Dark Age is a fast paced table top miniature skirmish system. Not too many models are needed to play the game anywhere from 5-15 models are needed for one force depending on the faction. A typical 500 point game takes anywhere from 30 -45 minutes to play and a 750 point game takes one hour to an hour and a half to play.
www.dark-age.com
There are two rulebooks, a 96 page book that has all the basic rules to play the game, plus advanced rules, the Core Rules book. And the Forcelist book, a 356 page book that
contains all the rules to play forces from five different factions. Both books are full color and hard back bound.
Dark Age play is simple to learn and is based off of Squad Activation. It also uses an Alternate activation, you activate a Unit/Squad then your opponent activates a Unit/Squad, both players go back and forth until all Units/Squads are activated and you start a new game turn. The major aspect of DA that makes it different from any other game is that rolling low is good. We use a D20, '1's are good, '20's are bad.
The game is set in the far future the Empire of mankind has reached to the stars, planets are colonized, and buisness in the future is pretty much done like it is today.
Powerful corporations and govenrments like to do their own thing. Samaria was a planet that was not suitable for colonization, due to it's harsh conditions. it could support life but not very well. Govenments and corporations saw this planet as a means to do their illict activities without any oversight. Over time huge cities sprang up to support the factories and laboratories that sprang up over the planet. Invaribly as it usually does the empire of man expands it usually collapses on itself as is the case with the story. The planet not really being a planet supported at all is left to fend for itself. Civilization declines on the planet and over a course of 500 years the planet itself has declined into a Dark Age. Where technology has been all but forgotten, but still utilized barely and properly. The five factions are fending for themselves as well as exploring the planet beyond their cities, factories, and cavernous locations.
The Five basic factions are:
- Forsaken - during the course of the 500 years the major cities were taken over by the Prevailing Council and the Prevailers turned to religion to get them through the 500 years of strife. The Forsaken are the enforing arm of the Prevailers, led by self proclaimed Saints to lead the Prevailer's armies against their enemies. Most cases the Saints do not represent the goals of the Prevailers.
- Dragyri - The original inhabitants of Samaria before the corportations came. The Dragyri embraced the elements and are defined by their Castes. They lived in vast underground caverns and are now exploring the surface world and finding that they don't like what they see. They value honor over everything and find that these aliens on their world are Without Honor.
- Skarrd- The dredge that lived in the Forsaken cities, they were forced out of comfort and had to march the wastelands for survival. They turned to canablism to survive. After encoutering warehouses of WMD's which they thought was food and water they mutated into the Baniss, later they joined forces with a fallen Saint and became the Skarrd, canabalistic cyborg mutants.
- Brood - One of the laboratories on the planet was working on living bio-weapons, when it came time to abandon the laboratory the scientist simply turned of the labs and left, hoping that their horrific creations would just simply die off. One of the expeiments turned the labs back on, and over the course of 500 years went insane and started experimenting on her own. The Broodmere tends to her children like any mother would dote on her favorite child. The Brood are horrible scientific experiments gone
horribly wrong, and they are curious why their Creator-Gods abandonned them.
- Outcast - Tribes that live outside the Forsaken cities, they have learned to live of the land to meek out a meager survival. They do not suscribe to the Prevailers use of Religion for enforcement. They are so small in numbers they are tolerated, mainly because they do bring trade to the Forsaken cities. They are your atypical apocalyptic looking warriors.
-Each Unit, an individual miniature, has a Point Value (PV). Typical game sizes are: 300 points demo forces, 500 points and 750 points, standard game sizes.
One of the taglines for the game is "Everything Dies!". The perfect game of Dark Age boils down to the last turn and there are only two models left on the board. This happens quite often. Big nasty monsters can be taken out just as easily by the little scrub troops.
Dark Age: Apocalypse is the new Edition of the game. Technically it is the Second Edition of the game. For a brand new player wanting to start playing the game today, all you would need to do is download the Core Rules book or downloading the Quick Start Rules from their website, and purchase two starter box. Currently there are five starter box sets to choose from and they range from $40-$60.
The miniatures are both metal and resin miniatures. The bigger models are in resin whereas the smaller models are in metal. The Warband boxsets are all within 300 points plus or minus 10 points, the miniatures contained in the Box sets are not special, they can be purchased individually in blisters as well. Ther are over 100 unique SKUs, with 150 unique miniatures in the range right now sculpted by the industry's top sculptors. They are planning on a sixth faction for next year.