Blood and Valor Starter Set Review

By Mitch Reed

Maybe the pandemic was a good thing for some of us gamers. We got a chance to read new rules to possibly play new games once in-person gaming resumes. Many of us also caught up on painting, something we never thought we would do.

One of the games that many people have been looking at since its late December 2019 release was Blood and Valor, a game we have covered here quite a bit. Coming from the crew at , Blood and Valor gives gamers a chance to play the war at the 28mm skirmish level that covers the war beyond the trenches. Well before the game’s release, the crew from stepped forward to produce starter kits for some of the major forces that fought in France during 1916-1918.

I was able to get my hands on all three of the starter kits and I am really impressed with them. Covering the French, American, and German armies these boxes gives you a 150 point force to play the game. During playtesting we found that the sweet spot for the game was around the 150-point level which gave you a fun a challenging game that you could play in 90-minutes or less, so these kits are well pointed and you can collect your army in one shot.

Each kit comes with a command team of three figures, two rifle squads with 8 figures including an LMG, a four-man close combat section and a crew-served weapon, an HMG for the French and Germans, and at 37mm trench gun for the US.

That is 26 miniatures in each box with a crew-served weapon and a data card for your force. You also get all of the proper 25mm and 60mm bases for your collection. For around $70 per box you get a lot, and maybe all the figures you need to play the game. [Editor: right…we’re gamers. When do we ever stop at only 26 figures?)

At the Cold Wars event, Chris Bennett from Phalanx showed me some of the first US sculpts that they produced and they are impressive. While they are 28mm, they trend a bit towards the heroic scale. Here is a pic of the models next to ones from Brigade games.

You can see the size difference between the two. However the German sculpts next to ones from Wargames Atlantic the size difference is less noticeable as you can see below.

This should not detract from getting these models because as you can see the sculpts are very well done and I really like the detail and table presence of the larger model.

As you can see from the pics right out of the box, you do not have to do very much work to cut away the flash and mold lines.

Each of the infantry squads has eight unique models and the models for the command, assault, and weapons are all unique, including Major Whittlesey from the “Lost Battalion” and the rest of his command team made up of two pigeoneers with the famous “Cher Ami”.

I never wanted to collect models that would be focused on the Western Front since I feel the other areas of the conflict which Blood and Valor covers are much more interesting, and I hate mud.

However, since I am being asked to conduct demos at LGS (once the restrictions to gather have eased), I felt that picking up these boxes made sense to show gamers not only the great models but also some of the more iconic forces from the Great War and maybe it will force me to make that trench set I got all the materials for.

I was able to get some of Chris Bennett’s time and wanted to ask him a few questions about the project and I wanted to share his responses with you.

1. What about Blood & Valor made you want to produce the models for the game?
We were approached by Alex and Mike at Firelock Games to see if we would be interested in developing the official line of figures for B&V. This was back in Spring of ’19. We had already been working with Firelock behind the scenes on other projects, and our team did the majority of the ship sculpts for the initial releases for Oak & Iron. The existing positive working relationship with our two companies that made taking this project appealing.

We decided at RECON ’19 to start with the US, French, and German box sets first. The biggest reason we chose the US at the time was that we are both US companies. Once the line was released for presale, we of course got the question from many of our friends across the Pond as to why we had ignored the British.

In reality, we never had that intent. The biggest issue with starting a line for a period that is so vast is where do you start. With choosing the US it was natural to choose the French, as Allied force number two, since more US actions were in concert with French forces from ’17-’18 then with British. Of course, force three had to be the Germans so folks could have an opponent. The Brits were always planned, it was just the when, and as a small shop releasing the starter sets already made for a big project since the rulebook was already well along in its development and plans for release were coming down the pipe quickly.

2. What future sets will you be doing?
The British are coming, in fact depending on the release of this review they may already be up for presale. With the first three box sets out we will now turn to doing three more over the remains of 2020 and the 1st qtr. of 2021.

Our sculpting team is completing the last tweaks on the British sculpts now. They will then turn to the Ottomans and ANZACs to finish off this year into early next. After that we will begin work on the Russian box set to go along with the first supplement. Scatter along that same timeline will be the release of specialty packs for Snipers, Flamethrower teams, etc. We will also release a French crewed 37mm along with an American crewed Hotchkiss. We will also do Americans with Springfield rifles so folks have figures to use for Marines.

Rationale Note: Uniform wise, in theatre, the Marines would have been supplied US Army uniforms as the needs arose, since Gen. Pershing refused to supply two different uniforms in theatre. While the Marines would have shown up with their specific uniform this would have changed as items were replaced. The one thing that didn’t is that they maintained their Springfield’s, where the Army did not.

In Sgt York’s journal he specifically mentions that when they landed in France, and disembarked, they were ordered to set aside their Springfield’s and pick up a Lee Enfield. The reason for this was a supply issue. The Springfield Armory was not able to ramp up to the demands of supplying the US Expeditionary Force’s weapon needs. When you consider where the US Army was size-wise just before involvement to what was raised by war’s end, Springfield was not able to bring up its production fast enough.

Therefore, the Marines maintaining the Springfield is really the only major difference from a 28mm figure standpoint. The EGA was never on the Marine helmet during the war. It was used by post-war artists as a way to distinguish the Marine in art or as a post-war embellishment to their helmet when they came home. The Marines had strict orders against any alterations for their uniform in the field.

Further into 2021 is still a bit in the planning phase. We are wanting to do early war for the Western front, and we are also looking at more for the Eastern, Near East, and African fronts that we would like to do.

3. Any plans to sell the models in smaller sets so we can upgrade our armies from 150 points?
YES, the initial clamshells for the first three sets will begin rolling out very soon. The goal is to have them on the website before the end of September.

4. What about the Great War should appeal to gamers? Why isn’t it gamed more?
I think the fact that the period has been ignored is a big reason to look into what it was about. There are theatres like Africa and the Near East that were much more fluid then what you saw on the Western Front. The realities of small patrols and intel missions on the Western Front are often forgotten and are prime scenarios for B&V, and it’s more platoon style of game.

So much comes out of the war when we start looking at the rest of the 20th Century and up to today. The fact that the Allied powers messed up the post-war map so much, gave rise to many geopolitical issues we are still dealing with today, especially in the Middle East.

The notion that WWII is really just WWI continued is often lost on many folks, so seeing where things came from is tremendously interesting. While B&V isn’t the most complex study of WWI warfare it does provide folks with a point of entry into a period that so many have ignored, in a relatively easy to jump in figure count and table size.

For less than $180 you can field two forces and own the rules, and in today’s tabletop economy that isn’t bad. So why not give it a try and if you want to get past the myths you might find things far more interesting.

Personally I am excited about the next few starter sets and to maybe expand my armies in the future. I hope to do another article on these models when I make an attempt to paint them.