Been busy, so this week’s article is a review of Earth vs the Invaders. This game caught my eye because it’s made as a model agnostic system ideal for 10-15mm miniatures, and since I have loads of BattleTech minis from CGL, I’ve got plenty of tanks to use for the Human forces.

Earth vs the Invaders is available online from Wargame Vault!

Earth vs the Invaders is a very simple set of mechanics for how to play an asymmetrical wargame between 1950s-styled military forces against one of three impossible foes inspired by classic atomic age horror movies: Flying Saucers, Giant Insects, or a killer Blob (technically it’s an invading alien amoeba and the people it ate).

Because these threats are so unnatural, so above-and-beyond what the military is accustomed to, if you play the human forces you have to cope with the Terror the invaders instill in your forces. This is tracked with a d6 next to your units, and applies penalties to all of your unit’s actions.

While the game has already given you a ton of fun to work with, it goes one step further: Earth vs the Invaders has a set of 6 scenarios to depict the slow escalation as the monstrous invader first appears and then escalates. The scenarios included start with “Abductors” and end with “The Nuclear Option.” So there’s that!

The mechanics are very straightforward and easy to learn, with the whole book being only 105 pages (including scenarios, army lists, and optional rules). The game leans hard into the miniatures agnostic aspect, which I love, and encourages you to play with whatever you have or whatever is on hand. And? If you have minis for something else that’d make a great invader, maybe a bunch of wind-up toy robots, then there’s a section of the book with rules on making your own units. Really excellent stuff!

Unit activation is handled in a two-step process that I quite like. Units themselves have clean, clear stat cards. The Terror mechanic I really like, as I think it’s rare to see a good horror element worked into wargames, and that does a lot for me in the narrative side of this game. Another thing that I quite like is the mechanic where units that have taken damage are forced either to pivot to a new facing, or, if damaged badly enough, retreat several inches from their attacker. That adds some unplanned position changes and encourages a more dynamic on-table experience. I’m a big fan of that!

Terror looks very punitive, with it reducing both movement distance and attack dice pool. But, on the other side of that, there is a Rally action to pull your forces together and (hopefully) recover from some of that Terror. This is something I won’t be able to get a real good read on until I’ve played multiple games, but my gut reaction is it’s balanced to the game’s favor. Still, I can see people not much enjoying the level and degree to which it debuffs your units.

Honestly, there’s not much for me to dislike or nitpick at here. It’s a compact and efficiently written game. It does one thing, and it has all the tools it needs to do that. To that end, the “worst” thing about the game is that it only has 4 factions and 6 scenarios. So the biggest problem is “Oh no, there’s not MORE of things I like!” Even poking at Terror is a hypothetical “maybe this is worse in practice than it looks on paper.” So… I’m straining to fill space here.

The worst part of this game will be the struggle of convincing your friends to play it with you, but that’s a problem we were all going to have anyway.

Earth vs the Invaders is a simple and fun game that’s quick to play, complete with scenarios and a campaign system, that lets you play out classic 1950s monster movies. It’s affordable, accessible, and easy to play with any miniatures you might have laying around. Especially if you’re playing historical war games with 10-15mm miniatures (or Dropzone Commander) already. If you’ve been wanting to try something new? This is a well-written book with loads of fun photos, and the devs have a real focus on the joy of wargames as a narrative adventure. That alone made me happy to buy a copy.