War rages for possession of Tir Nan Og, not only in the world of mortals, but also among the gods. The followers of Danu the Earth Goddess must protect their lands from the ever-encroaching Sour Magic of the Drunes. Should they fail, the power of the Earth will be corrupted to bring about the arrival of the great worm Crom Cruach, leech of decay, devourer of realities.
There are a number of ways this mystical aspect of battles is represented in the Sláine Miniatures Game. Most prominently are Blood points, which chart the successes of the heroes and villains and allow them to use strange and deadly powers. These powers take the form of two types of cards – Feats and Boons. Feats are individual acts specific to each Champion while Boons are powers of the gods that some characters can bring down upon the battlefield.
Blood Points
Blood points represent both the power and the favour of the immortal entities that feud over Tir Nan Og. In most cases both players start with the same number of Blood points to spend during a battle, but can earn more through achieving specific objectives and performing certain heroic or heinous acts. They collect their Blood points into a ‘Sacrifice Pool’ to spend in a variety of ways during a game.
Blood points can always be earnt by pulling a star chip from the bag, overkilling an opposing character, achieving a bloody slaughter in close combat, or even sacrificing a friendly model at the start of the game, to name but a few.
Players can spend Blood points in a number of ways, most commonly to use Boons, but also to reroll a failed Cool test, generate a new cosmic alignment (see below) or in the case of Drunes, sacrifice models to leech their life energy for their wounded heroes or champions.
Cosmic Alignment
Before the game, a dice is rolled to determine the cosmic alignment of the sun and moon, though this can change during the course of the game which will determine the efficacy of feats. Each feat is described as a Sun Feat or a Moon Feat. If the cosmic alignment is Sun Ascendant, as an example, a Sun feat will automatically nullify a Moon feat in a combat where both are played. Other alignments can prevent active models even attempting to play Feats of a single type – fortunate indeed then, that a Blood Point can change the alignment if needed.
Boon Cards
Boons represent actions that come about by the will of the gods such as magical effects, the timely arrival of reinforcements and shifts in the balance of cosmic power. Some characters have access to Boon cards to represent these manifestations and abilities.
Individual models, as noted in their rules will dictate how many Boon cards they contribute, or indeed if they contribute a specific Boon card to the player at battle’s beginning. A Hero or Champion can even pray to the gods during game to draw new boons, though at the cost of a double action.
Individual Boon cards will describe their specific effects and often (but not always) require the cost of a single or double action.
Feat Cards
The greatest heroes and champions are capable of mighty feats of daring and martial skill beyond the capacity of ordinary warriors. Some feats may be taught in training by grizzled mentors or else learned on the field of battle, but others can be magic charms or the blessings of the gods. Each Champion or Hero is unique in their abilities, this is represented by Feat cards in Sláine.
Heroes and champions will draw Feat cards at the start of the game from a common feat deck, champions will get a single feat whilst heroes may get two or three! Once drawn, that feat belongs to that hero. There are also unique Feats that pertain to specific heroes (for example, Sláine’s Warp Out).
Before rolling any dice in close combat, players must decide on which of their feats they wish to use. Each card will confer a bonus, such as improving a model’s stats or modifying their combat results. Each Feat also features a Heroic Feat effect that occurs if the correct dice combination is rolled in the ensuing combat.
Example Characters:
Sláine mac Roth
Hero of the Goddess: Sláine fights as a hero and defender of the EarthGoddess. At the beginning of the game draw twoFeat cards for Sláine.
Warp Out: Sláine is capable of entering a Warp Spasm and channelling earth power directly through himself. Sláine always has the Warp Out feat in addition to his randomly drawn ones.
Lord Weird Slough Feg
Sour Magic Practitioner: Slough Feg uses corrupted Earth magic – Sour magic – for his power. At the beginning of the game draw three Sour Magic Boon cards and keep up to two of them for Slough Feg.
Hero of Crom Cruach: Feg fights as a hero of Crom Cruach, the great Time Worm. At the beginning of the game draw two Feat cards for Feg.
Deathless: Feg long since corrupted his humanity in an effort to cling to power and life eternal, no matter how foetid and rotting it may be. Feg always has the Deathless feat in addition to his randomly drawn ones.
Kiss My Axe!
The starter set, named in honour of Sláine Mac Roth’s utterance when bringing his favoured blade “Brainbiter” to bear, is the ideal starting point – containing scenery, tokens, cards and all the rules you need to play, including scenarios, advanced rules and profile lists to create your warbands, not only for the heroes and warriors of the Earth Tribes and Drune Lords included in this set, but many far beyond.
The Kiss My Axe! starter set contains:
- 8x Warlord Resin miniatures with plastic bases:
- Sláine Mac Roth
- Sláine in warp spasm
- Nest
- Ukko the Dwarf
- Slough Throt
- 3 Skull Swords with sword & shield
- 1x resin Weirdstone with Drune Priest
- 2x MDF Celtic huts and Fences
- 108-page full-colour A4 softback rulebook
- 8-page Quick-Start scenario booklet
- Full-colour, double-sided die-cut game tokens
- 4x Character cards
- 2x Unit cards
- 5x Hero Feat cards
- 13x Feat cards
- 18x Boon cards
- Plastic game tokens
- 2x Six-sided spot dice
- 8x Combat dice
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