Brink of Battle: Skirmish Gaming Through the Ages Review

[roguepokemon]

Brink of Battle: Skirmish Gaming Through the Ages, and its expanded fantasy supplement Epic Heroes: Skirmish Gaming in the Realms of Fantasy, is the best miniatures war-game I have played; it's something fantastic. The ground-up method of creating any sort of warrior you want by buying it stats and traits gives the game an absolutely unparalleled depth of creation, allowing you to make anything you want, in any time period. I use it for nearly every kind of skirmish gaming I do these days, save for space fleet combat, (but its creator, Robert Faust, has winked at me the few times I have asked after that supplement, so I'm holding my breath). The rules are deep, though not overly complex and certainly free of reference tables, and the sheer magnitude of what you can play with them will keep the Brink of Battle book on your shelf for years to come.

   My review of Brink of Battle: Skirmish Gaming Through the Ages, and Epic Heroes: Skirmish Gaming in the Realms of Fantasy, should be qualified with a little information about myself and my involvement in these books and gameplay. I've been playing miniatures combat games since 2nd Edition Warhammer 40k, before it was slain by a radical change in rules structure in 3rd Edition. The changes were, in this reviewer's opinion, such an embarrassment to Games Workshop and to its customers that we've seen a new edition hit shelves every 3-4 years for the past decade and a half in a vain attempt to fix what was ruined in 3rd edition, and what failed to change much in newer editions from the first abortive dumbing down in 1998. That was pretty inflammatory, I know. I have strong feelings about a game system that abruptly ended such gems as Necromunda, Gorka Morka and the other unnamed games that Rick Priestly and Andy Chambers hinted at in the latter book's editorial note, (another feature Games Workshop did away with, to stomp out community connection to the creation of the game. Notice that artists names and credits to specific painters are no longer published in GW books.). All that being said, I come from a time when gaming rules were deeper, more comprehensive, and honestly, not geared to gouge your pocket to field an army of any worth, (yes, I'm talking about 55 dollar box sets of specialty miniatures that are 70 points in a 1500 point army list).

   I was fortunate enough to befriend Robert Faust, (Brink of Battle's designer), and Andrew Davies, (co-designer of Epic Heroes), a while back now, and participate in play-testing and even some miniature painting of the Epic Heroes book. I was hooked on their dedication and passion immediately. Bob has sat down with me on a number of occasions and divulged his reasons for his own game and its mechanics, where he came from in terms of his gaming history (see above; it is similar to my own), and the philosophy behind his game and its scale. It is all laid out very well in an editorial in both Brink of Battle and Epic Heroes for you to read on your own. Suffice it to say he has spent years developing a game which was nominated for the Origins Awards best historical war-game of 2013, and which delivers a game by gamers for gamers that will stand the test of historical gaming scrutiny and play out any scenario in history you can think of—to your own specifications, using any miniatures you want, and which you might already own! Brink of Battle brings back the feel and excitement of those first years of gaming—before a time when new editions of rules invalidated years of painting, modeling and rules comprehension.

   Its first draw for me: I essentially already own everything I need for the game save for the very affordable rulebook. I found myself pulling out an old sprue of Games Workshop's High Elf spearmen, dusting off my old half painted Dwarves and painting a whole war-band of Reaper's Bones figures for play! Brink of Battle is skirmish level gaming geared to use somewhere between 3 and 20 miniatures, with 7-12 being a good median range of figures you'll be setting down.  No more painting 30 Ork Boys for a week or more to take them off the table by the handful. In fact, no more nameless hordes at all. Brink of Battle isn't about masses of nameless troops; it's about a small cadre of soldiers with names, with unique gear, and with a personality born of their special design and team makeup. That's the second draw for me—the story of your combat force. Suddenly my 10 Ork Boys have a personality. I find myself poring over the fluff in Gorka Morka again to get a sense of what Orks are like in a day to day routine between their cosmically huge battles; what drives them to do what they do, (which is fight mostly), and why they would be on the battlefield of Brink of Battle at all.
   
   And here's reason three I am wooed by Brink of Battle; I am using troopers that I create in totality. There are no pre-designed rules for Orks from Warhammer 40k in Brink of Battle, as there are no predesigned rules for a cowboy, a fallschirmjager or an elf. What it and Epic Heroes do provide are rules to grant your small force of combatants each a 3 attribute stat line, (Combat, Command and Constitution), a large selection of weapons, armor and gear from 3 major technological periods (including magical items), and a HUGE amount of Traits—the special abilities that really design your individual troopers with their extra strengths, elite skills and focused tactics.

   Play is conducted on typical war-games terrain, perfectly balanced for 3'x3' or 4'x4' tables. Play during a round shifts back and forth between the two combatants, one miniature at a time, adding a significant level of strategy to simply choosing who will attack in which order. Many actions and abilities available to a model, such as adding defense dice to a roll for having a shield, are subject to still having your action with that model yet unspent. Ten sided dice are used in small quantities, (typically one or two dice), and the game is notable for an opposed roll system. Rather than simply figuring what number a trooper needs a roll to hit or wound based off of his own skills, the skills and armor of his target are also factored into the rolling as his opponent rolls against him. This allows a trooper of even mediocre skill to occasionally land a killing blow on the most elite of troops, while maintaining the strength of higher stats and killer Traits that those elites carry! How often have I rolled a ten, added it to my abysmal ranged combat modifier and dropped an arrow right through the chest of a friend's elite miniature after he rolled a 1 in response! The chances were slim, but they were there!

   The overall feel of play is total immersion. You don't have down time where you sit and watch the opponent play and roll and take your figures off of the board, you participate constantly. You have to remain aware of the battle as your troops are called on one by one to add to the swirling melee on the battlefield. In fact, you can't sit down much at all! Those familiar with Necromunda and Mordheim will understand the rules for game-ending route checks in Brink of Battle from having taken similar tests in those games. And like those games, Brink of Battle has a campaign aspect in which your troops can gain further stats, gear and Traits beyond what they began with as they slug it out with their most hated adversaries—should they be Zulus, Spartans, Mind Flayers or Techno-priests.

   Epic Heroes itself is the new supplement for Brink of Battle, and it brings not only high fantasy to the original historical gaming system, but also more modern action elements, including traits that let you reenact the struggles of Archeological Adventurers in the steamy jungles of pulp era Congo, dueling Grammaton Clerics in a dystopian near-future, and Cultists of the Elder Gods routed from Old West towns by Law Dog marshals and the town gambler! A huge amount of traits exist to craft any number of non-human races and their hallmark attributes, including traits like Stout, Construct, Insectoid, Aquan, Diabolic, Undead and many many more. Add to that magic, (a very powerful albeit expensive addition to the rules), and the fantastic weapons such games would allow to be wielded, and you get a fantastic and endless world of possibilities in which to wage eternal war!

   I find it hard to get excited about new skirmish games now, as Brink of Battle allows me to play any of them—with the figures those other games provide or otherwise—using a rock solid rules system. I'm a painter first, and now a whole new opportunity has been opened to me and others like me to explore those old coffers of forgotten, unpainted, and unbuilt miniatures. I cruise sites online, drooling over the possibilities of using beautiful figures from lines like Wargods of Aegyptus, Infinity and even the new line of Warhammer 40k Orks. All the wonder has been returned to the tabletop. All the hours painting rewarded. I've made good friends and had good times thanks to Brink of Battle, and as long as that book is on your shelf, I'm sure the same will hold true for you. Pick it up, play a few games, and then play more. Show your friends, and theirs. Someday you will look back and know you were here during the beginning of something fantastic.


Chris Wolfe
roguepokemon@gmail.com

Check out Brink of Battle at http://www.brinkofbattle.com/

[Elbows]

Rogue,

They frown on cross-posting threads on various sub-forums.  The mods will likely close one of them down.

[Max Hazard]

I agree with you Chris.  I love Brink of Battle.  It's a lot of fun & easy to play.  My friends and I have played Ancients as well as WW2 with it and had a blast.  I always recommend this game when I can because for me, in my opinion, it gives you the best bang for your buck.  

[Nord]

Any chance of a brief rundown on how it plays?

[roguepokemon]

Elbows, noted. It is a review, though, of both the core Historical wargame and its new Fantasy source book. I was hoping the site had a reviews section, so I decided to chance a double post and hope it didn;t smack of spam. Thanks for the heads up.

Nord, I can give you a run down.

Each player fields a small force of between 3 and 20 minitaures. These can be whatever you like, historical or fantasy, and the rules lend themselves well to near future and even fantasy-sci fi like Shadowrun. Most players I have played with like the 6-10 miniature range. This allows you to give fewer figures better stats and Traits, sacrificing numerical superiority for skill.

The amount of models that can be activated in your force per turn is based off of your Leader's command rating and whether or not you won initiative for the turn. This is an either 7 or 10 actions tokens to place a turn with a maxed Command rating, no miniature getting allotted more than 1 during this phase.

The turn itself is totally immersive for both players, as you take turns going back and forth between players, activating your miniatures one at a time. The real mechanic that keeps both players active the entire game is the opposed rolling system. Typically a D10 is rolled with stats and other environmental concepts like cover factored in to make an attack, and the defender makes an opposed roll using his own stats and factors of environment to avoid the attack. This not only does away with basic troops having a fixed hit % on even the best veteran, but also allows said basic troop to, with chance, score a deadly hit on even the most hardened bad-ass on the field.

Models can be stunned or killed outright during rolls for damage, and after 25% casualties, your force must begin making route checks against the leader's command or else high tail it out of there.

Other rules of interest are the initiative rules. The player who has initiative, or "The Edge", can only possess it for two rounds running, but during those rounds has 3 more actions to allot than his opponent. The loser, or the player with "The Break", gets to interrupt any one action that the Edge player declares save the first of the round, making for a lot of last second side-stepping behind buildings and trees to compensate for losing initiative.

The MOST IMPORTANT thing that sets Brink of Battle aside from other games is the total constructive freedom with which to make your forces. Like I mentioned int he review, there are no stats for Spartans, or Space Marines, or Nazgul. You build the miniatures up with their own unique stats and Traits. Traits are essentially the "special rules" you'd find in the army book entries of other game systems, and there are a LOT of them. "Wither Knights have +1 to their Combat skill" would be an example from a standard game. Where you might like Wither Knights as they are, why not give that skill to an orc? Or why not skip the extra +1 Combat and give your Knights "Stealth" instead, increasing their survivability in cover while slowly making their way across the battlefield, as Undead in BoB are want to do?

The game can play fast and brutal, or you can take your time and use the rules for Ambush to slowly stalk your enemy. Timing for which model to activate becomes important as some traits only work while you are Active, meaning you have not yet used your Action Token. Extra protection from shields and an improved ability to lash back in counter attack with a sword are  two pieces of equipment that are subject to more defensive play.

Lastly, like games such as Necromunda, Gorka Morka and Mordheim, Brink of Battle has a campaign feature that allows your teams to grow as you fight out your conflicts. More Traits are purchased, stats are increased, brothers buried and loot gotten in the story driven adventures that, like your small force, were made from the ground up by you!

Chris

[hjorhrafn]

I'll have to echo what Rogue has said here.  BoB/Epic Heroes is my go-to skirmish game now.  There are few models in my collection that I can't stat up with Epic Heroes.  My group still plays Infinity, and I am attempting to bring them into the Strange Aeons fold, but other than that, I don't really see a need for another historical/fantasy skirmish system in my library.  That being said, I am always on the lookout for new mechanics and such, so I go ahead and buy new systems anyhow.   

[roguepokemon]

I just played a game of 40K for the first time since maybe 3rd ed. It was disappointing. We played just 1300 points and not only did I get a little bored with waiting for my turn to come around (hardly any armour save rolls for orks), but honestly, I felt bad for the guy I was playing, as I was playing a huge shooting army, and it took several minutes to fire off all my weapons. worst of all was the fact that I've spent a LOT of time painting my orks and I had to take them off the board in handfuls. The only thing that made it all worth while was knowing that I had a large selection of models from which to choose a handful to play Brink of Battle.

[Furt]

Can you play BOB with more than 2 players? Has anyone tried it?

[Slorm]

Mmmm...
And is possible to play it alone?

[Faust23]

You can play with more than two players, but it will take the game from 30-45 minutes of play to closer to an hour & a half. 

Solo play is really good since you can resolve all the opposed rolls with different colored dice. 

I am trying to find Terrement's solo gaming review of BoB.  When I do I'll post it here.

[Slorm]

Thanks for your answer @Faust, I bought the game a long time ago, but still I haven't played it, I normally play alone, an it's look like a bit complex... a solitary AAR could be very motivator!

Thanks