Valor and Steel and Flesh

Battle Game Rules

These are our rules for battle games, featuring the wonders of steam technology and the awesome might of otherworldly marvels, are based on the renowned Brother Against Brother system (originally designed by Ivor Janci) from H.G. Walls.

This is a modest set of rules and notes for playing battle games within the bounds of the somewhat nebulous area known as Victorian Science Fiction aka VSF. It is not a strict historical, or even alternately historical, approach and leans, rather heavily, on the heroic approach so favored by Hollywood in its so-called historical productions.

Much of the background material in the rules refers to a fantastic version of Mars, but we played many of our test games in other settings. After all, you're not going to get much chance to use the submersible rules on the dry and dessicating world of Parroom Station's Mars.

Many elements of the game are tailored to the Parroom Station background and Parroom Station Miniatures. Does that mean that you can only play with Parroom Station Miniatures. Don,t be silly. Use what you works for you. We do.

Valor and Steel and Flesh is vailable from Brigade Games for a mere $25.

Oops

Our rules, like all things, are not perfect. In the sidebar, we address some of the issues with the first printing of Valor and Steel and Flesh in an effort to make your playing easier.

Omissions are the things that just plain got left out, having failed to attract the attention of our miniscule legion of proof-readers.

Corrections are the things that got in, but shouldn't have, since they are wrong. We'll set the record right herein.

Clarifications are our attempt to make what we said make more sense, or to clarify a concept or rule.

Expansions are elaborations on something found in the rules. For completely new rules, see the New Rules page (coming eventually to a website very, very near this one - well, actually, to this very one.)

Collected Errata to Date: 8/23/06

Impact Templates (Omission)

The dimensions for the Impact templates of Rapid Fire Guns and Heat Ray (swaths) were omitted. They are:

Rapid Fire Gun: Impact, 3" x 5"

Heat Ray (swath): Impact, 4" x 12"

Smoke Launchers (Omission)

You will note that no where in the rules is there a mention of the range for smoke launchers. Cephalid smoke launchers use the close and effective ranges of a light gun. Their shells unleash the black smoke as detailed in the Black Smoke rules. In the future we may detail other types of smoke launcher with different stats.

Cephalid Movement Rate (Clarification)

When outside of their machines, Cephalids move as "infantry," despite not having feet. If it suits your image of them, you could class them as "slow." Please, make sure your playing partners are ready to go along with you on this point.

Critters with "Terror" Ability (Clarification)

Our current bestiary includes two critters that cause Terror (Tyrannosaurs and the Great Gorilla) but who do not have Terror numbers as the morale rules suggest they ought to. This is not a mistake. These critters already affect morale due to their Size, but they also get the Terror effect of making all morale problems serious. These two critters effectively have a Terror number = 0.

Terror numbers may appear on future critters, especially those of small siize that still cause morale problems as, say, a supernatural man-sized monster might.

Morale Effects of Damage to Artillery (Clarification)

The rules refer to the possibility of damaging an artillery piece, thus affecting the morale of the crew, but do not seem to offer a mechanism by which a gun may be damaged. Right now, there are a few circumstances where a gun may be damaged, such as when it is limbered or is on a pedestal mount, but the deployed weapons of Gun Units are essentially safe from harm. This is a "simplification of play" decision and you may not find it suitable.

Try this: When a gun or explosive scores a hit on a Gun Unit with an unmodified die roll of "0," assume that it has damaged the weapon of the Gun Unit. Or if that's too deterministic for you, make a Reliability test to see if the weapon is damaged.

Crippled Vehicles (Clarification/Expansion)

When infantry assault an immobile vehicle, the vehicle uses its Protection dice differently for the "melee." They still apply, but are "defensive" only. This means that they do not eliminate any infantry they are "fighting." Dice from contra-personnel systems are as dangerous as ever.

An immobile vehicle draws an extra card from the Fate Deck when checking for damage from being rammed.

As should be obvious, an immobile vehicle cannot execute any morale failure result that requires movement. It must stand there and take whatever comes its way.

The "Immortal" GPH (Clarification)

You may have noticed that a single soldier cannot kill a four-armed Germ Plasm Hybrid. This is not a mistake. It is supposed to require a hero or a swarm of soldiers to take down one of these ferocious fighting men. Our advice: shoot them before they close for melee.

How to Really Damage Mechanified Infantry (Correstion)

You will find what appear to be two ways to damage mechanified troops in melee. You have found an artifact of changing rules during playtesting that made it into print. Oops.

You should be using the HTK stat as when fighting something monstrous, rather than drawing fate cards against the Vehicle Damage Table. This will keep melee more consistent and distinct from shooting.

Other ways to game on Mars:

"The Sword, the Flame, and the Red Sand"

The Sword and The Flame (TSATF to veterans) is a wonderfully versatile set of rules by Larry V. Brom. It bills itself as "a set of introductory rules for the conduct of miniature battles of the British Empire" and is focused primarily on the 1870-80s. TSATF is well proven on its home ground, and is a game for those more interested in story and "stirring actions" than competitive gaming (and thus approved by the Station Management.) Check out TSATF for yourself at its web page.

The official description of TSATF speaks of the "British Empire." Obviously we have had to broaden the scope a bit (given our principal locale is on Mars) as well as add some technical wonders (given our bent for VSF.)

We have reconstituted our early adaptations of Martian battles using TSATF. You can download them here.

"Mars by G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T."

On the rules front, there is also G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T. (Glorious Adventures in Science Loosely Involving Generally Historical Times) by Christopher Palmer and John R. "Buck" Surdu. These are a set of mechanics for playing out even more "cinematic" skirmishes than TSATF and are already tailored to deal with VSF. Rousing!

We don't have a specific adaption of our Mars to these rules, but the rules are "generic" and you can easily tailor them to suit your own vision.

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