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Enemy Visible is a tabletop wargame based in a Cold War-themed science fiction environment.

The primary objective of this project is to provide a streamlined, intuitive wargame that encourages fire and maneuver over stacking abilities. Dice rolling and random chance are minimized. The game uses tiles to represent infantry, vehicles, and buildings. The 2D-nature of the pieces makes them easy to transport and simplifies gameplay elements such as line of sight and measurements. No heroes or super units - just common soldiers.



I started this project 4-ish years ago, wanting to put together something that 1. I wanted to play and 2. would (in theory) be affordable to get into. I've accomplished both, and am quite happy with the results so far. I've played 25-ish games with four different play testers. It's been a good time. I put together and designed everything for this game. I cannot emphasize how long it took to do pixel art for every terrain piece. The best part: The artwork is purely cosmetic and doesn't affect gameplay.

Nine army expansions have been created already and are lined up for release. The biggest thing is finalizing tabletop simulator assets for them. At this time, everything is free to play. There is an early access tier for those interested, but full disclosure: Those additional armies will eventually be released for free as well. It's more of a means of supporting the project if you decide you like it.

As the game currently stands, it provides:
- Printout sheets and (optional) 3d-printable models for gameplay on the physical tabletop
- Optional terrain artwork
- Tabletop Simulator assets for digital play
- Rules to make everything function

Base game is out and available here: https://www.patreon.com/cw/EnemyVisible

Battle Report!

Cothonian: 2nd Infantry Division (Novus) (Army unreleased at time of writing)

Player 4: 8th Motor Rifle Division (Earth Union)

Game Mode: Brawl, 5 objectives

Map: Main Street

The Armies:

Player 4's force composition was IFV heavy, filling nearly all infantry slots and maximizing the number of Paladin infantry fighting vehicles. The tank force was medium, with 6 total (5 regular, one command.) One aircraft, that being the Mosquito (AT). No artillery.

Cothonian's force composition was also IFV heavy. Infantry slots were filled halfway with mechanized troops and accompanying Grizzly and Black Bear IFVs. The other half of the infantry roster was taken up by massed national guard troops in trucks. The specialist roster was filled out with Weapons Teams (AT), accompanied by more Grizzly IFVs. Tank slots were maxed out, taking three H28 main battle tanks. Three mortar teams as artillery.

Deployment:



Typical deployment. Both sides have staged their equipment to minimize exposure to enemy fire off the bat. Cothonian finishes deploying first by a single unit, and chooses to go first.

Turn 1:



Cothonian deploys smoke to cover his advance. Shots are fired, only damaging Player 4's armored units. Cothonian, like the silly goose he is, forgets to move non-shooting units a second time in the shooting phase.

Player 4 advances and opens fire, taking out one truck and wiping out half the national guard squad inside. A second truck is damaged and suppressed.

Turn 2:



Cothonian's rush towards the right-side building is stalled by the destruction of transports and heavy casualties to the national guard troops. Mechanized troops push center and suffer heavy casualties. Left side building secured. Helicopter positions itself in center lane, harassing enemy infantry.

Player 4's advance to the center is stalled by two destroyed vehicles blocking one of the main roads (visible, top center). Successfully takes the right side building, setting up his IFVs to support the infantry inside. Heavy armor push on the left side. Helicopter set up in the middle, taking out Cothonian's IFVs.

Turn 3:



Cothonian manages to make it to center, albeit with very heavy casualties. Tanks moving up right side cause heavy damage to Player 4's IFVs. Infantry in left side building dig in, protecting themselves from vehicle fire. Right side assault gets wiped out as it pushes into the building.

Player 4 flanks with a command tank on the far right side, firing into Cothonian's IFVs. His forces have made it to center largely intact, but are under heavy fire. IFVs are pushing forward left of the center objective and making good progress. The machine gun team left of center successfully damages the helicopters.

Turn 4:



Cothonian's tanks push right side, effectively wiping out Player 4's vehicles. Player 4's helicopter is also damaged and suppressed. The remaining national guard squad on the right side gets repeatedly run over by Player 4's command tank. Left side holds strong.

Player 4 masses his IFVs and makes a heavy push on both flanks. Right side is contested, but secure for now. Left side is firing everything it has at the infantry within the building, but is having a hard time pushing them out.

There are no more units on either side capable of capturing the center objective.

Turn 5:



Cothonian moves his tanks into main street, opening fire both ways. Left side continue to hold. IFVs moved to block Player 4's access to left side. Right side is bogged down - destruction is inevitable. Artillery switches from deploying smoke to focusing down Player 4's objective-capturing units.

Player 4 rushes left side, continuing the attack on entrenched infantry units within the big building. Right side building continues to be held against all odds. Cothonian's helicopter is successfully shot down. Player 4's helicopter hits the right side, preparing to destroy multiple vehicles. The right-side command tank continues running over the hapless national guard squad.

Turn 6 and conclusion:



The battle comes down to who can push who off the side objectives.

Cothonian, with the use of A LOT of artillery, successfully destroys Player 4's squad holding the right side.

Player 4 almost takes out Cothonian's squad on the left side, falling one cannon shot short.

Cothonian: 13 points

Player 4: 12 points

Cothonian wins - barely.

Good game had by all. Looking forward to the next one!

Looks good - well done putting it all together, looks like a hell of a lot of work gone into that

 Skinflint Games wrote:
Looks good - well done putting it all together, looks like a hell of a lot of work gone into that

I sincerely appreciate that!

It's come a little way since 2022...

Wow, yeah really has! May have to investigate this further :-)

January 2026 update: https://www.patreon.com/posts/january-2026-146461484

We have reached 1 month since the public release of Enemy Visible!

This month's update includes:

New Army Group (1st Armored Division, Novus) added to early access

New building art added to early access bonuses



Other news:

Version 1.4.2.6 of the rules is well underway. At the time of writing, it will include:

Rules for water-type terrain

Re-organization and cleanup of certain rules sections (No changes to game play. Just improvements to how rules are presented to the player.)

Addition of the Amphibious attribute to appropriate units

Miscellaneous adjustments to unit stats

The plan is to release 1.4.2.6 in February 2026 alongside updates to existing army groups. The delay is to give me extra time to clean up any typos or errors that may have been introduced by the changes. A full list of changes will be included when it is released.



Future Plans:

One of the most daunting updates to the game has been planned, and it will involve many hours of work: Updates to the game pieces of all armies.

These updates will include two major elements:

All armor values on all vehicle tiles will have underlines added. While yes, it is true that all armor values are outward-facing, the current lack of underlines has resulted in confusion during play tests.

Objective-capturing units will have some sort of marker added to their tiles, showing at a glance that they can capture objectives. As the game currently stands, nearly all infantry, some fire support, some specialist, and all HQ units can capture objectives. Unfortunately, this lacks consistency, requiring players to know the unit profiles of both their and their opponent's units to identify what can and can't capture zones. A little flag (or equivalent marking) on the tiles would streamline gameplay considerably.

While not groundbreaking, this will be an improvement to the overall game.