I'm impressed with this title. The core system is elegant and easy to understand but flexible and open to tweaking by the players which is nice. A lot of current rule systems are aimed at tournament gaming and it is nice to have a game I can play casually with my friends but is still tactically deep. The author has included a lot of bonus material as well: common house rules for the game, althernate turn sequences, and random tables to help with pickup games. It is a good tool box game that reminds me of a lot of classic games from the 80s and early nineties. I can see using this for some personal projects.

There are some negatives. The book seems to be a libreoffice writer file saved as a PDF. Functional, but people who want lots of artwork and well laid out pages will be disappoined. Worse, the author has elected to put many of the alternate ways the game can be played in line with the base rules. So the section describing the activation system discusses multiple activation systems before moving on to the movement section. I would have ranther seen the alternate ways to play the game in their own section later in the book. It took me a few re-reads to get the base system down because I kept pulling in elements of the alternate systems without realizing it.

Those are minor complaints and the game is so good I'm still giving it five stars. I hope this game represents a larger movement in the industry to return to creative and fun games over needlessly complex games that are better at selling miniatures then they are fun to play.

Phenomenal game. I love the flexibility and toolbox feel. I can finely control the amount of complexity from game to game depending on what I'm looking for or who I'm playing with. Being a dad with young kids, I need a game that plays quickly, has a small footprint, and has a quick time-to-table. FiveCore passes all three with flying colors.

The biggest threat to my gaming is prep time. If I have to build a bunch of unit profiles before I can even get started playing, odds are, it isn’t going to happen. With Fivecore, I don't have to stat up or build my forces to get started. If I’m really pressed for time, I can just grab some minis, use the weapon that the model most resembles, make a couple rolls on the Mission and Deployment tables, and off I go.

The biggest downsides are the production quality and the rules layout, both of which fall down when compared to a similarly priced product like Gruntz. Despite the simplicity of the core system, my first few games had me jumping back and forth through the rulebook looking for clarifications. Certain rules interactions (or lack of explanation) confused me, such as Hidden and LOS, or Speculative Fire and Peeking. Without an index, it is hard to locate exactly what I needed.

If you can power through some initial confusion (any wargame of sufficient complexity will have growing pains), are willing to make some judgement calls (this is not a tournament game), and deal with the lack of an index, you will be rewarded with a unique, interesting, and incredibly flexible skirmish game.

I had the opportunity to run 3-4 games with Ivan system and let me tell you: it is in my opinion one of the best Sci Fi skirmish ever. First, it is simple to learn, but it is far from being ordinary. Second: game is actually fun and fast! there is a lot of action, tactical thinking and reactions... and all in a smooth, cinematic and fun way. This third edition is very polished and can be used for very different game scenarios (modern, sci fi, horror, pulp...). It has a nice campaign system, rules for vehicles and even random events and options for pick-up games. I strongly suggest to try it.

From a personal standpoint, for my style of gaming, the rules themselves might be slightly much to handle alone. However, objectively, they're well written and pretty concise as far as miniatures rules go. The core rules aren't the reason I gave it a 4; the main reason is the lack of a bookmark sidebar, which would be extremely helpful in referencing certain nuances mid-game.

From a more biased standpoint, I'd like to note that once again, Nordic Weasel Games has delivered a rather useful tool within a game that, even though I may not end up getting much use out of the core book, will be extremely helpful to me in other endeavors. In this case I refer to the solo play rules and the tables occupying the last third or so of the PDF.

There are comprehensive rollable tables for campaign attributes such as random forces (WW2, Modern, Irregular, Gang and SWAT), fireteam generation, vehicle presence, a war generator for both earth and spacefaring settings, and even some goodies in character creation that help you define the background and personality of a character you don't already have down in your head.

Perhaps most intriguingly, the campaign rules give you rules and rollable tables for such things as the nature of injuries that befall those taken out in combat (from light wounds and dramatic scars to permanent injuries and death), replacements and recruits, campaign events (reassignment of soldiers, arrival of a new recruit, and so on), and of course, full-on mission generation.

For me, the strength of Nordic Weasel titles has always been the robust random generation, and these are things I feel like I could transplant into any game. In fact... I was going to give it a 4 for the lack of a bookmark index, but the more I look over these bonuses at the end of the book, the better I feel about this purchase. Five stars, for depth of utility alone!

Short Version: (And mind, this is from a very individualized standpoint.) If you've been searching for a game that lets you take control of a squad or platoon and follow them throughout a procedural military campaign, as I so long have, this is your train. Get on and ride this baby to glory. (Or... horrific defeat, as circumstances may dictate. May the dice treat your boys well!)

Many reviews were written, and all were 4+ stars... SO... if you are not yet convinced that you really really have to get this rules, I tell you this:

Add up (FiveCore 2nd Ed. + Every Star An Oportunity + Five Parsecs From Home) and you´ll start feeling an absolute almost unbearable guilt for the time you lost waiting to make up your mind. But don´t worry, playing certainly will cure that. Thank you Ivan.

I was looking for a system that would give a quick-playing game for near-future scenarios and I decided to take a chance on 5Core on the strength of reviews I had read online. I'm glad I did.

Pros: There are many.

1) The activation sequence provides 3 randomly determined outcomes, each of which have distinct advantages and disadvantages of the player. They are also derived from battlefield outcomes - basically: normal cautious advance and firing (most often), run like he!! (once in a while), and shoot at anything that moves (also once in a while). Because the player never knows before the activation roll exactly what the troops will do, the system rewards players who use flexible tactics and respond as the situations evolve.

2) The firing system is elegant and gives a set of plausible outcomes without needing a massive number of rolls. As well, the outcomes are based on psychological impacts/suppression as much as on generating casualities, which seems about right to me.

3) It is customizable. For our game, we wanted to have a small number of heroes on one side, a larger number of militia on the other, and a 3rd force with some unusual characteristics. The optional rules allowed us to have all that and we certainly didn't exhaust the possibilities.

4) It was very easy to pick up the rules. Neither of us had played the rules before, and I only purchased them a couple of days in advance of our first game, but we were still able to get right down to business and within a couple of turns we rarely had to look anything up. Yet, despite all that, it did not feel like a simplistic game - there is a lot going on as the easy to remember rules interact within each turn.

5) It's fun! Both of us played the game to its conclusion in a couple of hours and we had a great time. Lots of entertaining things happened and as my friend said, the rules supported an 'emerging narrative' as the game went on.

Cons: There aren't many.

1) I would like to see some diagrams and have some examples of play in the rule book. The rules are generally straightforward to understand and 5Core is quite playable as it is, but I'm a 'visual' person and I would have learned even faster with some illustrating examples.

The second edition of FiveCore has upgraded it from a fast-playing modern/sci-fi skirmish game into a great toolbox. The basic mechanics have not changed (thankfully!) but there is a lot more material in this version. The page count has increased from 32 to 93 -- from the addition (and possibly revision) of material from some supplements, as well as new content. For instance, there are stealth rules (from the Tactical Primer), heroes (from Heroes and Horrors) and vehicles (which I presume are from Heavy Metal), and expanded solo rules and campaign rules. There are also lots of ideas listed as "playstyle options" which give it the toolbox feel. Overall, those that want to try this system would do well to get the 2nd edition, as it alone covers the 1st edition and some supplements.

I have thoroughly enjoyed playing this games, the print quality was good and presentation style very clear and easy to use. The actual game is easy to pick up but with lots of depth . The whole ethos of character and background first really appeals to me, also the whole notion of a no stat character is also exciting. The wealth of material and ideas makes Fivecore interesting which I have found has made me excited about a new game for the first time in ages. Cheers Ivan