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(Note: I received a free copy of this game to review. I have not been paid for this Enderain review.)

So in this Enderain review, a new game which is available from Skyseer Games, I’m going to talk about a lot of things that bugged me about the game, but I don’t want that to overshadow the fact that I really, really enjoyed this game. For a game which I can play solo (a major bonus) or easy enough I can play it with my 13 year old (another major bonus), it hits every major point I want in a skirmish campaign game. There’s unit progression and growth, there’s interesting character narratives, there’s battles that actually have plots and aren’t just me-shoot-you. There’s all of that. But there’s also a lot of questionable moves.

First off, what is Enderain? It is a miniatures agnostic sci-fi skirmish game that is set in a world that is so ill-defined as to not matter very much. I like my games to have lore, even my miniature agnostic games, and this just didn’t. It had a paragraph here or there, but it seemed to offer names instead of lore. There are groups like OCCAM Inc. and DO NO EVIL LLC, which seem to be lore? But heck if I could ever find a description of what these things are in the book. Money is called GAS, and it’s an acronym for something, but it never seems to matter.

Now, to be fair, there is a setting on the first page of the book. Future world, post-apocalyptic war, is fallen into lawless gangs (very Necromunda) until a group of vigilantes come forward and start reforming society, eventually to be subsumed by the Vigilant, the heavily-armed and well-funded group that sweeps in and takes control–and then begins ruling with an iron fist.

That’s about all we get.

Enderain Gameplay

But let’s get to the fun stuff. Enderain has your group (the game can be played with up to four players, or down to one solo player) of about 8 people searching through a sci-fi wasteland for tokens that have data and loot on them. Some of these matches can seem to be a bit of a scavenger hunt as you’re just picking up as much loot as you can, but the data is equally important (and arguably more interesting) as you need hackers on the ground to make use of it to do cool things.

I like to say that the mechanics of the game are complex, but not complicated. This means that there are a lot of moving parts and a lot of rules, but overall it’s not hard to play. In fact, once you get over the learning curve (which takes about three games, in my experience) the gameplay mechanics become second nature and the speed of the games moves much quicker.

One of the things I love about the game is its reliance on 12 sided dice. (I’ll get back to 12 sided dice later regarding something else.) But the fact that we’re using 12 siders to determine things means that there are so many more options for results of gunfire and rocket fire and injuries. It takes a little getting used to, but I think the 12 siders are a big feather in Enderain’s cap.

Team Creation

I really like the team creation in this game, with a caveat I’ll get to later. One of the best parts of this game is that your 8 people can have individual roles (like medic, scout, assassin, gunner, etc)–anyone can have roles, and the roles level up as you survive and play, which is something I REALLY love to see as I need more sci-fi Mordheim in my life. But three of your team can also have Powers, which are much more sci-fi: Mind Controller, Timewarper, Regenerator, Lifesucker, etc. These can also level up. You don’t really use the Powers very often in the game, but when you do they add a big splash of fun and narrative gameplay.

You build your team based on a dollar amount (or, rather, a GAS amount). The GAS can be spent on team members, on roles, on powers, on weapons, on equipment.

Your teams’ stats are divied out on a skill point basis, with the most skilled (the Captain) getting a lot of skill points, and the lowly Recruits getting very few. The skill points can be sunk into five skills, which are Weapon Skill (for shooting), Fighting Skill (for close combat), Physicality (strength, endurance and agility), Will (morale), and Leadership (being able to lead others in your Zone of Control).

Now I do have a big gripe when it comes to team creation, and although I’m saving most of my gripes for the end this one is big enough that I thought it needs a mention. There are no character creation sheets in the book. They’re downloadable on the website. If I’m giving them the benefit of the doubt, I’m assuming it’s because they think more people have printers than photocopiers? I guess? But it’s still dumb because you don’t even get the chance to see the sheets unless you go to the website and download them, and you NEED TO SEE THE SHEETS to understand how character creation works. Even if the book didn’t have a back page full of character sheets for photocopying, just an example sheet in the book would have been really, really nice. This is a major misstep, in my opinion.

Miniatures Agnostic and NPCs

One of the best components of this game is the NPC system. Whether you’re playing solo or with a group, there will be NPCs who are also in the game, causing trouble. There are two special dice which come with the game, one six custom six sider and one custom 12 sider, which control what the NPCs do, and they work really, really well. You never get the feeling like you’re exerting too much control over the AI of the game, but the NPCs also don’t really give the feeling that they’re making stupid, random moves. They move with purpose, just unpredictable enough to keep you on your toes, but smart enough that they’re not pushovers.

The game is miniature agnostic, which I am a big fan of. As you can see in these pictures, I broke out my Star Wars Legion miniatures for the game, along with the Wargames Atlantic Bulldogs, and they worked a treat. The droids you can see are the NPCs in this particular game.

If there is a downside to it being miniature agnostic and having NPCs (the reason I grouped them together in this section) is that there is a wide variety of NPCs and if your miniature collection doesn’t have some pretty specific stuff you’re going to be doing a lot of proxying. For example, there are Vigilant troopers, a role which can be filled by any standard trooper, and there are Sentinels, which are mechs–I used Battletech models to fill that role. But there are Seekers, which are “pack hunting creatures” and I didn’t have any wolves to use. I ended up pulling out some werebears from Konflikt 47, which kind of fit. (Though they better fit the Shibean, which are “Human animal hybrids”.) Skyseers are flying creatures? I never faced them in any of my battles testing the game, but that’s good because I don’t think I have any good stand-ins.

But Enderain is a Really Fun Game

I keep wandering into territory complaining about parts of it, but I want to make it clear that I really liked this game, and if you like miniatures agnostic sci-fi skirmish games–especially campaign games, then this is 100% a must-have. It’s done really well. You can tell a lot of thought and playtesting went into every aspect of the game.

A Few Quibbles

I run a website dedicated to wargames and yet I could not rustle up enough 12 sided dice for this game without having to go to my brother and borrow some from him. You just need SO MANY. And even when I borrowed some, Enderain wants you to have your 12 siders in special colors (or, at least, one die that’s unique). That wasn’t going to happen without me going to the game store and buying new dice, and I didn’t want to.

Another quibble. There is this team tracker, which is a really good device. It lets you keep track of wounds on your team members, and keep track of experience points, without putting a lot of markers and tokens on the table. I like that a lot. But the game only comes with one of them, meaning that you have to either need to be playing against someone else who has bought the game, or you… make one out of paper? There’s nowhere on the Enderain website where you can buy an extra.

Final quibble. The team tracker is nice, but not necessary. There’s a deck of cards that are necessary, and there are the two custom NPC dice, which are necessary. If it wasn’t for these things this game could have been a PDF. I don’t mind having real hardback books on my shelf, and I don’t resent owning cards and special dice, but I’m mostly wondering from a business move if Skyseer Games would be selling a lot more of this game if it were available as a download.

Overall Enderain Review

Overall, I really like this game, complaints aside. Most of my complaints (not being a PDF, not including character creation sheets) seem like they can be chalked up to growing pains of a new game company.

The overall design of the book, including artwork, and the custom card deck, are really top notch. It looks good, it feels good. (It also includes three quick-reference sheets if you need them.)

The gameplay and the campaign system really sell me on this game. It ticked a lot of boxes for me, and I’ll be playing it more in the future.

You can buy Enderain here.