‘O Death, made proud with pure and princely beauty!’

Blade and Bow is a set of four different ancients battles played on four different game maps while using a core set of rules.  This is the first of this "quad"- type game.

WARNING: I have tried to like this game. I tried playing it several times, but always had to stop and start over again.  Plus for a first time ever, an Ancients game did not hold my interest which is strange as I have played some winners, such as De Bellis Antiquitatis, quite a few others, and some losers.  There are many reasons why, so keep reading if you are interested, and you will see what I like and don't like.

Title: Blade & Bow
Price: $*
Designer: Mike Nagel
Developer: Mike Nagel
Graphics Designer: Mike Nagel
Publisher: War Diary Publications (WD)
Published Date: 28 Sept 2023

Subject:  Blade & Bow isn't about two gangs singing, brandishing switch blades and dancing with women, "Nahhh, Suh!", it's about combat in the Ancient world, covering the Greeks, Persians, and Romans in this first go around.

Scale:  Not even going to try and figure this out. Whatever it is, it works I think.

Game Area:  Four different parts of the ancient world covering four battles from 490 BC to 479 BC.

Player Supplied Components:  The player needs to supply MORE DICE as the attacker can use up to 8 dice with only 4 provided.

Components and Physical Quality: There are no hexes on the game maps, but instead the game maps are divided into squares.  Different for sure, but according to the game designer fitting to the style of how ancient battles were conducted, linear, I think. 😁  

 

But what is truly nice is the game box, well made and it is big enough to fit 1 or 2 counter trays in it (depends on who makes the trays).  That is very good.

Counters:  These counters are 1" x .5" in size for the units, with the info counters looking to be .5" square.  

The box says that the counters are laser cut, but to me if they were, they would have no tags.  There are tags, not at the corners, but in the middle of all four sides. See below graphic in the small yellow circles.

Note: Makes it more difficult to remove the tags this way.  Have to shave the sides with danger of slicing off more than what one wants too, including a finger.

Anyway, the counters are thick, some of the thickest I have seen since the old Battleline Games, with various shades of blue and red for both sides. Notice from the graphic to the left as each counter has a lot of info!  I can't read the counters, unless I grab my readers and a magnifying glass. Too small of print.

Not to mention there are a few counters stacked on the bottom of the unit counter, used for information to show the different "ranks" from 0 to +6, (aka density markers) and the counters have a backside to show if they are disrupted. 

Game Maps:  At 17"x22" in size each, the 4 game maps are a shade of green with unit setup spaces, camps, hills, and rivers. Rivers are in blue, roads are lighter in the green colour. Hills and trees are black or a very dark gray (if you look at the trees, there are shadows).  The maps are very busy, with all the rubble, trees, shrubs, bush, what have you.

No expanding on the artiste palette here. And I can see if someone has difficulty seeing certain colours having a time with these maps, especially with black/dark gray ink used on green. 

Cards: Yes, accordingly to the new way of making a game, a game is not complete unless cards are needed. Seems every damn game I have bought has cards that need to be used... and I have grown so use to cards, if a game doesn't have then, I feel cheated for some reason. Oh well. 😁

The cards look to be regulation size, with a nice background and a lot of info on the front - a lot of information. If you sleeve, these took my Dragon Shield side loading sleeves (AT-13101) at 63mm x 88mm or 2.5" x 3.5".  

Why Dragon Shield? I got a ton of sleeves of various sizes and manufacturers and these were just the first ones I grab. Good for meeeeeee. 😂

Player Aids:  Yes, several PAs are included with the game. Such as the terrain chart on one side with a detailed leader / unit diagrams, unit facings, Sequence of play, etc on the other.  And there is the important Tracking Chart (not shown).

Scenarios:  The scenarios are of Marathon 490 BC, Thermopylae 480 BC, Plataea 479 BC, and Mycale 479 BC. Each has a scenario card listing the amount and type of units available to each side, victory conditions, etc.

Setup Time:  From 15 minutes for Thermopylae to possible 20 minutes+ for the others.  Got to dig out the counters, the density markers, leader counters, etc. 

 

Playing Time:  The designer says that a game can be from two to three hours long... right... My first game was a couple of hours and was Thermopylae.  We only got thru to the beginning of turn 2 when I gave up.  Next game was at 4 hours, to turn 3, and at that point I couldn't take it any more and "skedaddled" the hell out of the game.  Then had another try, but after re-reading the rules becoming more frustrated, so no.

 

Complexity:  The game is rated somewhere between low to moderate in complexity. Maybe to someone who plays tactical games such as Squad Leader and the like of the new tactical ones from Lock n Load, GMT, Compass and I am sure a few other companies make them too, this game would be "easy" or low complexity. But it was hard to next-to-impossible for me.

What I did not like or soap box time:  I found the game very hard to play and understand. The rules were very confusing and seems to need a lot of extra counters for nothing, but to show how many lines of troops or the density of a unit - lol, as bad as having 4 counters for unit breakdown in some games.  If I want to play a miniatures game, then I would break out my Ancients 15 minis and go to town.  But I don't, I want to play a board game.

Another thing I do not care for is the game using "bucket of dice"  for it's CRT with possibility of rolling up to 8 dice depending on the scenario or card draw. 

1's or 2's hit, while 5's or 6's can reduce an enemy dice roll (9.4.6 "Resolve the Melee"). Too much noise and shades of Risk or Tunnels & Trolls (a RPG) with it's gobs n gobs of dice.  Maybe it is the feeling of power that one has if they roll lots of dice? I don't know.

And re-rolls are possible (rules 9.4.7, 9.7.4.1, and 9.4.7.2). WHAT?!? I can see Leonidas yelling at Xerxes, "DO OVER on those archers!".  Huh?!? I guess. NO, thank you, as what is rolled is rolled.

That's it:  And from here I am ending this review.  Not so much a review I guess. Did I waste my money? Hmmm, probably, but it gave me a chance to see a game from this designer/developer/graphics designer and learned not to waste anymore of my money on any of his other games. 

At first, I wasn't going to write this review, but after seeing and reading that Nagel gave himself a 10 rating on BGG to balance out the ratings (from my original "2", that was down graded to a "1" to balance out his rating. Why not? What is good for the goose is good for the gander. 😏 ) and commented that I did not play the game, I decided "well, go for it" as that statement he made is truly false. Of course I tried to play it 3 times! No play, no review.

My favorite set of Ancient mini rules was and is De Bellis Antiquitatis. Great set of rules, even today, simple, fun, and cost effective for minis, but I know Phil Barker didn't appreciate or like anyone calling "shenanigans" on his rule sets, maybe it is the same here? I don't know, but possible. 

 

And I do have a favorite wargame of this period and it is HFDG's  A Clash of Chariots: The Battle of Kadesh, 1274 BC. Sort of one of those "waddle" games, though with hexes. Nicely done game is what I say.

 

Now some folks may like this game of B&B and some folks may not. And that is good as not everyone likes the same type of ice cream - I like coconut ice cream myself (thank you Southeast Asia tours) and only want enough people to like it, so it still gets made and sold over here. 😋

 

Note: $* means I have no idea of the cost as it is of two different prices.  Things change too much these days and I don't want to go back and have to change the blog again.

 

Off the soap box:   But to show I am not a beast (oh meow), here is some info for y'all -

 

if you would want to read the rules of the game, a pre-War Diary low res pdf is available here. It is a little different and only 20 pages, versus 23, but that is probably because of the designer's notes at the end and the low-res graphics do suck, but with enough squinting, ok.  Take your time, read the rules fully, don't hurry thru them. And make up your own mind.  

 

And after reading the rules, if you would like to purchase  this game, please go here. If you are a WD subscriber, you can get the game at a reduce rate.  

 

Note - you can subscribe at the same time as buying the game. War Diary is a great gamer magazine and offers the mag in both a paper copy or pdf (cheaper).

 

You may want to look at some of his other games, revamps of two Avalon Hill Games - 1914 and Guadalcanal.  New maps, counters, and rules, etc.  They are on the same page as Blade & Bow. 

 

RECAP - Folks may like this game, then my best to all. Enjoy and sleeve, as nacho cheese and finger crud is not good for game cards (or baseball cards as "Comic book guy" found out). 

 

And please do notice, I do not use the new fangled idea of using BCE (Before Common Era) or CE (Common Era). These were from liberal thinking jerks who wanted to get religion out of everything.  I remember while in college a new history book and geography book came out that replaced BC and AD with this crap.  No, I told the professor, I will still use the old way.  I never got dinged for that.  

 

And though the title of this review is from Shakespeare, King John, Act 4, Scene 3, it fits the game for everything, from game maps to the counters to the rules. They are pretty, but (here is the second part of the quote)...

 

'The earth had not a hole to hide this deed'

-ab

 

 

This blog is considered to be a living blog. Changes will be made to it as needed to clarify, correct errors or update with new information.  Also, this is my opinion, right or wrong. And, if you don't want your graphics used for this review, let me know. I will remove them FAST.