Skinflint Games

Welcome to Skinflint Games!

Our little group grew up on wargames – original 40k Rogue Trader in particular – but all too often the financial demands of the hobby made it impossible to continue. However, we never lost the spark and the enjoyment of the great narrative a close fought nail biting battle with it’s shifts of fortune could bring, and so we began to ask ourselves the question – is it possible to provide the excitement and enthralling visual spectacle a full blown war game provides without needing to sell a kidney for a Titan from Forge World?

So we began to investigate – to begin with, we ditched 28mm. Our scale of choice is 20mm – also referred to as Ho, OO, 1/72 or 1/76. This allows us to get boxes of 25-40 figures for under £10. Often, these minis are fantastically well detailed, and although fiddly they are by no means impossible to convert. Companies like Caesar Miniatures make excellent fantasy sets as well as historicals and these can be proxied for many factions of 40k, Age Of Sigmar, WHFB etc.

Thus began our journeys into the world of CheapHammer (aka PoorHammer)… and with it, the delights of scratchbuilt terrain and miniatures (we’re also fond of the odd dabble with the GW classic Space Marine too).

Over time, dissatisfation with some of the elements of 40k game play has led us to try and develop our own system, and we are now proud to present our own wargame, Apocalypse: Earth, available both from the link at the bottom of this page and Wargames Vault. Although designed with 1/72 in mind, the rulebook does contain a conversion chart for use with 15mm and 28mm scales, so players with existing armies for other systems can dive straight in!

A:E is a fast and fluid system for engagements of squad, platoon and company size. Originally evolved purely for close quarter infantry firefights, it now includes vehicles, off table fire support, prisoners of war, different victory scenarios and the backstory of a nightmarish WW2 where every insane superweapon project got funding, every conspiracy theory was true and where The Holy Emperor Tsar Josef I has staked a claim on the soul of every man, woman and child on the planet!

Combat is fast, furious and lethal, with tactical mistakes easily punished through an alternating system of unit activation and it’s a rare A:E game that doesn’t go down to the wire! This system also promotes individual creativity with it’s “Combat Action” system, and can be adapted for almost any setting.

Our aim is to set up a community of players sharing their experiences to help us optimise the rules and develop the backstory, so get your copy and get involved – if you’ve played the game, let us know what you think, if you’d like to share a battle report or a picture of of something you’ve converted for the game, drop us a line!

Creative Twilight Blog Roll – for anything and everything wargame related!