Released April 2013, Colonial Space Wars brought a breath of fresh air to the wargaming panorama, and revolutioned the market with its “easy to learn but hard to master” policy, incredibly strong mechanics, and high focus on competition.

As we know, “Easy to learn” is not a common concept in nowadays wargaming, where we mostly find thick manuals full of rules and exceptions.

CSW changes that, without losing one bit of the quality and complexity desired by veteran players. Its system is based, at the fundametal level, on chess. The company released a Quick starter Guide that, at just 2 pages, proves this premise.

Now, less than two years after publishing the acclaimed first part on the series -Colonial Space Wars: New Horizons-, Vedra Games has released the crowdfunding campaign for the expansion, called CSW: Flesh and Steel. Just 2 days after launching, it´s more than 60% funded, and rising as we speak.

Example of Game Piece

Vedra Games designer José D. Méndez, a long standing chess competitor and wargamer, has come up with a brilliant and simple game system, the basics of which can be explained in less than 30 minutes: ” At game conventions, we normally have new players taking a match within 30 minutes. Experienced wargamers grasp it almost inmediately, and are teaching others within 30 minutes. The potential of this is enormous”.

But don´t let this fool you:  just like chess, CSW has much depth and richness, and infinite combination possibilities. A small match will usually take 30-60 minutes, but more complicated games can take up to 3 hours.

The secret to CSW´s complexity is the highly versatile army creation system, and its tileable game board.

There are 4 factions, each with a very different set of habilities. Each faction has a wide and ever-expanding range of units to choose from. “CSW: New Horizons was an introduction to the game, with 8 units per faction, but CSW:Flesh and Steel is presenting around 35 units per faction, to a total of more than 150 units to choose from in the game. And many more are planned.”, says José.

Example of a 6TU board game with game pieces

The game board is composed of tiles (Terrain Units-TU) measuring 5.9 x 5.9 inches each, each with different terrain qualities, which are set up randomly before the game. The minimum game board size for playing is 6TU (aprox 12×18 inches) ranging all the way to 24 TU (aprox 36×24 inches). Tiles are divided in 1.2 inch squares, where the game pieces are placed, and which are used to calculate movement and range.

Game Board Tile, or 1TU

Multiplayer modes are also available, for up to 8 players in a 24 TU board. Need more? Flesh and Steel gives you 16 different missions to choose from.

6 Player Mode, with 24TU

On the subject of competition, one of its star features is the absence of dice, which has its roots on the company´s bet on effective simplicity: ” By doing away with dice, we focus on strategy and tactics. We want to empower players to win battles without the luck factor” says José. “This way, we open the doors to a more serious and efficient competition environment“.

This, paired to the short gameplay time, enables Vedra Games to organise 3 round tournaments lasting a stunning 3 hours: “Players really appreciate not having to invest a full day for a tournament. With our system, you can be done before lunch and still have played a high quality competitive tournament”

Terran Hunter, part of the new miniatures range.

Excited yet? By popular demand, Vedra Games has opened a 20mm minitaures range. The first models have already seen the light, and will be available for sale after the campaign, around February 2015.  In José´s words: “this makes us the first sci-fi miniature wargame in the 20mm range, to offer a truly massive scale experience without dice”.

Strategy to the maximum level.

Heimdall Industries Agent