 Today we continue a series that will cover all the Invader factions in the upcoming wargame Earth vs the Invaders. Set in the 1950's, Earth is an asymmetrical wargame where one player takes control of the civilian defenders and National Guard of Anytown, America while their opponent controls the hideous beings bent on destroying all we hold dear! While the Human Forces stay consistent, the choice of Invader faction will significantly alter the game. Each force has been designed to provide a different, interesting tactical challenge that will keep both players on their toes. The Flying Saucers: Overview The Flying Saucers present an exciting opportunity to command a powerful, specialized force mixing nimble flying craft with technologically superior ground forces, as well as the ability to field some mega-powerful war machines! Flying Saucers reward an aloof, cautious play style at the start of games, as they are limited to light Scout Saucers. Once they have access to infantry and powerful war machines, though, their offensive ability is unmatched. Flying Saucer infantry units can only be deployed via their teleporters that are installed in each Scout Saucer. However their ability to build Ship Beacons mean that their flying units can arrive in unexpected places.  The Flying Saucers: Units The Flying Saucers have a strong variety of infantry and machinery to choose from, with heavy offensive focus. The Scout Saucer is the unit that this faction will rely on at the start of games. Its fragility makes it a precious asset, but it is at the heart of the invader's strategy as it deploys extraterrestrial infantry from its teleportation chambers. Saucer Commanders and Infantry represent the Scientist and Warrior castes of the invaders respectively, and sortie out of their flying saucers to ascertain the strength of the defending humans, as well as their potential culinary uses... The Mechanoids are semi-robotic close combat specialists, ripping apart human men and machines with their various lethal limbs and cutting tools. The War Saucer and Tripods represent the most deadly machines in the Saucer arsenal, reserved for the destruction of the most stubborn pockets of human resistance. War Saucers have replaced their teleportation capability to pack more armor and tank-destroying armaments. The Tripod is a lumbering, gigantic doomsday weapon on legs, capable of unleashing limitless destructive energy.  If you're ready to start your own Flying Saucer army, I have suggestions for models in my article on building an army for Earth vs the Invaders.
Earth vs the Invaders will be available starting April 21, 2026 from WargameVault.com! Join the Small Batch Discord for more news and to share your invasion!
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 Today we're starting a series that will cover all the Invader factions in the upcoming wargame Earth vs the Invaders. Set in the 1950's, Earth is an asymmetrical wargame where one player takes control of the civilian defenders and National Guard of Anytown, America while their opponent controls the hideous beings bent on destroying all we hold dear! While the Human Forces stay consistent, the choice of Invader faction will significantly alter the game. Each force has been designed to provide a different, interesting tactical challenge that will keep both players on their toes. The Giant Insects: OverviewThe Giant Insects faction was the first that I designed and playtested for Earth vs the Invaders, being inspired by the greatest of all 50's scifi monster monster movies, Them!. The Giant Insects force is a predominately melee-oriented and very tough roster of monstrous units. They specialize in massive, primitive destruction. This faction will likely field the lowest number of units in the game but each multi-legged behemoth will be a serious threat that the human players will have to deal with. The Giant Insects are able to place Tunnel Openings across the board to threaten the defenders of civilization no matter where they attempt to hide.  The Giant Insects: UnitsThe Insects have the smallest roster of units available in the game, but they more than make up for it with their ability to punch through human defenses and soak up massive amounts of firepower. Giant Workers are the basic unit that of an Insect army. Like all Insect units, they have a giant, double-digit health amount and throw a huge number of dice at the enemy. Making them even more resilient is their Burrowers ability, which makes them harder to hit when they are further away from enemy munitions. The Giant Flyer is a specialized offshoot of the worker which trades some offensive strength for speed and flight, letting it control vital points on the battlefield while slower monsters creep forward behind it. With its acid spit, the Giant Spitter is the only ranged capable arthropod in the Insect roster. Its terrible attack specializes in destroying unarmored infantry, melting them into a digestible goo! The largest and most terrifying of the Insects is the Giant Soldier. With the highest health value in the game and an unbelievably bad attitude, they are the rarest sights on the battlefield. Its pincers can shred the strongest human armor like a can opener and a its behemoth size means it will never back away from a fight, even when it has been heavily damaged.  If you're ready to start your own Giant Insects army, I have suggestions for models in my article on building an army for Earth vs the Invaders.
Earth vs the Invaders will be available starting April 21, 2026 from WargameVault.com! Join the Small Batch Discord for more news and to share your invasion!  Last week I officially announced my next miniatures wargame ruleset, Earth vs the Invaders: Asymmetric Atomic Age Scifi Wargaming. You can check out the Beta Quickstart guide at my discord. Earth is a miniature agnostic game so you can use whatever miniatures you want to represent the various factions. They've been kept open-ended enough that there's a lot of room for creativity. And while the Human Forces faction is depicted as being from 1950's America (to fit the game's cinematic inspiration), there's nothing to stop you from throwing invaders at a more modern or WWI era military. Earth is also unique in its central Reinforcements system, which is a key part of each of the game's scenarios and allows both players to respond to a dynamic battlefield by bringing in the right unit at the right time. For this reason, it's helpful to have a "sideboard" of units to give you some more flexibility during the game. However there's no need to go crazy at the start and order five copies of every single unit (although we're all wargamers so who am I kidding). The purpose of this article is to help you get your armies started for the release of Earth later this year (don't quote me). The game was designed with 15mm figures in mind since many of the Invader models could conceivably be massive at 28mm. Some scenarios also involve a terrain component that could get expensive at 28mm. However, mechanically there shouldn't be anything stopping you from playing at 28mm, as long as you can clearly tell which direction a unit is facing for the purpose of movement and making attacks. In this article I'll stick with 15mm options; if you do testing in another scale please let the community know on Discord! Each faction's units are broken down by their level. In Earth, for most scenarios, Level 1 units can be deployed at the start of the game whereas Level 2 and 3 units usually can only be brought in on turns 2 and 3 respectively. The points cost of units increases along with its Level as well, so you will generally not need a ton of Level 3 units in your back pocket. In most 1 on 1 games of Earth, you will deploy 72 points worth of units throughout the game. So after listing units and discussing manufacturers, I will give a sample "list" of a bit over 72 points to get you started. No miniatures manufacturers are sponsoring this content or even know I'm writing about them. These companies are just what I have collected myself and can recommend. Human Forces Human Forces are essential to every game of Earth vs the Invaders as they are the brave men and women who go toe to toe with the worst baddies the universe can throw at Anytown, USA. Thankfully there are a ton of options out there for this faction since the equipment used by 1950's National Guard (or at least in 50's scifi movies!) is WWII era technology. Units
*Note about Level 1 Earth Forces: In some scenarios the Human player is allowed to start the game with Level 2 units, so they're not strictly necessary to start playing. So if you've already got a 15mm WWII army you can get going right away. Hillbillies and Police are a lot of fun to see on the table though and are also dirt cheap to bring in! Battlefront Miniatures and their Flames of War line is just about a one-stop shop for this faction. One "Rifle Company" box will provide enough Commanders, Rifle Teams, Machine Gun Teams, and Bazooka Teams for large 2-on-2 games of Earth.  For one off vehicles, I suggest checking Etsy. There are some sellers there who do resin vehicles you can buy individually. Flamethrower teams are another item I had to get 3D printed. For the non-army units like Hillbillies, Police, and Hazmat troopers, take a look at Khurasan or Rebel Minis. Sample Starting Force: 4 units of Police 2 Troop Trucks 1 Commander 4 Rifle Teams 1 Jeep 1 Machine Gun 1 Flamethrower 1 Bazooka 1 Tank Total Points: 98 Giant Insects From the radioactive desert they emerge - gargantuan insects of nightmarish proportions! Giant Insects are a great opportunity to raid the toy section of the dollar store. They have the least amount of unit types in the game and are generally the most elite, fielding only a few monsters at a time. Units
As stated before, toys are going to be your best bet for this. The best ants I have found are from Archie McPhee and I use the red ants from this box as Spitters.  For Flyers and Soldiers, I have "liberated" a plastic wasp and some giant rhinoceros beetles from my daughter's toy box. Check your $ or £ stores. Sample Starting Force: 5 Workers 2 Flyers 2 Spitters 1 Soldier Total Points:86 Flying Saucers Strange meteor-like objects streak across the night skies, only to descend as colossal metallic discs of eerily geometric design! The Saucers and the various weird travelers within are a great excuse to collect some very cool minis. Scout Saucers are a staple, and any infantry reinforcements must be deployed out of the Scouts. Units
You have a lot of options for this faction, and my first stops would be Khurasan and Alternative Armies who both have expansive 15mm scifi ranges.  Khurasan's Itu'a Swarms, I'd multibase the little guys  Adorable Alternative Armies greys from my own collection Sample Starting Force 3 Scout Saucers 1 Saucer Commander 4 Saucer Infantry 1 Mechanoids 1 War Saucer Total Points: 87 The Culture Displaying a insatiable, virus-like drive to consume all organic matter, a mysterious bio-mass rapidly assimilates any unlucky vegetation or creature it engulfs. The Culture is based on a number of tropes like The Blob, Body Snatchers, and a couple more. I've done the least playtesting with them so far, so they are the most likely to have changes before the launch of the game! They'd make a great project for the sculptors and kitbashers out there since they're so, well, weird. Units
 Giant Amoeba from The Angry Red Planet As far as miniatures go, this one's a scratch builder's dream. Go crazy with Green Stuff. The 15mm manufacturers listed in Flying Saucers should also have some weird stuff that could work here too--in particular I'll probably use Rebel Mini's zombies as the Replacements. Sample Starting Force: 5 Large Blobs 2 Mind Melters 2 Replacements 1 Giant Amoeba Total Points: 84 As always, check out the Beta rules and let me know if you have questions in the Small Batch Discord.
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April 2026
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