The latest game in the “Blood & ___” series, Blood & Crowns is now available on Kickstarter as of August 30thm 2023! Blood & Crowns is a 28mm miniatures skirmish game that immerses you in late medieval Western Europe and the chaotic period known as the Hundred Years’ War. The game stretches from the 1314 victory of Robert the Bruce’s Scottish army at Bannockburn, to the outbreak of the War of the Roses in 1455.
This game joins Blood & Valor and Blood & Steel as the next installment of games based on Firelock Games’ flagship game, Blood & Plunder. Blood & Crowns allows players to recreate the skirmishes, raids, sallies, acts of piracy, and all manner of small-scale engagements that hide in the shadows of history between major battles such as Crecy, Poitiers, Najera, Agincourt, and Castillion. As a skirmish game, it is not a game with hordes of faceless masses, but of individual warriors that puts players in the armor of the combatants at the level of fighting where personal combat is the most visceral. Where blood was spilled and crowns were won and lost!
What We Know About the Game So Far:
Here is a quick breakdown of what we know about Blood & Crowns
Are There Official Miniatures for Blood & Crowns?
- The game is 28mm scale, the same as Blood & Plunder, but it is miniature agnostic. This means that you can use your existing miniatures or minis produced by other gaming companies to represent your units.
- Firelock Games will be offering a range of minis in STL format only.
- The game contains ships that use the same rules as Blood & Plunder! Firelock Games will be providing ship models.
- Gunpowder and firearms will not be in the initial Core Rules
How Big is a Game of Blood and Crowns? How Many Minis Do You Need to Play?
- Most games are played with 20-50 models per player.
- A player will field 3-8 squads of 4-12 models
- It’s a skirmish game, not a large line-of-battle, large company-based game.
As with any tabletop miniatures game you can scale things based on your time, game space, minis, and number of players.
What Nations & Factions are in the Game?
- The Kingdom of England, Wales & Ireland
- England in France (Crecy to Poitiers) 1345-56
- English Army in Scotland
- England in France (Agincourt to Orleans) 1415-44
- The Kingdom of France
- Army of France (Crecy to Poitiers) 1345-56
- Army of France (Azincourt) 1415
- Army of France (Orleans & The Loire) 1428-29
- The Scottish
- The Wars of Independence
- The Border Rievers
- The Scottish in France
- The Iberian Kingdoms (Spanish Kingdoms)
- The Castilian Civil War: Forces of Pedro de Castile (1351-69)
- The Castilian Civil War: Enrique de Trastamara (1351-69)
- Unaligned: Mercenaries & Pirates
- Free Companies
- Routiers
- Pirates/Merchant Crew
How Does the Initiative System Work in Blood & Crowns?
Blood & Crowns uses the same playing card-driven initiative system as Blood & Plunder. There is a minor change in that if you win the Initiative, you can actually pass and allow your opponent to go first. This is particularly useful at the start of the game when you need your opponent to close the distance and get in range.
What is in the Blood & Crowns Kickstarter?
Core Rulebook
The Core Rules will be available in a full-color rulebook. A Strech Goal of $10,000 will determine if it’s soft cover or hard.
The digital PDF copy will be $20 and a printed copy will be $39.
Activation Cards
There are 4 different Nation Decks planned. This is an early preview so it may change at the time of release.
Unit Deck
Similar to Blood & Plunder there will be a deck of unit stat cards. These are useful for list-building and keeping track of your units on the battlefield. These are going to be available in both PDF and professionally printed formats.
Token Set
Similar to the set that comes with the Blood & Plunder 2-Player Starter set, a cardboard token set to track fatigue and various unit/ship statuses is available. There is also a turning gauge and wind direction token for use with the ships in the game.
What are the Pledge Tier Levels for the Kickstarter?
There are 5 Pledge tiers for the campaign. The first is just an open pledge to donate to the game. Below is a list of the other 4 tiers:
When Is Blood & Crowns Scheduled to Release?
- The digital rulebook release in October 2023.
- Print products are set to release in February 2024.
Join the Facebook Group or Discord
If you would like to learn more about the game, your best bet is to join the discussion on the Blood & Crowns Facebook Group or the Blood & Crowns channel of the Firelock Games Discord. Even though this is a new game, there is already a good group of people discussing the game and Eric Hansen the game’s designer is active in the community.
Conclusion
Congrats to Eric Hansen and all the Firelock Team producing this game. There are countless hours in the development and production of this game. The preview and sneak peeks along the way have clearly shown that this new rulebook will further Firelock Game’s commitment to excellence. It’s exciting to see another arrow in Firelock’s quiver and we wish the game nothing but success!
Join the Blood & Crowns Kickstarter and back the game today.
