I have been reading with great pleasure two very different games. They do have, however, various things in common. I’m talking about Infinity and Force on Force. One is sci-fi, for skirmishes between 10 figures a side with every figure being a single unit. The other one is historical for skirmishes between squads of soldiers. They both share most notable a good system of action/reaction.

I honestly think this is the future of miniature wargames. Whether big players keep designing the same shit they did in the 80’s, or the older more “serious” players in the industry keep rolling on the old-school for old-school’s sake wave of new games with vague rules and lots of ink spent on “the spirit of the game.”

With Infinity and Force on Force (and I’m sure a few others out there I don’t know about) we get the newly paved way for dynamic gaming, a lot fancier and more elegant than THW’s tables filled reaction system. Players are engaged now the complete turn. Tactics become more realistic and less abstract, even with the normal abstractions we need to work around miniature terrain and such.

Every move now needs to be thought first on a logical level, and only then looking at model’s stats or dice probabilities. Terrain is gaining a lot more importance and games will look better because of that.

Same side gaming is becoming more and more “doable” and fun. I think it’s just what the stagnant wargame design scene needs.

On a side note, someone here decided they had too many zombies (“too many zombies”… I know, right?) so he decided to dispose of, let’s say, a couple of zombie horde boxes from Wargames Factory. Yes, the same zombies I ordered a year ago online when the company took a dive and changed my order for lots of Warmachine stuff. Well, those 60 less than stellar (but great to fill a table up) sculpts are now on my possession and yeah, I am designing a zombie game to use them with Dust Tactics figures. Because we all know the world does need another zombie game!

Pics of completely unrelated stuff coming this week.