Flashing Steel - The last game of 2016..

Quite possibly the last game of 2016 and the last club before Christmas saw us return to Elizabethan England and an attempt by the evil Spanish to capture the Queen of England and whisk her off to Spain to marry King Phillip.

I am a great fan of many of the Songs of Blades & Heroes rule set so when Paul suggested we give Flashing Steel a try how could I resist, I played Cutlass! recently so was keen to see how they compared for swashbuckling adventures.

We drew up forces of around 500 points each. 

The Spanish had to break into the Farm Complex snatch the Queen and escort her back to the waiting boats, the English had to stop them.

 

 The Queen awaits her escort.

 The Spanish cross the bridge a sneak leads the way looking to clear the way of any defenders.

 Face off - The Sneak edges along the wall, whilst the Captain of the guard awaits the invader.

 The English trained band lets off a volley, smoke fills the battlefield as the Spanish bucklermen attempt to breakdown the door.

 As the door starts to splinter the English charge forward looking to delay the Spanish.

 The clock winds down and as English reinforcements rush to the fight.

The Spanish had gained the upper hand in the melee, but the farm gate was still intact and with English no time to find the Queen the invaders would be forced to leave empty handed.

Another valuable edition to the Ganesha Games's stable.

As with many of the SOBH rule mechanics we were pretty much in to normal game play within a couple of turns, as with the earlier rules all of our characters had a quality rating with our senior more experienced characters finding it easier to pass than the lowly infantry and leaders able to command troops to carry out a number of actions within their command radius.

A nice tweak within Flashing Steel is the improved characteristic for the weapons adding to your combat score which can make a significant difference in hand to hand. 

This extends into firing with a number of new modifiers including accidental discharge and clouds of black powder which can both help and hinder depending on the way the wind is blowing. In the scenario above the Spanish were protected by the smoke but it also allowed the English to close when they were unloaded.

The rules had a very familar feel to them with characters circling each other looking to land that mighty blow, however I might consider adding back in the gruesome kill, which has been omitted from the rules - shame as this was great for breaking up a melee.

Perhaps a re-run using Cutlass! in the new year?