I'm often asked by potential customers why they should buy Horizon Wars: Midnight Dark. After all, there are a bunch of 6mm (or 6mm adjacent) sci-fi wargames on the market. Whether you look at old favourites like Battletech or brand new eye-catchers like Legion Imperialis from my bete noire, Games Workshop, or something a fraction more off the beaten path, like Epic Warpath*.
Well, to that I have several answers, in no particular order:
Miniatures Agnostic
The games mentioned above are geared towards encouraging you to use their proprietary miniatures. However much people will - correctly - point out that you aren't force to use proprietary miniatures in any game outside organized play, game design from miniatures companies will always have a bias towards the game's fundamental role as a marketing tool for toy soldiers.
Miniatures agnostic games, meanwhile, are designed only to deliver the best possible play experience within the parameters of the game. There is no hidden agenda except to want you to buy the game.
Immersive Mechanics
Everyone will tell you that their game has innovative mechanics. To an extent this isn't true to Horizon Wars: Midnight Dark, because the core mechanics were used before in three other games. If you have ever rolled a handful of d12s and added up the results, you'll find the game's central mechanics pretty familiar.
What makes Horizon Wars: Midnight Dark different is that the mechanics have been designed to try to specifically capture the challenges and obstacles of an ultramodern battlefield with near future technology. Destroying targets is less of the point than reducing their ability to prosecute their objectives. Commanders are only able to do so much and you will have to make challenging decisions on where to focus their attention. The greatest threat to a force might be the enemy but a close second is its own ability to sustain its momentum and morale.
Hard(ish) Science Fiction
Every other game out there is either grimdark space opera or rubber mask space fantasy. These features make it both easier to market proprietary miniatures and easier to handwave inconsistencies on the basis of "space magic".
Horizon Wars: Midnight Dark is committed to staying as close as possible to the believable and realistic in military technology... whilst also being prepared to have a little fun on the side, because what's sci-fi warfare without giant stompy robot suits?
Independent Small Businesses
When you support big companies, yes, you support their employees and contractors. But you mostly support their shareholders and investors. When you support small businesses, you directly help the owners and their families. Now, I have a day job. But I'd dearly love to give it up and focus on writing new games and new content for my existing games. However, I also try to write games that give people good reasons to support small, independent businesses producing great miniatures and terrain, like Brigade Models, Khurasan Miniatures, Alternative Armies, Blotz, Iliada Game Studio, Strato Minis and others. These companies drive innovation that translates to mainstream change. Would Games Workshop have ever returned to smaller scale gaming with Legion Imperialis if companies like Vanguard Miniatures hadn't continually sustained interest in smaller scale grimdark scifi?
*Epic Warpath hasn't been released yet, but is coming in February, apparently.
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