As well as being the year of the Gamejam and Kickstarter, 2012 is the year that turn-based strategy finally uses up all the action points its been conserving since the ’90s and trundles back into view. There it is now, jogging up the road, ready to show us alien-killing, petrol stations exploding and maybe the occasional viking with a banner. Oh, but now it’s stopped in the middle of the road. It’ll be there for a few months, squatting, but then the fun will begin. Void Rim should be joining the turn-based battle soon as well.

From a quartet including the co-creator of PoxNora, it’s a squad-sized emulation of tabletop gaming set in an original sci-fi world. Behold, a trailer.

My finely honed tactical instincts tell me this will be about the competitive clobbering, being online and free to play with currency to be won/bought and spent in game. There’s a strong emphasis on preparation, with three factions to choose from, and both powers and loadouts to select for individual units. The factions don’t sound like they differ in hairstyle alone either, with one bragging about teleportation abilities, another with the ability to rebuild fallen allies and the third “become more and more powerful over the course of a game”.

Beta signups are open, although there’s no specific date for the beginning of play. I’ll have a look as soon as possible and see if there’s a fuss to be made.