Babylon's Burning

Babylon's Burning is a near-future, post-apocalyptic skirmish game combining a gritty, atmospheric setting with rules that are both easy to learn and highly realistic.

The year is 2025 - 10 years after the Hit, the catastrophic meteor impact that tore society apart and set in motion a chain of events that left cities in ruins and 95% of the world's population dead and buried under a blanket of dust and ash. The survivors have banded together for mutual protection, resources are scarce and every other group is either a threat or an obstacle.
The background of the Babylon's Burning game is it's core - not a few paragraphs tagged on to the rules as an afterthought. You're introduced into the game with an extensive history of the Hit and an overview of the world of 2025 and drawn in further with the extensive fiction and the beautifully rendered and atmospheric original artwork that appears throughout.

The game mechanics are detailed but intuitive. This is a skirmish level game suitable for anything from a handful of troops to forty or so miniatures per side. Squads, solo elements (officers, snipers, medics and runners) and support weapons move according to a variable initiative system - there is no waiting around twiddling your thumbs while your opponent moves their entire force and the system is perfect for games with more than 2 players.

While it uses a fictional setting, Babylon's Burning recognises the realities of modern combat. In order to come out on top, players need to keep moving, pick their targets well, take advantage of suppression and, most of all, utilise the terrain of tomorrow's shattered cities. This is a game that rewards players who ask themselves "what would I do?" - pushing blindly forward in tight formations is a good way to get very dead, very quickly.
Another advantage of the realistic setting is that there are no "Super units" - in the confines of a dark alley, a nail-studded baseball bat is as deadly a weapon as any other...

The game accommodates a wide selection of faction types - Enclaves, Street Gangs, Mercs, Scavs, Ghouls, Culties, Mobs and Syndicates - all of them complete with their own restrictions and advantages. These factions don't just look different; they play differently too. From well armed Enclave militia built around a crack corps of pre-Hit professionals to street kid gangs moving about the table with dizzying speed on skateboards and roller blades, Babylon's Burning allows the player to choose the faction that best reflects their style of play.