BrikWars: BRIKIN' IT

So, me and my mate tried our first game of BrikWars tonight.

For those of you not in the know, BrikWars is a free-to-download wargame which exclusively uses Lego, both for the miniatures and terrain. The aim of the game is not simulation - it's fun. The light, breezy way the rules are written, the humorous examples, right down to their choice of materials - this is a beer-and-pizza wargame, pure and simple.

An example of a rule that emphasises the fun-oriented nature of the game is the "What I Say Goes" roll. Here, a player can narrate an action not covered by the rules, dictate a new rule, establish a ruling on an existing rule in weird and wonderful circumstances... anything, really. If everyone agrees, he can go right ahead. If anyone disagrees, all of the involved parties roll a dice (d10s are recommended) - whoever gets the higher roll, wins. So if it's the one proposing the rule/action/whatever, it succeeds - but if not, the opposition get to decide what happens. This might be as simple as "No, you can't do it", but really, that's boring. Players can spice things up by adding new complications, penalties, whatever seems appropriate (and, if it's too harsh, you could always make another WISG roll!).

The rules are exceedingly simple, to start - each minifig has the same stats, and a decent chance of surviving a few rounds before being executed in a variety of terrible and humiliating (and hilarious) ways. Some figures can be designated as Heroes - better stats, more attacks per round, and a fun special ability - these are Cliches (think Risus). A Cliche allows a Hero to perform certain acts
Due to the variety of possible weapons and accessories that you can find in a box of Legos (and even more, if you include places like BrickArms and all the other cloning companies), weapons are handled in very generic terms - categories like One-Handed, Two-handed Melee, Pistols and Long Arms, etc. This allows for pretty varied forces, and means you can sub in most anything, so long as it can vaguely fit a category (like using Harry Potter Lego wands - a simple Pistol stat-line will do just nicely!).

There are two options for Armour - either a static number (4 for a normal Minifig), or rolling an Armour Save (roughly equivalent to 1d6). Deal more damage than the target number (or their roll), and they go down. Wearing armour simply adds an extra die to the roll. Nice and simple!

Sure, there are way more rules than that - the current rulebook pulls in at about 80-odd pages. But, most of these are optional or really edge-case rules, and also help to support the game at much larger scales. At the moment, we're sticking to a skirmish-scale game (mainly because I can't find the boxes and boxes of Lego I have floating around somewhere...), and it seems pretty fit for purpose.

Expect a lovingly-photographed battle report soon!