BrikWars is Warhammer with Lego, and it’s back in a ‘definitive’ new edition

BrikWars, the Warhammer-like miniatures game playable with Lego minifigs, will release a ‘definitive’ new edition later this year.

BrikWars emerged over 25 years ago out of the legal dust surrounding 1990s homebrew wargame Lego Wars, which was cease-and-desist’d into oblivion by the Lego Group for its specific name-dropping of the brick-based toy.

Designer Mike Rayhawks initially created BrikWars in 1995 as a legally-distinct clone of Eric O’Dell and R. Todd Ogrin’s playful brick-based Warhammer 40,000 parody, before the game swiftly grew into its own evolving ruleset separate to Lego Wars ahead of its first ‘definitive’ release in 1997.

In the decades since, BrikWars has gone through a number of revisions and editions released for free online, as well as spinning out into the faster, simpler QuikWars. Its latest ruleset was released in 2020.

While past iterations of the game have been released as printable PDFs, BrikWars’ upcoming physical rulebook will mark the first time that the ever-changing ruleset has been solidified in an official retail release. Publisher Modiphius rather knowingly describes the upcoming RPG as “absolutely, definitely the definitive” edition of BrikWars.

The new edition will feature revamped rules based on feedback from the BrikWars community, supplementing the game’s toybox-like glee in encouraging players to break the rules and apply the “Law of Fudge” to maximise fun over rules nit-picking.

"I created BrikWars to celebrate the timeless joy of kids smashing construction toys together, and for the past twenty years I’ve had the thrill of watching the community take it in directions infinitely more creative and epic and over-the-top than I'd have ever imagined.” said Rayhawk.

“This updated edition is built on the rubble of their many generations of plastic empires and thousands of minifig casualties, and I’m forever excited to see players create and discover all new kinds of never-before-seen creative masterpieces for their minifigs to smash into plastic bits."

The rulebook will include details on building minifig specialists for use in games, ranging from superpowered heroes to engineering mechaniks and everyday civilians. They can be equipped with the book’s armoury of weapons and abilities, including the likes of a nuclear catapult, chainsaws or just a brick.

True to the endless customisation and chaos offered by a box of Lego (or equivalent block-based toy), BrikWars’ MOC - My Own Creation - system allows players to define the gameplay attributes of anything they can build out of a pile of bricks.

Gameplay is kept straightforward, with units typically moving a distance defined by its move stat, before performing one action - such as an attack or special ability. Combat and other tests are resolved with a simple die roll, usually being a d6 or a d10 for more powerful abilities. If the roll overcomes a target’s armour value, they take damage. Damage can lead to defeat, or a reduction in ability depending on the figure.

The upcoming rulebook will also include Heroic Escapades rules for playing matches in an ongoing campaign, in which multiple heroes from a player’s army scrap over loot across different battlefields until one side runs out of ‘budget’ - triggering a final showdown.

BrikWars’ retail edition will be released by Modiphius later this year.