There’s not long left until we can reveal all about the upcoming launch of Armoured Clash, including when you can get your hands on the game. In the meantime, we’re providing an insight into the development process of Armoured Clash and the team that is bringing it to life.
Take a trip behind the scenes of Warcradle Studios with words from our game designers, artists, studio painters and more.
Prepare for Epic Battles in Armoured Clash
Sophie Williams, Games Development Manager
“Armoured Clash is a game of large-scale land wars fought in the Dystopian Age. Each of the Great Powers can draw from a unique arsenal of soldiers, fighting vehicles, automata, and aircraft to dominate the battlefield. As a General, you will need to choose your force carefully and make shrewd decisions during play to ensure victory.
“Armoured Clash was such a fun challenge. We really wanted to capture the feeling of a large-scale conflict, with tanks and Behemoths dominating the battlefield while lines of infantry and cavalry scrap over objectives. The team has come up with a system that supports enough granularity for meaningful and challenging decisions, but doesn’t get so detailed that it bogs down gameplay. I’m incredibly proud of Armoured Clash and I can’t wait to see it out in the wild!
“While developing this game, we cared a lot about how it felt to command such large forces. Getting the tone and feel of a game right is massively important, especially when you’ve got a range of related games at similar scales. To achieve this for Armoured Clash, we spent a lot of time thinking about the kinds of decisions a General would have to make, and aimed to reflect that in the choices we offer to players.”
James Hewitt, Lead Games Designer
“Armoured Clash has some elements that will feel familiar to Dystopian Wars players, but it's entirely its own game. The engine is built around land battles between massed ranks of infantry and squadrons of armoured fighting machines, supported by artillery bombardments and intense aircraft sorties.
“When the new games development department was formed, Armoured Clash was already pretty much finished, so we were able to focus on testing and refinement. The team has worked incredibly hard to ensure that gameplay is smooth, intuitive, and satisfying, with plenty of crunchy decisions and options for strategic brilliance.
“We've written the rulebook to be as approachable and easy to navigate as possible - that's important for new players, but it's also a huge help when you need to check the exact wording of a rule mid-game. Gianni, who's laid out the book, has done an incredible job, giving the text lots of room to breathe and adding photos, diagrams and reference tables. Honestly, it's a joy to read, and I can't wait to see what players make of it!
“One of my favourite things about Armoured Clash is the scale! The infantry is big enough to have some real character, and the vehicles are delightfully chunky, with lots of juicy detail that cries out to be painted. However, they're also small enough that you get a real sense of scale during play. It feels like the team has really struck the right balance, and it makes for some epic battles.”
Designing Armoured Clash
One of the first things you may notice about Armoured Clash is the gorgeous artwork featured on the box and the wonderful historical touches present in the design of the miniatures. Roberto, our Art Director, has provided a little background on the influences behind the Crown and Empire.
Roberto Cirillo, Art Director
“Set in an alternate late nineteenth-century historical timeline, both factions draw the majority of their aesthetic visual components from their respective historical counterparts. As a design guide, the objective was to keep the designs 'real' to avoid extreme hi-tech fantasy or sci-fi, which would have likely severed most (if not all) of the roots to its deep nostalgic feel of the original retro-aesthetic counterpart.
“To achieve an alternate but believable final piece, our designs needed to include cues to real historical aspects for every subject (vehicles, troopers, and other units). This helped create an empathic connection between the player and the game elements with real-world reference points.”
The Crown
“The Crown aesthetic is fundamentally composed of key visual components of the Colonial British Empire and is then further galvanized with layers of ingeniously devised technological marvels derived from a time of Neo-Industrial Revolution.”
“For example, the Crown’s Galahad is based on the real British Mark I tank, playing on its general vibes. Its very distinguishable tracks run high on the body and establish a unique and powerful profile that is instantly recognisable.
“Helmets for the Crown troopers follow the same path, primarily based on a recognised historical design with a number of pertinent features added to boost the visual flavour and to easily distinguish them on the battlefield.”
The Empire
“In Armoured Clash, the Empire aesthetics can be described as Neo-Classic Oriental. Born from recognisable, classic designs from Asia, they are then injected with a strong contrast of advanced clockwork-industrial features and functionalities.”
“Strong examples of this are the Lions and Terracotta Warrior automatons. Both are based on well-recognized historical Asian architectural figures, further developed in their styles, purpose, and functionality, and given an industrial clockwork solution to the question of “how?
“Empire troopers have a far more exotic helmet and uniform design than most of the other factions. Their entire uniform (including helmet and armour) unequivocally recalls typical historical ‘Oriental’ costumes and architecture, with an emphasis on the ornate.”
“There is so much more to come, there may even be something smelling of liberty and freedom around the corner!”
From Concept to Sculpt
With beautiful concept artwork drawn up, it is the job of the sculpting team to turn these ideas into a 3D render from which a model can be created. Curtis and Taylor were tasked with bringing Roberto’s vision to life, and they certainly achieved it!
Taylor, CAD Sculptor
“My main focus was the Empire, more specifically, the larger resin pieces. Compared to working on Dystopian Wars, there were design principles that carried over into Armoured Clash was, however, a big change was that these models are not floating on water!
“Getting over the initial shock of realising that the lower portion of the model will also be included, we began with universal details that are consistent throughout this new scale. Elements such as doors or hatches gave us a great sense of sizing to work from.
“When we create our models, there is always the opportunity for creativity coming from the fact a model may have an existing miniature or some impressive concept art for us to work from. Armoured Clash really gave us a chance to flex our creative muscles and create something so tiny with such incredible detail”
Photo taken by Scott of The Markov Dossier
“The unit that I enjoyed working on the most has to be the Fangun, the Empire’s Ball Tank. It was such a unique departure from the standard design cues that we use. Dystopian Wars often has a more consistent footprint on the board with its more rectangular outlines. Armoured Clash models could be almost any size or shape, so a whole new avenue of design was available for us to explore and play with.
“It’s important to not just focus on the rule of cool, we like to discuss how the models would physically work in the real world, adding little details that could explain how a particular function would work. It’s just like storytelling with plastic rather than words
Overall though, I’m glad that I've been able to take inspiration from history and keep its spirit alive, whilst still updating and reinterpreting it for Armoured Clash and the Dystopian Age’s aesthetic.”
Small Scale Details
Launching a 10mm game to the Dystopian Age presents a unique challenge for hobbyists unfamiliar with games at such a small scale. Have no fear; our Studio Painters, Daz and Leigh, have provided their best advice for assembling and painting them.
Daz, Studio Painter
“During the early stages of design, there was a lot of back-and-forth in the Studio about how far we could go with the detail on something so small. I distinctly remember a sculpting conversation about the harsh realities of pushing things too far, like including moustaches on the minis - only for Brandon, our Sculptor, to burst out of the sculpting room ten minutes later declaring, “They have moustaches!
“These miniatures aren’t just little blobs of plastic that vaguely look like what they represent. They are fully realised, right down to individual buckles on packs, and as such, they demand that you paint them as well as you would a 32mm or bigger miniature.
“Thanks to the chunky details on the miniatures you can get great results with some very basic techniques. Just block in the details, then apply a unifying wash over the whole mini, and they will look great. It doesnt take a lot to get these miniatures tabletop ready.
“Thanks to each element being separate and defined, you can easily go further and use layering, blending and edge highlighting to show off your skill. If you really want to push the boat out, there’s enough space to paint in some NMM or go for super realistic weathering on the vehicles.
“So, no matter your preferred style or skill level, you’ll love painting these miniatures. To give you the best start, here are my top four tips for painting Armoured Clash miniatures.
Make sure you have some good brushes. Small sizes are not necessary as long as they have sharp points. I mainly use size 1.
Start your basecoats a little more saturated than you would normally pick. Go for the bright reds, the deep blues etc. This will make them “pop” on the battlefield and show off all that detail, especially if you use a unifying wash or weathering, which would normally dull down a finish.
Get a headband magnifier. I cannot express how much easier they make painting in general, your eyes will thank you. I paint at 3x magnification for Armoured Clash and 1.5x for anything else.
Above all else, have fun. Moustaches or not, paint the minis how you want to paint the minis.”
Leigh Phillips, Studio Painter
“During my time assembling Armoured Clash models, I was shocked with just how easily they went together, with minimal trimming or filing needed. The resin models went together even easier than the plastics, if that was possible, with little to no clean-up required at all, a dream for modellers looking to get right into the game with no hassle.
“My first thought on receiving these minis on my desk was, “Wow, just wow!” From the rivets on the armoured vehicles to the little belts and buckles on the infantry, everything about these models has been really well thought out and crafted to the highest standard. The resin minis are second to none in the quality of the sculpt; they’re so crisp and easy to paint.
“Painting for Armoured Clash is a dream, the level of detail for their size is mind-blowing, and the quality of the models really lets you go wild with blending and highlighting. For the Empire faction, I stuck closely to the artwork colour scheme as the jade greens and rich golds really capture the essence of the Empire, translating seamlessly to the miniatures themselves. The tiny details, such as little pouches and belts, are a lot of fun to paint and lead to a finished miniature that looks incredibly intricate whilst not actually being that difficult to work on.”
Armoured Clash on the Tabletop
Photo taken by Scott of The Markov Dossier
“Armoured Clash is thundering towards us with 10mm scale mass battles for all!”
Parker, Game Designer
“Working on Armoured Clash has been an exciting challenge. The feel of a game needs to match how it looks on the table, so a 10mm scale game with ranks of infantry, squadrons of tanks and huge mechanical Behemoths needs to be less granular than a 28mm skirmish game.
“An example of one way in which we achieved this intended feeling of the game was by not having individual weapon profiles. Instead, we have the Armaments Grid. This abstracts the various machine guns, tank cannons and gun batteries to instead be attacks made against certain Unit Types. This is broken up into Light Targets, Heavy Targets, Aerial Targets and Melee/Impact.
“This allows us to demonstrate a unit’s attack values without having to list all of the individual weapons it is using. After all, the General of a huge force has more pressing concerns than which brand of rifle the soldiers below them are using! Of course, this still allows the player to understand how effective their units will be against certain targets and an important part of the game is using the right tool for the job of destroying the enemy at hand.”
Photo taken by Scott of The Markov Dossier
“The development process for Armoured Clash has been a ton of fun. I was lucky enough to be running demos at the UK Games Expo, and it was incredibly satisfying to see the public engage with the game. The best moments for me are about halfway through a demonstration when all the rules click in, and the players don’t need you anymore. They just crack on with destroying each other and only ask about corner cases or ‘what if’ scenarios. Then you know a game is intuitive enough for the rules to just make sense, rather than having to constantly refer to a rulebook.
“Since UKGE, the solid foundation we showed off has been built upon with additional playtesting and development, squashing bugs and rooting out odd rules interactions. We can’t wait to see how the public reacts and are looking forward to seeing them fighting awesome battles of their own.
“Of course, there’s a lot we’ve not been able to cover in this blog, but we can let you know about those when it’s released. Until then, keep Clashing!
As you can tell, we’re excited to be able to share Armoured Clash with the community, a game we’re incredibly proud of.
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