This review is based on v 1.12.

I've never played Squad Hammer, but here are my thoughts and feelings about Rogue Hammer: Basically, it's a game with straight-forward and easy to pick up rules and it plays surprisingly quickly too. Even though you have to keep count of morale and mana and stuff, that is. Unfortunately, the quick and easy nature of the game also means it will sometimes feel a bit basic - even with random events and exploration events. I like how ranged combat was fleshed out with three ranges and a dynamic "melee" style firefight in which the enemy can (and will!) shoot back. All the random event possibilities and exploration markers are much appreciated. I really like the basic and easy to use armylists. They all feature one special rule for each army's infantry and one for its vehicles. This helps make the game feel less standard and more individual without you having to double-consider each choice or look up a unit's special rules. I do think the game could profit from some more in-depth rules concerning weakened units and weapon profiles though. Possibly also a more dynamic or less rigid cap on the total number of controllable units per side could be a good thing. If that's not beside the game's point. In my games, damage dealt tended to be on the lower side, so units rarely got destroyed and that felt a bit unsatisfying, actually.

As it stands, Rogue Hammer is in a bit of an odd place for me - limiting you to play with 4 units per side, fighting skirmish style battles, but with groups instead of individuals. Gameplay is nice and quick and the additions to the rules keep rolling in. All in all, I would say it feels a bit basic and limited at this point in time, but it does have cool capabilities of further individualisation through narration and events.