On Thursday, UK tabletop wargame and TTRPG publisher Modiphius released free quickplay rules for Hardwar, a 6mm scale sci-fi skirmish game fought between tanks, aerial units, and – of course – mechs. Comparisons to Battletech are inevitable in this genre, but having tested the game at last month’s UK Games Expo, I’m confident in saying this game has something to offer all mech lovers, whether they’re diehard mech warriors, or think the genre defining wargame is past its prime.
Hardwar was originally developed by Strato Minis Studio, who created the first edition rules, several supplements, and a frankly huge range of 6mm mechs, tanks, and aerospace vehicles. Modiphius purchased the rights to the miniature wargame last year, and has been redeveloping the rulebook and remastering the miniatures ahead of a planned Kickstarter campaign on July 1.
The Quickplay rules are available now for you to test out with any small scale tanks and mechs you may own. I got to test them at the UK Games Expo and they lived up to their name – they were very quick playing, with a tiny two foot square board, alternating activations, and a lethal combat system.
Units attack by rolling a pool of D12s equal to their Firepower stat. To score a hit, you need to assemble a set of die results that’s equal to the distance from you target in inches plus the target’s Armor value. Targets get to roll a number of D12s equal to their Defense stat, and for each result that matches one of the dice in the attack roll, you knock that die out, hopefully cancelling the hit.
The closer your forces get, the more lethal attacks are, and the more vulnerable every unit is to being blown up, making the game increasingly decisive as the forces close. Simple special rules differentiate units, such as dealing extra damage, or not suffering any penalties for attacking after making a move.
The simple system for attack and defense interacts nicely with terrain rules and some special weapons. If you fire at a unit obscured by terrain, you add the distance passed through terrain onto the target number to score a hit. Naturally, Indirect Fire weapons can ignore this penalty, while Smart weapon systems get to reduce its impact.
I haven’t played enough of the game to say whether this rules minimalism is elegant or too simple to be interesting. It’s obviously an order of magnitude simpler than Battletech, and it’s more lightweight even than Alpha Strike. I’m curious to test out the full rulebook, which doesn’t give units any more stats, but does change how some abilities work, and adds many more.
If you played the original version of Hardwar, Modiphius is promising some extra features in the revised rulebook. The whole thing has been shrunk down to an A5 format, with the Extended Hardware and No Heroes content included in print for the first time. Modiphius has also added a solo campaign mode that you can play against the AI.
If you’re a proud mech collector, we’d love to see your forces in the official Wargamer Discord community, and if you test the quickplay version of Hardwar, we’d love to hear how you get on with it!
The other big Mech release we’re eagerly awaiting news of is Battletech Gothic, an alternate timeline for the Battletech Imperium with nightmare bioweapons and a grimdark sensibility.
Source: Wargamer
