Friday, January 9, 2015

Battle of Tewkesbury Blood and Roses

Tuesday on my birthday I played some Blood and Roses. We got a couple of rules wrong namely the "add +1 to the die roll on next activation roll" but man this game was a slog fest. I deployed my artillery BEFORE the hedgerow and from the way I read the rules once deployed artillery does not move again (due to the static nature of the guns in the time period). We caught the +1 die roll mistake about half way in. The manor in particular was the site of many a brutal clash of armor. It changed hands at least 3 times.

So really all my shots were terrible. With the +1 modifier for shooting through the hedgerow I missed...a lot. Also as my luck would have it two of my batteries blew up and self destructed when I rolled 0's. I like that there is now a very SPQR'ish weapons matrix in the game as well now it really adds extra flavor. Great game if not a little slow at times. 

My opponent was slow to come at me and forced me to do all the work since I played the side with the time limit. I noticed that there was a distinct lack of eliminations in this game. It is certainly hard to cause casualties as even leaders come back at a reduced value. By the end of the game my forces were pretty well decimated but so were his. I finally started learning the game near the end and was inflicting a good amount of damage on his straggled flanks when he left people exposed. As the game went on however his long bowmen and their aim improved and mine got worse...stunting and charges I had. 

We had to call it a draw but the point total (or FLIGHT POINTS) were pretty close. It was a see saw affair back and forth and involving many flanking attempts around that damn hedgerow in the middle of the board. 

Probably not the most exciting scenario to pick for a first time play through. I managed to kill a couple of his leaders and pushed through toward the back of his lines but my failure to seize initiative and continue the momentum cost me in the end and I had to protect my flanks and fall back...right to the hedgerow. 






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