Bladestorm

• Description
• Detailed Description
  • The Rules Systems
  • Soldiers
  • The Sequence of Play
  • Movement
  • Combat
  • The Optional Rules

  • The Background Material
  • Scenario Summary
  • Bladestorm Terrain & Painting Manual
• Reviews
• Supplements
• Links

Back to FANTASY SKIRMISH RULES

• A web page describing the background material provided in the Bladestorm boxed set.
• In order to get a feel for what sort of battles this rules set is best used for, readers may wish to examine a summary of the scenarios provided in the Bladestorm boxed set.

The design purpose of Bladestorm is to be a companion to fantasy role-playing systems. In most role-playing games, battles become unwieldy if there are more than a dozen figures on either side -- so the idea is that when the battles become too large, the players can switch to Bladestorm in order to resolve the fight.

This is not to say that Bladestorm can only be enjoyed as part of a fantasy role-playing campaign -- stand-alone games are certainly possible. However, its design purpose is to provide an added dimension to fantasy role-playing games, and the wealth of supplementary material included in this boxed set makes sense in that light.

Two of these versions are for the benefit of novice players. The Basic Game, which consists of only four pages of rules (plus diagrams), introduces the absolute basics -- movement, character stats, and hand-to-hand combat.

The Intermediate Game adds four more pages of rules. (Well, not really four NEW pages. Each version of the game includes all of the rules needed, so that you don't have to flip through the Basic Game, for instance, if you want to go directly to the Intermediate Game. What this means is that some text is repeated between versions.) The new rules add terrain, ranged weapons (i.e. bows and such), armor, and shields.

It is the Standard Game, however, where players who know anything about miniatures will want to start off. The first two sets are learning sets, while the Standard Game is the "real" basic Bladestorm system.

Finally, there are the Optional Rules. These add a great deal of flesh to the bones of this system, and most players will probably want to integrate some or all of these rules into their battles as fast as they can master them.

In the description that follows, the Standard Game will be described, and then the improvements offered by the Optional Rules will be presented.

Endurance	How many "hits" it takes to kill the character.
Morale	The character's strength of character.
Movement Rate	How far the character can move. The full movement is listed, followed by (rounded) ratings at three-quarters, half, and one-quarter movement.
Melee Attack	A formula indicating what dice to roll when making an attack in hand-to-hand combat. (If a figure has more than one melee weapon, he will have Melee scores for each weapon.)
Melee Damage	A formula indicating how to figure out the damage scored by a successful melee attack. (Figures with multiple weapons will have a Melee Damage score for each weapon.)
Missile Attack	As per Melee Attack, but with ranged weapons.
Range Mod	Penalties which apply to a Missile Attack, due to distance from the target.
Missile Damage	As per Melee Damage, but for a ranged-weapon attack.
Defense	A measure of how hard it is to hit the character.
Armor	Any protection offered by armor worn.
Shield Bonus	Protection offered by a shield, if so equipped.

Where do the stats for each character come from? The players have several options. First, they can use the stats provided for typical warriors, as provided in the Sourcebook and Bestiary. Second, when designing a custom scenario, each player can be assigned a certain number of points, and create his soldiers using the game's point system. Lastly, soldiers can be based on characters from a role-playing campaign. (Rules are provided to translate characters from the Fantasy Hero, Dungeons & Dragons, and Rolemaster RPG systems.)

Leaders, Heroes, and Monsters. Any soldier which has special abilities is classified as either a Hero or a Monster (player's choice). For instance, a figure which can make a bonus Melee Attack per phase would be a Hero (or a Monster).

Leaders are identical to other figures, except that they have five extra attributes: an Influence Range, and four Modifiers (Melee, Missile, Defense, and Morale). If a stand is within Influence Range of a friendly Leader, the Leader's Modifiers can be added to that figure's normal stats.

About Units. Although soldiers can fight as individuals, there is strength in belonging to a group. In Bladestorm, similarly equipped figures may form a Unit.

In the Standard Game, units are either in one of two formations: General Order or Battle Order. Individual soldiers receive adjustments to their stats, depending upon the type of formation they are in. In Battle Order, the men receive bonuses to their melee combat scores and to morale; in General Order, the men are not as tightly packed together, they move more swiftly, but they don't get the melee bonuses and the morale bonus is not as high.

Formations can also disband during the heat of combat, allowing their members to become individual soldiers once more; later, the unit can be reconstituted. A unit may choose to disband in order to negotiate some obstacle, planning to regroup on the other side; morale failures can also cause a formation to disband.

First Player's Move-Missile Phase	Each figure may either move or make an attack with a missile weapon (i.e., ranged weapon), if he has one.
First Player's Rally Phase	A Rally Roll must be made for each of the player's Disrupted figures.
Melee Phase	Figures belonging to both players may make melee attacks.
Second Player's Move-Missile Phase	As above, but for the other player.
Second Player's Rally Phase	Ditto.
Melee Phase	Again, all figures can make melee attacks.

Each stand has a "zone" around it which other stands cannot enter, unless those stands intend to fight the original stand. Units have a similar zone, though slightly larger. This prevents characters from "skimming" across or around enemy stands.

The direction in which a figure is facing -- known as the character's facing -- is important, since character's attacked from the side or rear are easier to harm. The same is true of units as well.

At the end of each Move-Missile Phase, the player who did not move in the Phase may adjust the facing of all of his figures (as they react to the enemy moves). Entire units, however, may not adjust their facing (though within limits, their component soldiers can do so). The ability to react means that it is difficult to score a rear or flank attack, unless more than one attacker can hem in a single defender.

Formations have special limits when moving. They can:

March Forward	In a straight line.
Back Up	Again, in a straight line.
Turn	The individual soldiers can turn in place, causing the formation to change direction. For instance, if the men are in two lines moving forward, and then turn 90 degrees to the right, they are now in a column moving to the right.
Wheel	One end of the formation stops moving, and the other end moves so that the entire formation pivots around one of its end points.

A unit can change formation, but to do so costs half of its Movement Rate for that turn.

Melee Attacks. When a figure attacks, the player rolls the dice indicated by that character's Melee Attack formula, and then figures out the total.

The "formula" tells the player how many dice of which kinds to roll, and what bonus or penalty to add to the final total. For instance, Cro the Greater Goblin is armed with a 2-handed sword, and has a Melee Attack of 2D6+D10+3 -- which means that two 6-sided and one 10-sided dice are rolled, and a bonus of "3" is added to the total. One of the dice rolled must be a black 6-sided die, known as the Death Die.

If two or more "1"s are rolled, the attack automatically fails. However, if this doesn't occur, and if a "1" is rolled on the Death Die, the attack automatically succeeds.

If none of the above apply, the attacker may add a bonus to his total, if he is part of a qualifying formation or near a charismatic Leader. There is a penalty if the attacker is Disrupted.

The defender may also get to apply some modifiers to his Defense score --

• If the defender has a Shield, he might be able to use it and apply his Shield Bonus
• If the defender is in suitable terrain, he receives a Terrain Bonus
• The defender's score is penalized if he is attacked from the flank or (worse) the rear
• If the defender is standing on higher ground, he receives a bonus

If the final modified Attack score is greater than the final modified Defense score, then the attack has succeeded; otherwise, it has failed.

Damage Resolution. In order to speed game play along, Bladestorm uses a unique system that does not require a separate roll of the dice to determine how much damage an attack scores. Instead, the dice previously rolled are reinterpreted, based on the Melee Damage formula.

A damage formula consists of a Type plus a modifier. The possible Types are:

High	Use the highest number from any of the dice rolled.
Low	Use the lowest number from any of the dice rolled.
High + Low	Sum of the high and low results.
Medium	Uses the mid-value (neither High nor Low), if one exists. If none exists, use the High result.
Fixed Dice	The formula names a specific type of dice, and the result is the highest roll on that type of dice. For instance, six-sided dice might be specified.

If there is more than one die which qualifies, the player takes the sum of all those dice. For instance, if "6, 6, 3" were rolled and High were the damage, the player would get both 6's for a total of 12 points damage.

The target's Armor Value is subtracted from the final damage (that is, the armor absorbs a certain amount of the damage). The remaining damage is taken from the target's Endurance. At the end of the phase, any figures with less than 1 Endurance point remaining are considered to be out of play.

Morale. When a character's Endurance is reduced in half, a Morale Roll must immediately be made. Morale Rolls must also be made when a Leader dies. If the number rolled does not exceed the figure's Morale score, the soldier becomes Disrupted. The Morale score may be modified by terrain or the presence of a Leader.

Characters which are part of a unit do not make Morale Rolls. Instead, the unit must make a Morale Roll at the end of any phase when one or more members are lost. The unit's formation counts as a Morale modifier.

Disrupted units or stands must attempt to remain at least 1" away from all hostile stands, and suffer a severe penalty to their Attack rolls.

During the Rally Phase, a new Morale Roll must be made for each Disrupted stand or unit. If the Morale Roll is failed, the stand or unit panics and is removed from play. If the Morale score is beaten by 5 or more, the stand or unit is returned to normal morale status.

If a unit tries to rally and receives neither of the above results, it routs. A routed unit assumes the General Order formation, and during each eligible Move-Missile Phase must attempt to withdraw from all enemy units. When the unit reaches the edge of the board, a final Morale Roll is made. If the unit fails to rally, it is removed from play.

Routed units may not attack, and all attackers of such a unit receive a substantial Attack bonus.

EXAMPLE OF MELEE COMBAT: During one of the Melee Phases, a River Ogre is adjacent to three Dwarven Guards. All attack. The Ogre's stats indicate he has two melee weapons -- a Bash and a Claw. The player chooses to make a Bash attack (which does less damage, but is more likely to hit than the Claw). The Melee Attack rating for the Claw is 3D6+3. He rolls two white and one black dice, getting 1 [black], 1, and 2. Two 1's means this attack automatically misses. The Dwarves are also attacking, and their stats are identical. Their sole melee weapon is the War Mattock, with an attack rating of 2D6+2. Rolling for the three attacks, the player gets: 2, 6 [black] -- for a total of 8 1, 3 [black] -- for a total of 4 1 [black], 2 -- a "1" on the Death Dice is an automatic hit. One attack has scored, but will the other two? The Ogre's Defense is 9, but this is modified for the first and third Dwarves, as they are making flank attacks (-2). Therefore, the first attack (8) succeeds against the Ogre's modified defense (7), but the second attack (4) is foiled by the defense (9 -- not a flank attack). Since the first and third fighters made successful attacks, it's time to determine damage. The Melee Damage for the Dwarves is High x 2. Looking again at the dice previously rolled, the first fighter scores 6 x 2 for 12 points, while the third fighter scores a mere 2 x 2 = 4 points. The Ogre's Armor Value of -1 means that he can ignore one point of damage from each attack, taking a total of (14 + 4 - 2 = ) 14 hits. With an Endurance of 40, he's barely hurt... Since the Ogre still has more than half of his Endurance points, no Morale Roll is called for.

Missile Combat. The system used is identical to the melee attack system, with two exceptions.

First, the terrain modifiers to Defense come from a different column on the chart. Thus, a warrior in the woods receives only a +2 benefit against melee attack, but a +4 against missile attack.

Second, the attacker may receive a penalty to his Attack, based upon distance from his target and the attacker's Range Mods with his weapon. The Range Mod is given as a penalty and a distance. Depending upon the number of distance increments between attacker and target, the attacker must subtract the penalty one or more times from his Attack.

A Missile Attack cannot be made against a target engaged in melee (this restriction is superceded when using the Optional Rules).

EXAMPLE OF MISSILE COMBAT: An archer prepares to fire at an Ogre running across the field at him. The attacker has a composite bow with an attack of D6+D10+1, range mod of -2 per 15", and damage of Low x 2 + 1. Rolling for the attack, the attacking player gets 10 (10-sided) and 3 (on the Death Dice). The total is 13. However, the target is 19" away (more than one of the 15" range-mod increments), so the attacker suffers a single Range Mod penalty of -2 -- modifying his Attack score to 11. (If the range had been 33" instead, he would have suffered two range-mod penalties, for a -4 penalty.) The target Ogre's defense is 9, and no modifiers apply. Fortunately for the bowman, his "11" exceeds the Ogre's Defense of "9" -- a hit! Damage is Low (the "3" rolled previously) x 2 + 1, which results in 7 more hits on the Ogre. Armor absorbs one hit, but the other 6 are deducted from the Ogre's Endurance. At the end of this phase, this Ogre must make a Morale Roll (it had been shot in previous turns, and is now down to half of its original Endurance points). It has a Morale of 7. Rolling three dice, the player scores "5" and fails the Morale Check. The Ogre is now Disrupted, and must avoid melee combat unless Rallied.

More than six of these pages provide the basics of how to paint miniatures: prepping, mounting, priming, washes, highlighting, and protective coats.

At the end of the booklet, there is a brief discussion of how to set up a place to play. Some of the unusual terrain tips include:

• Use clay to make hills and mounds
• Use "little plastic tiles" sold by hobby stores for rivers and streams
• "brown chipboard squares" for swamps