For What Remains: Out of the Basement

I have usually looked at this line and wondered whether the price was doing rather more work than the contents. For What Remains: Out of the Basement got me anyway. It is one of three stand-alone boxes for solo or head-to-head skirmishes, with map tiles, two forces, and a campaign booklet; more importantly, it feels like a compact conflict rather than a pile of figures waiting for someone to explain why they are angry.

You build the battlefield from the tiles, pick a side, and then the chit-pull activation system takes over. That is the whole trick. You do not know precisely which unit will act next, so there is no safe script to follow; you adjust, seize the opening when it appears, and watch your opponent do the same before you have settled into a plan.

The two forces are different enough that they do not feel like the same pieces in fresh colours, and the fighting is direct and fair. The rules are simple and clear — the rulebook earns a good mark without an argument — while the units' attribute scaling, based on d10s rather than d6s, gives their differences more room to matter; the experience and campaign system then gives you a reason to come back for another scrap.

It needs a committed opponent to really bloom, but if you have one, it is a very good way to spend a few hours having an honest fight.