Motley Crews
Grid-based tactical fantasy skirmish for two players, played on a regular 8×8 chessboard with any miniatures you like.
"Free rules, an 8×8 chessboard, any ten minis. Insanely low barrier to entry and extremely inspiriing to me personally"
What is Motley Crews
Motley Crews is a grid-based tactical fantasy skirmish for two players, designed by _nubmark and self-released on itch.io. The game is played on a standard 8×8 chessboard with five figures per side, has no points system, no list-building, and no mandatory miniatures. Any ten figures you have on the shelf can play. Games run 30 to 45 minutes.
The full rules are free. Official 3D-print STLs of _nubmark’s own figure designs are also available on the itch page for $10, but the game is fully miniature-agnostic, so the cost to start is genuinely $0 if you already have minis at home.
How to start
- Download the free rules at the official itch page.
- Grab a chessboard (or any 8×8 grid).
- Pick five figures per player. Anything works. If you want the official sculpts, the STLs are $10 on the same itch page.
That’s it. Most people already have the chessboard.
The Hobbinomicon take
This is the game that started everything for me. I watched _nubmark’s release video and something clicked. I’d been in the hobby for a long time already, but this renewed my drive to go full force. Within a few weeks I was building a board for Motley Crews, planning a YouTube channel, and registering a domain. Without this game and that release video, this site doesn’t exist.
The game itself earns the inspiration. It removes every barrier between someone wanting to try a tabletop skirmish and actually playing one: free rules, ten miniatures, a chessboard. If a friend asks me for an indie skirmish to start with, this is the easiest yes I have.
From the Community
El Bazar de Horus has made beautiful alternate art cards for the core teams and created two expansion teams of his own. All free on itch. Follow him on Instagram.
