Hey everybody! Its Adam, FLG judge and TFG Radio host, and I want to talk to you about my game, Obsidian Empires, that is coming out soon.
If you listen to our podcast, TFG Radio, you know that I have a game that is currently on preorder and is due to be released fairly soon. The name of game is Obsidian Empires and it is a historical game that focuses on warfare in Mesoamerica around the time of the conquest of Mexico. If you don’t know, I am Mexican-American and thus this subject matter is close to my heart. As I talk to people about the game a few questions have sprung up and, as I am sure you have the same questions, I have decided, and Reece has graciously allowed, to talk about it in this week’s article.
Why Historicals?
If you don’t listen to the show, or have never talked to me for any length of time, my first love is historical wargaming. I was playing with historical miniatures long before my discovery of Games Workshop. I would often by the lead, yes real lead, models and paint them terribly and play them with my own made up rules. I would also buy the armies that you would see advertised in comic books at the time that had 2 complete armies. This allowed me to rope my younger brothers into playing. Also, having studied history in college it is easy for me to do the research necessary for the subject matter. The other main reason is that I don’t have to create a “universe” for my product to live in. The stories and background for my game has already been created and I am just retelling that story. It makes it a lot easier for me by not having to worry about the background of my game.
Why Mesoamerica?
This may seem obvious but there is a bit more to it. As I mentioned, I am Mexica-American but what I am not is Aztec, or Mexica, and if I am it is a very small percentage. I am Purepecha, from the state of Michoacan, which is the empire just west of the Aztec empire. One thing I have noticed throughout the years of playing historical games is that rules writers tend to focus on the big 3, Aztec, Mayans, and Incas. They do not include some of the other city states that were active in the area at that time. This is like making a game about Native Americans and only doing an army for the Iroquois. So part of the reason for making the game is to better represent some of the other city states that occupied central Mexico at the time of the Spanish conquest.
How does it play?
I think it plays fairly quickly, once you get the hang of it. You only use 2 types of dice, a d12 and d6, and at most you would need to roll 3 dice. There are modifiers but not a lot of charts where you are constantly comparing values to figure out what is going on. There is alternating activation and all combat is resolved at the end of the turn. This is so that even if your favorite unit is wiped out, they can still fight and have an effect on the game. It is really tailored to players new to miniature wargaming and new to the historical era. The armies are very colorful and there is event a mechanic in order to “capture” models as this was a common practice in Mesoamerican warfare. The hope is that the game gets people interested in Mesoamerica so that they would want to take a deeper dive.
If you are interested in the game just click on the logo below and preorder the game now. Any preorders will be greatly appreciated and I’ll see you all on the tabletop.
That’s all for this week. Hope you enjoyed the article. Let me know what you think, and if you play historical games or are curious about it, in the comments section below. Don’t forget to visit our Facebook, Twitch, and Patreon pages to stay up to date on what we’re up to and when episodes drop!
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