Miniature Monday - Old Games and New Difficulties

The Faceless team is back from our vacation, rested and ready for another Miniature Monday update.

Progress continues to be made on the resurrection of Trinity: Battleground. All the rule documents have been finalized and sent to Onyx Path for approval. Finishing OCR of the poster is our next task, along with the final edits of the cardboard components, which should all be finished in fairly short order. The miniatures are being edited to fix an issue with their base tabs, and will be ready for approval and support for printing as soon as that step is done. We're still hopeful to meet our planned October release.

Last week we promised an announcement for a game to use our soon to be re-released Goth Rats miniatures in. We are happy to announce that Faceless Publishing has acquired Red Shirt Games! This small, Ottawa-based company was started by a group of local gamers and has been a well-known fixture at GenCon and Origins for more than two decades. Their fan-favourite miniature wargames include:

• General Glen's Combat Rules for Toy Soldiers. A skirmish wargame designed for play with the cheapest miniatures of all, toy soldiers, but also playable with your favourite World War II models. Built on the Red Shirt Games d12 System, the rules are easy to learn while providing enough tactical depth for long-term enjoyment. The original game was designed for World War II skirmishes, but has expanded to include interwar and modern conflicts as well.

• Injurius Games. A sci-fi gladiatorial game set in the dystopian future of The New Roman Empire, powered by the d12 System. Small squads of power-armoured Legionnaires, deadly Meck war machines, and mutated Ratz, among other factions, battle each other for the adulation of the crowd. The included campaign system allows gladiator squads to accumulate new skills and weapon improvements, alongside permanent injuries, as they compete to score the most kills in the league.

• d12 Fantasy. A fantasy answer to Injurius Games, where dwarves, dark elves, demon worshippers, and dragonmen compete in gladiatorial battles to bring honour and glory to their people. Its campaign system is an expansion of the one from Injurius Games, allowing players to customize the makeup of their squad, as well as hire mercenaries to add further variety.

• Showdown. Related to General Glen's (and included in the current bundle with it), this game takes the d12 System into the plains and saloons of the Wild West. The force creation rules from General Glen's have been greatly expanded to allow complete customization of each member of your posse, and a full campaign system allows your gunslingers to gain skills, or suffer injuries, over the course of multiple games.

• Red Shirt Smash. A game that takes the d12 System to the stars. Designed for convention play with up to 12 players, this fast-paced game of space dogfights involves players competing to score kills and upgrade their ships. Players whose ships are destroyed return with another fighter of the same tier, meaning no one is ever out of the action for long.

We're thrilled to add these beloved games to the Faceless Publishing roster, and aim to spread the word to gamers who may never have heard of them and are looking for something new (or old) to grace their gaming tables. As with the Goth Rats miniatures, our current focus is on getting these games re-released, but there is certainly room for further expansions or new editions as time and player interest dictate. We are working on updating the Red Shirt Games website and adding their catalog to our store, but Trinity: Battleground is currently our main focus. In the meantime, Red Shirt Games products can be found on Wargame Vault.

This announcement is very exciting, but has also presented some unexpected difficulties. As a small team, Red Shirt Games developed Injurius Games and d12 Fantasy using miniatures from other manufacturers. The Ratz were originally produced by Demon Blade Games, and the acquisition of RSG is what led to us purchasing the rights to the Goth Rats. Other miniatures were produced by RAFM and Armorcast. We'd made an agreement with RAFM to cast miniatures to order to support the d12 system, but just before we left on holiday we learned they were shutting down their miniature production line. Similarly, the Armorcast miniatures Injurius Games uses are no longer in production. We've reached out to see what solutions can be found, and will keep you updated as we learn more. Fortunately, most of the Injurius Games factions use plastic models that are still available or are easy to find replacements for, as does Red Shirt Smash. General Glen's and Showdown were designed to be miniature-agnostic from the beginning, and do not face the same challenges.

Challenges or no, we're happy to bring these old games back into the spotlight. Next week we'll bring you more updates on Trinity: Battleground as we get closer to its re-release.