Dark Age Games' Dark Age (link) skirmish game has been released for almost 10 years and is still going strong (despite having some bumps along the way).
This is, undoubtedly, my favorite wargame. Unfortunately, due to some hiccups in its production along with some quirks within my gaming group (explained below), I've had a bear of a time getting friends to play this. That said, with a new edition on the horizon (allegedly dropping by Gen-Con) and a host of new models being churned out: Dark Age is in a great position to snatch-up fans of skirmish games who want something fresh and fans of sci-fi games who don't want to pay GW prices.
What's it all about?
Dark Age is a science-fiction skirmish game set in a post-apocalyptic wasteland in the far future. Interestingly, its a post-apo game not set on Earth (so, unfortunately, no one's going to have that knee-dropping Planet of The Apes moment in Dark Age's fiction).
"Saint Mark is actually kinda a dick? Noooooooo!!!!!"
In terms of setting, human society in Dark Age has rediscovered the Good Book (which, per the developers, isn't just the Bible) after society falls apart. A number of individuals with err.. "entrepreneurial spirit" proclaim themselves the reincarnation of Saints. Seeing as Society is run by what is essentially the Vatican (Space Vatican, henceforth), this causes some social unrest. The Saints are used by the Space Vatican to fight off the myriad of nasty non-human threats on Samaria (the planet on which Dark Age takes place), including the Predator-inspired Dragyri, radioactive mutants, bio-engineered predators, and marauding non-believing warlords.
So basically, you're fighting for New Jersey in Space.
Howler says: "Let's Smoosh"
You're normally looking at 6-20 models per side. Assuming you've already invested in paint/tape measures/dice, you're looking at a roughly $50 outlay for the rules (hardcover, two books for all factions) and ~$150-$200 for a good sized army with some extra options.
The Good
One of Dark Age's stronger points is that most of its art comes from Brom. For the uninitiated, Brom was a very popular artist from the 90's who contributed a very unique style to a number of Wizards of the Coast's products, notably Dark Sun's original incarnation and Magic: The Gathering. In addition to Brom, Dark Age has a number of other solid artists contributing to the game. Like Infinity or Malifaux, this is a game that has solid production value.
Brom: umm.. yeah... That.
Dark Age has by far the most seamless skirmish game mechanics that I've encountered yet. Overwatch? Piece of cake. Squad/individual activations without tripping over your own feet? Done and done. A small host of special rules interacting off of each other. Done, questions answered frequently by their rules team via the web, and frequent and fresh FAQ. Its tighter than Malifaux (and was tighter from day one), and that's saying something.
Also, the game has a solid "feel" to its mechanics. The setting is akin to Fallout, and much like in Fallout, not everything works as well as its used to. This is represented by a malfunction value on most ranged weapons: a chance that the gun not only misses but actually blows up in your hands. Ability names range from sensible (e.g. - "Fire", "Tough as Nails") to cheeky ("Its only a Flesh Wound") without ever losing the tone of the setting. For all of you who like to be immersed in their setting, Dark Age will let you do so without having its game mechanics jar you out of happy-fun-time.
Lastly, Dark Age has a brilliant, brilliant tournament system. Rather than "control the geometry in the middle" or Malifaux's complicated scheme system, Dark Age gives each player a series of objectives to chose from. The can range from "Place 3 objectives, blow them up" to "Kill the priciest thing on your opponent's side". They're quick, they make sense, and they work. At Gencon 2009, I had more fun playing in a Dark Age tournament than I had playing any other game all weekend (and this was the first drop of the Malifaux rules, another game I love).
The Bad
I wish I could say "Well, this they should change XYZ about their system", but all of my gripes from v. 1.0 have been changed in the new addition (sadly, I've been unable to get my group to play this because it was metric. New addition is Imperial, so get ready for Dark Age, Haight!). Honestly, the worst thing I can say is: Dark Age Games have had some baaaddd luck.
These bases were originally developed for Dark Age. Hmmm... where have I seen them before?
From bad miniature casters to losing talent to other companies, Dark Age Games have always been *this* close to being the next big thing. Convincing people to spend their money on a new game that always has starts/stops gets very, very hard after the first hiccup and I think Dark Age has suffered greatly for this. Granted, some of this hasn't be maleficence of the part of others: Dark Age Games has missed their announced time lines more times than I can count. That being said, I have some faith that times are, in fact, a'changing.
Dark Age Games is now run by the folks at Coolminiornot.com. They've consistently put out new miniatures (check out the April 10 releases!) since the start of 2011 and have the book well in order. Having chatted with Grafter (owner of Dark Age Games) at PAX East 2011, I've got a lot of faith that they're in it to win this time. I sincerely hope that Dark Age can turn around its bad luck and become the Cinderella story of Gen Con this year (aptly, on their 10th anniversary).
Final Thoughts
If I could only play one wargame for the rest of time, it would hands down be Dark Age. Unfortunately, most of my local wargaming nerds don't share this enthusiasm as there's a lot of new/shiny stuff out there that doesn't have a history of not delivering. That being said, the changing of the guard internally will hopefully equal change of past history.
To quote Dark Age's old by-line: Everything Dies. Hopefully, including Dark Age's bad luck.
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