Eden Studios' Fields of Blood... is it good?

dagger · Dec 23, 2003

I'm glad, I have been waiting for this since the original press release way back when.

JoeGKushner · Dec 23, 2003

Eden Studios Inc said:
Yes and we just shipped out restocks to many of our distributors today as they sold out allready

Well, as I posted on another board in response to this not being hardcover, I hope that like Dream Pod 9's Mecha Compendium, that a deluxe edition, in hardcover, with more options and materials, is soon forthcoming then.

Vrylakos · Dec 23, 2003

I eagerly await more reviews, comparisons and info.

Frex, a table of contents for Fields of Blood?

Thanks to all ahead of time! I'm really interested in picking up the best of these battle/kingdom books.

Vrylakos

MerricB · Dec 23, 2003

Psion said:
This is not accurate. Did you read all of Cry Havoc? It has both a mass combat system and a army combat system.

Cry Havoc does not have miniature rules to support large battles. This is a damning flaw of that product.

Cheers!

Emiricol · Dec 24, 2003

MerricB said:
Cry Havoc does not have miniature rules to support large battles. This is a damning flaw of that product.

Cheers!

I am really happy it doesn't. If it was (yet another) miniature wargame, I wouldn't have bought it. I wanted something to resolve wars and/or battles, but not into the minitature wargaming for D&D. Cry Havoc does a superb job at everything I bought it for.

Sorry to continue the hijacking of this thread...

mattcolville · Dec 24, 2003

JoeGKushner said:
Well, as I posted on another board in response to this not being hardcover, I hope that like Dream Pod 9's Mecha Compendium, that a deluxe edition, in hardcover, with more options and materials, is soon forthcoming then.

Apart from a hard cover, what other options and materials do you feel are missing? I'm sure there's a lot we could do with a second edition, but I'd like to see what people think about the first one.

Heretic Apostate · Dec 24, 2003

For those interested, I'm offering a Share the Love on Fields of Blood (and Testament!) in the Marketplace forum.

That means, to those not in the know, an additional 10% off of the already 30% off at Amazon. (Net of 37%, not 40%, off.)

It ain't happening until mid-January. As it is, FoB is listed as "1 to 2 months," but I hope it'll drop down to 1 to 2 days by the time I place my order.

JoeGKushner · Dec 24, 2003

Well, as mentioned, I'm still way into the start of it.

One thing I'd like to see are more monsters done up in unit individuals. This is one of the things I liked about Empire, don't like about Cry Havok. Appendix D provides a great list including some stnaards, like skeletons, that are really every day useful but I'd like more. Heck, maybe even a Liber Bestiarus section for those with that book (or a web expansion?)

More material on infantry. For example, page 61 has meidum infantry and Lord Jaspyr's Own, but how about human archers, crossbow men, and other common units?

In addition, in siege weapons, there doesn't seem to be anything for fantasy based siege weapons. Am I explaining that? For example, Doom striders from Bastion Press, has large siege weapons in the form of mecha, as does Dream Pod 9's book. Heck, the picture next to siege weapons looks like one of the flail snails with a castle upon it's back. I do like the gnomish rocket battering rams though, just want more stuff like it.

Not truly necessary, but some core classes to take advantage of this information might be useful. The fighter has always been a good soldier, but due to limited skill points and skills (no profession skill?) isn't the best suited to lead in some situations.

Like I noted, these are just some quick observations and I haven't finished the book so they may be in there and I just haven't gotten to them yet.

Grimn · Dec 24, 2003

I love it. Strongholds & Dynasties was ok. Lots of info on (duh) strongholds which is usefull. Empire was... eh. It had a lot of good ideas. And it's workable. But I felt like there was a lot missing. From what I've read of Fields it beats out both.

The only thing that doesn't quite sit well is the 1 hex=12 miles in the realm rules. But after looking over everything it's only a matter of increasing the scale and the resource multiplier per hex.

Still need to read over it further to decide for sure.

-Nathan

Emiricol · Dec 24, 2003

JoeGKushner said:
Well, as mentioned, I'm still way into the start of it.

One thing I'd like to see are more monsters done up in unit individuals. This is one of the things I liked about Empire, don't like about Cry Havok. Appendix D provides a great list including some stnaards, like skeletons, that are really every day useful but I'd like more. Heck, maybe even a Liber Bestiarus section for those with that book (or a web expansion?)
<snip>

Definitely. That was a significant weakness in Cry Havoc. I asked them if they would be putting out a supplement, and suggested something that did up the humanoid races according to their Organization listings in the Monster Manual, but was told there would be no such supplement (or any supplement for that matter, at least they don't plan to.)

Empire, meanwhile, does up a ton of races for their combat system, which might ultimately make it more useful.

So I agree - I'd like Fields of Blood to go the way Empire did in that regard