Godtear

Picked this up secondhand from someone clearing out their minis collection, mostly on the strength of how little table space and setup time it needs compared to the bigger skirmish games I’d looked at. That part delivers exactly as promised. Pre-painted champions, no assembly, rules you can actually explain to a new player in about twenty minutes, and a tug-of-war scoring system across three objective points that’s a genuinely interesting alternative to straight elimination.

Where it lost me a little is the dice. The core loop is a small number of complex units with real tactical depth in how they combo together, which I like a lot in theory, careful positioning and ability sequencing over a big model count. But a single unlucky roll can undo several turns of careful setup in a way that felt disproportionate more than once. I wanted the subtlety of the unit interactions to be the deciding factor and too often it was the dice instead, which is a frustrating mismatch between what the design is asking of you and what it actually rewards.

The split between the “plot” phase and the “clash” phase also never stopped feeling a little awkward to me, like two different games bolted together rather than one continuous flow. I can see what it’s going for, separating positioning decisions from combat resolution, but in practice it just adds a seam where I keep losing track of what phase we’re actually in.

Component quality on the champions is genuinely excellent, better than most minis games at this price point, though the follower minis are a noticeable step down in comparison. And you need at least three starter sets to get the intended six-champion, three-versus-three experience, which isn’t obvious from a single box and caught me off guard on cost.

Three stars. Interesting bones, but the dice keep undercutting exactly the kind of game it’s trying to be.