You can play Guild Ball creators’ legacy miniatures game Godtear early – for £120

Godtear, the ambitious-sounding ‘legacy miniatures game’ from Guild Ball and Dark Souls studio Steamforged, has launched an ‘early access’ version of the upcoming project designed to help smooth out its rules ahead of a full release.

The early access kit comes with four champions and their followers for the arena-style hex combat game, which sees characters battling to eliminate their opponents and claim sections of the board during a number of scenarios. The final game will be designed around three champions on each side, with a two-player starter box using a smaller arena and fewer characters.

The full game will feature an ongoing campaign, with legacy aspects coming into play as characters gain skills and the arena is permanently changed by the outcome of matches.

The gameplay is dice-driven, with a focus on chaining together attacks and moves while moving quickly between hexes, rather than needing to measure with a ruler.

The early access kit costs £120 and comes with metal figures for Blackjaw, The Exile; Rhodri Ironheart, Thane of the Forsaken Hold; Lorsaynne, The Autumnal Wind; and Raeth-Marid, The Unbroken Tide, as well as the handfuls of orcs, dwarves elves and water spirits that make up their posses. There’s also a dry-wipe playmat, dice, tokens, cubes, stickers and some other basic components.

Another two champions, Shayle, Keeper of the Oath and Rangosh, Scourge of the Broken Plains, can be grabbed for an extra £35 each, including their respective golem and human bandit followers.

Steamforged is making no bones about the unfinished nature of the set, saying that the kit is designed to help playtest the final game and doesn’t include rules or cards, which must be downloaded from the internet as they evolve and change during development.

The early access kit will start shipping out from February 12th, and only a limited number of copies are available. Godtear itself is yet to get a release date, with its launch likely dependent on how the early access phase goes.