Battleshed Diaries

Monday, 28 March 2016

Blood Eagle



Blood Eagle has arrived ! Another new system for the Battleshed.


A set of 'legendary' Dark Age Skirmish rules from the Ministry of Gentlemanly Warfare. Charles Murton and Craig Cartmell being said gentlemen. Theses are the gents that have brought us the excellent Victorian SF rules, In Her Majesty's Name (plus supplements) and Daishō, skirmishes in mystical Japan.

I've been looking forward to these rules and now I finally have them. They tick many boxes for me. Flicking through Blood Eagle for the first time, it's encouraging to see so many familiar elements - certainly for players of the rulesets mentioned above. Nice production values too. A4, full colour comprehensive set of rules with some alluring terrain and figure photographs.

Briefly, the game is set Northern Europe, Scandinavia and the British Isles during the 9th-10th centuries, using the myths and legends of the time. A tumultuous time when the old Pagan religions are being challenged by the spread of Christianity. With Blood Eagle (a D10 system), you can field small, point based warbands containing legendary heroes of the age; you can include Magical Powers (Wyrd) for the Pagans or Miracles for the Christian warbands. There is a Bestiary for regular types of animals (Bear, Wolf, Boar etc) or even Legendary Creatures such as Wyrms, Trolls and Dwarfs! Yes, Dwarfs! You can see why I'm so excited by these rules. Dark Age with Dwarfs! A spot of Troll hunting would be cool too; after all, I have the Troll Hunter DVD!

Also included are Weapons and Armour tables, Water Transport rules, many special Traits, example warbands and scenarios and lots more. It's stirring stuff. I've already scheduled a couple of games. All I've got to do is have a rummage in my lead mountain for suitably heroic figures! I'll post a more in-depth review of Blood Eagle once I've played through a few games. Some have mentioned that it'll be interesting to see how it compares to SAGA, however since both rulesets use very different mechanics I'm not sure how helpful that would be. 

From what I've seen so far I'm raring to play! Given how carried away I got with my previous Frostgrave encounter you can only guess what I'll do with Blood Eagle!

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