Sunday Musings - The Pinnacle of Orkish Culture

What if, and try to stay with me here, there was a game where all do did was get an Ork drunk and get him to starting throwing haymakers and doing Swanton Bombs?

Well. You get Brewhouse Bash.

Brewhouse Bash is Games Workshop’s most prestigious contribution to tabletop gaming—if by "prestigious," we mean "a game about belligerent space hooligans fighting in a bar."

Born from the esteemed minds behind Gorkamorka (itself a triumph of Orkish mayhem), Brewhouse Bash elevates the art of punching one’s friends in the face while standing on a stained floor sticky with questionable liquids.

The setup is elegant in its simplicity: a group of Orks—too drunk for rational thought, yet somehow lucid enough to strategize—find themselves locked in a good old-fashioned bar brawl. The objective? Knock out every other Ork and be the last one standing. No grand campaigns, no deep tactical nuance—just pure, unadulterated violence.

Each turn, players roll dice to determine whether their Ork can:
1. Swing wildly and possibly hit something.
2. Get thrown across the room like yesterday’s trash.
3. Faceplant into a table because physics is fickle.

It's all quite simple as a ruleset in all honesty. Any number of players crowd around the themed all colour board, controling Orks who are enjoying their fungus beer when a fight suddenly breaks out. The more, the rowdier. The goal? Be the last Ork standing. Do this by using fists, chairs, bottles and all whole collection of assorted improvised weaponry. All you need is a few D6s to attack, dodge, throw and elbow drop from on high, in a chaotic random (and hilarious) half hour free for all.


Occasionally, an Ork might even stagger into the toilet. This is the kind of immersive realism Games Workshop was truly aiming for.

The game captures the full spectrum of Orkish intelligence. Instead of planning a proper attack, most strategies devolve into "charge the nearest target and hope for the best." There is no real winning—only surviving longer than the rest. It’s an ode to the sheer absurdity of Ork culture, where brute force outweighs logic, and the only meaningful interaction is a fist to the face.

What makes Brewhouse Bash particularly special is that it’s a rare free game released from the depths of White Dwarf magazine, reminding us that Games Workshop occasionally embraces chaos in its purest form.

Unlike its more refined Warhammer cousins, Brewhouse Bash never enjoyed widespread acclaim—probably because it never pretended to be anything more than a drunken slugfest. Despite this, it maintains a cult following among fans who relish the chance to throw their minis around with reckless abandon.

Brewhouse Bash was originally developed as a spin-off of Gorkamorka and first appeared in White Dwarf magazine, issue #233. While the exact designer isn’t widely credited, it was part of Games Workshop’s broader effort to expand the Ork universe with lighthearted, chaotic games. Of which there really should have been more, besides Speed Freaks. And Gorkamorka itself. Where's the Ork RPG game (that isn't Ork Borg at least).

Despite a somewhat niche appeal, Brewhouse Bash still has a dedicated following. Some fans have recreated the game using custom boards and miniatures, keeping the spirit alive in private gaming circles. Additionally, events like Brewhouse Bash 5 have been hosted in places like Kelowna, Canada, showing that the game still has a presence on the tabletop.

Is it a masterpiece?

No. Is it strategic? Absolutely not.

But is it possibly the most honest depiction of Ork society ever crafted? Without a doubt.

Games Workshop may have given us sprawling battles across grimdark universes, but with Brewhouse Bash, they dared to ask: "What if the entire game was one long tavern fight?" And frankly, we should all be grateful.