The ash has been coming down for nine years. Everything worth having is already buried, so the fighting is over what can still be carried out. Warbands go in light, take what they can reach, and leave before the air turns.

He has not spoken since the Ashfall. The oath is cut where his mouth used to be, and his brothers read it before every advance.

Ashfall is built to be learned in five minutes and played with models you already own. There is no faction list, no points cost and nothing to buy to play it. If you have four miniatures and three dice, you have a game.

01What you need

• 4 to 6 miniatures each
• 3 six-sided dice
• A tape measure
• A 2ft square of table
• 6 pieces of terrain
• 3 relics (any marker)

Scatter the terrain. Place the three relics roughly down the centre line, no closer than 6" to each other. Both players set up within 6" of opposite table edges. Roll off; the winner decides who activates first.

02The round

1. 1. AdvancePlayers alternate activating one model at a time until every model has activated. An activated model may move up to 6" and take one action, in either order. One action, not two: a model that shoots does not also seize.
2. 2. FightCombat is resolved the moment it happens, during the activation that caused it. There is no separate combat phase.
3. 3. The ash risesAt the end of every round, move the Ashfall track up one. Then start the next round.

03Grit

Every model has one number, Grit. It is how hard the model fights and how much it can take, and those are the same number on purpose. A model that has been hurt fights worse. Nothing in Ashfall heals.

Write each model's Grit on a scrap of paper and cross it down as it drops. That is the entire bookkeeping.

04Actions and fighting

Pick one of these per activation. Picking up a relic costs you the shot you did not take, which is the whole tension of the game.

To attack, both players roll one die and add the model's current Grit. Highest total wins. The defender wins ties. The loser drops 1 Grit. A model reduced to 0 Grit is spent and removed from the table, dropping any relic where it stood.

05The Ashfall

The track starts at 1 and rises by one at the end of every round. It is the clock, the terrain and the pressure all at once, and it is why nobody in Ashfall gets to play carefully.

Seven rounds is the hard ceiling, and in practice the table empties before then. If you are still holding a relic at the back of your deployment zone on round five, you have already lost it.

06Winning

When the game ends, each player scores 2 points for every relic carried by one of their surviving models, and 1 point for every enemy model spent. Highest score wins. On a draw, the player with fewer models left wins, because they paid more for the same result.

07Building a warband

A warband is 8 Grit spread across 3 to 6 models, and no model may start above Grit 3. That is the only list-building rule there is.

Three models at 3, 3 and 2 is an elite cell that hits hard and cannot afford a bad round. Six models at 2, 2, 1, 1, 1, 1 is a mob that can lose half its strength and still carry a relic home. Both are legal, and the ash does not care which you picked.

08Warbands you can field

Every one of these is a legal warband on its own, and each is a set we sell as one parcel. None of them is required. If you already have miniatures, use those.