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Steel Colosseum is now live on Kickstarter! Steel Colosseum is an immersive miniatures board game, designed by Needy Cat Games and published by Zatu. The game has a diverse range of playable characters, each packed with personality, charm, and a unique set of skills. You'll be sure to find your favourites as you play. If you'd like to learn more about Steel Colosseum itself, be sure to check out our introduction post!
As such a large part of the game is combining robots, operators, and abilities, we thought we should introduce you to everyone! With this inside info, you can get a head start on putting your team together. Who will be accompanying you to the Steel Colosseum?
Introducing Relay
Meet the fast and furious Relay!
Relay is the fastest robot in the game. Originally designed for data-running, it has a lightweight, asymmetrical build that allows it to run rings around everyone. With two small arms on its left side and one larger arm on the right, Relay is packing all kinds of punches.
Of course, with such great speed comes vulnerability. Relay has the least armour of any robot in the colosseum, completely lacking any on its rear quadrant. Relay is built for hit-and-run styles of play.
Each robot has a series of Control Cards that allow them to use different abilities during the brawl. Relay's optimise speed and manoeuvrability for the scrap-littered arena.
- Parkour has the highest Speed in the game (308!) meaning it will almost always be activated before any other robots’ Control Cards. It lets Relay make an 8-point move, freely leaping over robots and obstacles, and optionally make a special action with one of its Upgrade Systems.
- Vital Strike lets Relay move and use an Upgrade System, but it also gets a unique action which lets it take an opposing robot’s Upgrade System offline. Great for spoiling plans - when you’re not big, you need to be clever!
- Sprint is a very straightforward card that gives Relay a huge burst of speed, at the cost of some manoeuvrability.
In the World of Steel Colosseum
Far out in the scrublands, away from the glittering glass towers and pristine streets of the megacities, exists a place that makes its own rules. The city dwellers think the scraplands are where their trash gets sent, but the scrappers know the truth: it’s where treasure is found, and champions are made.
Stadia litter these outlands, lawless clusters of rust and wreckage. Novice operators test their mettle on these circuits, but each has the same dream: to battle in the cathedral of robotic carnage that is the Steel Colosseum.
Today’s that day for operator Indira, in her first bout of this tournament. Her robot Relay is facing down the chittering horror, Insectoid. It’s nasty and fast, but Indira isn’t known as ‘Nitro’ for nothing.
She focuses on the arena, blocking out the crowd’s roar. Insectoid skitters forward, like a nightmare centipede. Indira sends Relay leaping over debris. Originally a data-runner designed for agility, it easily clears the obstacles, protecting the vulnerabilities where an earlier hit from Insectoid’s killer blades had torn away its armour. Indira’s mind races, looking for a gap. Her scuttling nemesis disappears beneath a stack of oil drums. Where would it emerge? If it got hold of her, it’d be over. She gambles, sending Relay leaping downward, fists coiled. Insectoid bursts back into the floodlit stadium. Indira grits her teeth, slamming Relay’s fists into the assassin bot’s back. The hideous creature judders... and powers down. The awful light dies in its lenses as it slumps to the arena floor.
‘A lucky hit,’ her rival operator retorts as the crowd screams Indira’s name.
‘If that’s what you wanna call it,’ Indira grins, cracking her knuckles. ‘But this bout is mine.’
Meet the Robots
Relay is just the first of our robot line-up. There are five other robots to learn about, as well as four operators, so be sure to check out the whole Meet the Robots series. We also have a series of blogs on the team behind Steel Colosseum, which give some insight into how the game was made - and some sneak peeks at what's coming next!
And, of course, you can check out our Kickstarter page to learn everything you need to know about Steel Colosseum.
Editors note: This blog was originally published on February 19th, 2022. Updated on May 17th, 2022 to improve the information available.