With the Blood & Crowns Kickstarter complete and the backer kit now open for late pledges, players are starting to get their hands on the digital copies of the rulebook. That includes us, here at DMC. That’s right – we ain’t no fortunate sons; we had to wait impatiently just like the rest of you to get our official copies.
Initial impressions of the book have been great, but a full review of the book itself will have to wait until physical copies hit shelves some time in the future. File compression and screen resolution can really skew things like image quality. Besides, if we review it now, what will we talk about when the hardcover comes out? The binding??
Let’s talk about the guts of the book instead; the units and forces. As all nationalities draw from a common pool of units, the units are really the foundation. To start us off, let’s have a look at the most iconic units of the game: the Men at Arms.
- Man at Arms, or Knight?
- The Units
– Standard Options: Plate & Mail, Poleaxes
– Veterans & Full Harness
– Mounted Men at Arms
– Esquires - Fighting Against Men at Arms
- Men at Arms in your List
Man At Arms, or Knight?
Firstly, what is a Man at Arms? Aren’t they just knights?
Well yes, and no. All knights on the battlefield are ‘men-at-arms,’ but by the 13th century, the role of knight had grown to encompass more than a battlefield role. As an exclusive social rank within the caste system of feudal Europe, knighthood involved duties and qualifications which extended beyond the battlefield.
In contrast, any person could equip themselves to serve as a man at arms provided they were wealthy enough. So while all knights are men at arms, not all men at arms are technically knights. Still, I doubt anyone would be faulted for pointing at a unit of Men at Arms in Blood & Crowns and calling them “knights”.
All the King’s Men
At first glance, there are 4 Men At Arms units in Blood & Crowns. Upon further inspection though, we find that it’s really just 1 unit with two major options:
– Are they Veteran?
– Are they Mounted?
Beyond those choices, you’re left with a unit boasting the best stats on any model, excellent equipment options, and no fancy Special Rules. So lets begin by looking at the equipment options available to the basic Man At Arms (ugh, I’m not typing that out. They’re MaA from now on!)
Standard Unit Options
Armor: Plate & Mail
Plate & Mail grants the unit the Defense (1) special rule, shown below
Defense (1)
Blood & Crowns core rulebook, pg.44
When a unit makes a Melee or Shoot Save, it rolls 1 additional dice.
This upgrade is almost certainly “worth it” as long as you can spare the points. On even the basic MaA, that rule will save one model per 3 Attack Actions. For the low cost of the upgrade compared to the unit cost, the boosted survivability is worthwhile.
Poleaxes
Units on foot have access to the Poleaxe. We’ve discussed these before, but a poleaxe is any 2-handed “can-opener” designed to defeat armor. And so, that’s what they do in the game, by granting the Poweful (1) rule
Powerful (1)
Blood & Crowns core rulebook, pg.47
When performing a Melee attack, the target unit reduces their Defense value by 1, to a minimum of 0.
It is important to note that Poleaxes refer to the Defense (X) Special Rule, and not to the unit’s Melee Save. This means that they are only worthwhile when fighting other MaA, and Retinues. And remember; Defense (1) is an extra save per 3 Attack Actions. While the final decision will likely depend on the “armor meta” where you play, Poleaxes initially seem like a weak upgrade. Fortunately, it’s not very pricy, so if you have the points to spare, it doesn’t hurt to include.
Veteran Men at Arms & Full Harness
Veteran can really be thought of as a 2 point/model upgrade to your standard MaA unit. For those 2 points, you gain a 20% increase in stats across the board, and better action economy on the cards (eligible for 25% more actions than a Trained unit)
When the two units are both available, you should reach for the Veterans whenever you have the points to spare, and should usually prioritize Veteran over an extra body. It is a more difficult choice if you should add a Main unit “just” to unlock Veterans in the Reserves tier of your chart.
Full Harness
The Veteran option to Upgrade to Full Harness on the other hand, is more difficult to quantify. Full Harness generates the Defense (1) special rule of Plate & Mail, and adds the Endurance (1) rule as well.
Endurance (1)
Blood & Crowns core rulebook, pg.45
Each time this unit would remove casualties due to a failed Melee or Shoot Save, the first casualty does not cause a model to be removed, and is instead applied as Fatigue. The resolve test for being hit and incurring casualties is still taken, and only factors models actually removed.
Endurance means that the first casualty that you would suffer from each attack, is absorbed by the unit’s Fatigue, instead. This perfectly models effects like the rain of arrows at Agincourt exhausting the French infantry even if it did not actually wound them. However, in game, it can cause more problems than it solves.
When we do the math, we find that
– VMaA suffer a casualty every 2.5d10 Saves, and gain Fatigue for every 2.5d10 Resolve Tests. It takes an average of 3.75 hits to apply 1 Fatigue (and 1.5 casualties)
– Full Harness VMaA still fail every 2.5d10 Saves or Resolve Tests. However, it only takes the initial 2.5 hits to apply 1 Fatigue to your MaA.
Put another way, those 3.75 hits would apply an average of 1.6 Fatigue (and .5 casualty)
The fact that Full Harness is a 10pt upgrade means that it is equal to an entire extra VMaA Afoot. The first time each game that it would “save” a model, it is really just applying 1 automatic Fatigue to your unit. It is less egregious on the 14pt VMaA Mounted, but still an expensive upgrade.
Fatigue Management will be very important for units that decide to wear Full Harness. The gold-standard is Tough so that your unit can offset 1 casualty per activation.
Tough
Blood & Crowns core rulebook, pg.49
If this unit ends its activation with any amount of Fatigue, and did not Push this activation, it may remove a point of Fatigue
While it is very, very expensive; the combination of Full Harness and a Grizzled Veteran to gain Tough and Battle Hardened means that your unit becomes almost impossible to apply Fatigue to, while also absorbing 1 hit per activation.
Mounted Men at Arms
Choosing to toss your MaA on horseback costs you effectively +5 points/model. For brevity, we’ll discuss the benefits of the Mounted rule (Core rules, pg.47) in more detail when we review the rest of the Cavalry choices. For now, know that it grants +2 inches of Movement. You can also ride your units out of combat thanks to Disengage.
Remember though: only Mounted Archers may dismount, and while you’re mounted there are certain terrain elements that you cannot interact with.
Putting your MaA on horses also generates Heavy Cavalry and Impetuous.
Heavy Cavalry
Blood & Crowns core rulebook, pg.46
When this unit conducts a Charge the defending unit may not Fight Back, and suffers a +2 penalty to their Melee Save (unless they are also Heavy Cavalry).
Heavy Cavalry reduce their base move distance to 5″ for movement at least partially through Rough Terrain
Impetuous
Blood & Crowns core rulebook, pg.49
At the start of this unit’s activation if it is not Shaken or Engaged it must determine if it is capable of performing an Impetuous Charge against the closest opposing unit within Line of Sight.
Impetuous Charges involve committing the unit’s first two Starting Actions to Move and/or Charge. If the unit is able to reach the opposing unit with the committed actions the Impetuous Charge is conducted.
Veteran ‘Blood &’ players should note that Heavy Cavalry still allows Defensive Reactions – so your opponent can still fire a volley with ranged weapons, or poke you with pikes on your way into the attack. They just cannot get the bonus fight.
Impetuous is a liability, but can be overcome by using a friendly, intervening unit as a blocker so that the charge would fail. Yes, even the French can do this with Merely Peasants, but we’ll talk more about that when we discuss the French lists.
Veteran Plunder players should be excited to realize that Crowns cavalry are much better than their Plunder counterparts. The maximum charge for a unit of Cavalry in Plunder is 20″ (4″ moves: Free, Quick, 2x Move, Charge) whereas Crowns can cover slightly less distance, but with much less investment (6″ moves: 2x Move, Charge)
This speed, combined with the fact that Crowns cavalry “wears” their Shoot Save, and the massive bonus that comes from Heavy Cavalry – means that the upgrade to put your MaA on horseback is definitely worth the cost. But it is a very high price to pay; this, more than anything, is the limiting factor on Cavalry. It’s easy to have a unit of Mounted MaA balloon into 50% of your list, and that’s pinning a lot of points on a few bad dice rolls.
Esquires
Esquires are an alternative to Mounted MaA, which exchange Glory Hounds and Inexperienced for the Shoot Save and Resolve of the Mounted VMaA.
Glory Hounds really isn’t much more of a negative compared to simple Impetuous, and can be dealt with in the same way. That leaves the Experience hit as the deciding factor; is it worth the better Resolve and Shoot Save?
For +2 Points, I still think it’s worth trying to get Veteran MaA on horseback. But if it’s easier to get Esquires because of their placement in your Force List – they could be better than the Trained option. You’re shifting the 18″ Charge range from Hearts/Diamonds to Diamonds/Clubs, and a Push. On Spades – the “I need to charge quickly” card – your MaA and Esquires get the same number of actions.
Fighting Against Men At Arms
MaA have a lot of advantages that make them extremely potent in any “fair fight.” The extra d10 from Defense (1) or the fact that they can be nearly impervious with Endurance (1) – if you even get to Fight Back (Heavy Cavalry) at all. So, what tactics can beat these units?
The Numbers Game
Firstly, you can always beat them (or at least, pin them down) by playing the numbers game. An equally costed unit of Footmen will actually trade with a unit of MaA in melee. It is a big unit of Footmen though; 7 for every 4 MaA.
The second way to play the numbers game with MaA, is to focus on getting several attacks into them. Either as separate individual actions – to force them to roll lots of Resolve for being hit, or lumped into a single massive pile of dice. The latter works because the MaA advantages (like Defense and Endurance) don’t scale with the number of hits; Defense adds 1d10 every time you’re required to roll a save, but only ever adds that single D10.
Can Openers
The other way to fight down MaA, is to target their saves. Piercing Shot and the benefit from charging Pikes or Heavy Cavalry or going after a Shaken unit, are the best ways to after this. Powerful is somewhat less errr… powerful – as it only goes after their free D10 and does nothing for the other hits you’ve scored.
Men at Arms in Your Lists
Men at Arms are probably the most universally exciting troops to include in your forces. Who doesn’t love a big, poleaxe wielding, plate-armored knight? But with the average game shaping up to land in the 200-300pt range, space in your list will be at a premium. Even if points are not, the slots for Vanguard and Reserve units are always limited, and MaA are usually competing with other troops in that space.
Your Command Retinue will always be at least as good as a unit of Veteran MaA, if not better. So if you’re outfitting your list with a second elite melee unit, then you need to have a role for them.
On foot, MaA are the best melee unit in the game. For their cost, they should be. Still, a full unit of 6 MaA can be “absorbed” by 11 Footmen.
(Almost like the unit caps were planned that way or something)
Your MaA will need a friendly unit to whittle down enemy Footmen. Of course, your opponent is also trying to whittle down your MaA.
On horseback, MaA are not actually any better as a melee unit except when they charge. Once you’ve broken your lance on the enemy, if he’s still standing then it is likely that your unit will bog down, or be forced to Disengage. This is the real danger posed by Footmen with Polearms – they can trap your expensive Mounted MaA units. What you pay for is that incredible charge (especially against enemy MaA) and the ability to “threaten” a large part of the table with a single unit.
The French Connection
If you are excited to get some Men at Arms onto your tabletop, the Blood & Crowns Kickstarter is currently accepting Late Pledges. There’s still time to get aboard, and be sent a download code for the PDF rulebook.
If you already have a rulebook, and are very, very excited to smash your opponents under a tidal-wave of armor, then the French Nationality will probably appeal to you. They have the greatest number of lists with MaA in Main section of their army.
And if you’re looking to get your hands on some Men at Arms to build your force, check out Firelock’s supply of the popular Perry Plastics. Or, read our article on other miniatures lines for Crowns.
Stay tuned as we continue our review of the different Troop Types in Blood & Crowns, as well as keep up with the rest of the Firelock titles.