A New Skirmish Campaign Begins at Crossfire

The First Thrackdown Open Alpha Campaign Has Begun at Crossfire

I’ve just kicked off the first Thrackdown campaign at Crossfire Gaming Club, but it is still early days and there is plenty of time for new players to get involved.

Thrackdown is a free tabletop skirmish game set among the crumbling industrial settlements of Nova Eden. If you enjoy games such as Necromunda, Kill Team or other campaign-driven skirmish games where fighters develop their own stories, it may be right up your alley.

The game is currently in Open Alpha. The core rules, faction rules and starter armoury are all available to download and play for free. Although the game is already fully playable, Open Alpha is about putting the rules through their paces, finding anything that needs clarified or rebalanced, and making sure the game remains fun once individual battles become part of a longer campaign.

Free to Play. Now and Always.

Thrackdown is currently in Open Alpha, but it will not become a paid game when testing ends. The rules are completely free to play and always will be.

Everything you need to get started is available through the Thrackdown website, including:

• The Warband Builder for recruiting and equipping your fighters
• The Quickstart Rules covering everything needed to learn the game
• The Faction Rules for building your chosen warband
• The Starter Armoury containing weapons and equipment

Open Alpha is about putting those rules through their paces, finding anything that needs clarified or rebalanced, and making sure the game remains fun as individual battles grow into a longer campaign.

It’s also worth pointing out that players at the club will have access to all unreleased units etc.

Recruit Your Warband

Each player begins the campaign with 200 Thracks, the currency of Nova Eden, to recruit and equip their starting warband.

How those Thracks are spent is entirely up to the player. You might invest in a smaller group of experienced fighters carrying better equipment, or bring more bodies armed with cheap weapons and hope that numbers keep them alive.

Your starting warband will not remain unchanged for long. Every battle creates new opportunities, new problems and, occasionally, new vacancies.

Fighters Who Survive Get Better… usually

The campaign is being used to test Thrackdown’s developing progression rules.

Fighters earn XP through battle and can gain improvements as they become more experienced. Over time, the survivors of your starting warband should develop their own histories, strengths and unfortunate reputations.

That assumes they survive.

Fighters can suffer temporary injuries that affect them for a limited time or permanent injuries that remain with them throughout the campaign. Some will recover and return to action. Others may be permanently changed by what happened to them.

There is also the possibility that a fighter will simply die, taking their accumulated experience and your carefully laid plans with them.

Why Run a Campaign During Open Alpha?

Individual games can tell us whether the core rules work, but a campaign places very different pressures on the system.

This first campaign will help us find out:

• Whether warbands develop at a sensible pace
• Whether XP and advancements feel rewarding
• Whether injuries create interesting decisions without becoming overly punishing
• Whether players can recover from a bad defeat
• Whether successful warbands pull too far ahead
• Whether equipment, fighters and upgrades remain properly valued over multiple games
• Whether the campaign creates memorable stories as well as balanced battles

As this is an Open Alpha test, some rules may change during the campaign. If something is unclear, unbalanced or simply not much fun, that is exactly what we need to discover.

Player feedback will be a major part of the process, and everyone taking part will be helping to shape the campaign system before it is released more widely.

There Is Still Time to Join

The campaign has only just begun, so there is still plenty of time to recruit a warband and get involved. You do not need any previous experience with Thrackdown, and you do not need to have taken part from the first game.

Games will be played at Crossfire Gaming Club, and I’ll be available to help new players learn the rules and put together their first warband.

I also still have lots of bits left over from the Build Your Own Warband Night, should folks want to grab some bits and build their own warbands.

Give me a shout if your interested or join the Thrackdown channel on the club’s Discord.