Let’s Rock this Casbah: Black Powder Red Earth 28mm
By Phil Gurtler
Why Black Powder Red Earth 28mm?
Simply put, it is a hyper lethal, near-future skirmish game set in the middle east and the type of game I have been waiting for. This past year I’ve been craving an ultra-modern skirmish game to supplement my regular diet of WW2 games. After some research online, I found a couple of potential options. Spectre Operations, In Country (also known as INX and will be showcasing V2 at Adepticon this year) and Black Powder Red Earth 28mm.
Of those, Spectre Operations and INX failed to catch my attention. But BPRE28mm grabbed me by the lapels and refused to let me go for months. Every two weeks I would seriously debate dropping the $300 on the starter set from their website. Flash forward almost a year, and I am spending a few months at Fort Meade needing something to do. I headed to the local store and found out they have both the starter set and a beautifully painted store demo copy. That’s it; let’s rock this casbah.
What really sold me on the game was the art style and aesthetic. I am a sucker for unique games that stand out from the deluge of new releases. The artwork for the BPRE28mm rulebook and its comic series has a hyper stylized and brutal flare to it, with sharp lines and a muted color palette. Some pages would be almost monochromatic if not for the violent splashes of red. This brutally gorgeous art style carries over to the miniatures as well, being some of the most finely detailed and aesthetically pleasing on the market today. Once I saw the painted minis of the local store demo copy, I immediately picked up the starter set and one of the newer fireteam expansion sets. Fortunately, the game is actually very fun to play, and I didn’t waste my money on a game that only looks pretty from the outside.
What’s in the box???
Looking at the “Complete Target Package”, it comes with almost everything you need to play, including a rulebook, 10 Crisis Troop Scorch miniatures, 21 Hongbin Mercenary/Aayari Guard miniatures, terrain, various tokens, a radius template and the necessary cards. The terrain mostly consists of flat pieces of Sintra, a high-quality and durable type of waterproof PVC, and represent buildings, vehicles and large concrete planters for cover. The buildings are large and laid out as building floor plans with separate rooms and entryways. Additionally, the terrain includes large resin doors to make it clear which entrances are closed. The template is for explosion radius, grenade randomization, and model line of sight based on their orientation. Finally, the cards cover unit stats, mission tasking/battlefield layout, and a deck of intervention cards to be used as the game progresses. You do need a few d10’s as every roll is either 2d10 or one of a few requiring 1d10.
Gameplay wise, a campaign of BPRE28mm is comprised of 3 operations: an INFIL, an ACTIONS-ON and an EXFIL. As the campaign progresses, the victor of the previous operation will be granted either victory points toward total victory or an extra powerful intervention card. These operations can be pre-planned for the campaign or drawn at random from the deck. Each mission card will specify victory conditions, victory benefits, which phase of the campaign the mission takes place in, force composition rules and battlefield layout. Once you have your mission, your battlefield and a potential atmospherics/weather modifier selected; you can move onto force composition. A typical force will be around 150pts.
Force composition:
“Challenging work… out of doors… I guarantee you’ll not go hungry, ’cause at the end of the day, ‘long as there’s two people left on the planet, someone is going to want someone dead.”
—The Sniper, Team Fortress 2
Crisis Troop Scorch is the “professional” faction in the starter set and represent professional military contractors wielding top of the line weapons, support and body armor. They range from 25-50pts an operator and are generally more capable than their more irregular counterparts. These units will land their shots on a 7-9+ from 2d10 and will save on 15+ with that same 2d10. However, they are not supermen, and their limited numbers will require a more thoughtful approach than rushing in guns blazing. These options consist of an advisor equipped with a drone strike, an automatic rifleman with 4 extra shots, a standard assaulter, and a recce operator with the option of moving after shooting and freely opening/closing doors. The Crisis Troop drone strike is also more capable than its Hongbin counterpart as it is an area of effect attack that can target any point outside of a building in LOS of the advisor.
“How do you defeat an enemy who looks into the barrel of a gun and sees paradise?”
– Anonymous Russian Commander, Fighting the Mujahideen
On the other side of the coin, the Aayari Guard are extremists with limited training, worn down Kalashnikovs and limited options for body armor. These basic units come in two flavors. The Shurta cost only 5pts for a basic rifleman, need a 14+ to hit their target and have no armor (and therefore no save). The Mustasib have a better attack roll of 12+ and a save roll of 17+ but cost 15pts each. Mustasib also have explosive vests they can detonate if a Crisis Troop operator gets too close. These are your expendable zealots and should be used as such. Fortunately for Crisis Troop Scorch, you can only field a maximum of four Shurtas for each Mustasib.
In addition to the Aayari Guard, you have the option of enlisting Hongbin Mercenaries. These units are closer in capabilities to Crisis Troop Scorch and are more expensive point wise as a result. The standard Hongbin Mercenary costs 20pts and wields a heavier squad level automatic with an extra shot, a 17+ save and an accuracy of 12+. The Hongbin Enabler is almost on par with a Crisis Troop Scorch assaulter, hitting on a 7+ and a 17+ save, but this comes at the cost of being 40pts. The Enabler is the counter to the Advisor and has access to a drone strike, but rather than a single, large AOE, he has two targeted drone strikes.
What does an operation look like?
After selecting a mission (and by extension, the battlefield setup, victory conditions and rewards), players will create their force in accordance with the rules listed for the mission. The battle space is very close quarters, and all weapons have unlimited range. Next, they will select three intervention cards from the deck. These cards are single use and can be activated under the conditions listed. These typically add plus 1 to a dice roll, re-roll a save, or even auto detonate an explosive vest. If you won the last operation, you may even be allowed to select an additional, more powerful intervention card. Finally, players add the appropriate number of drone strike cards to their hand based on your force composition. From there, complete your deployment in accordance with the mission rules and begin turn one!
Turns in BPRE28mm behave a little differently than in most skirmish games. Rather than a strictly linear series of events, they are meant to be totally simultaneous. Obviously, the game isn’t real time with both players acting at the same time, but its phases are meant to represent more the level of focus required for the action than anything else.
Turns consist of three phases of direct fire, maneuver and the finishing phase. Players alternate activations within each phase until both players pass and move on to the next phase. Once a player has passed in a specific phase, they can no longer activate in that phase, regardless of how many models their opponent still can activate. Once a model activates, it receives an action token and cannot activate in future phases. Models who activate in the direct fire phase are not allowed to move and are limited to either shooting with a plus 1 to their roll or throwing a grenade. This represents the unit taking the extra time required to properly aim or to equip, prime, and finally throw a grenade. Activating in the maneuver phase allows the model to move and to shoot at any time during its movement (but no +1). The advisor/enabler can also activate their drone strike during this phase. Finally, during the finishing phase you remove activation tokens, resolve all grenades thrown, and alternate as you conduct “finishing attacks”. A finishing attack is an attack made by a model without an activation token against an enemy model within 3in and LOS of the model. Additionally, a model without an activation token can, at any time, gain an activation token and attempt to interrupt an activating unit if it either started in LOS or enters LOS during its move. This interruption is an attack made with a -3 to the dice roll.
But is it fun?
I think it’s an absolute blast! Even if I am terrible at it. So far all the games I have played of it have been a horrendous blood bath resulting in one team being severely depleted and the other littering the streets. I can only imagine that as I and my buddies get better, we will see the objectives become more and more important to game play. But as a simple, complete game taking roughly 45mins for an operation and about 3 hours for a campaign, I couldn’t be happier! My background is in the maritime realm, and I WILL somehow create a large ship map for room-to-room ship clearing.
The elephant in the room…
I love this game. It’s the punchy, hyper-lethal, close quarters tabletop game I have been craving… Unfortunately, the cost of entry is high. It is really only available on their website and the starter set costs $325 (it is also sold out currently). That is a lot for a starter set and I can totally understand why that turns some people off; it turned me off for almost a year. You also really can’t buy a single fireteam and build into the game piecemeal like most other tabletop games. However, the flip side is that the Complete Target Package contains all that you need to play the game and is a complete package (see what they did there?). Strictly from a model standpoint, you are paying just under $11 a model for the 31 miniatures included and that is roughly on par with GW prices for their higher end models.
I was also fortunate to have the opportunity to speak with the game’s designer, Jon Chang, and we chatted a bit about the pricing. BPRE28mm is, first and foremost, a high-quality, all-American game. It is made completely in the United States from high quality materials and to the highest standards. The models are incredibly detailed, the terrain pieces are sturdy and waterproof, and the cards are printed cleanly onto heavy duty paper stock with double lamination. I have no concerns about the game components lasting me for years to come and I understand the decision to prioritize quality and keeping production in the U.S.
Final shots:
My recommendation is for you to buy it now. My reasonable recommendation would be to look into it, watch some gameplay videos, and try to find a convention or store able to run some demos of it. THEN you should buy it.
If the game looks interesting and you want to learn more, Mitch did a great podcast with Jon last year:
No Dice No Glory Episode 141: Live Black Powder Red Earth