Pledge To By Fire & Sword For Historical Action
May 16, 2013 by brennon
By Fire & Sword is a game that we saw while at Salute 2013 and it immediately caught our eye. The company, Wargamer, are now in their final week of an awesome Kickstarter that has bust through its target easily.
Update: The folks from By Fire & Sword have now added a video to their Kickstarter page which you can check out above!
"The By Fire and Sword wargame is a comprehensive system including game rules, historical background for the forces of all the combatants, battle group creation rules and scenarios, but most of all a huge number of wargaming figures representing all the military formations of the warring parties. The rules system allows for the use of a variety of tactics, formations and ways of warfare used during the 17th century by all armies participating in the conflicts. We placed particular emphasis on the issue of command and control on the battlefield and its effectiveness in various armies. Depending on the experience of gamers and number of figures available, as well as time and space for the game, By Fire and Sword battles can be played on 2 different levels. The number and types units available to the player depend on the level chosen. Game at the Skirmish level can be completed in less than an hour. The Divisional level enables recreating larger battles. In the future we will add new rules enabling playing truly epic battles. We hope that the Kickstarter campaign will help us achieve this goal."
As you can see it's a wargame filled with loads of miniatures for the period on a grand 15mm scale. It also draws on armies from the continent that you wouldn't normally fight with. The pledge levels so far include miniatures and even terrain.
Above is a selection of their 15mm Big Terrain but they also have smaller pieces for barricades and walls too. You could have a nicely populated battlefield within no time.
What do you think of this period of history and especially gaming in it? Could By Fire & Sword be your first step into the world of historical warfare?
Check out the Kickstarter for more!
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Whilst the publications look nice and attractive, I can’t help but feel that this is quite expensive for a 15mm game. 2x skirmish armies + rule book and a few command figs (which would equate to a starter box of most other games) = $170!! as opposed to £70 RRP for a warmachine starter that is already established within the market, therefore little risk to customers. Would have expected a Kick Starter such as this to be around 50% of this price tbh. Maybe others feel differently and don’t mind the cost etc, so I hope it does well for… Read more »
basically you need 9 boxes for a divisional lvl game which is a preety big army.so the cost would be about.£150. you cant get an army anywhere for that money nowadays. my Khador for instance for a flexible game stands me in about a grand.
Mick The question is how many miniatures you get in Warmachine starter? In each of our skirmish sets you get at least 33 mounted models (in some even more) with all accessories (wire spears, banners, bases etc.). How many pages Warmachine book have? Our 408, full color and hardback. I think that such a comparison is not quite accurate. Our “skirmish” game is equivalent of quite big battle in other games. Prices on KS are reduced of course. It is not 50% – sorry but Your expected figure was a bit too low. Structure of production do not let us… Read more »
Thanks for the response @Byfireandsword, I was not trying to have a go at you matey. 🙂 With regards to warmachine miniatures, you don’t get as many, agreed, but they are a lot larger scale than the 15mm.. Perhaps the Flames of War starter box “Open Fire” is a better comparison and costs only $70. Although it is plastic, the initial cost of tooling would be far greater than the spin cast moulds. Ref rule book: Yours does seem very nice, but if it is a skirmish game, would a mini rule book be better for transporting about? Again with… Read more »
Mike Those are good points. Please note however that Battlefront made his plastic Open Fire after approx 10 years on market. As I can see they give good examples. So, please give us some time on market and we can talk then… Again about level of the game – our skirmish level is fully playable game, it’s not few minis per side but full battle groups (few companie strong) per side. It is not something entirely basic. Entire rulebook is required then. Nevertheless, you have right small version of rulebook without huge part with army lists would be handy. Such… Read more »
This is a fantastic looking wargame. The rulebook is lavishly illustrated, professionally presented, and large enough to beat your opponents to death with. The range of models which go along with the game are also some of the best 15mm scale models I have seen. The cost for getting into this game, considering the number of models you get, the quality of the publication, and the additional materials is very generous for such a new company. I must also say that the rules themselves are full of very clever, rationale, and intuitive ideas. They reflect the historical period and flavour… Read more »
Having been fortunate enough to have a copy of the book – it is every bit as lovely as it looks. I strongly recommend it!
Have to agree that the book looks nice mate. Not a huge book fan myself as I am dyslexic, but for those fluffers out there, they Re in for a treat it lookz like. I am more of a model man myself… hehe. Quite litrally, ask Justing or Mike. 😉
Mick
Will you be playing or is the book just eye candy?
I play everything, which in terms means that I play very little.
I can relate to that.
My brother in-law loves this scale for games! I better tell him about this ASAP!
This Chap is a great fan of the game, but I think he still gives good and concise reasons for why he finds it so good;
http://anatolisgameroom.blogspot.com/2013/05/by-fire-sword-kickstarter-4-days-left.html
For those that interested how to expand basic Skirmish set into strong division (and to see what cost is involved) we just posted update with some examples on KS:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1729776659/by-fire-and-sword-historical-tabletop-wargame/posts/482762
Regard
Konrad Sosiński
By Fire and Sword team
you got to be a proper historical wargamer to appreciate this game. I have painted one of the boxes which sell for 15 bucks. the figs are metal you get metal bases ( unheard of ) you get any additional stuff such as spears flaggs etc in really good packaging.the book which i have thanks to TTN. and you certainly get bang for your buck. 400 pages of first class info. also the box sets fit in with the unit sizes in the rules so unlike lot of manufacturers you dont get lots of useless stuff left over. we will… Read more »
If you’re simply looking for some good historical game that gives you models, rules, and bang for your buck there are certainly better alternatives out there, but BF&S has found a niche within the rich and relatively unexplored setting of Poland and eastern Europe. If you’re concerned about the game flopping, it’s been going strong in Poland for a few years now, with good support, regular releases and tournaments, so there’s little chance of failure now. Even if the English version goes under for some reason, you can just get translated updates and stuff.