Majestic 13

What is Majestic 13

Majestic 13 is a “covert alien hunting skirmish mini-agnostic solo/co-op miniatures wargame” from Snarling Badger Studios. It’s by Adam Loper and Vince Venturella, and it came out on June 2, 2023, the studio’s third game after Reign in Hell and Space Station Zero.

You run a team of five covert operatives in a secret war against aliens trying to invade Earth. The idea grew out of the old Majestic 12 conspiracy theory, except here it’s thirteen factions charged with defending the planet. The studio calls them “thirteen covert bureaucracies working ‘together’”, and you pick one: tech masters, the military industrial complex, spy organisations, the world’s farmers, and more.

It’s miniatures-agnostic. Build your team from “any modern to near-future models you want,” and use any weird creature models for the aliens. The studio’s tip is to paint your team grey or black and you’ve got your own Men in Black.

How it plays

Five against one. A mission pits your five operatives against a single alien. Each team member has Acuity, Combat, Dexterity, Fortitude, and Psionic stats, plus Defense and hit points, and one of them is your commander.
The alien runs itself. Each alien follows an Enemy AI. There are more than two dozen creatures, split into Monstrosities, Ravagers, and Stalkers. The designers say the AI is the most complicated they’ve written and the biggest hurdle when you’re learning the game.
In Extremis. Aliens open with their simpler attacks and rotate into the nasty ones. Once an alien is badly wounded it goes In Extremis, hurting itself in its fury and doubling its actions, so the fight gets more dangerous right at the end.
Keep moving. Missions have secondary objectives that you complete by moving, not by spending actions, which pulls your team around the board. A mission ends at the end of turn 5, so if you kill the alien early you can still run for the objectives.
Bureaucracy and FUBAR. Random Bureaucracy and FUBAR events get in your way before and during a mission, though only one FUBAR event can happen in a game. Your own organisation is part of the problem: requisitioning new gear after a mission means a Bureaucracy roll.
Campaign and clones. The solo and co-op campaign has 18 missions, mixing randomly generated missions with planned special missions. Survivors gain experience and equipment, and you grow your base with upgrades. When someone dies, a clone replaces them. Staying alive keeps your experience, and “some clones are better (or worse) than others.”
Head to head, too. Two teams can also play each other in an adversarial skirmish mode.

How to start

Get the rulebook. It’s 144 pages. The PDF is $14, or $21 plus shipping for the PDF and a printed softcover, both through WargameVault.
Print the free sheets. The team roster, base sheet, and FAQ and errata are free on the Majestic 13 page.
Find five soldiers and an alien. Any modern or near-future figures work for the team. For aliens, the studio’s model guide points at Wargames Atlantic’s Harvesters, WizKids Unpainted, Reaper, Mantic’s Plague, and alien STLs on MyMiniFactory.
Add the deck later, if you want. The Add-On Deck is 50 tarot-sized cards: all 26 alien creatures, five bases, and 19 base expansions and breakthroughs. It’s $18 plus shipping, printed on demand through DriveThruCards. The studio says it’s optional and not required to play.