Bot War

Bot War is a miniature skirmish game set in the era of the mid-80's and the theme is strongly influenced by the cartoons that were on TV. The game company is basically a one-man show in Australia (Anthony Mallett), the rules are simple, solid, with complexity for veteran gamers, and his miniatures are very nicely designed and made. His customer service is excellent. The game's scale is 10mm. The factions are:

Transformers-like factions: Valiants (Autobots), Deceivers (Decepticons), Beastlords (Dinobots), Infesters (Insecticons) and Trashers (Junkicons).

Human Factions: Democracy (G.I.Joe and M.A.S.K), C.O.I.L.S. (Cobra), Red Star Nation (Dino-Riders and Soviets)

Non-Human: Overlords (Quintessons, Allicon, and Sharkicons) and Atlanticans (mix of transformers and Atlanteans).

The game is for two or more players. Average games are 80 points and every model has a point value, from single digit cost to 25 or more for potent models. There are also upgrades that can be purchased to fill the points decided upon for the game. An average game will have 5 to 10 models. Once you and your opponent select the models you are using, a scenario is determined. Games are on a three by three foot table. 

The rules and model cards are free to download from the Bot War website of Trader's Galaxy, you just need to make an account. Model cards have various statistics and specific model rules. These include Strategy rating (SR), Movement in inches (M), purple Attack dice for ranged attacks (RA) and close combat attacks (CA), Shield Dice rolled against attacks (SA), Damage that can be taken (D), and energy cubes that generated at the start of each turn. Each model generally also has some abilities and one super ability.

During a turn, first the cubes each model generates is added to a pool that is redistributed to your models. Then models activate in order of SR from lowest to highest. In case of a tie for SR, good guy faction models go first. If both sides are good or bad, roll a die and that die will be the deciding factor in future turns for those tied models.

When a model activates it can move, conduct a ranged attack, close combat attack, or special ability in any order. Moving and attacking costs one energy cube each and power boosting during an attack (ranged, close, or shield) costs an additional energy cube. A maximum of two activations can be done by each model in a turn.

I have models for a few factions, purchased through my local game store last year, some more during a Boxing Day sale, and a few more to fill out my factions recently from the Trader's Galaxy recently. I just finished the Beastlord "Hammer of the One" box set and three Valliants. I have a bunch of other Valliants, a handful of Deceivers, all the Infesters and Trashers, most of the Democracy, and a few Atlanticans (it was a really good Boxing Day sale). In the next few weeks I will post what I have done so far and later this year paint up the Infesters. I will also show my models in action in a few brief battle reports.