While the nobility and Men at Arms might be the first in precedence, the lowly Footman makes up the bulk of any medieval army. So too, in Blood & Crowns, where the majority of the units are – in fact – from the “Footman” portion of the unit entries. Today we’ll take a butter look at these bread & better units.
puns aren’t funny ~ ed.
Behold, A Footman
What is a Footman, but an armorless biped? Unlike the Man at Arms (who might be mistaken for an armadillo) or a Hobilar (who might confusedly call “a centaur”) the Footman is the lowly “you & me” of Crowns. He has no armor, no fancy weapons, and hence: no special rules.
I propose that there are really 3 entries for Footman, and a secret 4th option to boot.
As you can see, these units all follow the standard Blood & Crowns convention of improving stats by -1 each time the unit gains an experience level, almost. Usually, this bump in stats is assessed at 2 points per level of experience, but we can see that Feudal Levy (aka, Inexperienced Footmen) are only 1 point less expensive than their Trained version.
The fact that the Levy are Resolve 7+ is a massive strike against them. Yes, they’re inexpensive, but only the French get them as Main Battle units – in all other forces they occupy the Vanguard slot at a minimum, and that means competing with other units on the table. Adding a Grizzled Veteran (to give Tough and Battle Hardened) can push Levy into being a solid “tar-pit” unit capable to tying up enemy infantry for a long time at low cost. But if you can find the points, Trained Footmen can do that same job even better – and also tie-up enemy Cavalry with their Polearms.
Chad, the Veteran Footman
The real “spice” comes in the form of the Veteran Footmen. Just have a look:
This caused a bit of a stir in the Crowns Facebook Group. These units appear identical, except for the level of Training, and the points cost. Moreover, they compete for the same slot in the Force Charts of several factions – leaving players to wonder:
“Why would I ever take Men at Arms over Veteran Footmen?”
This is actually an issue with the Men at Arms unit entry. You see: Plate & Mail shouldn’t be optional. It has to be presented as optional, in order to balance out the points costs – but if you put 48pts of Veteran Footmen up against 48pts of Men at Arms with armor equipped, then the two units actually kill each other at identical rates, down to the millionth (.0001)
But that is a terrible way to compare units.
While the two units are balanced against each other, they fare completely differently against other units. For example, those 48 points of Footmen being targeted by 48 points of Archers? The Footmen come off much worse than the Men at Arms. Against 48 points of enemy Footmen or Levy? Again, the Men at Arms will fare better.
So, what is the advantage to Veteran Footmen? Well, they’re Veterans, firstly. Also, if your enemy has Powerful, then the V.Footmen are obviously better than MaA. But most of all:
Veteran Footmen can have numbers.
If you’re only going to spend 48 points and have to choose between 6x MaA or 8x V.Footmen, then take the MaA. But you don’t have to stop at 8 V.Footmen. You can take up to 12 of them. The unit therefore exists in the points-window between a full unit of Men at Arms, and a unit of Veteran Men at Arms.
Is your brain melted yet?
A Song of Pikes & Polearms
I mentioned a secret fourth Footman unit, and that is the Pikeman. The Pikeman unit isn’t so much a separate unit, as it is a weapon upgrade for your Trained Footmen.
Because this is really a difference in the weapons, we should probably have a look at the difference between Pikes and Polearms in Crowns. The very first thing that I want to point out – before you read the rules themselves – pikes in Crowns are more than just an anti-cavalry weapon.
Weapon: Polearm
When a unit armed with Polearms is targeted by a Charge and not Engaged, it applies a +1 Penalty to the target number of the Attacker’s Charge Melee action.
Units with Polearms also count as 2 units when engaged with a Mounted unit attempting to withdraw (costs 2 Fatigue to Withdraw, per unit with Polearms).All benefits of Polearms are lost if the unit is Shaken or occupying a structure
Blood & Crowns core rulebook pg.51
Polearms are a 5 point unit upgrade to become more resilient against enemy charges, and to tie up enemy mounted units. They have no offensive benefits of any kind. Compare that weapon with the Pike:
Weapon: Pike
When Charging with pikes, the defending unit applies a +1 penalty to the target number of their Melee Saves for the Melee Attack Action. If the target unit is also armed with Pikes and Braced they ignore this penalty.
Pikes grant a unit the Defensive Reaction (Melee) special rule while Braced.
The benefits of Pikes are lost when a unit is Engaged, Shaken, or occupying a Structure.
Blood & Crowns core rulebook, pg.51
Unlike Polearms, the Pike is an offensive weapon – and a very good one. No other melee weapon penalizes the target number of melee saves, except for charging Heavy Cavalry.
Furthermore, the Defensive Reaction gained by being Braced is not the same as the “Fight Back” which normally benefits from Braced. Nope, Defensive Reaction actually allows you to fight before the Charging unit can strike you. Casualties removed by this attack will not get to roll attacks in the following Fight action.
The trade-off is that your Pikemen have a terrible save against enemy ranged attacks. But if I can let you in on a little secret:
That’s only meant to prevent you from Bracing and waiting for the enemy to come to you.
If you go on the offensive, the +1 Penalty to Melee Saves is enough to offset and casualties you might take from an equivalent points value worth of shooting – whether that is charging straight at the Archers themselves, or taking a volley on the way into a unit of enemy Footmen. The one weapon to really watch out for are Crossbows: your shoot save is already terrible, and losing 1/3 of it to Piercing Shot is not good for the health of your Pikemen.
In the end, Pikemen are the superior Footman choice, and one of the best melee choices in the game. Nowhere is this more true than in the Scottish list, where their Schiltron National Rule allows their Pikes to Brace for 1 action. This means that Scottish Pikeman can advance and Brace on any card except Spades, or to Brace on a Command Point.
There Can Be Only One: The Galloglass
While we’re on the topic of the Scottish – let’s talk about their national unit for a moment: the Galloglass (we’re leaving the Kern for the Ranged Units review).
Scots don’t have access to Footmen in their lists: they get Pikes, and they get the Galloglass – the latter of which are a nightmarish unit to see in anyone’s Main Battle choice.
Galloglass are Veteran Footmen turned up to 11. Unlike the Veteran Footmen, they do not fight to a standstill or trade against units of Men at Arms – nope, Galloglass simply obliterate them. Especially if the Scotsmen get the Charge.
Why? Because of Hard Chargers:
Special Rule: Hard Chargers
When charging, this unit receives a -1 Bonus to the target number of the Charge Melee Attack Action
Blood & Crowns, core rulebook, pg.45
Combine this with their Fight Skill 5 and this becomes the only unit in the whole game which can hit on a 4+ in melee.
However, Galloglass are more susceptible to ranged shooting than the Veteran Footmen, and we already highlighted how that is a problem for their cousins. The effect is amplified by the Galloglass being limited to a maximum of 8 models (you should almost always take the full unit)
This means that unlike the Veteran Footmen who exist somewhere between a “maxed-out” unit of Men at Arms, and access to Veteran Men at Arms – the Galloglass should be considered as more of an alternative to standard Men at Arms units. You’re exchanging overall unit-survivability for aggressive, “glass-cannon” striking power.
If that fits your playstyle, then Galloglass might do very well for you. In my playtesting experience, Scottish lists based around large numbers of Galloglass were always very volatile – a few whiffed charges and they were running for the hills. But they rarely whiff a charge, and when these bruisers connect, you certainly feel it.
Strength in Numbers
That’s it for Footmen units. As you can see – their advantage lies in numbers. Crowns is a well-balanced game, and two units of equal points-value will usually fight to a draw. A 7pt Man at Arms in his Plate & Mail is individually better than a Footman, but his unit will max out at 48 points, while the Veteran Footman can reach all the way to 72 points.
In this way, Footman units can also keep your numbers up, for the purposes of Attrition in scenarios. Half a dozen Men at Arms is good, but for the same points cost you can get a dozen Footmen, and be assured that should the two units meet on the field, they will still be evenly matched.
The more advanced option would be to split those units down and use them as mutually-supporting blocks, in order to draw more cards during your turn. This can be useful for activating character abilities like Destiny and Force of Will, but also for making sure that your “hero units” like the Veteran Men at Arms, Mounted get the cards they need for the perfect activation.
And finally – Footmen are always raw fodder for “force multipliers” like characters. Adding a Grizzled Veteran to a unit of cheap Feudal Levy creates a tarpit that many units will struggle to break free of. Adding a Knight Bachelor to a unit of Veteran Footmen or Gallowglass means applying Prowess across 8 or 12 attacks, rather than just the 6 Men at Arms in a unit. And they gain these bonuses for the same cost.
We have 2 more unit types to cover: Archers, and the Cavalry. The keen-eyed will notice that we saved the Kerns and also the Slingers for the Archer section. These units are listed as Footmen, but they’re really more of a ranged unit. We’re also keeping the Maritime Units aside for a later date, when we discuss sea battles in more detail.
So the good news?
We’ll be starting in on the Faction reviews soon! Although, after heaping so much praise on Galloglass and Pikemen, I have a feeling everyone will be putting together a Scottish list by Christmas.
Ah well, lang may yer lums reek!