Argatoria

What is Argatoria

Argatoria is a fantasy rank-and-flank wargame from Spellcrow, played with resin miniatures in 10mm scale. The small scale is the point: Spellcrow says it lets you “fight huge battles on a small table space.” An army can run from 20 bases to 500, with one or two miniatures on most bases.

The setting is a wild western land of feuding tribes, part of Spellcrow’s wider Umbra Turris universe. Spellcrow’s own tagline is “Great battles in the barbarians world.” Human barbarian tribes fight reptile-faced peoples from the Land of Reptoss, a dark empire, and an orc clan.

The 2nd Edition rulebook covers seven armies:

Arox. Hot-blooded lords of the Sun Cities in Reptoss. Fast, and prone to overextending.
Dirandis. Barbarians devoted to the Old Gods, strong at prayer, with heavy and light cavalry.
Sorgax. A cold, disciplined tribe from the underground cities of Reptoss that leans on its General’s orders.
Vaendral. Sword-first barbarians who scorn the gods. The most aggressive army in the game.
Gaeldor. Forest barbarians with beasts, from serpents up to a dragon.
Sheol-morg. The dark empire. Lots of unit choice, many of them fearless.
Er’Sael. Orcs with deep knowledge of magic, and expensive in points.

The first rulebook came out in 2021 with four armies. Sheol-morg and Gaeldor followed in 2023, and the 2nd Edition in 2025 pulled everything into one book of over 150 pages and added the Er’Sael. Spellcrow plans an eighth army, the Raghorn dwarves, for 2026/2027.

How it plays

Rolling activations. Each unit gets an Action Die at the start of the cycle. A player rolls 2D6 and activates as many units as the lower die shows, removing each unit’s Action Die as it goes. Then the other player does the same. Spellcrow’s about page caps it at four units per activation. Some spells and abilities recover Action Dice or take them from the enemy.
Heroes go after units. Once every unit has acted, players activate their heroes in a separate phase. Heroes move, attach to units to support them, and use their abilities. Mages cast spells, and the General can issue an order that gives a unit an extra activation.
Prayers. Units can pray for more hits, more wounds, or the enemy’s misfortune. Leadership cuts both ways: a high value makes prayers more likely to be heard, but the unit is also quicker to flee.
Blocks and hordes. A unit is at least one rank of 4 bases and at most 4 ranks of 4, so 16 bases. You can field a full block as a horde or split it into smaller units. Unit size feeds charge and combat bonuses.
Close combat, not shooting. There’s no classic shooting phase. Spellcrow drew on Germanic and Scandinavian tribal battles, where fighting from range was seen as less honourable. Ranged abilities exist, but charges and melee decide games.
Roll under. Everything uses D6 and centimetres. Charge range is a unit’s Mobility plus 2D6. To hit, you roll equal to or under Weapon Skill, and a 1 counts as a double hit. To wound, you roll equal to or under Strength, with the gap between Strength and the target’s Toughness adding or removing dice.
Terrain goes down last. Terrain is placed after both armies have deployed, so nobody gets to set up on the perfect hill.

Spellcrow describes the core rules as 12 pages long, with most armies fitting all their rules on two A4 pages.

How to start

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Getting started with Argatoria (free PDF)

Spellcrow's free brochure: the armies, an intro to the rules, and a worked example combat.

Read the free brochure. Spellcrow’s Getting Started PDF introduces all seven armies and walks through a charge and combat step by step. There’s a French version on the downloads page.
Buy the rulebook. The Argatoria 2nd Edition Rulebook is a £25 PDF in English or French. It holds the rules, all seven army lists, over 20 scenarios, spells, magic items and lore. When the 2nd Edition launched in 2025, Brückenkopf reported a printed version would follow later.
Pick an army starter. Each of the seven armies has a starter with over 60 miniatures, worth about 600 points. The Sheol-morg starter is £55. Spellcrow also sells two-army deals, such as Arox vs Dirandis, for £100.
Grow with blisters. Full Unit blisters add more units and hordes, and single heroes come in their own packs. The miniatures are resin and come unpainted.

Spellcrow ships from its own store and lists stockists in the US, the UK, Germany, Canada, Finland, Sweden, the Netherlands, Spain and Poland.

Community & reviews

Spellcrow posts new releases and previews on its social media and in its newsletter. The German site Brückenkopf Online covers each new Argatoria release.