Monsters spring from the innards of the earth! Only has handful of warriors stand between these impious creatures and the rest of the world.
Hybrid is a tactical skirmish boardgame in the vein of Space Hulk, but more tactically complex. The miniatures and graphic design are stunning; at the time Rackham was known for its beautiful metal miniatures, and the game comes with an impressive collection of them. Despite its flaws—a terrible rules translation, ridiculously tiny type on the cards, confusing artwork on the tiles—the game brought new complexity and richness to the genre, and the fantasy background is unique.
The terrible English translation of these rules is almost legendary, which is a great shame, as once you work it out Hybrid is a unique take on the combat game genre. The game is set in the Rackham fantasy world of Aarklash (which is the setting for Confrontation, their tabletop miniatures game, Arcana, and Cadwallon: City of Thieves) and simulates combat scenarios between the Griffons of Akkylannie (the good guys) and the frightening Alchemists of Dirz (the bad guys) in the latter’s abandoned underground laboratories. Unusually, the game comes with thirteen extremely high-quality metal miniatures that required assembly and painting, including a spectacular ‘Aberration’ miniature, a mutated experimental creature. The artwork on the game tiles is also exceptional, if a little confusing, and fully painted and setup the game is a sight to behold. Unfortunately the text on the action cards is also amazingly tiny and hard to read, and the activation counters were strangely printed on ridiculously thin card.
Without doubt, however, the rules book is a nightmare, and it’s hard enough working out who is who and what is going on, let alone piecing together how the game works. But once you do—and I recommend you use my summary (which includes the rules from the supplement Nemesis), which several gamers have called ‘essential’—you’ll find Hybrid to be a fast, furious and vicious combat game with a wide range of tactical options. Warriors can choose from a number of action modes, and up to six actions within each mode; not to mention use cards with extra abilities or modifiers. Throw in a set of varied and interesting scenarios, and for those of you who are ready to take the plunge, it’s an amazing game once it all ‘clicks’. Hybrid is out of print now, but it’s well worth tracking down a copy if you’re looking for something unique that rewards a bit of effort.
The game also comes with extra cards for a selection of other metal Dirz & Griffin figures which were available in the Rackham range.
Some issues of the Rackham’s “Cry Havoc” magazine had extra hybrid cards and extra scenarios and even campaigns for Hybrid/Nemisis.
Aberration’s very big brother Aberration Prime was available as an un-assembled hard plastic model with alternative heads and weapons. It came with both round and square bases and cards for Confrontation3 and Hybrid.
Indeed—thanks for that extra info. Must get this game on the table one day; and now I have a big collection of Confrontation figures I could explore some of the other options.
I have this game and Nemesis, and unfortunately I’ve gotten all of the cards from my Cry Havoc magazines mixed up with the cards from both games. Might have to sign up for the forums and ask if anyone has an original copy of both and see if they can let me know what cards came with what…. It was one of my most anticipated purchases when I first got it. Very evocative and beautifully put together. It’s definitely one of those ‘store on the shelf games’. Would love for Rackham to come back, bit better run this time, with a little bit less predatory sales practices.
I certainly wouldn’t hold your breath for the return of Rackham, it’s long gone and the Confrontation licence is held by a computer game company called Cyanide, who licenced the miniatures to Legacy who after, a few large figure releases, seems to have stopped doing anything with it. Jean Bey, the main creative force behind Rackham, is now working on a computer-slash-miniatures game.
Sorry I can’t help you with the cards, all my Cry Havocs are in storage at the moment. Have you tried Boardgamegeek?
To be honest, I’d rather try to keep it in house here on your site UH. You’ve got a good thing going here :-). I’ll only try other sites as a last resort.
That’s great – I only suggest it though as there are not many Hybrid players out there in total, so you’d probably contact more of them via BGG than here. But glad you like the site!
Peter-
I own SH 3rd and really enjoy it. I own the base game of Incursion and prefer it slightly more, with the exception it cannot be played solo. One of my local game shops has a copy of Hybrid core for $30 and the expansion for $20. In your opinion would one or both of these be any worthwhile addition to my collection at these price points?
As a caveat I will add games with horrific rulebooks drive me insane, but I anticipate your summary with help alleviate this problem.
Thanks!
Hi. To be honest, I’d only buy it if you want the miniatures, which are very fiddly, fragile metal minis that need a pretty good level of experience to construct and paint. The game was released with Rackham metal minis; they’re lovely, but they’re definitely not for beginners. I can’t speak for the actual gameplay as I never did get around to playing it. Unless you’re a bit of a collector, I think I’d recommend you go for something a bit more modern in the dungeoncrawl style: check out my listings for ideas.
I ended up picking it up simply for the tiles. The minis i’m sending to a buddy to paint for me.. I’ll share pics when they’re done!
Cool!
Thank you for this summary and keeping it online.
I bought this ages ago for my son and painted all the miniaturen for him.
We tried a couple of games (English version), but I still intend tot pick it up again with him.
Greetings from Belgium.
Thanks for writing. I did this a long time ago but I remember it being a particularly tough summary to make, as the rules were terrible! And you know, I STILL haven’t actually played the game. I still have it though, so I must remedy that. Greetings from New Zealand!