A set of rules allowing you to play pretty much any historical period imaginable while keeping the feel of each of the 3 periods (ancient/early modern/modern) which play differently in terms of pace and tactics. You can now buy a couple of miniatures from a range that you might be interested with a clear conscience and without feeling that you are either wasting money on models that you will never be able to play with because you have too few miniatures - or feel that you need to buy a new set of rules for each time periods. Samurai, French Indian War, War of the Roses, Napoleonic’s, Modern Warfare etc can all played with this set of rules. Build each soldier to have individual stats, equip him with traits and weapons and throw him into battle in either one off skirmish games or use the campaign mode provided in the rules. Be the leader of an angry mob of peasants in an uprising against the local medieval magnate - or command elite SAS soldiers holding their ground against Afghan militia. Now while most games hold your hand and feed you content and tell you what to do, the Brink of Battle rules are very open ended, meant to be used to create the campaigns and stories that you would like to play. Look at the rules as a toolbox for your imagination. You get a very good foundation of rules that you create your own adventures and skirmish battles with.

Unlike some of the other reviewers, I'm not a life-long gamer. I've only been in the hobby for about six years, but in that time, I've played several different systems. This has got to be the most enjoyable historical game I've come across, and with Fantasy and Sci-Fi expansions coming soon, I just might have to throw away my Mordheim and Necromunda rulebooks. With a list price of less than $30, this is a great deal. Especially considering there are no new models to buy. Use what you have to play any period in history. Fully customizeable builds with no army list to adhere to means you can make your warband however you want with minimal restrictions. All in all, this is a great system that any wargamer is sure to enjoy.

Like most life long gamers, I have a closet full of old, loved, minis. From old D&D heros, to massed boxes of Warhammer Fantasy Battles. A few weeks ago I was looking for a good Modern Warfare skirmish game, sort of a Ghost Recon in miniature. When a good friend turned me onto Brink of Battle. I checked out the rules and on his recomendation, made the purchase of the game. Right from the start, I have loved this game! The mechanics are elegantly simple, yet detailed, and the game play is realistic, and still excitingly scinematic when the action starts up! As a skirmish level game, the forces used are smaller than most mass army games, but the individual Trait and Gear system, makes each model a living CHARECTER, a little person you root for, and mourn when he is cut down. Within the first weekend, I had emptied my minis boxes making Warbands! WW2 "Dirty Dozen" squad, US Marine Recon and NAVY Seal teams, I even used old Bretonian Knights as not terribly acurate French and English! Making the armies is nearly as fun as playing the games! This game is well worth the small price tag for a complete game, and the fact you get to make it your own sucks in your imagination! I havent liked a game this much since 40K was called Rogue Trader, and had cut-out paper Space Marines!!

What a fantastic set of rules! I've been collecting miniatures for nearly 20 years from various periods of time and genres. Brink of Battle allows me to play intense, comprehensive games with any of my miniatures without having to hunt down and learn new rules for each era. So far I've knocked out games with Chechens fighting Russian MVD, Fallschirmjager against American Infantry and 30 years war stuff. The rules allow you to 'scale' the size of your games and the competency of the forces involved, so you can have a 'horde' vs. an 'elite' force. The 'Edge' and the 'Break' are nice mechanics that allow both players to be involved throughout the game, turn by turn, and opposed dice rolls keep both players involved rather than sitting there waiting for the other guy to finish up their turn. Very nice. And with the rules for fantasy and sci-fi on the way, I'm planning on dusting off my Mordheim and Necromunda forces. It's like Sauron's ring, one ruleset to rule them all.

Mostly my complaint is the price. For the nearly the same price, the average printed rule book has illustrations and some attempt at layout finesse. This has so little attention to graphics, it looks like a rule book from the 70's. Very disappointing. Typewriters are dead, yet Brink of Battle was formatted as if it were using the margin limitation of a typewriter, making for three times as many pages as needed, and therefore, more expensive to print out at home. If they were concerned about excessive graphics making printing at home prohibited, they could have offered a version with the graphics removed as part of the download. A strange mix of 21st and 19th century technology. Amateur publishing at professional prices. Feeling a bit ripped-off.