CRUSH THEIR SHIELDS!

Crush Their Shields is a tactical tabletop wargame about clashes between small warbands in the age of the Dark Middle Ages. You will gather your own retinue, choose a warlord, and lead your warriors to victory through careful management of formation, movement, ranged attacks, and close combat.
At the core of the game lies a system of Action Points, generated through the warlord’s Command characteristic. Each turn, a player rolls a D6, adds their Command value, and spends the resulting Action Points to issue orders to their warband: moving, reorganizing formation, shooting, or attacking.

Players build their warband using 60 gold coins, hiring fighters from three main troop types:
Druzhinniks — elite professional warriors, powerful and dependable in close combat.
Warriors — the backbone of the warband and the main force for holding the battle line.
Skirmishers — weaker in melee combat, but capable of attacking enemies from a distance.

The game also includes special units such as bannermen, horn blowers, squad leaders, berserkers, and other unique fighters with their own special rules.
One of the key elements of the game is formation management. Fighters must remain close to their warlord while maintaining a combat-ready formation. Formation width, the front line, and proper positioning of miniatures directly affect the effectiveness of the warband in battle.

The close combat system is based on the use of unique Battle Dice (BD). Each troop type has its own custom die faces: attack, defense, critical strikes, battle fortune, and more. During combat, the fighters in the front line generate Battle Dice, after which both players roll simultaneously and compare the results. Battle fortune allows warriors to break through enemy defenses, critical strikes instantly kill enemies, and remaining attacks become inflicted wounds.

Skirmishers may perform ranged attacks, harassing the enemy before the clash begins, though effective shooting requires a significant amount of Action Points.

Crush Their Shields combines:
tactical warband formations;
action point resource management;
dynamic close combat;
the importance of positioning and formation width;
simple rules with deep tactical gameplay.

Every decision — from choosing your warband composition to arranging the front line — directly influences the outcome of the battle.