THRACKThe latest Thrackdown update is a relatively small rules pass, but a much bigger tidy-up of how players get the game onto the table.
A handful of faction unit rules have been rewritten to remove ambiguity, every faction now has its own dedicated Starter Rules and Roster PDF, the main faction rules download now includes all six Game One starter rosters, and each of the three introductory missions has its own printable scenario sheet.
There are no sweeping balance changes here. This update is mostly about making the rules easier to read and the first few games easier to organise.
Thrackdown remains on Open Alpha v1.4, with these latest clarifications forming part of the ongoing Alpha development.
A cleaner way to start playing
One of the areas we've been concentrating on recently is the route from discovering Thrackdown to actually putting some miniatures on a table.
The first game deliberately keeps things small. Each player needs just four fighters:
- 1 Leader
- 2 Core fighters
- 1 Specialist
There is no warband building required, no equipment shopping and no need to understand the entire faction roster before rolling some dice. Game One is there to teach movement, actions, shooting, melee, Nerve, Momentum and the general rhythm of alternating activations.
Previously, though, players still had to go looking through the larger faction document to find the fighters they needed.
That's now changed.
Each of the six factions has its own Starter Rules and Roster PDF, containing the relevant faction material and its four Game One fighters. If you're playing Iron Pact, for example, you can simply grab the Iron Pact starter document rather than working through the entire faction roster.
If you'd rather have everything together, the main Faction Rules and Starter Rosters download now contains the rules and starter forces for all six factions in one document.
The aim is simple: use the smaller PDFs when getting individual players started, and keep the combined document around when you want the full current roster in one place.
Meet the Game One Warbands
The starter rosters aren't intended to be optimised competitive lists. They're there to put four different fighters on the table, give players a mixture of jobs to do, and introduce some of the character of each faction before the wider rules open up in Games Two and Three.
Here is what is currently available.
Iron Pact
Line Marshal · Oathman · Greenbrace · Bulwark Gunner
The Pact starter force is probably the closest to a traditional military fireteam.
The Line Marshal provides the command element, the Oathman is the dependable line fighter, and the Greenbrace gives you a faster but significantly less dependable rookie to manage.
Then there is the Bulwark Gunner, who introduces the pleasure of finding a good firing lane and becoming extremely reluctant to leave it.
It's a good starter force for anyone who likes positioning, ranged fire and fighters supporting one another rather than four individuals wandering off to conduct their own private wars.
Ashen Covenant
Prophet of the Regent · Cinderguard · Knight-Militant · Flame Deacon
The Covenant gets a nicely mixed four-model force.
The Prophet of the Regent is the centre of the group, backed by the ranged Cinderguard and the much more direct Knight-Militant. The Flame Deacon rounds things out with a Specialist built around getting uncomfortably close to the enemy and making that everyone's problem.
Even before the full Covenant mechanics arrive, the roster gives players a good taste of the faction's combination of Nerve pressure, close-range aggression and fighters working around a central leader.
The Splice
Rendfather · Graftkin · Twitcher Drone · Ribshrieker
If the Iron Pact starter roster looks like something written down in a field manual, the Splice roster looks like something that escaped from a medical waste bin.
The Rendfather is a powerful close-combat leader, the Graftkin provides the dependable middle, and the Twitcher Drone brings speed and mobility.
The Ribshrieker is the oddity of the group, using its abilities to pile Nerve onto nearby enemies before the rest of the brood closes in.
It gives the Splice a noticeably different feel even with only four models: move quickly, unsettle the enemy and then let the flesh deal with the consequences.
Null Protocol
Proto-Prime · Freeborn Trooper · Skirmark Unit · Nullblade Operative
The Null Protocol starter force is built around coordination and movement.
The Proto-Prime leads a small group containing the solid Freeborn Trooper, the mobile Skirmark Unit, and the far more aggressive Nullblade Operative.
That gives new Protocol players a bit of everything: a strong leader, dependable shooting, a fast objective runner and something designed to get into places the enemy would rather it didn't.
As the full faction rules come online, that foundation grows into the Protocol's broader focus on sequencing activations and getting multiple machines working toward the same objective.
Crimson Veil
Veil Ascendant · Veilbound Retainer · Thrall · Veilblade Initiate
The Crimson Veil may have the clearest hierarchy of any of the starter forces.
At one end is the Veil Ascendant, an extremely capable True Veil fighter. At the other is the Thrall, whose position in Veil society can broadly be summarised as "available resource".
Between them sit the protective Veilbound Retainer and the aggressive Veilblade Initiate.
It makes for an intentionally uneven little warband. Not every fighter is equally precious and not every fighter is supposed to be. Learning when to protect a model and when to spend one is very much part of playing the Veil.
Scavver Clades
Clade Boss · Scrap Jack · Gutter Rat · Gearhead
Finally, the Scavvers bring what may be the most traditional bunch of post-apocalyptic misfits to Game One.
The Clade Boss keeps everyone moving, the Scrap Jack provides some dependable muscle, and the Gutter Rat is fast enough to get itself into exactly the sort of trouble you sent it towards.
The Gearhead brings the support role and a reminder of one of the defining principles of the Clades: throwing something away is just admitting you haven't worked out what else it can be used for yet.
For players who like improvised equipment, utility pieces and a warband that looks like it was assembled from whatever happened to be lying around, this is probably the place to start.
Five rules clarified
Alongside the new starter documents, we've also done a wording pass on five unit rules that had the potential to be read in ways they weren't intended.
Greenbrace: Untested
The Iron Pact Greenbrace is supposed to be exactly what the name suggests: a rookie who performs better when there are dependable fighters nearby.
Untested now makes it explicit that the Greenbrace must take its special Nerve Test when it begins its activation more than 5" from any friendly fighter that is not Downed.
Importantly, that test happens even if the Greenbrace currently has no Nerve Tokens. It also does not replace ordinary Nerve Tests. Those still happen normally when required.
That distinction was possible to miss in the previous wording, so it is now spelled out.
Line Marshal: Designate Killzone
The Line Marshal's Designate Killzone rule has also been tightened up.
The Killzone extends 3" from its marker, each eligible fighter gets the reroll once per activation, and placing a new Killzone marker removes the previous one.
The intention hasn't changed. The rule just now answers the obvious follow-up questions without requiring a mid-game committee meeting.
Rendfather: Frenzy Aura
The Rendfather's Frenzy Aura now specifies that it affects friendly Splice models.
This removes any possibility of the aura being read as affecting allies from outside the faction in situations where that might become relevant.
Prophet of the Regent: Sermon of Firecall
Sermon of Firecall has been rewritten so its interaction with Nerve Tests is clearer.
For the purposes of a Nerve Test, friendly Ashen Covenant models within 5" count as having one fewer Nerve Token.
The important part here is that the rule modifies the number of tokens the model counts as having for the test. It isn't removing a token from the model.
Prophet of the Regent: Fanatical Presence
Finally, Fanatical Presence now explicitly affects friendly Ashen Covenant models.
Again, this is a scope clarification rather than a new ability.
The complete wording for all of these rules is in the current faction documents, and the full paper trail remains available on the Changelog & Errata page.
Three missions, three printable sheets
The other addition is something much less exciting from a rules-design perspective but considerably more useful once dice start hitting the table.
Each of the three introductory missions now has its own standalone PDF.
Game One: Loot & Scoot introduces the core game with four fighters per side, scattered loot and a strong incentive to grab something valuable before somebody shoots you.
Game Two: Hostage Grab starts opening up the faction rules and weapon traits while giving both warbands a rather unwilling objective to fight over.
Game Three: Reactor Meltdown takes the training wheels off with 200-Thrack warbands, equipment and the wider game in play, while the battlefield itself gradually becomes a worse place to be.
The walkthrough pages on the website still take players through each game step by step, but the mission PDFs mean that once everyone understands what they are doing, the scenario sheet can simply sit beside the table while the game carries on.
More Alpha, fewer arguments
None of this is the flashiest kind of Open Alpha update.
There isn't a new faction arriving here or a gigantic new subsystem to learn. Instead, this pass is about sanding down the places where someone could reasonably ask, "hang on, what does that actually mean?" and making it easier for a completely new player to find the handful of pages they actually need.
That's going to remain a big part of the Alpha.
If something is unclear at the table, contradictory between documents, or technically works but takes three people and a Discord discussion to interpret, we want to hear about it. Those reports are useful and help us tighten the game up as development continues.
The current Quick Start Rules, faction starter packs, combined Faction Rules and Starter Rosters, and all three introductory missions are available free from Thrackdown.com.
Pick four miniatures.
Make a plan.
Watch it go wrong.