. That's OK though, plenty of other games to be excited for!
The constant look for new rule sets, either war games or RPGs, is another facet of my gaming ADD. In 2023 my game of choice was Core Space and the First Born expansion. In 2024, I've pulled back from buying new systems. Wiley Games' Fistful of Lead and the various genre variations they made are enough for me. I play their Galactic Heroes and Battle Suit Alpha rules. I also play their fantasy Melee & Men, Mages & Magic with Monsters and Mazes. I've started painting again, which says a lot about how much I like their system.
For me its. The Barons' War: Fantasy Skirmish by Hobday & Hicks Fantasy Skirmish will use the rules from the hit Historical game, The Barons' War but with a Fantasy twist of course. Also "Écorcheurs (Ay-core-sure)" skirmish rules developed to fight small actions between retinues in the Hundred Years War - the series of conflicts fought between England (and her allies) and France (and her allies) from 1337 to 1453, ostensibly over the right of the kings of England to the throne of France. BLKOUT is great for the minis alone.
I'm about to bring my own skirmish game, Gauntlets of Glory, to Kickstarter this year. Fantasy battle royal, that was inspired by Guild Ball, Call of Duty, and Frosthaven. It won the "Best of Gen Con 2021" award from Gamer Trend magazine. 15 miniatures, (32 mm) swappable hands/weapons/heads and tons of weapons and spells to find and utilize to be the last surviving hero. I'll send you a copy.
Great timing. I own a small game store, and the mini community is growing. But army games are out of their financial reach. But I have been looking and slowly introducing skirmish games. (cough, cough, Reign in Hell, cough, cough). I'll deep dive into these other games now. Thanks for sharing.
Fistful of Lead is a great skirmish game. The rules are very inexpensive, miniatures agnostic and fun to play. Just what I love in wargames. There are several themes of Fistful of Lead for whatever type of games you like to play. Sci-Fi, Wild West, Mecha, Historical Army Combat, and even Spaceship combat. The gameplay is really good and somewhat different because it uses playing cards as well as dice. It’s so inexpensive, miniatures agnostic, and easy to learn, I don’t see why more folks don’t try it out. Wargame Vault is were I picked up the rules. The rules are also available on the designer’s website.
Great video! Love learning about new games to check out. While my friend got me into miniature gaming with Killteam I was able to get them into other games like Frostgrave and forbidden psalm. Next is burrows and badgers!
I keep looking at that game and I'm like "man I wish transforming was a thing in this game"...the visual style is ON POINT but its like watching an episode of Transformers but nobody transforms. It just feels like something is missing. Hopefully an actual Transformers skirmish game will come out eventually.
All of these look interesting - I’m especially excited to see more about Trench Crusade! You missed one new/upcoming new skirmish games, duder! Check out Warzone Eternal! It’s old,but new again.
Lots of folks are hyped for Halo Flashpoint around there. I'm also pretty excited for Fallout Factions, depending on which models we can ultimately use with it. And I wanted to give Necropolis or InCountry a try.
Good stuff! I'm currently working on some Trench Crusade guys & gals myself. Couldn't resist the call of the Heretic Legions between Naval Raiding Party frogmen & the Artillery Witch pulling 2000lb bombs out of hammerspace they're just too dope. Trying to thread the needle between dieselpunk, steampunk, grimdark & weird war, harder than you'd think.
I'm on the fence for metal psalm, mörk borg mekgame.. and very curious for what snarling badger is going to release.. other then that is building warbands and running sword wierdos, 5 leagues from the borderlands and forbidden psalm.. (+painting and building terrain, miniatures)
I just picked up Blkout at adepticon this year, i haven't played it yet but some of my friends who'm also picked it up say it's fantastic. I suppose the one cool indie one i'm looking into would have to be GraveTrigger, you can find some youtube videos about the lore and tidbits however it's being relaunched on kickstarter later this year. I got to meet the creator of it at Adepticon and it kinda blew my mind. It doesn't use measurement, it's turns are dynamic and the models feel like there from Guyver or Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga
Got introduced to Space Weirdos last October, and just grooving on that. Currently messing around with Zona Weirdos, a homegrown Metro 2033/Stalker setting for SW.
BLKOUT immediately caught my attention. I loved the video game Blacklight Tango Down as a kid and that style it uses for it’s characters and gear immediately hit me with nostalgia. Just need a spider tank for decor and it’s 👌 ALSO OH MY GOODNESS, I COULDN’T FIND MICHEAL FRANCHINA’S ART AFTER I DELETED TWITTER. I KNEW THE STYLE BUT COULDN’T REMEMBER THE NAME! I am so happy to be able to find it again after all these years and so happy to see a wargame in their style.
Lovely roundup, thank you! I'm very excited to see more and more game systems coming out with ready to play games in a box, where everything you need to get started is there and ready for you. I know some folks love hunting down bespoke minis and playing off a PDF, but for me the presentation of a boxed game as a complete artifact helps me immensely. Warcrow looks good, I'm tempted!
Great stuff! BLK OUT looks a lot like one of their earlier games Killwager. I'm sure it is still a brutal game system. Thanks for the list. Definitely put me on to a bunch of guys I hadn't heard of before.
Interesting list, there's a few on there that I'm extremely interested in seeing more of. Just released (although a 2nd edition of an existing game) is Dead Man's Hand Redux - great fun if you want a knockabout wild west game.
On the indi front, am looking forward to "Guards of Traitors Toll" Then I'm interested in seeing what the new Necromunda box setbis about And finally Rackhams Confrontation is now out of its legal chains and the IP os now owned by Monolith games, so I'm interested to see what they do with it.
One worth keeping an eye on is Marcher: Empires at War by Golden Dragon Games. They are planning to have a Kickstarter this Summer for physical releases of some of their models.
I'm really praying (no pun intended) that the maker of Trench Crusade hasn't strangled his product in its crib. Thanks for the video. I'm going to have to look into BLKOUT. Looks really fun to build.
I bought Steel Rift when it came out but haven't gotten around to painting them yet. I saw the new wave and got excited, ordering some ultra heavies and the third faction starter, so hopefully I'll get them done soon. The modular design of the mechs allowing you to really customize them is cool, but I think the downside is decision paralysis, especially when you build them before learning the rules/playing some tests games and what weapons you would prefer to use if you're as WYSIWYG player like I am.
Eldfall Chronicles has amazing fantasy miniatures and a small game size. New factions are coming in the kickstarted dungeon crawler which should be shipping soon
I am always surprised when Eldfall isn't on these lists. Beautiful sculpts, awesome rules, fantastic lore. Core Space turned me on to skirmish but Eldfall made me fall in love with it.
I’ve loved the Quar since the first releases in metal. Nice to have a plastic option now. You can see some of their inspirations in classic comic art. Josh Qualtieri has design credits in several Pixar movies, so he’s another experienced artist bringing his talents to miniature game design.
i recently got into battletech so i'm really interested in steel rift! Blckout also looks interesting. I have played infinity but none of the models appeal to me, so i'm hoping blckout is at least as fun as infinity
I can't stop thinking about Breachstorm. I got to demo it at Richmond Open 2024, and it's so interesting. The BIG hook for me is the Orders mechanic. Normally the game is alternating activations, but Leader models get a number of order tokens when they activate and they can spend a token to make a soldier model in their aura activate and go through its whole activation. And then it goes back to the leaders activation, where they can use another order token, activate another soldier, etc. So you can be really creative with where you place your models, how to use your action economy, and how to go through a turn. It's really been a brain worm for me of late.
This year "Ascending Fate" will be released by Freebooter Miniatures, a german company. It's a sci fi skirmish game inspired by Freebooters Fate, a pirate-themed skirmish game that's been there for round about 15 years (or even 20?).
Played my first game of Warcry tonight. It was a blast! I'm also super excited to play Lunar from Black Site Studios and Spectre from Spectre Miniatures. The E.N.D. is another one I'm curious about.
Although not a skirmish war game, there is a Cyberpunk Rugby game that has been out for a while now; Takkure. It is slowly building up a community, but the minis look cool and it plays a little similarly to Infinity. On top of that it is only 4 models per team.
I’ve started playing Rogue Warriors skirmish game. Simple rules and supports pvp, co-op, and solo. Expansions are starting to roll out that expand the system and create small campaigns for different styles. WWII dirty dozen. Rambo/80s action campaign are out and looking forward to the Vietnam expansion coming shortly. Really easy to teach, but still interesting choices. I’ll be getting Blkout based on your video today. Gotta love some 2x2 modern/hardscifi skirmish!
You should definitely look into Black Powder Red Earth. It's similar to InCountry, it has amazingly detailed models, comic books for lore, and multiple variations of map and army sizes for an amazing variety of gameplay. It utilizes the insides of buildings well.
BLKOUT is fantastic. Haven't seen a game where movement was engaging and interesting. This minis paint well. The discord is fun and helpful. Creators are fun and interactive and ready to answer questions. I own the whole range from their shop now!
V for Victory - WW2 skirmish game from the studio that makes the popular Saga game. It is smaller than Bolt Action. That said, still think one of the best skirmish games on the market is Shatterpoint. Great game!
I second this. I didn't hear/read about V for Victory until the lads from OnTableTop mentioned it. And Star Wars Shatterpoint is one of my favorite and mostly played games atm. Very, very underrated game.
Two ive just started on, Rogue Warriors....miniatures agnostic great quick paced ruleset The other is Spectre, they do a model range but its miniatures agnostic and a slightly more detailed ruleset with regards weapon profiles and such.
Played InCountry (modern-day BLKOUT) with one of the BLKOUT reps at Adepticon and he described it as Infinity for people who don’t have time, and it feels like a perfect elevator pitch.
Hey I'm one of them! Well consider me sold then. Those minis are cool as hell
Oh that's me. I'll have to check it out :)
Just finished a 6 hour game of Infinity. Sounds right up my street!
This sort of thing, along with the 'why I like it' series, are my favourite videos you do. It's not always easy to find out about games and they really help to highlight some stuff I would like to try. Particularly skirmish games on a 24x24, fits nicely on my kitchen table and I now have a decent sci fi cityscape to fight over.
I'm waiting on Swill. The Turnip28 game has been a blast. And it's not really full armies either. It's a bit somewhere between army and skirmish. But a skirmish game set in the same world is really appealing to me.
I cant recommend burrows and badgers highly enough. Has a fun roll-off mechanic and a light but fun persistent campaign rules. It's like mordhiem with animals. great minis too
B&B is one of my favorite games ever. I love the models so much
Ive got this game but i havent found anyone willing to play it
There are some B&B solo rules available free from the publisher’s website. Rules for creating villain warbands, enemy AI flowcharts, and several mission types. I haven’t played them
B&B is very unbalanced. The crit system is horrible and just makes bigger creatures even more dangerous. I've lost whole warbands in a game and in a campaign you'll never recover.
Oathsworn have the best customer service going, great little company
Mythic Earth by mythicos studios. I currently own a Maya, Aztec, and Inuit force. Real world cultures with some fantasy thrown in the mix such as quetzalcoatl, camazotz, undead giants, and massive wolves. Rules are free and they even have a skirmish game.
Lmao "Neal Blomkamp style" is a super apt description for the style, I've generally spoken of it as "artstation scifi concept art photobash weta workshop call of duty black ops 3 style" which is admittedly more of a mouthful. Tho weta workshop specifically I think is why Blomkamp's scifi looks the way it does. That movie last year, The Creator, also had a very similar visual styling, and they also worked with Weta workshop.
ive come around to kind of loving it as an encapsulation of the mid to late 2010s LOL
Some of the models remind me of the robot soldiers from Titanfall.
Honestly, if someone made proxies for BLKOUT using Titnfall designs, I'd probably get into it.
If you like the "Neal Blomkamp Style", you can get something from the "original" designers. Weta Workshop did designs for Chappie, District 9 (and many other movies) and offer a skirmisher (boardgame) with giant killer robots in this style: "GKR Heavy Hitters". Its end-of-line, but now you get it from them really cheap, and if you like a quick skirmisher, its very casual and quick to play.
(They just obtained some warhammer license, so if you want you can drop down 1.2k$ (NZ) for a Lieutenant Titus Mini (in scale 1:6, so not so mini))
1:44 BLKOUT
5:05 Steel Rift
7:38 Trench Crusade
10:37 This Quar's War
11:44 Turnip28
12:30 Warcrow
Feudal Patrol is a game I’ve been considering for some time. It’s by Buck Surdu, author of the WWII skirmish rules Combat Patrol, which I own but have not played, and, like CP, published by Sally Forth in the UK. It is equally suited to historical and fantasy settings, with card-based mechanics.
I met the BLKOUT creators at LVO. They were awesome and I picked up 2 teams.
Downloaded the ruleset, will see if it grabs my attention
@@argy8141 it's a great game
Met them at Adepticon, and got a game walkthrough. They were awesome indeed!
It may not be super new, but Cyberpunk Red Combat Zone is amazing. The ReAction system is so fun and makes combat feel alive, and there’s a lot of room for roleplaying and interactivity. The main negative is the model’s material of soft plastic and its tendency for nasty mould lines that need a very sharp hobby knife. But that’s pretty minor overall
Seconded.
Thirded. it's the most clever, quick to learn and to run, and straight-up fun skirmish game I've played in years. Future generations of game creators will be stealing from Combat Zone.
I picked this up at adepticon and love the rule set. I call it Necromunda if it was designed by Fantasy Flight Games of the 2010's. All your stats are on cards and upgrades are also on cards. There's also a good number of factions to choose from. Minis need some quality control but the sculpts are great.
Warsurge is worth a look. Can be played from Skirmish to Army depending on points and how you build your force. Various play styles from easy/beginner to a much more advanced game. Fully customizable to any minis you have and also provided with many army lists to dive right in. Another cool feature is the app you can use to build forces/weapons with.
Currently running a Tanks for the Apocalypse campaign, we have had two practice games with no objectives and 7 participants, we go campaign Tuesday. Ran a Silver Bayonet campaign over Christmas. Just bought my second copy of Majestic 13 to give as a birthday present to one in the group. And lastly, for now, just got in the Quar starter set, such a cool looking game.
Ttcombat (the company behind dropzone commander, dropfleet commander and a lot of mdf terrain) has been teasing striketeam commander as a skirmish with infantry supported by vehicles. We don't know much beyond that yet, but the premise seems fun and they'll probably unveil more details in 2 weeks at ukge.
I've been enjoying CORE Mech Warfare from the Nth Level. It's played with 1-3 1/144 gunpla models per side and hast a simple ressource Management component. Your mech generates energy each turn and everything you do is paid with energy. As you Store unused energy for later turns, you have to decide when to burn your energy. Really easy to pick up and I like to assemble 1/144 scale gunpla models like the 30 Minutes Mission series from bandai.
Thanks for the This Quar's War shoutout!
I grabbed a single sprue to check out the minis. I really like their look.
I also picked up the BLKOUT starter set a while back, haven't had a chance to dig into it much yet, but really looking forward to it!
Bought nearly the whole line of BLCKOUT minis. One more duster to go. Playing it for the first time this weekend!
Blkout is sick. My friends and I all got into Killteam a few months ago, and after a few games, I said I wanted to try Blkout. The rules were free so it was easy to just use our Killteam minis as standins. We haven't played Killteam again since. It's such a great game! It's so streamlined and punishing. It's dead easy to learn, and puts a lot more weight on strategic positioning instead of the abilities and stats of whatever team you ended up going with.
What im seeing out of trench crusade is fascinating, and im liking the community im seeing slowly pop up around it... Plus that ART
Blkout is definitely one I'm going to try out. Patiently waiting for my work bonus to get the 2 player set. Seems like a fun skirmish game to play when I don't want to play giant army battles.
Speaking of mechs, Mobile Arms: Endless Destiny just came out published by Black Site Studios and it's a blast. Excited to play more of that.
Picked up Actung Panza from Warlord which I very much am enjoying and picked up Verretwood because of the the folklore aesthetic, the core rules cant be classed as new but the old west supplement looks really interesting and I can use my wild west terrain in it.
What size board are you playing on and what are you seeing in terms of game time? Cheers in advance
Gangs of Rome v2 is hands down the most fun ive had with a skirmish game in a long time. Great ruleset and the terrain and models are so good.
I downloaded the playtest rules for Trench Crusade a couple of weeks ago, and I agree, it looks phenomenal. Both the art, and the ruleset
I'm waiting on Five Parsecs: Planetfall. Solo Planetary exploration and colonisation mini-agnostic skirmish with procedural campaign. I've playtested it and it's another winner. (Yes, I'm a Nordic Weasel fanboi). It takes the best of 5P and 5L and scrunches them together beautifully, with the world map being generated through play, colony events and development, scientific research, all good stuff.
Glad I read this, now I'm waiting on it too.
Cool, I'll check it out. Will they be doing something similar for 5 leagues from the borderlands?
I've been fascinated at the concept since it was announced.
@@CommissarMoody1 next for Five Leagues is some sort of expanded delve system, I believe.
What's 5L and 5P?
I just got the Forbidden Psalm End Times edition in the mail, I can't wait to have some fun with that!
Just started kitbashing some figures for Trench Crusade :) I like the aesthetic a lot.
I have to say, I love the design of the BLKOUT infantry, especialyl with those blocky angular helmetsmade up almost entirely of visor. that'S some good shit.
New...ish : HALO : Flashpoint by Mantic Games. Ok, it's a re-skin of the tried and proved skirmish game system for Deadzone but it might make it more popular with this new IP stuck to it. It's a great skirmish game played on a 2x2 board that started up, if I'm not mistaken, with Mars Attacks. The movement and ranges, calculated in 3''x3''x3'' cubes which is a great accelerator. The system is, for me, the perfect mix of crunchiness and simplicity. Definitely worth a newish look...
I doubt it. It looks really cheap
Cheap in what sense? The quality of the pre-primed minis, which look great IMHO? The fact that they're putting hardstock scenery instead of their regular plastic one to lower the buy-in cost and reduce the time/skill set necessary to have a nice board? The production value of the rulebook? The proven simplicity and efficiency of the ruleset? Might not work for you, but it might for a lot of others though...
I was all for it until they revealed that its basically an emulation of Halo multiplayer, and in the less popular 343 era to boot. Not interested in any of that at all. The multiplayer for Halo Infinite is free to play, so why would I spend hours painting models to get a lesser experience?
They said that other units and factions will come if it sells well enough but I'm like...idk Halo hasn't been relevant in like 5+ years. The only attention its gotten recently have been regarding its terrible show and lackluster gaming experience.
They should have come out with a Bungie-era REACH box or a HALO 3 multiplayer game to really pull in the long time fans with that sweet sweet nostalgia bait.
I'll stick with the fan driven Halo Ground Command.
@@DarthP00P00 valid opinion... but why spend hours painting models? Because I like it :) Same resaon I paint historicals even though I do reenactments. Same reason I paint modern stuff even though I play Milsim airsoft. If you like miniature wargaming and you like the subject : it's might be enjoyable to reproduce the subject on the tabletop, no? Especially if the game rules are a good match for you.
One additional thought to add, a lot of these games are independent small games ran by small companies. The support for Steel Rift, from Death Ray Designs, from this video has been awesome! We’re a small company with a handful of employees and all of you who have taken the dive into the game? You’re not online helping us grow the game, you’re making sure we have food for our tables.
Thanks for the shout out Uncle A!
I'm getting obsessed with BLKOUT. Read the free rules, tried a few games with printed cards and proxy minis (yes, even the big bots) and it's just so much fun. As the new big box from GW doesn't really click with me at all, my resources will be diverted towards this title.
Good choice, lots of 40k refugees are coming over to BLKOUT.
I bought two 4 man squads for blkout a while ago and forgot (this was before the 2 player starter set).
I’m painting them up now and got the starter set as well, joined the discord etc.
This Quar's War always makes me think of Wombles gone WW1
Its not skirmish, but I'm liking the rules/models for 'Full Spectrum Dominance' by the STL creator The Lazy Forger.
6mm small band wargame with reinforcement waves and picking from pre-rolled dice pools for actions and special actions.
Its nice to be able to print off a full force on a single build plate on a 3d printer.
Thank you! I definitely consider FSD a Skirmish, but I imagine it wouldn't fint the criteria for many. And people are sadly diffident rergarding small-scales! :S
As a Mutant Chronicles fan since the 90s I am waiting (and actually already playing with the Beta Rules) Warzone Eternal from Res Nova Games, the skirmish version of the Warzone game from 1996. Warzone was huge in Italy, and I think as well in the US, and I hope it will be possible for all the people who enjoyed the game in the 90s (and afterwards with the subsequent versions) to play Warzone Eternal: it is a very good skirmish game from what we tested so far.
Met the blkout guys while cruising local games stores. Cool dudes.
Trench Crusade! Been playtesting it for a month now and it's the most fun I've ever had in a TT Skirmish Game. Tuomas and Mike are onto something amazing.
I frickin' LOVE BLKOUT :D been playing it a bit and getting my butt handed to me lol. I think I'm the only one who's uploaded batreps of that game; one out now, one in the edit.
Word of warning; man isn't lying. BLKOUT is VICIOUS and even the toughest of units can get overwhelmed and slapped pretty easily. I play mainly UN Raid Team and they fold like wet paper if you misstep.
Another fun bit: their rules are free and have a print friendly black and white version for an easy booklet and TTS has mods for them already. I've been letting a friend of mine throw Infinity models in as proxies and we're having a blast.
I’ve been enjoying BLKOUT, Forbidden Psalm , and Dread Nights. Very enjoyable games and I’m a fan of the ESS line of sci fi minis
for new wargamers: "wizzywig" = wysiwyg = "what you see is what you get"
It just means the physical model accurately reflects any gear options you've taken
It started with things like the Windows operating system with it's wysiwyg gui or graphical user interface.
40K and Killteam players are BIG on wysiwyg when proxying, so surprise its not more common. I always used to think it was just a Robot Wars bot 🤪
Blood, Bilge, and Iron Balls! It’s an Age of Sail skirmish game that uses card drawing to determine where on the ship was damaged, almost in the style of BattleTech. Works on 1v1 ship battles up to about 6 or 7 per side. Not super granular like many historical rule sets can be.
I've loved the simple very swingy, not too serious One hour Skirmish rules by John Lambshead (black powder onwards). He is now putting out a swords and sandals version "One-hour Ancient and Medieval Skirmish Wargames" due for release early September 2025. These are miniature agnostic published rulesets. I've also got Half Tilt from TTCombat coming, they are saying it will ship at the end of May, if you can call a jousting tourney a skirmish 😀
Been playing The Doomed and collecting/kitbashing minis for it. Fun game, plays fast, and can devolve into brutal chaos that's deadly as hell.
Only played 1 solo game but I love it
Aimed for a tactical sized rulebook wound up with a cute one, win-win
I'm pretty excited by steel rift, quars war, and blkout. I thought Warcrow might be cool but I went on their website and watched some videos about how it works, and I think its going to be far too complicated for me to enjoy it. I prefer just the right amount of crunch, and a lot of games just have a bit too much for my tastes. I feel like the basics of moving and fighting should be really simple to communicate. I move X inches or w/e and roll X dice to see what happens when I attack you etc.
Then the spice is what special weapons and abilities do.
Warcrow looks like it has lots of custom symbols, and markers, and game aids and rules about morale and special characters doing X when in a unit vs Y when on their own. My eyes were glazing over with just 6 mins of watching a person talk about the rules.
That's OK though, plenty of other games to be excited for!
Really like the Blackout game idea, getting shot is very bad. Nice video. Keep up the good work.
The constant look for new rule sets, either war games or RPGs, is another facet of my gaming ADD. In 2023 my game of choice was Core Space and the First Born expansion. In 2024, I've pulled back from buying new systems. Wiley Games' Fistful of Lead and the various genre variations they made are enough for me. I play their Galactic Heroes and Battle Suit Alpha rules. I also play their fantasy Melee & Men, Mages & Magic with Monsters and Mazes. I've started painting again, which says a lot about how much I like their system.
I know it’s not new, but our local club is getting going with Dead Man’s Hand Redux, played on a 2’x2’. It’s great.
DMH Redux is actually very new.
For me its. The Barons' War: Fantasy Skirmish by Hobday & Hicks Fantasy Skirmish will use the rules from the hit Historical game, The Barons' War but with a Fantasy twist of course. Also "Écorcheurs (Ay-core-sure)" skirmish rules developed to fight small actions between retinues in the Hundred Years War - the series of conflicts fought between England (and her allies) and France (and her allies) from 1337 to 1453, ostensibly over the right of the kings of England to the throne of France. BLKOUT is great for the minis alone.
Love the HYW period and wargame it in 6mm at army scale with To the Strongest!. Had no idea about Ecorcheurs. Will need to check it out. Thanks!
@@Goodtobetheking2024 Love "To the Strongest" btw great rules. Im partial to a bit of WoR as well as HYW.
I'm about to bring my own skirmish game, Gauntlets of Glory, to Kickstarter this year. Fantasy battle royal, that was inspired by Guild Ball, Call of Duty, and Frosthaven. It won the "Best of Gen Con 2021" award from Gamer Trend magazine. 15 miniatures, (32 mm) swappable hands/weapons/heads and tons of weapons and spells to find and utilize to be the last surviving hero.
I'll send you a copy.
Great timing. I own a small game store, and the mini community is growing. But army games are out of their financial reach. But I have been looking and slowly introducing skirmish games. (cough, cough, Reign in Hell, cough, cough). I'll deep dive into these other games now. Thanks for sharing.
Had a look at Blkout after this video, just bought the starter set 😁
Fistful of Lead is a great skirmish game. The rules are very inexpensive, miniatures agnostic and fun to play. Just what I love in wargames.
There are several themes of Fistful of Lead for whatever type of games you like to play. Sci-Fi, Wild West, Mecha, Historical Army Combat, and even Spaceship combat.
The gameplay is really good and somewhat different because it uses playing cards as well as dice.
It’s so inexpensive, miniatures agnostic, and easy to learn, I don’t see why more folks don’t try it out.
Wargame Vault is were I picked up the rules. The rules are also available on the designer’s website.
I've been eying BLKOUT for a while, but man oh man Trench Crusade sounds right up my alley! I love discovering new indie games.
Great video! Love learning about new games to check out.
While my friend got me into miniature gaming with Killteam I was able to get them into other games like Frostgrave and forbidden psalm. Next is burrows and badgers!
Magnagothica Maleghast looks incredible. Skirmish game set in a city sinking into hell. How cool is that?!
One day I'll finish my C.A.R.C.A.S.S kitbashes...
One I'd add to the list (although not new) would be Bot War ahead of the 3rd Ed release next month. Not played it yet, but heard good things.
I keep looking at that game and I'm like "man I wish transforming was a thing in this game"...the visual style is ON POINT but its like watching an episode of Transformers but nobody transforms. It just feels like something is missing.
Hopefully an actual Transformers skirmish game will come out eventually.
All of these look interesting - I’m especially excited to see more about Trench Crusade! You missed one new/upcoming new skirmish games, duder! Check out Warzone Eternal! It’s old,but new again.
Can NOT wait to see you do a video on Quar, that stuff is adorable and fun as hell.
Lots of folks are hyped for Halo Flashpoint around there. I'm also pretty excited for Fallout Factions, depending on which models we can ultimately use with it. And I wanted to give Necropolis or InCountry a try.
Good stuff! I'm currently working on some Trench Crusade guys & gals myself. Couldn't resist the call of the Heretic Legions between Naval Raiding Party frogmen & the Artillery Witch pulling 2000lb bombs out of hammerspace they're just too dope. Trying to thread the needle between dieselpunk, steampunk, grimdark & weird war, harder than you'd think.
All good picks I think.
Anyone know why they changed Killwager to Blkout?
Brutality skirmish- the new epic rules set and upcoming mass edition. Whole series is really cool and mini agnoo
BLKOUT is a great game and I'm happy to see one of my favorite RUclipsrs shout out one of my favorite skirmish game.
I'm on the fence for metal psalm, mörk borg mekgame.. and very curious for what snarling badger is going to release.. other then that is building warbands and running sword wierdos, 5 leagues from the borderlands and forbidden psalm.. (+painting and building terrain, miniatures)
I just picked up Blkout at adepticon this year, i haven't played it yet but some of my friends who'm also picked it up say it's fantastic.
I suppose the one cool indie one i'm looking into would have to be GraveTrigger, you can find some youtube videos about the lore and tidbits however it's being relaunched on kickstarter later this year. I got to meet the creator of it at Adepticon and it kinda blew my mind. It doesn't use measurement, it's turns are dynamic and the models feel like there from Guyver or Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga
Painting a couple warbands for trench crusade. Looks like fun.
Got introduced to Space Weirdos last October, and just grooving on that. Currently messing around with Zona Weirdos, a homegrown Metro 2033/Stalker setting for SW.
BLKOUT immediately caught my attention. I loved the video game Blacklight Tango Down as a kid and that style it uses for it’s characters and gear immediately hit me with nostalgia. Just need a spider tank for decor and it’s 👌
ALSO OH MY GOODNESS, I COULDN’T FIND MICHEAL FRANCHINA’S ART AFTER I DELETED TWITTER. I KNEW THE STYLE BUT COULDN’T REMEMBER THE NAME! I am so happy to be able to find it again after all these years and so happy to see a wargame in their style.
They all look really cool thanks for the heads-up! Just picked up the starter set for Kill Team.
Lovely roundup, thank you!
I'm very excited to see more and more game systems coming out with ready to play games in a box, where everything you need to get started is there and ready for you. I know some folks love hunting down bespoke minis and playing off a PDF, but for me the presentation of a boxed game as a complete artifact helps me immensely.
Warcrow looks good, I'm tempted!
Great stuff! BLK OUT looks a lot like one of their earlier games Killwager. I'm sure it is still a brutal game system. Thanks for the list. Definitely put me on to a bunch of guys I hadn't heard of before.
Interesting list, there's a few on there that I'm extremely interested in seeing more of. Just released (although a 2nd edition of an existing game) is Dead Man's Hand Redux - great fun if you want a knockabout wild west game.
I cannot WAIT for Trench Crusade to release.
The Silver Bayonet?
Not that new, but still great!
Such a great game
New skirmish games that have caught my interest:
- Torch & Shield, a dwarves delving skirmish game.
- Zone Wars, a Mutant Year Zero skirmisher
On the indi front, am looking forward to "Guards of Traitors Toll"
Then I'm interested in seeing what the new Necromunda box setbis about
And finally Rackhams Confrontation is now out of its legal chains and the IP os now owned by Monolith games, so I'm interested to see what they do with it.
And like This Quar's War, Traitor's Toll is getting some (bound to be) sweet plastic kits from Wargames Atlantic.
> blkout >sci-fi > on a ball planet
Cyber-soldiers using AK-47 with wires.
Sure does like like an AK, doesn't it?
One worth keeping an eye on is Marcher: Empires at War by Golden Dragon Games.
They are planning to have a Kickstarter this Summer for physical releases of some of their models.
I'm really praying (no pun intended) that the maker of Trench Crusade hasn't strangled his product in its crib.
Thanks for the video. I'm going to have to look into BLKOUT. Looks really fun to build.
Got into Lunar, and I like the minis, but was a bit meh on the rules on first play. Have to see if I got something wrong.
I bought Steel Rift when it came out but haven't gotten around to painting them yet. I saw the new wave and got excited, ordering some ultra heavies and the third faction starter, so hopefully I'll get them done soon. The modular design of the mechs allowing you to really customize them is cool, but I think the downside is decision paralysis, especially when you build them before learning the rules/playing some tests games and what weapons you would prefer to use if you're as WYSIWYG player like I am.
Eldfall Chronicles has amazing fantasy miniatures and a small game size. New factions are coming in the kickstarted dungeon crawler which should be shipping soon
I am always surprised when Eldfall isn't on these lists. Beautiful sculpts, awesome rules, fantastic lore. Core Space turned me on to skirmish but Eldfall made me fall in love with it.
A couple of games that caught my attention are Bushido Risen Sun and Moonstone.
Bought a starter set of This Quar's War. Cant wait for it to deliver!
I’ve loved the Quar since the first releases in metal. Nice to have a plastic option now. You can see some of their inspirations in classic comic art. Josh Qualtieri has design credits in several Pixar movies, so he’s another experienced artist bringing his talents to miniature game design.
i recently got into battletech so i'm really interested in steel rift! Blckout also looks interesting. I have played infinity but none of the models appeal to me, so i'm hoping blckout is at least as fun as infinity
4:25 the models really look like Titanfall (videogame) pilots and infantry units to me, where infinity models are anime based/inspired.
I was waiting for a trailer teaser for your new game upcoming game. I'm excited to see the new release.
I can't stop thinking about Breachstorm. I got to demo it at Richmond Open 2024, and it's so interesting. The BIG hook for me is the Orders mechanic. Normally the game is alternating activations, but Leader models get a number of order tokens when they activate and they can spend a token to make a soldier model in their aura activate and go through its whole activation. And then it goes back to the leaders activation, where they can use another order token, activate another soldier, etc. So you can be really creative with where you place your models, how to use your action economy, and how to go through a turn. It's really been a brain worm for me of late.
This year "Ascending Fate" will be released by Freebooter Miniatures, a german company. It's a sci fi skirmish game inspired by Freebooters Fate, a pirate-themed skirmish game that's been there for round about 15 years (or even 20?).
Played my first game of Warcry tonight. It was a blast! I'm also super excited to play Lunar from Black Site Studios and Spectre from Spectre Miniatures. The E.N.D. is another one I'm curious about.
Although not a skirmish war game, there is a Cyberpunk Rugby game that has been out for a while now; Takkure. It is slowly building up a community, but the minis look cool and it plays a little similarly to Infinity.
On top of that it is only 4 models per team.
I’ve started playing Rogue Warriors skirmish game. Simple rules and supports pvp, co-op, and solo. Expansions are starting to roll out that expand the system and create small campaigns for different styles. WWII dirty dozen. Rambo/80s action campaign are out and looking forward to the Vietnam expansion coming shortly. Really easy to teach, but still interesting choices.
I’ll be getting Blkout based on your video today. Gotta love some 2x2 modern/hardscifi skirmish!
You should definitely look into Black Powder Red Earth. It's similar to InCountry, it has amazingly detailed models, comic books for lore, and multiple variations of map and army sizes for an amazing variety of gameplay. It utilizes the insides of buildings well.
BLKOUT is fantastic. Haven't seen a game where movement was engaging and interesting. This minis paint well. The discord is fun and helpful. Creators are fun and interactive and ready to answer questions. I own the whole range from their shop now!
Trench Crusade goes HARD in the art and setting. I love it.
I'm really looking forward to Warcrow, I am a big fan of Corvus Belli's world building.
Thanks for this one Uncle Adam. Always love to hear about up and coming games..
V for Victory - WW2 skirmish game from the studio that makes the popular Saga game. It is smaller than Bolt Action. That said, still think one of the best skirmish games on the market is Shatterpoint. Great game!
I second this. I didn't hear/read about V for Victory until the lads from OnTableTop mentioned it. And Star Wars Shatterpoint is one of my favorite and mostly played games atm. Very, very underrated game.
+1 on V for Victory
Two ive just started on, Rogue Warriors....miniatures agnostic great quick paced ruleset
The other is Spectre, they do a model range but its miniatures agnostic and a slightly more detailed ruleset with regards weapon profiles and such.
Man I love spectre. What a great game