(Little programming note – sorry if you received some emails this morning re-releasing the board of Shadowy figures post. Basically, there is an issue that is causing a featured image to display improperly and I’ve been trying to fix it. Sadly Jetpack by WordPress kind of sucks so it hammered out a few new post emails it shouldn’t have. Anyway, back to the content.)

BPRE 28mm – it’s a game I like a lot (to put it mildly). One of the main advantages of BPRE is that the games don’t take a year to play, meaning that you can quite easily fit them in on a lunch break. I’m very lucky that I work alongside someone who suffered through the same university as me and has a similar taste in wargaming and airsoft. As well as giving me a buddy to sample the lunch delights of Leeds, my suggestion we play a wargame over our break on a Thursday was answered with a certain amount of excitement.

However, before we jumped in hard, I decided to make an investment and get hold of a playmat for the Raid size of game to make setup slightly quicker (rather than having to measure specific positioning for the structures). This design is by Breezy on the BPRE Patreon Discord and is available for free (along with a larger mat designed for the larger Phaseline board). To get it printed though, that involved using DeepCut Studio’s custom mat builder. I went for the neoprene and stitched borders (seeing as I’ll be taking this to and from work once a week) and the total cost wasn’t actually that bad overall. I’m also super happy with the quality of the printing, especially around the iconography of BPRE. It’s lovely and crisp, definitely making the game feel even better.

With a professional-looking playmat together, how have the games been?

I’m not going into turn-by-turn blows (the games play too fast and I’m too focused on playing/eating lunch to take photos) but I can cover some overall things I’ve spotted from playing BPRE once a week for a couple of months.

The first thing up was something we noticed from getting the mat – we had been playing the game with a slightly larger area when placing buildings, using the outer border rather than the walls for positioning. This sounds like a minor thing, but this is a game of inches (pun not intended) and every inch counts for movement. Since putting the buildings closer together, we’ve definitely found the game to be much tighter, with smaller open spaces meaning more focused firing lines and more people able to make the frantic rushes.

It also drives home that this isn’t a game to play haphazardly or in a relaxed way. There is a lot of incentives to check the angles, to find mistakes your opponents make and to then punish them brutally for it. Finding those gaps is a game in itself, really rewarding players who know what you can do with your force and when to take advantage of it.

Speaking of being tighter, let’s talk about how close these games have been. Something we really love with BPRE is how you basically need to play every turn until the battle is either won or lost (a situation we’ve had to miss out on sadly due to the pressures of a limited game time). Over the years I’ve played several games where things have been technically won in round one but then play has continued grinding away until the objectives were technically achieved. This occurs much less with BPRE, with battle usually having definitive finishes early on, or pushing right up to the turn counter – even a single remaining figure plus an intervention card played well can REALLY screw up your opponent’s turn and turn an inevitable loss into a narrow win.

My opponent is a big fan of using a mass of troops so he’s mostly been playing Shurta with minimal higher-tier element. This is in part because he’s a big fan of maximising the action economy – having more troops means he’ll have more activation per turn than the smaller Cold Harbor team. This is something that is especially deadly as you can’t choose to pass a single activation when passing back and forth – declaring you have no more activations means the enemy can start hammering in moves, operating without giving you a chance to relocate, only responding with intermediate actions.

After playing the first few games as the OPFOR, the last two games have seen my opponent playing Scorch instead, utilising the smaller number of Cold Harbor employees against the Aayari. His first game wasn’t too far away from the Shurta Swarm (instead utilising the cheaper Assaulters rather than relying on the specialists) but a second game using more recce troops I think has helped to reveal how Scorch deals with the larger number of activations that Aayari usually end up with. Pretty much every Scorch figure (from the humbler Assaulter to the high-cost Advisor) has a method of dealing with multiple enemies per turn – machine guns can target multiple enemies, grenadiers and frags perform area denial, Advisors dropping large-scale templates to wipe out vast numbers of enemies while the Recce’s skills allow them to attack twice in a turn at any range. Using these skills, mixed with suitable intervention cards, are kind of vital for the Scorch team to get the win.

I also got a chance to run a set of games with the Regular Opponents for the Dastardly One’s birthday. We decided to play one mission twice (swapping each way) giving both players a go at playing the two teams. After an earlier game of Chain of Command (more on that later) this game definitely had both players leaning forward in their seats to check angles and work out tactics. Safe to say, both of them did enjoy it (even if they admitted they wanted to re-read the rules to get the basics lodged in the brain).

You may notice I have three pictures up there rather than just one per game. Well, that’s because the first time we swapped around, we had a turn 1-action 1 victory. Bunching up a team in a single room with a door in line with a window meant that turn 1 a 40mm grenade came curving through the window, blew the door in and shredded a whole stack of Scorch team guys. Grenade launchers definitely work well to lock down angles – launching in the direct fire phase means ending a turn exposed to one is a very bad idea.

Overall, BPRE continues to be the game I’m putting to the table the most. In part because of how quick it is to play but also because of how pretty much every game plays differently – no matter what force I pull out of the box, minor changes to tactics, intervention cards and dice rolls keep it interesting and thinking on your feet.

I still heartily recommend giving the game a go – although the boxes from Echelon are the best way to play (and the best way to support further development and keep the team making stuff), for $5 you can jump into the Patreon, grab the PDFs for everything you need (terrain, tiles and standee figures) and start playing pretty sharpish. This way you can see if you like it and then decide if you want to pick up the boxes with the lovely models, well-made terrain temples and hard-wearing cards.

Anyway, I need to get back to video making and also thinking about what force I’m running next week…

Hey, remember when I said I was done with posts for the year?

I had to rush this video slightly due to house/Christmas things but here is my unboxing of the new Phaseline expansion for Black Powder Red Earth 28mm – you can find it embedded below or over at Youtube here. Hope you enjoy seeing what’s in the box and I’ll see you in the new year!

The last time I talked about my BPRE 28mm box, I made the comment “I’m really looking forward to getting this painted up. Shouldn’t take me very long” or words to that effect.

Well, 3 months later I actually realised that I suddenly had a week to paint up the remaining Shurta, all the Hongbin operators and even the Scorch operators in order to take the fight to my Former Housemate (and more importantly get him into BPRE 28mm). That meant it was time to break out the paints and get to work.

This article has a video version avaliable over on Youtube – if you would prefer to watch this article rather than reading through it!

Painting Notes

Something to mention before going into my paint schemes is that I have a particular way of painting. No matter the scheme, I work up from a black undercoat – on the open areas, it’s easy to spot pieces I’ve missed while if there are small spots on the underside that I fail to paint over, it doesn’t ruin the overall effect when it finally hits the table. After doing the base colours (usually in a particular order before doing a final check at the end to touch up), I’ll then hit the entire model with GW’s Agrax Earthshade. This ties the colours together, flattening down the edges of the different parts of the model, adding some shadows in the bargain as well; It really is “skill in a bottle”. However, while the wash handles the depth, using a makeup brush to apply the base colours and a drybrush of Iraqi as the final step helps to pick out the details. This style is very much that of someone who just wants to get the collection painted – it’s relatively quick but it does provide a good final look and I’m pretty happy with how the figures from it look.

There are also some other common elements on all the models in the set. For a long time, my method of painting black was to let the basecoat do the work and then drybrush basalt grey over the top. Now however, I’ve moved across to using a grey colour and then applying Black contrast over the top, giving me a black that actually has some depth to it. Yes, it does mean I spend my time repainting a black undercoat to be black again but I’m really happy with the end result. I also do something similar for my weapons – Leadblecher as a metallic colour to get the effect, and then a layer of black contrast over the top for the colour and dampen down the shine a little bit.

With that out of the way, let’s take a look at the specific figures in the box.

Shurta

The Shurta are the biggest number of models in the box and I might have made a mistake by starting off with them – too many veggies before the meal. As mentioned in the last article, there are four copies of each of the three different sculpts to play with, giving you all the bodies that the Aayari Guard need when your tactics involve cannon fodder. Despite being the unwashed horde, the figures are pretty iconic designs for BPRE, with plenty of nice touches that make them stand out from the usual Insurgents/Terrorist figures.

In terms of painting, the scheme is pretty simple. The Gorka suit, an all weather set of Jacket and Trousers, was really fun to paint up, looking distinctive with the two tone colours, the tan English Uniform for most of the material before painting over with Olive Drab on the reinforced sections. I had planned to do a selection of Gorkas but time constraints meant I ended up going with one pattern for everyone.

On top of that, I then painted the Webbing. Technically the webbing rig and the pouches should be the same colour but going for light webbing and green pouches does add some contrast to a pretty dark looking model. Similarly the flesh helps to bring out some interesting tone. In the past I have just used Vallejo’s Medium fleshtone which explains why a lot of my older figures have a little bit of a yellow look to them. I actually worked through a selection of ideas for how to paint flesh while going through these models but ended settling on Iraqi Sand with the Agrax wash over the top. This is because although it’s only a small area, there is lots of space for a wash to really settle into the cracks, giving it a flesh tone.

• Vallejo English Uniform/Vallejo Olive Drab – Gorka
• Vallejo Russian Uniform Green – Pouches
• Vallejo US Field Drab – webbing
• GW Eshin Grey + Contrast Black – Black elements (boots/radios)
• GW Leadbelcher + GW Contrast Black – Gunmetal
• Vallejo Iraqi sand + wash – Flesh
• GW Agrax Earthshade + drybrush Vallejo Iraqi sand

Mutasib

Of course, once the Shurta was painted, the next step was to get their squad leaders painted up. The Mutasib are wearing the same gear as their charges, except for gear such as the NVGs and attachments on their AKs. For this reason, the bulk of the paint list is going to look rather familar. The new elements however required some little tweaks. Both the balaclava and NVG set that pick these models out are black and I was definitely worried about painting the head of the model in the same colour; it’s the focus point of the model and you want it to stand out. For this reason, I used two different shades of grey under the constrast, the lighter Dawnstone head covering sitting under the NVGs. This then gives a touch more depth to the models, letting you pick up the different between the headstraps and what’s underneath.

Having finished the box, I have to say I REALLY like these models. It’s such a unique look that you only get from BPRE series, especially with using the skullcrusher mount for the NVGs rather than a helmet. You can see the progression in gear from the Shurta up to the Hongbin soldiers, with Mutasib in the middle as a stepping stone. They would probably work really well as a lighter advisor force if you were playing with the more usual Militia/Insurgent forces, something I might actually try.

• Vallejo English Uniform/Vallejo Olive Drab – Gorka
• Vallejo Russian Uniform Green – Pouches
• Vallejo US Field Drab – webbing
• GW Eshin Grey/GW Dawnstone + GW Contrast Black – Black elements (boots/radios)
• GW Leadbelcher + GW Contrast Black – Gunmetal
• Vallejo Iraqi sand + wash – Flesh
• GW Agrax Earthshade + drybrush Vallejo Iraqi sand

Hongbin

Finally, we got to the final element of the Aayari Guard force – the Hongbin Mercenaries and Enablers. Which for me was a concern – of all the forces in the box, the Hongbin is the only one wearing camo. And camo takes times.

For context, I was painting these guys first thing on a Monday morning as I was playing on Tuesday evening. With a full force of Scorch waiting for me to paint, I had to get these figures painted quickly. Luckily, the creator of BPRE had mentioned that the Hongbin guys use a selection of camo, including UCP (the old US army camo) – this is a camo scheme I know rather well having painted most of a US platoon in it. It uses the grand total of two colours and wash, with a Green Grey base and Ushanti Bone sponged on. The ever useful US Field Drab painted the tan helmet, plate carrier and belts, the solid colour giving a nice contrast to the camo. And speaking of contrast, they all reccived red scarves to help them pop a little bit on the board.

The Enabler also got some specific tweaks. The patch of flesh peaking out on his forearms was Cadian Fleshtone but more importnatly, we got to add some of the flair of the BPRE with the orange lenses on the glasses. I didn’t go too far with emulating the look of the comics, but they were just asking for that pop.

These guys felt a lot like painting up other figures I already own – the camo clothing and tan gear/helmet, picking out the weapon accresssories in tan, etc. It’s interesting how these are technically on the OPFOR side, so painting up modified AKs rather than AR15s. I also like how they look next to the Shurta and Mutashib, standing apart with all their gear and camo, making the Aayari Guard Force actually quite varied to look at once in game.

• Vallejo Green Grey + GW Ushanti Bone sponge + GW Nuln Oil – UCP
• Vallejo US Field Drab – helmet + web gear
• GW Eshin Grey + GW Contrast Black – Black elements (boots/radios)
• GW Leadbelcher + GW Contrast Black – Gunmetal
• GW Cadian Fleshtone – Flesh
• GW Fire Dragon Bright – Glasses
• GW Mephiston red – Red scarf
• GW Agrax Earthshade + drybrush Vallejo Iraqi sand

Scorch

With the OPFOR done, it was time to work on Scorch. The Cold Harbour contractors are interesting as it’s a 10 figure force where all of the figures are basically the same, apart from weapons and a few specific details. Roughly you can split the figures into three sections to be painted – the jeans, the t-shirts and all the tactical gear.

For the jeans, I use either Kantor Blue or Calagar Blue over the black undercoat, I had tried Caledor Sky, but the colours just seemed slightly off and so I went over with with Calagar Blue. After this, I applied a Nuln Oil wash to tie the colours together.

As I mentioned at the top, it can be hard to determine which Scorch team member is which due to the gear. I know that the Recce have a different pack and a Eotech/Magniger combo on the rifle, but for a new player they might struggle. Luckily, each figure is wearing a t-shirt and based on some advice from the creator of BPRE, I instead went for a variety of colours themed off the shirts Echelon has sold as merch. I’ve listed the different colours for the different classes below. The system works out rather well – you might lose the cool factor of an entire squad in the stylish red but you gain a lot in terms of readabilty.

Finally the tactical gear. As you can see, for Scorch it’s black. And it covers A LOT of the body, from the belt rig to the plate carrier to the head which is bascially 99% helmet or NVGs or balaclava. I think this was actually why I spent a lot of time thinking about painting before actually getting around to it, worrying about how to make such a model look good. Luckily, there were two things to help make this section look good. First of all, I painted these models last, meaning I had all the Aayari guys to get used to my black painting technique. Second, these models are covered in details, so the black constrast (and the final drybrush) helped to pick out all the elements, helping to make it look a little bit less flat.

Finally, we have the small touches. The glow sticks at the belt should technically be pale plastic (until snapped) but the touch of green helps to make them more interesting. Similarly, a dab of Green Grey picked out the headset on the helmet while anything tan (such as the PEQ box) took the ever useful Field Drab. And because legally I can’t paint these guys without some red lenses after reading the comics, they got Evil Sunz Scarlet on the glasses and NVGs. Just because i’m not going full comic book style, doesn’t mean I’m not going to take full advantage of that glorious look.

• GW Kantor Blue/GW Calagar Blue + GW Nuln Oil – Jeans
• Tshirts
  1. GW Mephiston Red – Advisor
  2. GW Khorne Red – Automatic Rifleman
  3. GW Khorne Red/GW Dawnstone Grey + Contrast – Assaulter
  4. Vallejo Russian Uniform Green/GW Dawnstone Grey – Recce
• GW Waagh flesh – Glow sticks
• Vallejo Green Grey – Arc headphones
• Vallejo US Field Drab – tan elements
• GW Eshin Grey/GW Dawnstone + GW Black Templar Contrast – blacks
• GW Agrax Earthshade + drybrush Valejo iraqi sand
• GW Evil Sunz Scarlet – glasses/NVGs

Final Notes

After finishing painting and frantically basing them with Geek Gaming’s Scrublands basing mix, I had a fully painted Complete Target Package ready to go. What are my final thoughts?

Well, the first part is that I should have spent more time cleaning these figures up. There is a concerning level of mouldlines I only really started spotting once paint was applied (especially on the Scorch assaulters runnning down their legs) that I had to reach for the sandpaper in the midst of painting. It qould have been nice if the figure didn’t suffer from mould slip, especially when some of them are in relatively obvious palces (such as down the side of a Shurta’s face) that would be hard to fix. Maybe I’ve been ruined by 3D printing my own figures but it would be nice to see a little more QC on them.

That said, I think these figures are some of the most fun I’ve painted in the last few years. Similar to some of the Games Workshop figures I’ve worked on, there is plenty of details on display but not too much that I struggle to actually pick it out what I’m painting. With my paint style being what it is, washes and drybrushes really help to show off everything. For example, on the helmets of the Scorch team, you can see the patch locations, the wires running to the NVGs, the counter-weight hanging off the back. There are also some great posing on them, action packed but still very readable. There are a few Scorch figures balancing on one foot but the rest are sensibly designed. It might have been nice to see another Shurta pose (mostly because you can end up using so many) or to have used the modular design to allow for swapping some pieces over.

Maybe we’ll see some more Shurta poses among the next BPRE 28mm release coming in November’s release “Phase Line”. We’ve seen some of the previews on the Black Powder Red Earth instagram, treating us to the fact that both sides are going to be recciving some additional armaments, providing such force multipliers as CQB specialists, Medium Machine Guns and 40mm grenade launchers. These designs are super cool, and I am going to be rushing to pick up my box as soon as they are released. And then take less time to paint!

Something I failed to include last time was a size comparison between the BPRE figures and other Ultramoderns. Now painted up, you can see them alongside each other. Personally, I’d have no issues using them alongside each other – they are definitely larger than Spectre or the 3D printing options but it wouldn’t matter hugely at gaming height. More excuses to get these lovely figures out!

So, with all that done, it’s probaby time to talk about how the games actually worked out. But we’ll be covering that next time, in a future post/video. I’ve already played one evening but tomorrow, I’ll be playing a full night raid for the first time using the proper layouts. It’s going to be great!

Out of all the games I’ve played in the last year or so, I think BPRE 28mm is probably the game that could mostly easily be played using with standees. Simple LOS rules, small play areas and 2D terrain – this game is basically a board game.

But hey, standees can only do so much. And with Black Powder Red Earth being a graphic novel series, getting models of the combatants in the series was honestly probably the biggest draw for lots of people when the game was announced. And when the previews were shown off, there was a lot of excitement for the crisp 3d sculpted figures – as well as quite a few asking for STLs but that might have just been me. In the end, Echelon Software decided to go for casting in resin (a sensible choice for small scale production runs).

If you want some supplementary material and to see the models slowly rotating, check out the video I did over on the ChargeBlog Youtube channel.

If you’ve seen the video from my first post, you’ll see how these figures arrive – in multiple parts on a support structure, with each type of figure separated out into different bags. The exact pieces each model is split into depends on the sculpt – Shurta are only two parts (gun and body) while the Scorch guys are commonly split into legs, torso, heads and two separate arms. There is also an amount of clean up to do on most of the parts, mostly some excess material to be scraped away.

But, once you actually look at the parts, you’ll see just how well the sculpting and casting has allowed to capture the details on the figures themselves. I’ll cover a little more when looking at the specific factions but as you can see on the Scorch Recce above, details like the adjustment dials on the holographic sight or the rail indents on the helmet, ribbing on AK magazines of the Aayari – even the rail segments have distinctive separation, with crisp lines on the edges. I’m definitely looking forward to seeing it picked out during painting.

Having gone through and assembled them, I can safely say – these are not the best models for beginners. Maybe I’ve been spoilt by GW’s plastic output, but I definitely found myself having to take a fair amount of time to carefully clean up and prepare the models. This included plenty of trimming, sanding and more, so you’ll need the full set of tools to get to work on them. Placement of trimming points is mostly well designed and easy to trim down with only two exceptions – gates on the back of the helmets for Scorch has lead to some damage to the surface on the NVG batteries (and need repairing) while some of the arms that fit into sockets in the body needed a lot of work. There are also a few gaps I still need to fill before painting can begin, although this might be more down to me rushing slightly to get them ready for painting.

As part of this quality talk, we do need to talk about mould lines and air bubbles. While working through the models, I did notice a few air bubbles, mostly on the underside of the affected figures. Although not ideal, they are at least out of the way and easily fixable.

What is less good is the mould line that several figures have. Although managing to avoid the worst places for it (don’t worry, nothing directly across the face), a couple of the Shurta sprues have some more obviously lines running over the top of their head that might be close to . I have plenty of models in resin that have been ruined by these production issues and I’m pleased to report that none of the pieces from Echelon had me reaching for an angry email. That said, I think White Dragon Miniatures still hold the title for making perfectly cast resin figures.

Finally, I think these figures are actually very well designed. The modularity of these models is carefully done, with dynamic final poses made into smaller pieces to improve shipping. I was very glad to find that not a single piece had any damage or the dreaded broken barrels. I’m actually a fan of all the poses in the set – usually each block of four figures will end up with at least one that looks a bit off. In this case however, I don’t think there is a single pose I really dislike. All of them are fit and suitable for the close quarters war of Black Powder Red Earth.

The Small Unit Killteam box includes all the figures you need for the Scorch team. Inside, you get 10 figures – 1 Advisor, 1 Machine Gunner, 4 Assaulters and 4 Recce operators. All of operators are wearing the same basic kit – Ops Core helmets, AVS Plate carrier, jeans and t-shirt. However, there are little clues to tell them apart. The Advisor has a pair of aerials (for calling in Switchblade-esque drones), the Machine Gunner has a belt fed LMG while the Assaulter and Recce have different optic setups and different rucksacks to make them easy to tell apart. All of them are covered in little fine details such as the bundles of glowsticks tied to their belts or the literal stacks of details on the helmet – everything from patches on the helmet velcro to the various bits needed for night fighting (NVGs, IR strobe, battery pack). For all those not happy with painting faces, you’ll be happy to know the Cold Harbor dress code includes face coverings and red tinted sunglasses.

The Scorch guys were the first set released and are probably the most complex to assemble. Pretty much every operator is split into the max number of parts and there are definitely a few very specific fits that demand carefully dry fitting and filing down. Basically, don’t do what I did, which included trying to fit them together quickly and having to freeze the joins apart to make sure they actually fit. You can spot there are one or two gaps I need to fill in. That said, it’s not entirely bad – there are plenty of guides to help in the more interesting joins (such as some good cutouts at the waist to slot into items mounted on the belt rig) so you don’t end up with misaligned torsos.

In the unboxing, I mentioned a replacement arm appearing among the pieces I unpacked. As you can see, it’s very much needed as Assaulter 1 is entirely missing his thumb. However, that was the only miscast I found in the entire set and I already had the replacement to deal with it.

In the Hongbin Mercenaries + Aayari Guard pack, you get a literal pile of figures for the OPFOR. The Hongbin bring a single Enabler and four Mercenaries, while the local Aayari include four Muhtasib and a massive twelve of the local Shurta. One thing I particularly like the range from Echelon is it’s something different in terms of OPFOR – even the expendable and cheap Shurta are fully equipped and properly armed, even if they are missing some important gear… like body armour or night vision.

Speaking of, lets talk about the Shurta, the swarm of bodies the OPFOR will use to drown the Scorch player. As mentioned, you get twelve of them.

Phew, that’s a little easier to work with.

However, there are only three different sculpts in the pack, so you’ll find yourself with duplicate figures. All three of the variants are wielding the AK12 at the ready, with some tweaks in how the head looks. I will admit, it would have been cool to see some more variation in the weapon systems being used by them – the actual entry in the rulebook for the Shurta has a bareheaded gunner with a PKM which would have been a cool figure to include, especially when using them in other games. Part of me would be tempted to some conversion work but I’ll admit I don’t trust my skills to not mess it up – it would be cool to see some alternative Shurta figures in a future release.

Although, speaking of variety, lets talk about the Muhtasib. These four figures share the same basic look as the Shurta (thanks mostly to the Gorka suits and web gear) but with some extra bits of gear to make them stand out as the squad leaders. Their AKs have such mod cons as “optical sights” and “laser aiming devices” while their head has a clone of the rather distinctive Thales night vision. Their design looked cool in the original artwork, and it looks fantastic when brought to the tabletop.

Both the Shurta and Muhtasib are pretty similar in construction (and yes I didn’t grab a snapshot of the Muhtasib sprue because I am a PROFESSIONAL) – they comprise of the main body and an arm/gun/hand combination that can easily be assembled together. Even better, the edge of the web gear helps to cover up any gaps. Nicely done!

The Hongbin guys bring some slightly better equipped (and better trained) fighters to the OPFOR side. With clone Airframe helmets and plate carriers, these guys aren’t quite on the same level of the Scorch guys but are more than capable of inflicting the killing blow (either by dropping Chinese drone on their head or using the very nicely detailed RPKs on the Mercenaries).

Assembling these guys required a bit more work than the Aayari guys – however, there are definitely some tweaks compared to the Scorch box. For example, the heads and torsos are combined while only one arm is separated. These ended up being much easier to assemble than the first box, with much less clean up needed. Additionally, be very carful with the Enabler figure – the raised AK barrel is just asking for a casual swipe of an arm for it to bend and snap. As proven by the fact I literally had to repair it JUST before finishing this article

So, what’s next? Well after I do my final prep, the painting can begin. I want to try and get through these guys relatively quickly (especially as I want them before I go on holiday) so I don’t plan on going too hard with the camo schemes so I can make it relatively fast.

So standby for some SITREPs as I go along!

Well, It’s finally here.

When I covered BPRE 28mm back in November 2021, I said to myself that I wouldn’t pick up the big game box until the OPFOR side had figures. Well, jump forward to May and the bad guys have now have some figures, more money has gone to support BPRE, HMRC/Parcelforce got their required pound of flesh and I’m sat here with a hole in my wallet and an ominous black box with an Operator on the front. Now lets crack this thing open and see what’s inside.

Disclosure: I was offered a discount on my order after releasing the original impressions piece to assist with getting hold of the game for coverage.

If you’re rather watch something, then an accompanying video is up on YouTube! It’s not a 1:1 recreation (for example I get the figures out to take a look at and cover some more of the background) but you might find it a handy thing to watch in addition to this post. Plus, it saves you having to do all this reading.

After cutting my way through the external postal box and lifting the black operator-decorated lid I was presented with this literal PILE of goodies. Because of this, I decided to shift to a slightly larger table as my usual painting desk couldn’t handle the entire pile of operator inside.

Packing is reasonable – no giant piles of foam, with most of the material around it coming from sheets of packing paper. At first I was concerned about how exposed things like the cards and tokens were, but a quick inspection showed nothing damaged or warped. A custom tray with cut-outs for each of the elements would have been a nice addition but it’s not a deal breaker.

Downstairs, I cleared the surface (mostly – just ignore the tree that gets wiped out in the video) and got out everything from inside the box. I quite liked how the rule book was properly wrapped up at the bottom, making sure that it arrived without any sharp corners gently rubbing on anything underneath.

Checking the handy included list of “Mission Critical Assets” (and then adding extra elements), this is what is included in my box:

• Tokens
  • 27 Act Tokens
  • 13 Frag Tokens
  • 2 Objective markers
  • 40 Door Terrain tokens
  • 6 Air Conditioner terrain tokens
  • 6 Planter terrain tokens
• 6 Structure boards in varying size and layout
• Turn counter and marker
• Clear Radial Effect Template
• Cards
  • 8 Warfighter Cards (one for each of the classes)
  • 3 Fires Cards (drones)
  • 5 Battlespace Cards
  • 12 Atmospherics Cards
  • 11 Tasking Cards
  • 24 Intervention Cards
  • 10 Special Intervention Cards
• Rulebook (printed in the US)
• Scorch Miniatures
  • 1 Advisor
  • 1 Machine Gunner
  • 4 Recce
  • 4 Assaulter
• Hongbin Miniatures
  • 1 Hongbin Enabler
  • 4 Hongbin Mercenaries
• Aayari Guard
  • 4 Muhtasib
  • 12 Shurta (4 copies of each of the 3 poses)
• Handy box sticker
• In-world Cold Harbour pelican case stickers (in case you want to store your game in something suitably tactical)

Overall that’s quite a list, giving you pretty much everything you might need to play the game. I’ll go into more details below but as a general rule, I’m really impressed with the quality of everything that comes with the game.

First up, these two boxes, the stars of the show – the models. As I ordered pretty quickly, it was obviously before the Hongbin Mercenaries + Aayari Guard box was quite ready for retail. However, you can see the nice quality packaging that the retail items are coming in, taking full advantage of Black Powder Red Earth’s incredibly striking artwork and iconography – there is no way that you’re not knowing where this product is from. I’ll be covering the figures in another post but initial impressions after starting to assemble them is pretty damn good.

The Radial Effect Template in is another item that came in it’s retail packaging, with a Hongbin and Scorch operator facing off on the cover. Inside, you’ll find clear slightly flexible 3″ radius circle with the unique facing indicator and scatter system.

The cards are personally my favourite part of the package. Making them physical cards on nice materials improves the mission generation, preparing interventions and even as quick references for double checking dice rolls for each of the character stats. I’m actually leaning towards saying that a rulebook + deck of cards are the best way to play the game, if you can’t get your hands on the full thing. Accoding to the creators, these cards are actually pretty damn tough – being water and tear resistant, you’ll probably not even have to sleeve them. As you can see in the video, I spend a lot of time rubbing them against each other as they have that wonderful property that makes them easily come away from the table rather than sticking together.

In two bags, you find the components. When I first spotted them, I was slightly worried as it looked like they had been printed on cardboard, which would have long term concerns for how they would last with repeated play. I can confirm they are much harder wearing than simple carboard, with a nice thickness to them to prevent any risk of bending them or warping. I did have to pull some apart after shipment but it wasn’t too much of a problem

The only blip on the quality indicator is that some of the ACT chits seem slightly misprinted, with some of black edges visible on the top side. Nothing to ruin the game, but it’s still a minor misprint for the perfectionists. As for the rest of the printing, colours are vibrant, detail solid and they are easy to read from tabletop height

And then we have the pieces that I was perhaps most intrigued by.

Unlike most wargames, Black Powder Red Earth is designed for some specific layouts. This is something that the creators have listed as being inspired by video game levels, allowing for a greater deal of balance that many other wargames don’t have when dealing with laying out the map as well as players excited about (or dreading) the random draw of particular maps. As someone who works in video games, I am 100% on board with this concept.

However, these boards are obviously large items that you can’t really get anywhere else (without designing/breaking out a 3d printer with a larger print bed than I have). And after our trial games, having interiors to fight through definitely fits the feel of the game more. So getting my hands on the boards was something I was very excited.

Having got the boards out, I am even more excited. They are made out of a nice thick material, so you aren’t going to see them curling any time soon – it’s going take a pretty direct hit to snap them in half. The surface material also seems to be pretty hard wearing, so I’m looking forward to plenty of gaming on them.

As you can also see from the Spectre figures I dropped down for scales, these buildings are 100% designed for models on 25mm bases to move through and combat in. They are also big and chunky, feeling like actual buildings rather than just a single room shack with an inflated sense of importance. You’re going to have some proper battles through the interiors on these guys.

And then there is the rulebook. I already have a copy of the BPRE 28mm rules, but I am a big fan of having a second around, especially if this is a game only I purchased that doesn’t use a GM or arbiter as it makes it easier to check rules. In this case, it also lets me compare and contrast the Amazon UK printed edition I already had and the version printed in the US.

After looking through I have found only a single difference between the two copies I have.

So, with the box opened and the clippers out, the next step is assembling the models. I’ll have some more information on them as I go along (as well as giving you a better look) although my video has some good first impressions when I pulled them out the pack.

Oh boy. It’s been a long time since I’ve looked at rulesets, even longer since I’ve written my impressions on them. So why not kick it off with something that has been eagerly awaited?

For a long time, there has been a lot of discussion about a tabletop game from Black Powder Red Earth. Keen eyed readers may remember the Spectre models that were made to represent Ember team from the graphic novels and I am continued to be annoyed we didn’t get any further sets. There was also a board game prototype that they had been working on and that has evolved into the subject of today’s Impression piece, Black Powder Red Earth 28mm.

Also before we get started, slight disclosure – I am a backer of Black Powder Red Earth on patreon at the lowest level, enough to give me access to the piles of PDFs they have.

The Background

For a bit of context, I should probably go into just what Black Powder Red Earth is. More commonly abbreviated to BPRE, Black Powder Red Earth is a series of graphic novels and games from Jon Chang, with illustration work done by Josh Taylor and funded in part by an ongoing Patreon. Split over several arcs each set in a different hot-spot (Iraq, Syria, Yemen and the North African fictional state of Awbari), the stories are all action thrillers involving Cold Harbor, a US PMC that is hired by various government and private entities to provide training and direct action capabilities. Each book is filled with incredibly striking and stylistic artwork of operators operating operationally – gear and tactics are intricately researched, helped by some of their close contacts and partnerships with companies like BCM, as well as Mr Chang having been a co-founder of Hayley Strategic, and all with this aggressive colour scheme, the visuals almost searing themselves into your eyes. The tone is similarly realistic – technological advantages may help Cold Harbor stack some bodies but a lot of the guys in red still go down during the numerous firefights. And all the way through, the setting is presented in a way that is gripping and interesting to read – as I’ve said in the past, the thing that pushed me into making my own setting is seeing what Echelon has done with this series, in it’s graphic novels, video games and sourcebooks.

With the baseline information aside, I should probably say the first controversial thing – I’m not actually the biggest fan of the graphic novels.

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Okay, I can already see the comments being written and the tabs closing. Let me explain.

I do enjoy the artwork and the world building each issue includes. The broad strokes of the story and the setting, the dedication to showing the real world (with all it’s shades of grey) and showing the tactical operations done right. Where I think the series falls down, in my opinion personally, is that while the world sticks with me, it fails to grab hold quite so much with the more specific drama – the focal characters mostly merge into one of two archetypes (grizzled operator or suit wearing leader), while the story seeming to meander it’s way through the first three books before rushing to the inevitable “Book 4 Big Dramatic Twist” (that usually leaves everyone you might have liked dead). I am cautiously hopeful for the latest series Awbari – the first issue already shows a dramatically improved amount of recognisable characters and less focus on the gore/spectacle of the action over actually delivering a plot.

So, coming from that I must really dislike the game, right?

Oh no. I really, really like it. I think this is a game I’m going to keep coming back to.

The Rulebook

Set in the Awbari storyline, BPRE 28mm is a skirmish wargame focused on one thing – night raids by the Cold Harbour team Scorch against enemy positions in the border clades. Each mission lets you take a selection of Cold Harbour operators and send them against the local insurgents and their Hongbin mercenary handlers. The front of the book is a big chunk of lore describing the situation, giving anyone who may have missed the first volume of the new graphic novel a lowdown on the situation. It’s very evocative, conjuring the images of the world and the forces into your mind. At the back of the book there is also the action scene from issue 1 of the Awbari arc, giving you some more inspiration for the games to come and just how your tabletop actions will look in your mind’s eye.

As a side note, I think it’s worth mentioning about how book writes about one of the sides you’re expected to play. As in the comic, the religious fanatics of the Aayari Network and the Chinese backed, North Korean Hongbin troops are written as the complete and utter bastards they are (the Hongbin Merc standing out as especially moustache twirling villains while the Muhtsib are exactly what you expect when someone says “Religious Fanatic”). Unlike the comic however, one player is going to end up having to control them. Ultramodern Wargaming is full of these situations and it could be argued that it’s one of it’s defining traits. It’s interesting just how all out they go making them “the bad guys” without the shades of grey that often come into play. It should be said, this is not really a critique, more an observation – plus, as I discovered with a certain player at SESWC (they know who they are) some people really enjoy playing the bad guys.

I also want to talk about the presentation of this book – it’s fantastic. BPRE has evolved a style all of it’s own and the book lives and breathes it. The punchy fonts, the colour scheme, the very clear diagrams in a pictorial style – all of this helps to make the book feel like another entry in the graphic novel series, while still getting across information needed to play the game. In fact, the only downside is maybe some of the print quality – like the graphic novel volumes, the book is a paperback printed by Amazon locally. While this is great for the environment and better for Echelon Software, it’s not so great for having the premium feel that other rulesets like Osprey’s big books can give you. As my eager reading of Silver Bayonet this week can attest, a little bit of gloss and a hardback cover can go a long way, especially with all the great design work already in the box.

The Rules

Once past the lore, the meat of the book is the rules. And lets just cut to the chase: I am kind of amazed at just how slick the core of the rules is. Take for example the enemy of rules writer everywhere – character profiles. While most games include separate stats for combat, leadership and equipment options, BPRE cuts it down to four things: How fast can I move, How well can I hit the bad guys (the hit roll), how easily do I go down when shot (the save roll) and what special things can I do (special rules). Having just come off Necromunda’s literal list of values, this was quite a breath of fresh air! And yet, despite this dialling back of complexity, the character types still have a different feel to them – I’ll go into more details later but while playing the bad guys, the difference between the local Aayari troops and the Hongbin mercs comes across hard thanks to the tweaks in the different values.

The rest of the core fundamentals are pretty damn solid as well. Shooting is a two stage process (roll to hit, roll to save) with very few additional modifiers (at most maybe a single numerical one) with details for cover included in the attack roll. Rolling high on either of these is good, while 20’s give you either an unsavable kill (useful against S-Vest and body armour users) or ignores the staggering effect of being shot. Cover is also simple – it’s all done from the top down perspective you are either out of Line of Sight, Obstructed or in the open (with any additional line of sight rules covered with some handy diagrams). Doors on the battlefield, key in a CQB engagement, also paly a part, blocking line of sight unless movement is spent to open them. Activating a character at any point drops an ACT chit on them, with specific rules for this varying during whatever stage you are in.

A final general rule element is facing – rather than 180 degrees or 90, BPRE goes with 135 degrees, or 90 degrees to their left and 45 degrees to the right. While at first puzzling, it made a little more sense when I thought back to my airsoft trips, during which your visibility to your right is usually filled with at least some element of your armament during a close quarters engagement.

Four things I really want to cover are the Turn Structure, Intervention Cards, Warfighters and setting up each scenario (with the potential to arrange a full on Night Raid).

Turn Structure

Each turn in BPRE is split into three phases: Direct Fire, Maneuver and Finishing. Players take turns activating within each phase, meaning there is a quite pleasant back and forth, especially with how little action paralysis you’ll experience. Additionally, the Assaulting player always goes first – each game of BPRE is a very short engagement, not really enough time for the initiative to swing back and forth

The Direct Fire phase is probably the phase where most of your pre-planned shooting will take place. Any attacks during this phase gain a bonus to the hit roll and by going first makes you think about setting up firing arcs in the previous turn. This phase also lets you toss out frag grenades, which lie in wait until later in the turn. Interestingly, this is merely place a token in the location you want to throw the grenade, leading to some fun mechanics later on.

The Maneuver Phase allows units that did not shoot in the Direct Fire phase to move around and, at any point in that move, engage an opponent within line of sight. If you are unfortunate to move into the line of sight of a model that has yet to be activated (or god forbid start activating within that line of sight) then an interruption can occur and a Immediate action take place (at the loss of some accuracy). My favourite feature of this phase though (aside from being able to drop support fires on your opponent) has to be rules about cover. While you can move around the waist high cover dotting the area, you can also attempt to cross it. This comes with a risk though, you have a 50/50 chance of fluffing your attempt to climb over the obstacle and end up staggered and on the far side of it – good when running to cover, bad when crossing some to keep advancing.

The Finishing Phase begins with the clearing of all Activation chits, preparing everyone for one final chance to act in the turn. This is followed up by the re-appearance of those frag grenade chit that were dropped in the Direct Fire phase. However, rather than simply detonating where the marker was placed, there is instead a chance for it to scatter a short distance (stopping at walls) and then detonate. This makes grenades a pretty interesting trap, flushing people out of cover as you always sure exactly where the final template will be. This turn also ends with close quarters Finishing Attacks taking place, with each player taking turns to deliver a final blow to any opponent within spitting distance of your forces – useful for finishing off anyone not killed by the frag grenades.

Now, you might have noticed that I mention ways to attack your opponent in every phase there and that’s correct – this game is fast and bloody. In the games I managed to play, we were dropping bodies frequently, with several games ending way before the 7 turn time limit just by tabling the opponent. This makes sense for the close quarters action the game entails and makes most moves feel like dancing on a knife edge.

Intervention Cards

If there is one thing that Necromunda has taught me, people love having hands of cards to let them modify how the game is played. BPRE 28mm is no exception, giving each player a small hand of cards at the start of each game. The use of these cards is something that lets you change the game, upending the core mechanics and letting you twist the hands of fate.

Think your fanatical Muhtasib is about to die due to all the Scorch guys around him? Drop “Front Towards Enemy” and suddenly the Scorch player is frantically hoping you roll a Stagger or higher to prevent an explosive end. Your Scorch Recce man stuck in the open? “This is Bat Country” lets you claw a touch more movement in the Finishing Phase. Your Assaulter shot entering a room by a Hongbin Merc? “Save the Last Bullet” lets you attempt to take that son of a bitch out before you go down.

You are only allowed three of these cards, and picking it as important as picking your team. None of the cards feel overpowered or useless – they are all minor tweaks rather than any game changers and only a few are raw “add +2 to a dice roll” – too many of that is when you know a designer is frantically trying to pad. It’s also a mechanic that can inspire some really great plays and memorable moments – exactly what you need in a skirmish game.

Warfighters

As I mentioned before, the units you select may be simple in profile but all feel different and have their place. Some of them (like the Machine Gunner or anyone with a fires asset) are limited to specific numbers within the force based on it’s total points, which is a neat bit of balancing without hugely overcomplicating things.

For Scorch, you have the Advisor, Assaulter, Automatic Rifleman and Recce. Assaulter are probably the “main” part of the force giving you a reliable shooter and a frag deploying machine. Recce are a slightly tweaked Assaulter, giving you a host of special rules and extra movement to make you perfect at kicking in doors. The Automatic Rifleman is the main killing power in the team, great at both Immediate Actions and dropping a handful of attacks every opportunity (thanks to the LAMG). Finally, the Advisor is a better Assaulter who also brings an area of effect explosive drone to the field.

For the Aayari guys, you have the Muhtasib and the Shurta, as well as the Hongbin Enabler and Mercs. The Muhtasib are your Assaulter equivalent, although cheaper and less skilled. They are however all wearing S-Vests – you want to stay away from these guys as that explosive packed vest isn’t just a reaction to a critical save fail, it’s an option to self-detonate in the Maneuver phase as well. Taking a Muhtasib also lets you take four Shurta and oh boy, these guys are terrible. No save rolls, a middling Hit Roll and honestly probably likely to shoot through their own team if they are in the way (yes, that’s a special rule). But, coming in at a quarter of the price of an Assaulter (a Muhtasib and a Shurta equals a single Assaulter), you can get more than enough numbers to overwhelm the Scorch guys. Alternatively, Hongbin Mercs give you a Lite version of the Automatic Rifleman who can also frag while the Enabler is the equal of any Scorch character while also giving you a pair of Loitering Munitions that simply drop a lump of metal directly onto a single enemy figure if you really need them dead (Automatic Riflemen and Advisors for the most part).

The limited numbers and lack of equipment options means it’s very easy to make a list for every game, without have to do a pile of mental maths or fill out tons of paperwork. I also like how each side only has four types of soldiers as it means you don’t need piles and piles of reference cards or a table to hold them all (looking at you Warhammer 40,000/Age of Sigmar). This also means that after a few games, you might find yourself remembering the Attack and Save Rolls (especially with Scorch where everyone but the Advisor has the same Attack Roll and they all have a standardised Save Roll). I may be jumping the gun, but if this game was to be expanded, I think it’s better to swap out ALL the cards for a side, rather than tacking on more and more – four is the right number.

Organising your Night Raids

So as you can probably tell, I like a lot in the core parts of this game. Where the game really shines though is in the scenario generation system and how these operations can be turned into a 3 or 5 mission night raid.

If you want to play a single mission, you will need to grab your tasking cards, your battle-space cards and your atmospherics. Taking one from each will determine your objectives, the layout of your AO and any large scale effects that might help/hinder your forces. The taskings are split into three types (Infil, Action On and Exfil) but these don’t determine a particular style of mission or anything specific – there is a good mix in each section so you won’t find yourself doing the same thing twice if you play multiple Infils. Additionally, not all of the missions has Scorch on the assault – something I was worried on my first read as going first in every mission might make it annoying for a Aayari player. The scenarios then detail Setup, anything required in your team makeup and how to win. I was very glad to see that not every mission is a simple “wipe out the bad guys” – from placing thermobaric charges to holding an exfil point, there is plenty of cool things to be doing.

Once you work out what you’re doing, the next step is setting up the play area. The battlespaces are all built from different arrangements of the same core elements (specific buildings, scattered vehicles, planters begging for you to leap over), meaning that it’s very easy to build up a board ready to play. I’ve got some opinions on these layouts (I’ll mention later) but we did notice that quite a few of them are very similar which might lead to some play space fatigue. However, each of them does have a nice mix of spaces to fight through, with plenty of thought put into keep plenty of cover in play.

Finally, the atmospherics determine just how much the fates hate you. One of them are pretty reasonable, with clear skies doing nothing. Too clear, with strong moonlight, and suddenly Fires cards are more deadly. Pull even worse and you might be in midst of a Sirocco (making fires less effective) or a Sandstorm (that basically reduces unskilled troops to staggering through the dust while better trained operators sneak past them) or, as we ended up in one of our playtest games, fighting through a BLOOD RAIN, a mix of the two that leads to some nasty close quarters fights.

With all this done, you pick your team up to the Capability value for the mission, pick your cards and begin to play. Each game will take around 30 minutes (we took about 50 in our first game as we were learning the rules) making it pretty ideal for playing over a lunch break. But what if you have more time?

Well, you can string them together into a full on Night Raid. Taking an evening to play through and comprising of either 3 or 5 games (1-2 Infil, 1 Action On and 1-2 Exfil), this is the main way to play the game. Now, wining operations will give you points but also potential very powerful Special Intervention Cards that sit in your hand for the rest of the Night Raid. Knowing you have the ability to control the Timeline (messing with the turn counter) or deny an enemy Fires card through jamming makes. At the same time, the atmospherics card you pick is going to last the whole time through, so you may need to plan around things like the Blood Rain.

Additionally, as each mission is a different engagement of a large force, there is no worries about injuries or the usual things that slow campaign games down. Lost a operation? Ah well, pick a new force, pick a new hand of cards and try again next operation. In our testing, it was funny watching my opposing player go from absolute elation at winning the first game to sudden concern once he worked out how many Mission Points I could snatch in the final games, despite having been bodied early on.

Much like with Necromunda and it’s campaigns, I think Night Raids is the way to play BPRE 28mm – all the joys of the main game but with the addition of playing the long game.

Game Thoughts

So overall, what do I think? Having managed to get a few games in, both playing through solo and against the Dastardly Regular Opponent, I managed to get my thoughts together.

Well first of all, lets say what this game isn’t. This game isn’t a replacement for Spectre or Sangin. While those games are multi-tools, providing access to a whole host of mission types and gameplay thanks to the piles of rules, Black Powder Red Earth 28mm is a really damn good screwdriver. It fits into the class of “Miniatures Boardgame” – it’s perhaps a step above playing on a fold out board with tile based movement but it definitely has the similar sensations. Between the small size of the arenas, a use of a pre-defined set of tiles for scenery and the low figure count, this would be right at home alongside the Dark Souls board game in your local hobby store.

That said, I think the game is fantastic. Razor focused on delivering close quarters and gripping firefights without being bogged down in minutiae, the fact you can play a game in a lunch break is pretty fantastic (and would have been perfect for when I was up in Edinburgh working). It’s easy to learn but still with plenty of depth. Even in our second turn, just after a Recce man breached and cleared a building, we were already getting excited about the possibility space.

In terms of downsides, as a miniatures gamer, I think the layouts are not the best. Overall they are very similar, to the point where after a while my Dastardly Regular opponent and I decide to just leave the arrangement in place rather than shift what felt like two buildings around. It might have been cool to see some layouts using less buildings but more low cover, shifting the style of play. If you’re wanting to play this with just the rulebook, I’d simply take the layouts in the book as guidelines and then arrange your own terrain into something that roughly equals the feel.

It’s also a game I’d be excited to see how it grows. With a powerful but simple core mechanic set, it would be pretty easy to add new units (perhaps local government forces) or even things like additional mechanics, adding things like stealth. Even after my first Night Raid, I was already thinking about how you might model other forces, always a good sign in a new system!

I strongly recommend having this game around. It’s ideal for a club night, something to break out if you’re missing a player for a bigger game or someone isn’t able to turn up. It’s also a great introduction into ultramoderns for people who maybe aren’t quite ready for something with the scale of Spectre, put much less of a mental load on your head if you just want to drop some tiny plastic bodies.

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Ah, I see you’ve spotted the fact this article isn’t over yet. Lets talk about the bit of this game I’m much less enthusiastic about.

Distribution

I have mentioned in the past that Black Powder Red Earth products are definitely boutique. With the expense of small production runs, some eyewatering shipping to the UK due to previous issues with past shipments going missing (and a guarantee that customs will get their blood money when they see the cost), all this adds up to explains why my copy of Hypernotes Ember is sitting without a hard copy of it’s Scorch counterpart. It’s also why I have greater understanding for all the guys in the US who complain about Spectre’s pricing and postage.

The good news for wargamers is that the basic rulebook is £25 in the UK, is on Amazon and is shipped by them (I even got mine next day). I think this is a fair price – there is a lot of work in the book and the system is definitely worth it (as this monster of an impressions piece should probably tell you). I feel like I’ve got plenty of value from the book already and as mentioned above, it’s a nice ruleset to have on the shelf ready to deploy.

At this point, I have to say that for the other bundles I’m working entirely off the images available on the BPRE 28mm site. I haven’t pushed the button on any of these so this is all working off information available from the BPRE 28mm webpage. As such, I’m no going to comment on things like material quality or whatever – it would all just be me talking out of my backside!

For $65, you can get a set of the Scorch Team figures. These are resin cast, multipart figures and from looking at them they are rather good casts of the Scorch team guys with a nice level of detail. The price works out at $6.50/£5+ each, dropping you well and truly into new model Spectre pricing (although with less broken gun barrel due to them being multipart).

If you don’t want to spend that much, it’s also worth mentioning that there are some other people already selling figures similar to this style (although not exactly due to the replacement of the Minimis in the Cold Harbor arsenal with the LAMG), especially if you have access to a 3d printer.

If you want to get the figures and the tokens, then you are looking at a jump up to $175. This is basically the “I want the rulebook now and I’m willing to wait for the rest of the game” or “I’m a $25 patron and got the book through that” bundle. In terms of tokens/cards, you are looking at a fair amount. As well as the cards in hand, there is a pile of tokens for Activation, grenades, objectives. And then there is the terrain – doors, building layouts, planters, air-conditioning units and parked cars all as 2D flat tiles.

Finally, to buy the whole bundle with the book AND figures AND tokens, you’re looking at a cool $200 USD. This is listed as “The Complete Target Package” except I see one tiny flaw with it – there doesn’t appear to be anything to be used to represent OPFOR. While I can perhaps excuse not including things like dice (they are relatively easy to find and frankly I’m getting sick of GW giving me more), not including anything to show for the Aayarians in a head to head game might cause a problem for someone picking up the box as a way to get into tabletop wargaming (which I think this game will attract from fans of the comic).

Now, it’s quite obvious why it’s this expensive. Black Powder Red Earth is proudly marked as manufactured in the USA, with none of the printing shipped out to China as is usually done by everyone else, from Kickstarter projects to even Games Workshop. And honestly, I can respect the team for sticking to their principles. It does come with the downside that this release is definitely among the more expensive on the market. And again another part of the boutique feel of the items that Echelon Software produces.

Final Thoughts

So for this reason, I’m left incredibly torn. I can full recommend picking up the rulebook for all the reasons I explain above. Go buy it, enjoy the sequence at the back and reading about Awbari and have the game ready to go for when you want to get the Ultramoderns on the table but don’t feel like all the rigmarole of preparing a Spectre or Sangin game. It’s fun, it’s quick and you’ll have a good time.

I’m less quick fire to recommend the larger bundles. To start with, I’d surprised you can’t just pick-up the cards by themselves – it seems like the type of purchase that would make sense for a miniature gamer just interested in the rules and with their own terrain.

I also have a bit of an issue with “the complete target package” when it’s missing half of the figures you need to play – Hongbin and Aayari are coming next year and there are no placeholders in the box to let you pick up and play. I have a feeling that the product as a whole may have been better served as a board game style release, especially through something like Kickstarter – provide the game as a box that’s good to go (complete with pushboard standees using the fantastic artwork you can see in this article as playing pieces) and then provide the miniatures, 3d terrain and any expansions as add-ons down the road or stretch goals. With a strong artstyle and a fantastic game, with the right word of mouth I could see this game doing pretty well. I did see some comments that a Kickstarter might be coming when the rest of the miniatures are ready, which would make sense, but doesn’t help someone wanting to get into it now.

This is going to be one that is very much a wait and see. I really hope that the game has the legs to stand on it’s own after the launch period and that Echelon keep it supported with the figures and maybe even gameplay additions (always gonna be extra taskings for Scorch to hit).

Anyway, I’ll see you guys in Awbari. Don’t forget to check those corners and keep an eye on the sky for any sign of lumps of Chinese metal flying towards you.

If you want to hear an alternative take on the game, the boys over at The Table’s Edge have done a special mini-episode on BPRE 28mm. It’s available directly from their Soundcloud or you can subscribe to them through the usual places – Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, etc

In shocking news, I’m reporting on a monthly game against my Dastardly Regular Opponent without going into a full battle report (you’ll have to wait until the end of the month for that).

Instead, we were giving Black Powder Red Earth 28mm a go. Not going to go into too much detail on it (that’s what the impression article is for) but I have a few overall thoughts:

• It’s not going to replace Spectre or Skirmish Sangin – this is a different style of game.
• We picked it up, learnt the rules and got through a full 3 mission Night Raid in two and a bit hours.
• It’s got a great set of core mechanisms that flows together really well.
• I’m already thinking up my own cards and missions for it.
• As you can see in the photos, S-Vests are a nightmare.

More details coming soon once I play a few more games and get my thoughts together.