New Skirmish Wargames with POTENTIAL 

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

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.

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.

I met the BLKOUT creators at LVO. They were awesome and I picked up 2 teams.

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

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.

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

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.

Magnagothica Maleghast looks incredible. Skirmish game set in a city sinking into hell. How cool is that?!

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.

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.

Trench Crusade goes HARD in the art and setting. I love 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.

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.

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 just got the Forbidden Psalm End Times edition in the mail, I can't wait to have some fun with that!

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.

1:44 BLKOUT 5:05 Steel Rift 7:38 Trench Crusade 10:37 This Quar's War 11:44 Turnip28 12:30 Warcrow

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.

Aimed for a tactical sized rulebook wound up with a cute one, win-win

New skirmish games that have caught my interest: - Torch & Shield, a dwarves delving skirmish game. - Zone Wars, a Mutant Year Zero skirmisher

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.

Bought nearly the whole line of BLCKOUT minis. One more duster to go. Playing it for the first time this weekend!

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.

Thanks for the This Quar's War shoutout!

The Silver Bayonet?

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!

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.

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.

The hype for Warcrow is really building. We've been putting some videos out about them and the feedback has been positive. I saw it in Spain last year, really nice system.

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.

What im seeing out of trench crusade is fascinating, and im liking the community im seeing slowly pop up around it... Plus that ART

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 😀

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.

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 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.

Oh one more skirmish game I hope I'll soon get to the table: Conquest: First blood (the little simbling of Conquest: The last argument of kings). I like their activation system on paper a lot (but haven't tried it in action yet): At the start of the round both players take cards for each of their units on the battlefield (when you buy a box they come with a card with nice art and a qr code allowing you to pull up stats for the respective unit in their army builder app very quickly) and arrange them in a stack (not shuffled, you decide what is where). Now players alternate between activations, but you have to activate the top unit of you stack (and then you discard that card). So you have to prepare in which order you want all units activated at the start of each round :)

BLKOUT is a great game and I'm happy to see one of my favorite RU-vidrs shout out one of my favorite skirmish game.

Very excited for the new Forbidden Pslam system game, Endless Horrors Between The Stars, where you build a band of cultists that worship a randomly generated eldritch god. The kickstarter for it just launched

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.

Some more skirmish games people should check out: - Relic Blade - Bushido - World of Twilight - MERCS - Star Breach And while no longer in production, everyone should check out the glory that is/was Endless Fantasy Tactics. So many amazing skirmish games out there that get ignored because they aren't made by a particular company out of Nottingham.

Tonks and Banggurang in gutterlands

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.

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!

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.

Oooh, Warcrow. I got pretty disillusioned with wargaming, but those minis might bring me back.

BLKOUT looks like the tabletop version of Titanfall, and it even has mechs!

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.

Met the blkout guys while cruising local games stores. Cool dudes.

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'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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

I am interested in the new Fallout skirmish game (Wasteland Warfare is unnecessarily complex, imo). Trench Crusade is going to inspire some great kitbashes and 3D prints!

I cannot WAIT for Trench Crusade to release.

> blkout >sci-fi > on a ball planet Cyber-soldiers using AK-47 with wires.

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!

Surprised to hear Quar War here. I recently read through all the free PDFs and am interested to see what a more experienced gamer thinks of the rules.

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.

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!

This one I need to watch again and take notes. Thank you for all the information you gave, as it just might be a great way to enter more into this hobby.

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.

Thanks for this one Uncle Adam. Always love to hear about up and coming games..

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.

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 downloaded the playtest rules for Trench Crusade a couple of weeks ago, and I agree, it looks phenomenal. Both the art, and the ruleset

Burrows & Badgers from Oathsworn Miniatures! More people should try it out! :D

Great great video! Love it. All of these games deserve being in this video. Would love to see all of them covered more in depth.

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.

Back to your (skirmishing) roots with this one Uncle Atom. Very diverse list, and intriguing for that.

Really love your coverage of these indie games. Would love to see a deeper dive on some of this stuff.

Sláine by Warlord Games needs more attention. I don’t want that ministure line to disappear. Great lore from the comics and good system. The rulebook could be better.

Im going to put out some love to WARZONE Eternal here. Yes it the newest incarnation of Mutant Chronicles : Warzone and its not out yet but its being finished up to release. I will admit i was quick to dismiss it but after reading the beta rules and meeting the makers and seeing it in play, I'm actually impressed. For one thing, its been returned to its small unit /true skirmish level roots so huge armies are no longer needed. It plays faster and smoother, get you right into the action. The thinking is" fans of WZ are older now and we don't have the time or money we did before, plus the 80's-90's attempts to be the next GW are over so lets make faster smaller game that just as fun" Seeing the demos etc I cant say i disagree. And the Minis are SWEET!!!! Dont expect any new troops yet though. They're so much in the game already theres not really a need for new stuff yet. New actually scaled and decent versions of the classic troopers and characters we know are sorely needed so brand new stuff not needed for a while. Plus the folks making it are long time fans of Mutant Chronicles and Warzone PLUS they have the business sense! I'm actually rooting for these guys! AND I cannot stress this enough...It looks like its actually affordable!!!! Trying full play of the beta rules this weekend . Ill up date is anyone is interested! I do urge folks to check out Warzone Eternal. In the words of Uncle Stan 'Nuff said!

All good picks I think. Anyone know why they changed Killwager to Blkout?

Looking into other games like this is awesome, keep it coming. Battle reports of each would be cool as well.

Cyberpunk Red: Combat Zone is an incredible, smooth, and well thought-out skirmish game that has a fast and natural flow

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!

Sounds good! I personally am looking forward to Trench crusade, Swill but also for a game called Blight seas fleet. A Necropunk, ww1-ish naval game inspired by Turnip and Battlefleet Gothic. It´s still in early access, but I really like the world and aesthetic. And it has solid rules.

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?).

I was waiting for a trailer teaser for your new game upcoming game. I'm excited to see the new release.

Great video - it's good to see some other minature skirmish games getting a mention 👍 It's how I found Carnevale - not a new skirmish game, but another alternate history which has some cool mechanics & models As to the recent trend with shortening words/names such as Blkout - I suspected as well as to look different/cool, it is to allow copyrighting of the name if it is something that would ordinarily be in the English language (and thus can't be copyrighted) 😁

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.

This is such a cool time for new games!

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.

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.

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.

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.

Happy to see Warcrow on this list, been interested since CB first announced it.

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!

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.

Not a new game but new to me, looking forward to messing around with Forbidden Psalm!

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.

Had a look at Blkout after this video, just bought the starter set 😁

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

Another small skirmish game is "Scout's Out", a World War One squad level game. Not only figure agnostic, but, he sells physical models and their STLs. Main rulebook includes British, German, French, and Austro-Hungarian force lists. He recently released an expansion which includes all the previous lists plus American, Italian, and Russian lists and some additional weapons and equipment. I'm considering using the rules only with the Quar.

Bought a starter set of This Quar's War. Cant wait for it to deliver!

Skirmish-level is my absolute favorite for emergent narrative. Especially when theres a well designed campaign/ advancement system built in. I know not everyone has the time or gaming group for a true campaign, but IMO its what makes og Mordheim/ Necromunda stand out from the rest for so many years. Thanks for remaining dedicated to the hobby, Adam. We all benefit from your passion!