Sludge

What is Sludge

Sludge is a fantasy wargame for two players by Sean Sutter of Metal King Studio, the one-person studio behind Relicblade. Where Relicblade is a small skirmish game, Sludge is about battalions: blocks of musket-armed line infantry, backed by knights, cavalry, field guns and a few strange magicians.

The setting is “a black powder age with a fantastical emphasis on powerful knights and dark magic.” Sutter describes the world as Yggdrasil, the Norse world tree, “mashed through the imagination of Dante’s Inferno.” The decaying lands hang in its branches while the nine hells bleed into one another. The rules lean hard on “gore, horror, brutality, and faith.”

The game is miniature agnostic. Sutter calls it “more of a hobby game than Relicblade or Warhammer 40,000.” You build an army from historical kits, fantasy kits or a mix, and convert them into something that doesn’t belong to our world. His own first three armies were Perry Miniatures plastics with Sludge heads swapped on. His Basilisk Empire is American Civil War infantry with the forage caps replaced by bascinets.

Sludge first appeared in Blaster games anthology volume 3. The standalone core rules PDF is that version, with layout by Greg Horton of Electi Studio. It holds the core rules, 13 core units and 6 battle scenarios. The Sludge Nations expansion adds four factions (Imperial, Royalist, Free People and Cultist), each with five new units, including tanks, airships and giants.

How it plays

Initiative each turn. Players roll off and the winner activates first. Win initiative after a tie and you activate two units in a row. You can also hand initiative to your opponent to shed a stress token.
Short and long orders. Short orders are moving, steadying the unit, or focusing (roll 2d10, keep the higher). Long orders are charging, fighting, firing, holding position or withdrawing from combat.
A d10 to hit, d6s for damage. Attacks roll a d10 against a target number. Missing by a little still lands a weaker hit, and a natural 10 adds an extra die. Then you roll d6s for damage against the target’s defense.
Gore stays on the table. Every wound puts a gore token on the board next to the unit, and the tokens pile up together. In the Nerve Phase every unit within 5” of gore tests its nerve, and the target number is the amount of gore nearby. Fail and the unit takes stress. Too much stress turns into wounds.
Formations matter. Line infantry fight in line, for a bonus to firing, or in column, for a bonus to defense. Sutter calls them the “best” unit in the game and the backbone of any army.
Shock weapons. Musket volleys, charging knights and field guns add to the target’s nerve test. In the rules’ example, a field gun that causes 3 wounds turns a TN 3 nerve test into TN 7.
Terrain includes sludge. Hills, barriers, thickets and great roots each have a short rule. Sludge itself slows units down.

How to start

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Sludge Wargame Core Rules (PDF)

The core rules, 13 units and 6 scenarios. $10 from Metal King Studio.

Read the free quick reference. The rules reference sheet covers turn order, combat, gore, nerve and the full unit and weapon stats. It’s a good look at the game before you pay for anything.
Buy the core rules. The core rules PDF is $10. The Sludge Nations expansion PDF is another $10.
Plan a 300-point battalion. The collecting page lists every core unit with points costs, plus a sample 300-point list: a commander, two arcanists, two line infantry units, jagers, foot knights and dragoons.
Pick your miniatures. Sludge is designed for 28mm figures. Line infantry go three to a 40mm base, skirmishers on 25 to 30mm bases, cavalry on 20×40mm or 40mm round bases. Any kits work. Metal King Studio sells resin conversion heads scaled to Perry Miniatures, plus digital kits and conversion bits you can 3D print yourself.
Get dice and tokens. You need at least two d10s and around twenty d6s each. Gore tokens must be 1” or 25mm circles. A print-and-play token sheet is free, laid out for a 1” circle punch, and a deluxe token set is $10.