What is the Bot War?

The short answer is that BotWar is a Miniature Game inspired by Saturday morning cartoons and popular TV shows of the 1980s.  The game hopes to capture the vibe of those times with over the top villains, more than heroic heroes, whacky narratives and just a sprinkle of horror.  The game itself is part of a wider universe created by Traders Galaxy nicknamed the BotWar Universe.  All Traders Galaxy games exist at some time and place within the BotWar Universe.  

Playing BotWar Miniature Game

Writing this is 2026, BotWar dice have been rolling for about 7 years.  We are now in BotWar 3rd Edition which is by far the best version of the game.  It may sound a little cliche’ but BotWar 3 is incredibly easy to play.  In fact if you have any experience at all with miniature games you will “get” how BotWar works in a single turn or about 10 minutes.  But mastering the game will take some time.  For those familiar with other miniature games BotWar 3 has some defining qualities.  A typical game of BotWar is 100-200 points worth of models which on average is about 7-16 models per side.  BotWar is a 10mm scale game meaning that humans are about 8-10mm tall.  So all terrain etc is in 10mm scale.  The Bots are much larger though in size ranging from 20mm to 140mm tall.  BotWar is played on a 3ftx3ft board.  Larger games of 200 points are played on a 3ftx6ft board. 

Dice

BotWar uses propriety dice – These dice are D3 based but have some blanks which count as misses in the game.  The dice are set in such a way so as to make the game intentionally swingy.  Meaning that the dice can have quite a large variation of outcomes.  This means that games can swing back and forth each turn which dramatically increases the tension in the game.  Furthermore, the dice get more aggressive and brutal the closer you get to your opponent.  So at long range you will mostly only do “chip” damage, at short range larger damage outcomes are more likely and in a Close Attack, most units don’t walk away unscathed, in fact most don’t walk away at all :).  BotWar is an action packed game and very fun.

Strategy Rating

BotWar is not a “your turn, my turn” type of game.  BotWar uses a mechanic called Strategy Rating and this determines the order in which your models activate regardless of what side they are on.  When you build your force, you can select characters knowing exactly when in the game they will activate.  So it could be that your opponent has 2 models activate and then you have 1 and then your opponent has 3 before your remaining activations.  And of course when characters are destroyed your activation order will also change.  Understanding how to leverage Strategy Rating is key to mastering BotWar.

Activations

Each model or unit in BotWar will have 2 Activations available.  Activations can be – Move, Close Attack, Ranged Attack and Super Ability.  The caveat is that these can be performed in any order or any quantity up to 2.  So Move, Move.  Or Shoot and Move or Move and Shoot.  Learning what order to use your activations is really important for making the most of your Activations and your Energy Points.

Energy Points

Everything you do in BotWar is paid for from an energy pool.  Each character you select in your force brings some Energy Points to your pool.  When a character is destroyed your energy pool will decrease as that character no longer brings their energy to your pool.  In the Power Up phase at the start of each turn your energy pool is distributed amongst your characters on what you think you would like them to do that coming Activation Phase.  But Energy Points are not just for Activations.  They are also used to boost your attacks and defence.  So although you may have enough Energy Points to make your desired Activations, your opponent may have forced you to burn some to keep your character alive.  Managing your Energy Points is perhaps the most important skill for playing BotWar.  No Energy Points on your character means they can do nothing at all except a very basic defence.

Super Abilities

Super Abilities really define BotWar.  These are very powerful abilities that often define the characters or even the forces.  For example, an Overlords Kaiju has a Super Ability called Adrenaline.  When activated this can boost attacks and hit points to high levels, or even resurrect your Kaiju from the dead!  Or the Artillery Super Ability that allows your Bot to turn into a tank and shell your opponent at long range, but in doing so surrender its movement and Close Attack stats.  There are often downsides in BotWar to every choice you have to make.  

Other Stuff

There is a lot more to the game such as fully interactive terrain, Mission based sticky objectives, different unit types and even being able to change modes between unit types at times, and a host of fun special rules that really make each character unique.  A lot of development has gone into faction variety and force list construction.

Faction Guides

Faction Guides are the army books for the BotWar Factions.  Each one has all the lore of the specific faction and all the faction wide rules and the stat cards for each character.  Without the Faction Guides BotWar is not as balanced.

Summary 

In summary BotWar is a game of constant choices.  Each player must be making choices and weighing the positives and negatives at every point in the game.  This is what makes BotWar really fun.  Once you know the game a full game will take an hour to play including set up.  Its very popular on club nights when a few games game be squeezed in to a 2 hour time frame.  Due to the Strategy Rating system you can also play up to 4 players with 4 different forces quite easily.  It takes longer to play but is very chaotic and fun with alliances being broken and reformed many times.  

I hope this article helps you understand BotWar Miniature Game a little better.  To get started I recommend the BotWar 3 Starter Set that comes with 2x 80 point factions, dice, tapemeasure, Energy Points and rules

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Brief Video Tutorials –