Voidfighter Review - Sci-Fi Dogfights Done Right

Laser fire blasts past your ship as an enemy fighter goes screaming off into the distance, disappearing with a small pock of red light as it explodes in the void of space. Hell of a way to go... but you've got no time to think about it as three nasty little snubfighters are hot on your tail.

Pull up, circle around, try to fire off your blasters in time to catch one of their wings... it's this kind of thrill that you'll get on the table faster than the speed of light when diving into Voidfighter, a brand new miniatures-agnostic sci-fi dogfighting skirmish wargame from designer Casey Garske (with illustrations by Dimitris Martinos).

Publisher Osprey Games sent us a review copy of Voidfighter to check out ahead of the games release - so follow along with us as we dive in!

What Do I Need To Play Voidfighter?

All you really need to play Voidfighter is the rulebook, three different sized measuring sticks, an assortment of classic RPG dice (two each of: d4s, d6s, d8s, d10s, d12s, and a d20), markers to track which units have activated, and any like-sized spaceship models you can muster. Much like another of my favorite Osprey Games releases, Frostgrave, Voidfighter is miniature agnostic. This means you can field old X-Wing miniatures, kit-bash something cool from parts you have lying around, or even use cardboard cutouts. All that's needed is a uniform size across you and your opponent's models.

Playing The Game

Voidfighter's rules are meant to get miniatures onto the tabletop as quickly as possible, while still giving the player just enough to crunch on to not make it feel shallow by any means. Each round of the game consists of five phases: the Command phase, the Initiative phase, the Movement phase, the Gunnery phase, and the Maintenance phase.

In the Command and Initiative phases, players gain command points (which can be spent on daring maneuvers and upgrades) and roll to determine who activates their models first. In Voidfighter, you definitely don't want to be activating first, as it gives your opponent more information.

In the Movement phase, players will take turns activating chunks of their units (you'll activate a quarter of your units at once), and it's here that you can roll to pull off tricky maneuvers like a Roll or an Immelmann (where you change the ship's facing 180-degrees without moving). To do these maneuvers, you're usually rolling piloting rolls to which each have their own downside should you fail the roll!

In the Gunnery phase, blasters are unleashed as guns send streaks of light through the cold dark of space! With opposed rolls (that's how the whole game plays out, you roll two dice, as does your opponent to contest you) and easy determining of who's in your line of sight and who's in range, this has to be one of the snappiest dogfighting games I've ever tried.

The book goes on to cover rules for terrain and scenario-based models like Asteroids and space creatures, helps you design your squadron and individual ships in The Shipyard, shows off ships for various factions within the game, offers up 12 different scenarios, and has rules for extended campaign play... and it all adds layers to the game without bogging it down.

Enjoying The Trip

And that's what I love about these rules, and what makes reading this rulebook so fun. Everything is meant to be easy and intuitive, without feeling too simplistic. You'll find yourself zooming around the board, trying to outflank your opponents as you fire off round after round of guns, torpedoes, and more. It's fast and let's you chuck plenty of dice.

Of all the elements of Voidfighter that most surprised me and kept me engaged throughout my read-through of the rules, the sense of humor and high-quality prose author Casey Garske most stood out. When cracking open a new rulebook for a sci-fi dogfighting skirmish game, I have to admit: I was expecting a pretty dry affair.

But Garske's writing - even when writing out the rules for movement - can't help but shine with its approachable, breezy tone. On top of that, he's created a world for this game that feels wonderfully fleshed out without bogging the reader down with heaps of lore. You get a few paragraphs about the universe at large, and then its off to the (space) races.

Another element that really serves the game is its treatment of reality, which it keeps at arm's length. There's a lot of gleeful hand-waving away of hard physics, which is a very good thing, as this wonderful little spark of a game would grind to a halt if it worried too much about things like g-force.

Voidfighter Final Thoughts

This is another grand-slam from publisher Osprey Games, and it shows just how wide open the field of miniature agnostic wargaming truly is. And in the practiced hands of a designer like Garske, there's truly no limit to the amount of creativity and ingenuity we can see from this type of wargame. Untethered by trying to sell their own lumbering miniature line, Voidfighter is allowed to feel nimble - like a snubfighter just dropping into orbit.

If you've got a stack of spaceship miniatures lying around and you're looking for something to do with them, or you want to get into the world of kit-bashing or 3D-printing, or the light and easy tone of this game sounds appealing to you - then I cannot recommend highly enough Voidfighter. Jump in, pilot!