This Quar’s War: Part 1 A Grimsical Quarrel in 28mm Scale

By Phillip Gurtler

The first weak streaks of sunlight were beginning to filter through as Milwer Nylber glanced down at his watch.

He muttered under his breath as he lifted his eyes back up and across no-quar’s land. His relief wouldn’t be here for another hour and with the death of Yawdryl Chythl a few days ago, Nylber was left in charge of the squad’s four other remaining rhyflers. Each of these young quar looked up to him and it was his job to keep them alive.

As his eyes swept the barren land scape in front of him, they stopped briefly on the pair of destroyed Crusader Tractor’s that had led the last assault on their lines. The two metal monsters were stopped mere meters from the trench and had threatened to overwhelm the entire line before being stopped by a field howitzer that had been rushed forward.

As they went up in flames, Chythl had screamed: “Follow me boys, we have them now!”

Charging out of the trench, Chythl’s doru sub-machine gun had barked like a mad dog as he encouraged his squad forward in a furious counterattack. Nylber had climbed out of the trench just in time to watch as Yawdryl Chythl was struck down by the first burst of fire from the Crusader trenches. Nine rhyflers had followed Chythl over the top that day. Only the five of them crawled back to friendly lines that evening.

This war wasn’t anything like the minor conflicts he had grown up fighting. Those were small wars of daring and élan, of quars fighting with honour. But those were stories of wars past, and this new age of industrialization had changed this Long War of 700 years into something new and terrifying.

This is part one of two on This Quar’s War, a peculiar skirmish game set in 28mm and my current hobby obsession. Part one will cover the world and lore of Quar while part two will be a dive into the two-player starter and be more gameplay focused.

In the grimsical world of Alwyd, there is only war:

This Quar’s War proudly calls itself “whimsically grim” (Grimsical, if you will), but I would call it “World War I with ant eaters”. The charming watercolor box art, friendly looking models and playful motif hides a darker undertone of the horrors of war. I wouldn’t call it All Quiet on the Western Front or Paths of Glory, but if you want to jump down that dark rabbit hole, it’s there.

This Quar’s War Video Game Trailer

This Quar’s War takes place on the world of Alwyd, a planet much like ours with vast forests, dominating mountains, brutal deserts, and rushing seas. Where it differs however, is in its primary life form, the humble Quar.

Quar are a simple and wholly unremarkable race of creatures, living in an early industrial age of technology and lacking any form of magic or supernatural powers.  Quar are stout creatures with long snouts and even longer tongues to help them hunt for bugs, their primary food source. The Quar are generally a peaceful people and the individual Quar desires only a full belly and warm bed.

Despite this, the world of Alwyd has known constant war over its five thousand years of civilization. The Long War, as it became to be known, is the name given to the current unending state of war between the various First Families and their factions. The Long War rages across the globe and has been one of the few constants of the last 700 years.

Recently however, a new idea has begun to take hold in many of the nations of Alwyd. This movement believes that the long war is a tool of the First Families to remain in power and maintain the clan-like social structure of Quar society. To put an end to the long war, the Crusade seeks to strip the first families of their power through military conquest.

This belief is the cause of what crusaders call the Grim Paradox: The Crusade must escalate the Long War from a constant string of minor conflicts between individual warring nations, into a world war so devastating that it will either win the Long War or end the world.

The Crusade:

This Quar’s War takes place ten years into the Crusade, which by this point has grown into a potent and sizeable force. The Crusade consists of multiple armies operating together under a single banner and this level of coordination is possible through the extensive standardization of Crusader forces. Once an enemy force is subjugated and pressed into crusader service (sometimes willingly, sometimes not), it is stripped of all native equipment, reissued with Crusader equipment and indoctrinated into the Crusader method of fighting wars in time for the next invasion.

The standard fighting unit of the Crusade is the ten Quar squad, led by the yawdryl (Officer) and supported by his milwer (NCO) with the rest of the squad consisting of rhyflers. This squad is further broken down into the yawdryl and three fireteams consisting of one heavy rhyfler with a ryshi and two ryhflers armed with the bogen. This fireteam system does not impact game play as it is a skirmish game with each Quar operating independently.

The average crusader ryhfler is issued either the bogen, a standard issue semi-automatic, box magazine fed rhyfle that trades effective range for better handling or the ryshi, a heavy rhyfle with longer range but penalties to snap shooting. Beyond their primary weapon, each crusader is issued a standard kit consisting of mass-produced uniform, helmet and pouches. Each individual crusader is equipped like any other but can vary greatly in their level of training, crusader yawdryls and milwers are offered more autonomy than a comparable royalist and are expected to act on their own initiative during battle.

Despite many of the Crusade’s stunning victories, cracks are beginning to show as the conquest has slowed to a crawl. The strain of war on a global scale, the replacement of original veterans with raw recruits from subjugated nations, and constant rebellions have taken their toll.

The Royalists:

“Royalist” is the generic term given to the forces in opposition to the Crusade. While the Crusade prides itself on the cohesion and uniformity of its forces, the Royalists are a loose confederation of nations dedicated to preserving the traditional social systems of Quar society. Royalist forces may be united behind the single overall goal of defeating the crusade, but often struggle to present a unified front.

Ten years into the Crusade and war has come to the borders of Coftyran and standing before the invading crusaders is the “Great Wall”, a series of extensive fortifications manned by the Coftyran Crymuster. The Crymuster is a much smaller but generally higher quality force than the crusaders and as such must be more cautious and deliberate in their deployments.

Despite the Crymuster being much smaller than the Crusade, the limited industrial base of Coftyran still struggles to feed and equip the brave Quar fighting on the front lines. Because of this, the Crymuster will never get close to the standardization and modernization of crusader forces. The uniform of your average Coftyran is a physical reminder of the thousands of years of traditions that the royalists are fighting to protect. It is still produced in the same hand sewn fashion as it was 700 years ago and if the royalists have their way, 700 years from now.

In keeping with their grand traditions, the Crymuster places little control in the hands of the individual yawdryls and milwers, instead relying on high command to plan every operation down to the smallest detail. This tactical inflexibility can be a major hindrance should the Crymuster be required to respond to Crusader ingenuity but has worked well so far with the defensive strategy Coftyran has adopted.

The Crymuster also operates at the squad level with ten Quar to the unit. The yawdryl is armed with a doru sub-machine gun and leads the six rhyfler element armed with harlech rhyfles, while the milwer leads the three rhyfler gun element equipped with a single cryfen light machine gun to supplement the squad’s harlechs.

The average soldier of the Crymuster is armed with the same harlech rhyfle that was issued to his father and his father’s father. The harlech may be limited by its older design, with a fixed magazine and long length, but it remains a viable option because of its superb accuracy and range. The harlech is also the preferred choice of both Crymuster and Crusader snipers.

To provide an effective base of fire, each Crymuster squad is issued a single cryfen light machine gun. The cryfen has the same long range as the harlech and suffers the same penalties for being a large and unwieldy weapon. Where it differs, however, is in its ability to lay down a blistering barrage of bullets from its long belts of ammunition, capable of taking down multiple rhyflers with a single burst. The Coftyran squad is built around the cryfen and a good yawdryl will do everything he can to keep the cryfen in the fight as long as possible.

The final standard issue weapon (in the starter set at least) is the doru sub-machine issued to trench raiders and yawdryl. The doru operates much like the cryfen, being able to saturate an area with fire, but trades long range capability for the best handling of all primary arms.

Conclusion:

The stage thus set, we can move forward with part two where we open the starter box, This Quar’s War: A Clash of Rhyfles, talk about some of the interesting game play mechanics, and walk through a few rounds of gameplay.

(All Photo credit goes to Wargaming Atlantic and ZombieSmith)