Flames of Orion

What is Flames of Orion

Flames of Orion is “a dark future miniatures war game where players pilot giant mechanized combat machines.” The words and rules are by Stephen Hupfer, and it’s published by Under the Dice, the gaming and hobby fanzine. It was funded on Kickstarter.

The setting is the Orion system, named for a sun that has started to smolder and fade. The megacorps have lost their grip, and renegades, outlaws, and mercenaries fight over what’s left of the dying planets. Each player commands a Combat Unit of four Mechs and their pilots.

It’s miniature agnostic. The book says to use any models you like on 28mm to 40mm bases, in roughly 6mm scale. It lists Catalyst BattleTech, Reaper CAV, Ramshackle Games robots, Knucklebones Miniatures STLs, and Under the Dice’s own STLs as models that fit.

How it plays

Three phases a round. Each round runs Initiative, Activation, and HEAT. A game lasts 5 rounds.
Alternating activations. Players take turns activating one model at a time. A model gets up to 2 Actions: move, ranged attack, melee attack, disengage, or purge HEAT.
Bolstered Actions. You can push an Action harder, like Run, Snap Shot, Unleash Hell, or Ram. Each one costs extra HEAT.
HEAT is the catch. A second Action, a Bolstered Action, and the end-of-round HEAT Check all add HEAT. Hit your HEAT Limit and you roll an Explode Check. On a 3 to 6 the Mech explodes. The blast deals half its current HEAT in damage and reaches as many inches as it has HEAT, so a hot Mech can take nearby models down with it.
Mostly d6. Roll equal to or over your Combat Skill to hit, and the target makes one armor save per point of damage. A 6 is always a critical hit.
Built for campaigns. Between games your Mechs earn XP, pick up scars, and get sold or refitted through the Black Market and the Scrapyard. Pilots can die when their Mech goes down.

There are three ways to build a Combat Unit. Quick Play hands you 4 free Mechs and random gear. Veteran Mode gives you a budget to buy equipment and pick a faction. For a quick game, the book points you at Quick Play or the Mercenaries section.

How to start

Read the free edition. The Free Edition PDF is a trimmed-down core book. It drops the campaign and some art, but Under the Dice says all the rules to play are there.
Print a unit sheet. The Flames of Orion page has free Combat Unit sheets and a Bunker sheet, all by Dylan Melisko.
Find four Mechs. Anything in roughly 6mm scale works. The official STLs, sculpted by Tommy “Big Boss”, are on Under the Dice’s Cults3D page, including a parts set for kitbashing your own. If you don’t print, the Mechs of Hecate are 4 resin Mechs with 32mm bases for $35, cast by Ramshackle Games.
Get the full rules. The PDF on itch.io is $9.99 or more and comes with the unit sheets. The physical book is $30 for 76 pages, black and white with some color spreads. The Lemon Edition is a cheaper misprint copy with typos and lower-quality paper, for $15.
Add 10-02 later. FOO 10-02 is a pay-what-you-want trifold with mercenary options for Quick Play and eight new upgrades, weapons, and Mech frames.