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1[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/brikwars.jpg]]
2[[caption-width-right:350:[[{{Tagline}} Minifig Konstruktion Kombat]]]]
3->''"A [construction brick] gaming system for individual level combat originated by Mike Rayhawk. It's similar in intent to other individual level miniatures games, but with an emphasis on mayhem and humor. A wide selection of '[=TekLevels=]' allows players to simulate combat in any combination of time periods and genres."''
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5->''"Like many games offered free of charge on the internet, [=BrikWars=] is appealing in concept, but in practice nearly impossible to play. Rules that appear straightforward at first become perniciously more complex with each passing chapter, almost as if the author were using the rulebook as the medium for some long-running and obscure practical joke. It's a testament to the obstinate nature of [=AFOLs=] that they've managed to play as many battles as they have, despite the author's every attempt to thwart them."''
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7-->Entry from the [=BrikWiki=] online encyclopedia as of September 2, 2005, [[LampshadeHanging which opens the foreword for the 2005 core rules]]
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9You know how when you were a little kid, you would make all your action figures fight each other in hilarious, violent combat? Have you ever tried to play ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}'' with [=LEGO=]? ''[[http://www.brikwars.com/ Brikwars]]'' recognizes both of these matters, and is one of many proposed solutions.
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11A strategy {{Wargam|ing}}e designed to be played with LEGO mini figures (though it can support any type of minifig), it acts as a way to try and play a wargame with minifigures while using something resembling rules.
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13It treats the matter of toy combat with all the irreverence it deserves, and the author claims that the entire thing is sort of a purposeful TakeThat against StopHavingFunGuys. The 2005 core rules are littered with quotes, jokes, {{Lampshade Hanging}}ings, and a TakeThat against anyone who deserves it. Even if you don't ever play it, the rules are an entertaining read.
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15Even though ''Brikwars'' can be played with any combatants with any background, the author and fans have created a setting for the game, mostly known as the ''Brikwars Universe''. The background of this universe is found at the [[http://brikwars.com/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page Brikwiki]].
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17A definitive edition of the rules was published by Mophidius Entertainment subtitled ''Ragnablok Edition'' in 2023.
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19Note: ''Brikwars'' is '''not''' officially affiliated with The Lego Group.
20----
21!!This game provides examples of:
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23* AbsurdlySharpBlade: most swords, the [[LegendaryWeapon Orange Transparent Chainsaw]] takes this up to eleven.
24* AllSwordsAreTheSame: In the spirit of keeping the game going smoothly and not getting bogged down in keeping track of numbers, all minifig weapons of a given size category have the same basic stats. Got a [[{{BFS}} golden greatsword]], a [[KatanasAreJustBetter katana]], a [[LaserBlade Beam Sword]] or a battle-axe? Great, those are all Heavy melee weapons, and their traits are identical.
25* AlternateCharacterInterpretation: The author characterizes minifigs along the lines of the fallen heroes of [[Myth/NorseMythology Valhalla]]- violent BloodKnight-like creatures, who are [[SeenItAll bored]] unless having a good brawl. It's less disturbing than it could be, considering they're [[GoodThingYouCanHeal LEGO]] [[note]]And the fact that a lot of [=LEGO=] men are smiling in the middle of all this carnage would be {{Squick}}y otherwise[[/note]]. [[invoked]]
26* AlwaysOnDuty: Since minifigs in Brikwars don't need to sleep, at any given moment, any proper minifig is either engaging in gloriously bloody warfare or about to be engaging in gloriously bloody warfare.
27* AnachronismStew: Unless the scenario is set up as a purist historical re-enactment, expect everyone to reach into their bins of assorted LEGO and field an eclectic collection of [[BloodKnight knights]], [[SpaceMarine spacemen]], and the odd NinjaPirateZombieRobot - all on the same battlefield.
28* AntiInfantry: Since the difficulty to hit with a weapon scales with size, it's best to attack infantry with infantry-scale weapons, and save the massive siege-level ones for blowing apart tanks and leveling bunkers.
29* ArbitraryHeadcountLimit: Softly enforced by the fact that a HeroUnit will become [[DramaQueen cranky]] and less effective when they have to share the [[AttentionWhore spotlight]] (and the battlefield) with other Hero Units from their own team.
30* AreaOfEffect: [[StuffBlowingUp Explosions]], [[KillItWithFire fire]], field hazards, and even [[ShotgunsAreJustBetter Blast Gun attacks]].
31* AttackAttackAttack: The most encouraged tactic, keeping in spirit with the game's RuleOfFun attitude, as it yields far greater potential for BloodyHilarious mayhem and destruction than more cautious battlefield maneuvers. ''Especially'' [[IWillFightSomeMoreForever encouraged]] for the [[RagtagBunchOfMisfits obviously under-advantaged factions]] among a group of absurdly dis-balanced armies.
32** The Brikwiki even describes peace as a [[SuicidalPacifism "feared, yet thankfully rare disease".]]
33* AuthorityEqualsAsskicking: Volontarily defied. Commanding units can be added to an army for various prices, but all of them are mediocre or laughably incompetent on their own in a fight.
34** Officers are somewhere between a MookLieutenant and a MookCommander. They can increase their squadmates' skill die by one size through bossing them around and being generally unpleasant, but have a low die on their own and suffer from the Stupidity rule when isolated from their subordinates.
35** Commanders are officially there to "give the illusion that a strategy exists". They sit around doing nothing, "accumulating strategy", a passive resource that can be spent later to [[WeHaveReserves call for reinforcements]] or launch a [[DeathFromAbove Strategic Bombardment]], after which they are definitely useless.
36** [[BigBad A Great Leader]] is usually the avatar of [[PlayerCharacter the player]] [[GeneralRipper who controls the army]], and is little more than a megalomaniac BadBoss who [[MakeAnExampleOfThem Scapegoats and executes]] [[NeverMyFault their subordinates]] to increase Outrage in the ranks and bolster aggressivity, and gives [[RousingSpeech grandiloquent speeches]] afterwards to further increase buffs base on the level of Outrage. Obviously, the Great Leader is completely weak, helpless and incomptent on their own.
37* BadBoss: As mentioned above, Officers are annoying, Commanders are clueless, and Great Leaders regularly cause purposeful [[MistreatmentInducedBetrayal mistreatment-induced betrayals]] to MakeAnExampleOfThem. The humans themselves are seen by minifigs as strange, infinitely powerful gods who watch them wage war for their amusement.
38* BaselessMission: Common for smaller-scale skirmishes or invasion scenarios.
39* BoobyTrap: The Mechanism field hazard can be rigged up as such.
40* BuiltWithLego: Or [[FollowTheLeader MegaBloks]] or...
41* CannonFodder: Played straight with a unit type of that very name.
42* ColourCodedArmies: A common occurrence with LEGO-minifig troopers, as this allows for quickly determining who similar units belong to.
43* CombatMedic: The dreaded Medik unit.
44* ConservationOfNinjutsu: The "[[{{Mook}} Ninja Scum]]" unit is very different from a regular ninja, specifically because of this trope.
45** In addition, the more Hero units there are on a team, the worse each of them does.
46** Also applies to all units in a CP match; the more units the weaker each has to be.
47* ChainsawGood: The [[http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/orange-transparent-chainsaw/photos Orange Transparent Chainsaw]], ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin. Rumor has it that some factions are capable of deploying spaceship-sized OTCs.
48* CosmeticallyDifferentSides: Later editions did away with [[TechnologyLevels Tek Levels]] in the interest of keeping the pace of the going smoothly despite an [[AnachronismStew anachronistic mix of spacemen, pirates, cowboys, and knights]]. Now, a Scout is a Scout regardless of whether he's a tribal elf bowman or a futuristic recon infiltrator. See also, AllSwordsAreTheSame, above.
49* DeathOfAThousandCuts: One alternate rule makes Hero units longer-lived by using this. It also gives people an excuse to have [=LEGO=] blood every time they get injured.
50* DesignItYourselfEquipment:
51** Design-it-yourself ''everything'', by the game's nature.
52** Also the Cumulative Damage/Combined Fire options, which make it possible for a mob of smaller, weaker units to gang up on something large and armored that no one of the group alone could hope to defeat.
53* EarthIsABattlefield: the default setting. More accurately, your living room floor is a battlefield.
54* EasyLogistics: Played straight for the most part, as vehicles are mysteriously fueled without visible means, minifigs always happen to have plenty of UniversalAmmo clanging around in their pockets, and [[TheEngineer Mechaniks]] seem to be able to utilize any nearby pieces without having to physically collect them.
55** Averted with Launchers, explosives, and rockets, as physical ammo must be present on the battlefield.
56* EldritchAbomination: Brikthulhu.
57* TheEngineer: The Mechanik, who can erect kit-bashed creations from random parts laying around the battlefield, slap on repairs and armor upgrades, or even disassemble enemy creations.
58* FantasyKitchenSink: The Core Manual invokes this trope quite quickly, and understandably. It is mentioned that nothing would make sense otherwise.
59* FeedItABomb: One of the ways of bypassing a unit's armor without specialized armor piercing weapons.
60* ForeverWar: The sole purpose of a minifigure's (or any toy's, for that matter) existence is to wage glorious, never-ending, gratuitously slapstick war for dominance of the play area, or, more likely, for the [[BloodSport sadistic amusement]] of their human masters.
61* GatlingGood: Minifigs love miniguns!
62* GeoEffects: Field hazards and high-ground advantage cover this trope.
63* GiantEqualsInvincible: Typically, your units' Size Rating has to be equal to or higher than their Structure level. In essence, the bigger you are, the more armor (And weapons) you're potentially allowed to have.
64* GoodThingYouCanHeal: They're '''[=LEGO=]'''. No matter how badly the units get dismembered, you can always put them back together.
65* GratitiousForeignLanguage: Any faction based on a real-life nation does this.
66* GuiltFreeExterminationWar: Your civilization's aim is to wipe out all others, [[BlueAndOrangeMorality not because you hate them, but because it would be a disservice to minifig love for horrendous violence *not to*.]]
67** Played straight when massacring [[TheScrappy JawJaws or Dimmies]].
68%%* HeroUnit:
69* HardLight: Any ORANGE TRANSPARENT objects, from windows to armor plates to chainsaws, are made of self-repairing fragments of orange laser beams used to attempt destroying an impossibly cold planet.
70* ImprovisedWeapon: ''"If a minifig can't find a real weapon, Random Objects are better than nothing, although this is only because having nothing sucks to such an impressive degree."''
71* KleptomaniacHero: As replacing spent budget points in campaigns require heroes to stage escapades to get loot, these will appear within the first few battles of any Campaign.
72* LoadsAndLoadsOfRules: Invoked, under the assumption that [[CalvinBall making it up as you go along]] is more fun, and more appropriate for toy combat.
73%%* MagicTool: The [[TheEngineer Mechanik's]] tools.
74* MeatgrinderSurgery: Mediks don't heal wounded friendly units. They just brutally revive fallen ones, trying not to amputate too many limbs in the process.
75* SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome: [[invoked]] Heroes have the "Heroic Feat" ability, which lets them have a rule-flaunting Crowning Moment Of Awesome if the player wins a dice roll against the opponent.
76* MyNaymeIs: If something can be spelled with a K (i.e. Brick becomes Brik), it should.
77* NonEntityGeneral: The commanding player on any given side is usually not represented by a minifig in-game.
78%%* OneHitPolykill: Overkill damage.
79%%* PretextForWar: Don't even need one.
80%%* ProudWarriorRaceGuy: ''Everybody.''
81%%* PuttingOnTheReich: Most of the Germanic faction.
82* RedShirt: One of the specific abilities of hero units is they can make nearby regular units "'''[[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Red]][[HeroicSacrifice shirt]]'''" to protect themselves
83* RidiculouslyFastConstruction: The [[TheEngineer Mechanik's]] construction action. Allows for ridiculously fast deconstruction against enemy structures as well.
84%%* RuleOfFun: Rule Zero.
85%%* RuleOfFunny
86* RulesLawyer: The rules are complicated specifically to thwart such tactics.
87* ShortRangeShotgun: BlastGuns have 2 inches of range and a scaling 2 extra inches of range per weapon length, and lose 1 damage per inch. At 4-5 inches, an infantry-scale BlastGun can only cause Something Bad to happen if the user is lucky and rolls an 8.
88%%* ShoutOut: All over the place.
89* SoftWater: ''"It's a generally accepted action-movie fact that pools of liquid such as water or quicksand, no matter how shallow, will cushion Crash impacts safely and completely."''
90** Unless it's more funny to have them die horribly of course.
91* SplashDamageAbuse: Since the attack difficulty on launchers (catapults, artillery, , missile-launcher, railguns, etc) scales with size like any other weapon, you're not likely to accurately hit your target with a siege-level one. Fortunately for you, the damage and blast radius of any explosive launcher of that size allows you to lob at the other end of the battlefield making aiming a superfluous formality.
92* TakeThat: Against anyone who takes themselves, rules, or games [[StopHavingFunGuys too seriously]].
93* TalkingIsAFreeAction: Or, under these rules, a Quick Action. Other Quick Actions are free, but not all are.
94* TechnologyLevels: The ridiculously rules-heavy old versions of the game had Tek Levels, but later editions did away with the concept in the name of fun and quicker gameplay.
95* ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill: the game really [[CrossingTheLineTwice goes out of its way]] to encourage [[BloodyHilarious ridiculously over-the-top mayhem]] that even Creator/MichaelBay might find to be a bit [[StuffBlowingUp too much]].
96%%* VideoGameWeaponStats
97%%* WarForFunAndProfit: Well for fun, anyway.

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