Cyber Wars ‘Redux’ with Firelock Games
By Tyler Stone
This past weekend, ran its second ‘Cyber Wars’ digital convention. During the first Cyber Wars, I was able to , the lead designer of Blood & Plunder and Oak & Iron, by .
Mitch Reed to cover Firelock’s other game, Blood & Valor. This time, Mitch and I joined forces and put everyone under one digital circus tent. You can check out the entire 2-hour recording on the , or read on below for the ‘spark notes’ version.
Blood & Plunder
By now, any avid NDNG reader should be aware that Firelock Games wrapped up their latest Kickstarter, titled This expansion not only adds new factions, characters, and starter box but also advances the game’s timeline into the 18th century while bringing the game’s model line into the 21st century with a range of hard-plastic miniatures. What you may not know is that ‘Raise the Black’ is the highest-grossing historical wargame ever released on Kickstarter. Over 2,000 backers came together to pledge more than $360,000. The next step in this wildly successful venture from the boys from La Florida will be to set up the Pledge Manager. Once that is available, backers will be able to update their pledges and claim rewards. The Pledge Manager will also allow Late Backers to get in on the action if they missed the initial offers.
While we wait for the Kickstarter’s 2021 ship date, we can still expect to see continued growth for the game. An intermediary PDF will bring rules for some of the new units that we’ve already seen on the Force Builder. There is also a possibility of seeing some new terrain and units come to the game before ‘Raise the Black’ reaches our doorstep.
Oak & Iron
Firelock’s other 17th-century offering was nearly a victim of the pandemic – having launched right before lockdown. In spite of the odds, the game sold out! Several people have tried to get copies of the game recently, only to come away empty-handed. Mike was happy to report that the game is finally back in stock on the web-store. Local gaming shops will start getting resupplies as well. The few shipping and distribution hiccups have also cleared up, and everything should finally be running smoothly. If you’ve been wanting to jump into this game of 1/600th scale naval squadron combat, now is the time!
When I last spoke to Mike, the Oak & Iron community was in the midst of an ongoing campaign via Tabletop Simulator. In the intervening months, the community has been itching to get back into the action. Firelock was too busy trying to coordinate the Kickstarter. It appears that the community has staged a bit of a mutiny, and a group of gamers has launched their own campaign. The first round of pairings was recently posted, and it’s not too late to get in on the action. Campaigns like this are a great way to test out a game before buying in.
When pressed for details about the game’s future, Mike clued us in that a future expansion is in the works. There are also rules to unite both ‘Blood & Plunder’ and ‘Oak & Iron’ into linked games. According to Mike, these linked play experiences could take the form of scenarios. For example, a prize crew escaping the harbor with their treasure in ‘B&P’, leads into an O&I game with the crew’s supporting fleet. Mike also told us that there are rules reminiscent of the Milton Bradley classic ‘Broadsides & Boarding Parties,’ which would scale the more intricate single-ship duels of ‘Blood & Plunder’ to the smaller size of ‘Oak & Iron’.
I am particularly interested in the latter variation of these crossover rules. I can see them being a perfect vessel for recreating the naval engagements of the Anglo-Dutch Wars with several players.
Blood & Valor
Blood & Valor is Mitch Reed’s baby, and so he took the reigns to chat with Rufus about the upcoming expansion. Rufus has been a busy, busy man. The list of forces for the next expansion is expansive, and seems to be growing every day. So far, it appears that we can expect a broader look at the theaters of WW1. While the first book covers the Western Front, Africa, and the Near East, the new expansion is taking it all in. We can expect to see Russian forces on the East Front. Italian soldiers will fight in the grueling conditions of the high alps, while their neighboring Greeks are caught between global superpowers and descend into civil war. Of course, you can’t have a war in Greece without mentioning the Bulgarians.
The new expansion doesn’t limit itself to the battlefields we know of as WW1, either. With the addition of Russian troops to the fray, there is room to cover the Russian Revolution. Civil strife plagued the United Kingdom as well, with the Easter Uprising in Ireland. In the Far East, the Japanese Imperial Army leads the expansion into China.
Existing forces will also get some new options. Commanders can now upgrade their attendant Riflemen to specialist roles like Standard Bearer or Medic. Armored Cars also make an appearance, as well as anti-tank rifle teams (for the nations who had them). There is no hard date set for the book right now, but expect it soon. In the meanwhile, continues to produce boxes for the ‘official’ support of the game. Players are also encouraged to dig into other lines or convert their miniatures.
Other Games
In the second hour of the round-table, things got a little more relaxed. A little more “off script.” With much twisting of arms and gnashing of teeth, we managed to drag details and spoilers from Mike and Rufus about what we can expect in the long term from Firelock. And the biggest reveals? New games! The two most promising projects seem to be ‘Frontiers,’ and an unnamed Role Play Game.
Frontiers is a game that Mike has been working on. It is an even smaller scale ‘Blood & Plunder’, a sort of skirmish-game-of-a-skirmish-game. It uses a 2’x2′ gaming space, with 10 or fewer models per side. It does away with the card activation decks, and requires only 3d10 to play. Action is more granular than in Blood & Plunder, and focuses more on a narrative experience.
Building on ‘Frontiers’ is a roleplaying game. Originally called ‘Raise the Black,’ the name had to change in light of the recent Kickstarter, and a new one hasn’t been settled on. This game is being developed by the Firelock sales manager, Tim Korklewski. Many of the employees are RPG fans, and this game has grown from that. Mike promised us a “gritty” historical RPG where injury and death are very real concerns for the characters. This sounds right up my ally, and I’ll be following any further news of this game with gusto.
There were other games mentioned. Firelock has put together a sort of “skunkworks,” working on other games that build on the framework of the ‘Blood & ____’ rulesets. We heard about a possible Vietnam War game coming from this group, as well as a game focusing on tribes of prehistoric man.
Thoughts?
In the end, I have the opinion that Firelock has a bright future. Mike reiterated that Firelock Games exists to bring historical gaming to the masses and combat the ‘greying of the hobby.’ They aim to do this by lowering the barriers to entry and exploring periods that aren’t usually covered by more “traditional” historical games. You can see the results in the success of their games, as well as the constant engagement of their fans. I believe that we will continue to see great things from Firelock as the company grows.
Mike, Rufus, Mitch, and myself, all hope to see our gaming friends soon. While HMGS has done an excellent job with Cyber Wars, nothing quite compares to the experience of a roaring, crowded convention hall. As we approach the holiday season and countries go back into lockdown, I’d like to take this opportunity to urge everyone to stay safe, healthy, and to continue supporting their favorite hobby companies – we’ll get through this. See you all next time!