Burrows & Badgers

What is Burrows & Badgers

Burrows & Badgers is a skirmish game of anthropomorphic animals, written by Michael Lovejoy of Oathsworn Miniatures. It’s set in Northymbra, which Osprey describes as “a kingdom where mice, badgers, toads, and other animals wear armour, wield swords, and cast magic spells.” King Redwulf is missing, his son rules as regent, and the realm is coming apart: knights and nobles are restless, the Freebeasts whisper about revolution, Hillfolk raid the borders, and bandits are cashing in.

Every model is an individual character. You pick each one’s species, from the humble mouse to the mighty badger, and arm them however you like.

The minis came first. In a 2023 Goonhammer interview, Lovejoy says Oathsworn put about 20 of them on Kickstarter, people asked what game to play with them, and he “had a crack at writing the first set of rules.” That first version was a self-printed paperback, a run of about a hundred. Phil Smith from Osprey Games picked up a copy at the UK Games Expo and offered to do a proper version. Osprey published the first edition in April 2018, illustrated by Gary Chalk.

The second edition launched at Salute 2025 and reached the US on June 17, 2025. It’s a 272-page hardback illustrated by Peter Johnston, and it folds in all the free Oathsworn Journals from the first edition, with their extra species, band types and equipment.

Oathsworn is Michael and his wife Jo, and the range is well past 200 miniatures, cast in metal, with the biggest beasts in resin.

How it plays

Build a band. You get 350 Pennies to hire and equip between 2 and 10 models. Pick an Allegiance first: there are ten, and the official getting-started guide recommends Royalists, Rogues, Freebeasts or Kindred while you learn. Your Allegiance decides which rare gear and magic you can buy.
Stats are dice. Each species has nine stats (Movement, Strike, Block, Ranged, Nimbleness, Concealment, Awareness, Fortitude and Presence), and each one is a die from d4 up to d20. The bigger the die, the better.
One core mechanic: the Roll-off. You roll the stat for your action, your opponent rolls theirs, and the difference is how well it went. An attack that beats Block by 3 does 3 Wounds, adjusted for Strong and Tough. Every beast has 16 Wounds, even the little ones, so armour and skills do the sorting.
Perfect and disastrous rolls. Roll the highest face on your die and you add +7, so even the weakest fighter can get lucky. Roll a 1 and you probably lose, but that model gets a Fate point to spend later.
Two actions per activation. Focus, Move, Barge, Charge, Attack, Guard, Shoot, Cast, Sneak, Search or Interact. You can take the same action twice, at -2 on the second roll.
Initiative is a choice. Each player picks a model and rolls its Nimbleness, and the winner has to activate that model first. Then play alternates. Spend a Fate point and you can seize the initiative and jump the queue.
Charges aren’t guaranteed. Normal moves need no roll, but charging, barging and sneaking are rolled like difficult terrain, so you can come up short.
Magic costs you toughness. Any model can be a Magic-user. Spells cost no Pennies, but every spell adds Weak (1) and Delicate (1), so your wizard is fragile.
Campaigns. Goonhammer’s review calls it “very much a narrative/campaign based game.” Bands earn experience, pick up skills, take injuries, and hire named characters and mercenaries between games. Each Allegiance also has its own Support Quests for earning experience and Fate during a game.

You’ll also need three objective markers per player, about 30mm across.

How to start

Get the book. Osprey sells the second edition as a $35 hardback or a $24.50 ebook (PDF or ePub).
Read the free getting-started guide. The official guide builds two sample bands step by step, a Royalist band and a Rogues band, then walks through movement, attacks, shooting and casting with worked examples.
Pick up a starter band. Both sample bands in the guide are built from Oathsworn’s Starter Band A and Starter Band B, sold on the Oathsworn store. Oathsworn is two people casting by hand, so stock comes and goes. Restocks go up around 6pm UK time on Fridays, and as of August 2026 they can’t ship to EU countries.
Grab the free sheets. The official site has a band roster and the 2025 FAQ and errata. Osprey’s gaming resources page has a fillable second edition roster too.

There are no official solo rules in the book. Osprey hosts a free solo PDF written during the 2020 lockdown, before the second edition, and it calls itself “very much a test version.”

In late August 2026 Oathsworn ran a Kickstarter, Burrows & Badgers: Reinforcements, for a new batch of miniatures. It funded in under four minutes. The rules don’t depend on it.

Community & reviews

Osprey’s page for the second edition quotes Tabletop Gaming Magazine: “You’ll find it pretty difficult not to have fun.” Goonhammer called it “exactly what you want a second edition of a much beloved game to be.”