Richard and his brothers Nic and Brad form Three Brothers Grim. Together they made WARSURGE, a universal tabletop wargame where you can use any miniatures to play.
They recently exhibited at Conquest Games Market at Coburg Town Hall and found it to be a great experience to test their market stall and game demo area before going to more specialised conventions. It was also a great opportunity for the team to meet some of their Australian Kickstarter backers.
Their next exhibition will be at MEGA, the MElbourne GAming Show, which will be held 16 November at Kensington Town Hall. They’re also set for Cancon 2025 at the Exhibition Park In Canberra on 24-26 January.
We couldn’t wait until MEGA to learn more about WARSURGE so here is a little Q&A with Richard
Q: WARSURGE is a universal tabletop wargame where you can use just about anything in your collection to play. Does that mean I can throw a Bolt Action German army at a detachment of Warhammer 40,000 Death Guard? How does it work?
A: Yes, you can use WARSURGE to challenge players with armies from different game systems. Allowing people to do this was one of our primary goals.
Players can either design their own units and weapons with our app or download pre-made armies from the app or compendium and other players (and then adjust them after if they wish). We have a lot of customisation so that players can represent their armies how they would like them to play on the tabletop.
Q: How long would a typical game take to play?
A: That depends on a number of factors such as the Playstyle used and how many miniatures are fielded for a battle. Some of the solo narrative games can be as quick as 15 minutes but players battling other players would probably take between one-to-two hours to play a game around 1,000 points.
Q: I noticed units can be given 'perks'. Does this help add bonuses and a little character to the armies?
A: Perks are like ‘special rules’ for units and weapons. Yes, they add bonuses as well as abilities to units and weapons which cost points. Perks can also add negative effects which make a unit or weapon cost less points. This all factors when players agree to a point limit.
Players could take a legion of cheap and weak models and face a single, powerful demi-god unit, as long as they stay within the agreed point limit.
Q: Is there anything else in terms of the core rules that makes WARSURGE stand out?
A: Aside from the customisation, we have different ‘Playstyles’: Standard, Advanced and Intermediate.
Basically, Standard works great for simpler or larger-sized battles, while Advanced and Intermediate play like a skirmish game system. The profiles of units and weapons work with all of these Playstyles, so you don’t need to update them when you change from Standard to say, Intermediate.
Q: What can you tell us about the lore considering the scope is so vast and inclusive of other universes?
A: The lore of WARSURGE is intended to provide a foundation for players to do what they like with their armies, and explains the crossover-friendly nature of the game.
For our own unique story in the rulebook, we focused on a universe that was responsible for temporarily preventing cross-universe travel, but ended up in a civil war over misinformation, secrecy and totalitarianism which led to catastrophic consequences. Neither side was fully ‘right’ in their ethics, but that just makes for a more interesting story, wouldn’t you say?
Q: The WARSURGE app looks like a perfect aid for players. It is easy to build army lists? What else can the app do?
A: The WARSURGE app has been designed to be a great companion tool. It allows players to build units, weapons and rosters but also has a play manager where you can digitally roll dice and have the rules and perks accessed quickly. You can also download other players’ factions, rosters and other handiwork within the app.
We have tutorial videos throughout the app to provide assistance, and we’ve got a demo video on the website, too. The free rules and full rulebook also explain the app, though players tend to tinker around and figure it out without reading the instructions.
There’s more the app can do, such as a journal that keeps a record of your games (like a battle report diary), a feature to print your roster onto paper and we have plans for other functions like a tracker for the number of models available in your collection when building a roster.
Though the app isn’t necessary to play thanks to our compendium book, we recommend at least grabbing the free version of the app, which allows players to make as many units, weapons and rosters as they want. This can be installed on phones, tablets and also computers (with a few extra steps for computer).
Q: How do you manage the balance of the game given the highly customisable aspect of the units and the weapons?
A: We listen to feedback and requests then make updates to the game. Unlike game systems where army books or FAQs are released (to fix imbalance issues), we can release an update to the app with tweaked values to create greater balance.
There is so much customisation available that we are at the point now that we need to listen carefully to our players’ feedback and then run checks ourselves on anything that players believe to be imbalanced.
Q: Is WARSURGE intended to be more narrative driven or competition focused? Both?
A: We are big on letting people make WARSURGE ‘their game’; that they can choose to play it as they please within a group. We encourage both narrative and/or competitive depending on what players prefer to play with their friends.
That said, we will be introducing some tournaments into Australian clubs in the next 12 months after reviewing what the community is doing with the game.
Q: What kind of missions can players expect to see in the official WARSURGE rulebook?
A: In the free rules on our website, we have a few missions such as deathmatch or capturing territory or objectives, which is suitable for two players and also free-for-all multiplayer with three or more players.
The full rulebook expands this much further, offering thousands of randomly generated mission combinations, a variety of game types, and there are also 24 campaign missions that players can try out, even if they aren’t playing a campaign.
Q: What has surprised you the most about WARSURGE since development?
A: What has surprised me is the number of players who prefer to have the profiles of their army already done for them, rather than creating it through the profile builder. That’s where the import tab has been useful, where players can browse fan sites for their armies assuming a player has converted them for WARSURGE. It’s also contributed to why we made the first compendium book.
Another unexpected feedback is that for some players there are almost too many options and can be daunting at first. This is another reason we have put more effort into pre-made armies.
Q: Do you have any important announcements to share about new WARSURGE features, app updates, official STLs?
A: We have plans for new features and ways to play. This month we have introduced ‘Bounties’ which are like battle puzzles where you must create units that take down a more powerful foe.
For the app, we’ve recently unlocked the cap on the number of units and weapons players can make on the free version. Long term we are in the process of making changes to the code so that we can do more with customisation, and we are going to add features such as ‘Collection’ where you can track how many models you have left when making a roster. This should be handy for people who have diverse collections of miniatures, or if they sometimes forget how many models they have in some units.
We’re currently working on a demonstration game of our new ‘Intermediate’ Playstyle, but it has been delayed as we’ve been preparing for conventions among other things.
Q: Are there any specific battle reports or demonstration games online that we should link to?
A: We have some demonstration battle reports on our YouTube channel, and a few players have been submitting some games on our Discord. Hobby Homies have also played a few games and with us as well. Here’s a few:
WARSURGE demo – three player standard game
WARSURGE demo – two player advanced game
Hobby Homies: Alien vs. Predator
Hobby Homies: British vs. Dark Eldar
Starcrunch: Tau Empire vs. Mountaintop Dragons
Starcrunch: Space Marines vs. Dinosaurs
Q: For anyone looking to give WARSURGE a go what would you recommend?
A: Grab the free rules and free app, make a basic army from your favourite miniatures (don’t use too many Perks at once) and try it with the Standard Playstyle. Play a few games and then go from there.
Q: Did I miss anything important that you would like to mention?
A: We’ve had people not just use miniatures to play. There are players having battles with their LEGO collections among other ideas. This can also allow parents to introduce their kids to the hobby.
Q: How can we best support WARSURGE?
A: Tell gaming groups that we exist. Get your wargaming friends to give us a go. The more that get involved, the quicker the game can grow which will allow us to add more features and improve the game. All we want to do is give players the most flexible and enjoyable gaming experience with all their favourite miniatures.
Download the WARSURGE app today!
