I’ve been hoping to get my brother, who is a teenager, into wargaming.  He’s shown a lot of interest in sci-fi wargaming, especially Warhammer 40K with its bizarre aliens, demons, etc.  Unfortunately 40K is very, very expensive, with a fair-sized army running you easily several hundred dollars.

So I’m looking for a less expensive sci-fi game that has plenty of crunchy gooeyness.  You can play 40K with a small number of figures (“Combat Patrol”) but my experience has been that the games are both short and a little lopsided.  That mostly because the games are still played with units, rather than a “skirmish” format.

One possibility would be Urban War, which has plenty of guns, a fairly easy ruleset, and is played with a small number of figures.  It is a little low on the “crunch and goo,” although I should check out the Koralons.  Another would be Rezolution, but I’m less familiar with that game (having not read the rulebook despite owning it for months).  I know they have the alien-possessed army, which might suffice.  I’ll be looking for reviews by someone who has actually played it.

On the upside, there’s nothing like spending a day off eating soup and cranberry bread toast with my daughter.