If you’re a fan of teeny Legions Imperialis scale tanks and mechs, but the actual rules for the game left you cold, here’s a more flexible alternative. Horizon Wars: Midnight Dark is a ruleset for epic scale sci-fi wargames, published by Precinct Omega Publishing, and it’s available now.
Horizon Wars: Midnight Dark is miniatures agnostic and works with scales from 2mm to 15mm, so whether your mini collection comes from the Legions Imperialis starter set, 1980s Epic, Battletech, Dystopian Wars, a 3D printer, you’ll be able to use them with the rules. With a “hard(ish) sci-fi theme”, players build combined arms forces with mechs, tanks, infantry, and more.
Midnight Dark doesn’t have force lists, but instead lets you build your armies à la carte from a range of elements and upgrades. You can field cheaper green or untested troops or more expensive veterans or elites; attach leaders to units who apply stat buffs or have heroic abilities; and of course tinker with guns, gear, and gadgets.
Then there are off-table strategic assets you can add to your force, such as air cover from fighter jets, a field hospital to bolster your troops’ resilience, and even a tactical nuclear strike if you really hate a particular set of grid co-ordinates.
The rulebook also includes a solo mode, and developer Robey Jenkins states in a reddit AMA that he’s working on rules for fighting against hordes of bug aliens.
The first edition of Horizon Wars was published by Osprey games in 2016. Since then, Jenkins has published two other wargames, Horizon Wars: Zero Dark and Horizon Wars: Infinite Dark, which focus on different scales and different sci-fi time periods.
Jenkins says “I took everything I learned from those to upgrade” Horizon Wars for the Midnight Dark edition. You can pick up a digital copy from Wargames Vault now for $15.21.
This is definitely a game for miniature collecting magpies with diverse collections, or tactics buffs who want to be able to fight a sci-fi battle with just the right rules for the scenario they’re recreating.
2024 is shaping up to be an incredible year for epic scale wargaming. Legions Imperialis was one of our highlights for Warhammer in 2023 -our Legions Imperialis review explains why – and there are many more releases to come.
Check out our article on Full Spectrum Dominance, which is currently crowdfunding an incredible new range of minis for 3D printers; not to mention Mantic Games’ upcoming epic scale version of its sci-fi mass battle game, Warpath.