Blood & Steel: Skirmish Battles in the Victorian Age

By Mitch Reed

Did you fall in love with the mechanics of Blood & Plunder when the game first came out? Did playing Blood & Valor make you love games from Firelock even more? Well then you need to check out Blood & Steel, which uses the same game basic engine as previous titles, but now has you fighting in the Victorian Era.

Many gamers focus on specific historical periods because of an interest in the conflicts that took place during a particular era. Few are as popular as the 19th century, which saw conflicts all over the globe. This period contains some of the most popular game topics in our hobby. Blood & Steel covers the bloody wars from 1837 until 1901. The book includes rules and forces that many gamers have been looking forward to playing. The industrial revolution changed so many things around the world, none more so than how warfare changed during the period that the game covers.

Such areas as military training, technology, and command and control made each major conflict look a lot different than one that may have been fought just a few years ago. Blood & Steel handles this with subtle changes in how army lists are made, not to mention changes on the increasingly lethal battlefield that soldiers found themselves on.

Blood & Steel starts off with the Second Seminole War (1835-1847) which is hardly covered in many miniatures rules sets.

The action then pits the US Army vs. the Mexican Army in the Mexican-American war (1846-1848), in which many leaders who became household names fourteen years later in the US Civil War (1861-1865) which the book also covers. Players will like how the core Blood & Plunder rules translate very well to recreate some of the skirmishes during the Civil War, and the game really gives you interesting forces to select from.

The Civil War section of the book has the standard infantry, cavalry, and artillery that were so iconic during the conflict and also allows you to field some of the most famous units from the war, such as the red-legged 14th Brooklyn, US Marines, and Sharpshooters for the Federal Army. The Rebel army can have units of Louisiana Tigers and Texas Rangers, along with being able to select grizzled veteran infantry or green militia troops.

The interesting units in this book do not stop with the US Civil War. All the forces in the game have some of the most unique and popular formations that many gamers will just love to paint and play with. This is further exemplified by the inclusion of the Second Taranaki War (1863-1866) between the native Maori and the New Zealand government. When I first got a copy of the book to playtest, I had to look this conflict up because I knew so little about it and once you read up on it, it will be one that you will look forward to playing with.

What would any book about the Victorian era be without the fighting between the British and Zulus (1879)? They are included as well, and I know many gamers cannot wait to paint Impi upon Impi to charge the line of red-jacketed British.

The final conflict in this book is the Spanish-American War (1898), this “splendid little war” is one that is rarely gamed which baffles many of us. You can field such units as the Roughriders and Buffalo Soldiers who face off with the defending Spanish, Cuban and Colonial troops.

As with the previous games from Firelock, some of the most iconic characters are available for you to add to your army, giving it so much color and historical flavor.

Along with the famous names, the designers added some names that may have skipped the celebrity they deserve. All these characters add their special rules to your force and can hopefully turn an expected rout into a decisive victory.

Along with the rules and force lists, the book includes six missions that also have the flavor of the black powder period.

While the book covers only six of the conflicts during this period there are plans to look at another eighteen conflicts in what we hope are expansions of this initial release.

Players of Blood & Plunder and Blood & Valor will quickly pick up on the rule changes and will be gaming some of the periods which Blood & Steel covers as soon you can paint all those Impi.