Dead Gods is a rules-lite skirmish tabletop wargame written and designed by Trollish Delver Games (Scott Malthouse). "Rules-lite" in a miniatures game seems like it could be tough to pull off, but Trollish Delver created a simple, elegant system that still has the potential for strategic depth. It's miniatures agnostic, designed for 28mm scale miniatures, so it's also an excuse to use some interesting minis.
Although the title of this post says this battle was the Eternal vs. Order of Stars, it was really me vs. me, because I played this one as a solo scenario. There are no solo-specific rules for Dead Gods, so I just approached it as a two-player game where I was controlling both sides.
Trollish Delver has been writing games for some time, including publishing RPGs with Osprey, so he knows how to keep a rules set concise and impactful.
Each side is a "Warcult" consisting of models that add up to no more than 30 points. Most of the model options are between 5 and 8 points, so generally you could have 4 or 5 models in your Warcult. One must be the Leader, which is an additional 2 points. Here the Eternal Warcult, I picked a Ghost Warrior (5 points); High Priest (8 points); Golem (7 points); and Skirmisher (7 points). The High Priest was the Leader. I went with Conquest minis for this game because they're recently painted and I like how they look.
The core rules describe the lore behind four different Warcults, each with their own motivations for collecting relics.
The core rules for Dead Gods describe one basic scenario type, with a 3' x 3' or 2' x 2' table covered in plentiful terrain. The sides deploy no more than 3" from their respective table edges. The opposing Warcult (mostly Idoneth Deepkin minis here) was a Champion (8 points + 2 points for Leader), a Bowmaster (6 points), a Wytch (7 points), and a Knight (7 points).
The Warcults battle over control of five relics scattered across the board, which they can pick up and return to their edge of the table. The Warcult that collects the most relics (or the last Warcult standing) is victorious.
Initially, players roll off for initiative. Each model can perform a maximum of two actions during its activation. 2d6 are rolled, and each one under the model's activation stat allows it to take one action. If both dice exceed the activation stat, the model is "Unruly" and gets no actions, while activation switches to the other side. This Unruly mechanic is interesting and helps ensure that the balance of the match can swing back and forth.
Sure enough, each side seemed poised for victory at points. But inopportune Unruly rolls and some sharpshooting by the Bowmaster kept things interesting.
A model carrying a relic can only move at half speed, meaning when your opponent is fleeing with a captured relic, you'll almost certainly have a chance to chase them down. The Eternal's Golem spent a majority of this battle following other models around, trying to grab relics.
Despite the imposing size of the Bone Golem model that I used here, the Golem is actually not an overly impressive combatant (Battle skill 3, must roll equal to or under Battle skill to score a hit in melee).
Once hit in melee, the other model can make a "saving" roll based on their Defense stat. A model that doesn't save receives a Wound. A Wounded model doesn't immediately fall. Rather, a model can receive multiple Wounds (there are no hit points). When a model makes its next Activation roll, the roll gets a +1 for each Wound marker, and if a Wounded model is Unruly, it is removed from the board. Thus, a Wounded model can still make a last-ditch attempt to continue the fight, but its chances of falling are greatly increased with each Wound.
In the end, the Order of Stars emerged victorious here, securing the most relics and also felling all of the Eternal. I'm definitely interested in trying this game out with friends, but I'd also like to try out some scenarios that are more solo-focused. Trollish Delver mentioned that a solo ruleset could be in the works, but there are some other solo tabletop systems that might mesh well with Dead Gods as well.
