Guild Ball is by far the more popular of the two fantasy football titles. Set in a steampunk world, the players represent various guilds from across the cities of the world. Guild Ball certainly has the nicer sculpts of the two options, as well with a gorgeous range of unique and interestingly-posed characters, along with thematic terrain and pitches you can buy to up the immersion. Unfortunately, you might have to search around to find a set, as publisher Steamforged recently announced it was bringing an end to the game.
Dreadball, in comparison, is much more silly and lightweight. The rulers and templates are replaced with a hex-based system, and instead of your standard football rules there are strike zone scoring areas that give you different point values depending on where you score from for a little risk-reward. You get everything you need to play Dreadball in a single box, and just go from there without having to worry about army compositions or how expensive your prospective team is to put together.
The smorgasboard of silly factions is lovely to pick from; each feels completely unique and absolutely true to the more comedic universe. The rulebook even includes a section on creating your own mutant team by combining lots of different body parts from other miniatures, which is a brilliant idea. For better or for worse, everyone knows Star Wars. So it was almost inevitable that a miniatures game set in a galaxy far, far away was going to find its way to tables of fans the world over.
Where X-Wing specialises in close-quarters dogfights between ships and Armada focuses on massive fleet battles, Legion sticks its boots into the mud of ground combat. The core rules are incredibly slim and the models are easy to build. All of the stats for each unit fit onto a single standard-sized card and there are essentially just two factions to choose from: goodies or baddies.
Sometimes things get a little more spicy when you add an unknown extra ingredient. A bit of coffee in your chilli con carne, some Die Hard in your Christmas movie marathon or, in this case, some brain-hungry zombies in your tabletop miniatures game. The story of the Walking Dead exploded into popularity when the original graphic novels were adapted into a record-breaking TV series. There are rules for attracting the dead, or avoiding them by cleverly using noise to redirect their attacks, pushing your luck between sneaking and sprinting, and scavenging post-apocalyptic scraps.
The miniatures in the box are well-built and come pre-assembled, which is a good start for anyone new to painting. Actually, yes, fair enough. There is another option, though. Generally, though, skirmish games stand out for having few models, with more nuanced rules for each. Crack teams of commandos, rather than disciplined phalanxes of troops. When you only have to focus on a handful of table-ready miniatures, you can give each one the TLC they deserve, resulting in squads that are small on table space but big on character.
All that said, here are a few of the best skirmish games out there. For a game about giant robots, Battletech is a masterclass in how to pack a lot into a little, offering a huge amount of tactical depth with very few moving parts. If this sounds daunting… well, yes. It absolutely can be for the first few games or so. Battletech takes place in a rich sci-fi setting fleshed out over decades of lore, and bolsters this through rules that are as much about thematics as tactics.
As a result, it features a lot of intricate systems designed to simulate the inner-workings of each battlemech. These mechs feel heavy, they feel resilient, and yet, they still feel vulnerable when faced off against equally-matched opponents. This means matches unfold as stories as much as strategic head-to-heads. Battletech has the distinction of being one of the cheapest skirmish games on this list to get started with.
A game company actively offering alternatives to buying more miniatures almost feels like breaking the law, but here we are. This sentence may just instill you with a warm sense of nostalgia, or perhaps memories of extreme frustration.
Neither of these feelings would be entirely unjustified. Wasteland Warfare comes very close to the same turn-based, stat-reliant combat you remember from those classic video games, although it can also be prone to fiddly periods of inaction and a few too many moving parts. But you can't beat the concept: Road Warrior style running battles between heavily armed and armored cars and trucks.
If you've ever gone to a car dealership and asked which options package includes "Autocannon," this is the game for you. Photo by: Steve Jackson Games. Star Wars Miniatures, Wizards of the Coast. They aren't bad rules, just a little dry. But anything that allows you to recreate the Battle of Hoth is a sure winner. Bonus: you can own your own Stormtrooper army. Photo by yowzer. Join Charlie as we check out some of the best, but be sure to let us know what games should make our next list! A spiritual successor to the brutal American football matches of Blood Bowl, Guild Ball is a distinctly British take on the fantasy sports genre.
The guilds that make up each side are twisted versions of traditional vocations — butchers, brewers, engineers and fishermen, to name a few — who put a unique spin on the typical fantasy factions, with distinct play styles and characters. A swift and brutal samurai skirmish game, Test of Honour uses only a few handfuls of models — a hero, their companions and some soldiers — to recreate fierce battles between rival clans.
The core box includes a series of six scenarios that can be played as a connected campaign, with warriors gaining skills or even choosing to take a more dishonourable route to claim victory over their foes. Each scenario has a different objective, from defeating all of the rival warriors to defending an outpost or offering protection to a spy, giving the narrative thrust of the game even more impact.
Matches can play out in as little as half an hour and are dictated by drawing tokens from a bag, making the action unpredictable and tense. One of the most promising heirs to the throne of Warhammer 40,, Infinity is a quick-playing sci-fi combat game partially inspired by the future tech and style of Japanese manga.
Set almost two centuries from now, Infinity centres around squads of human and alien soldiers conducting combat missions. The fast-moving, smooth feel means that matches feel cinematic and play out quickly. The immersive universe has since been expanded with spin-off sports board game Aristeia! Malifaux has one of the most distinct visual styles in our list, with a horror-steampunk vibe infused with elements of the Wild West and Victorian gothic.
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