It is with joy I have invested my first paycheck in Hammer of the Scots (second edition), the second game with the block system I have played. But with a theme that is much more interesting for me than crusading knights in the middle-east.

The game cover holds a nice feeling of the battle to come, as the mounted knight is in close combat with a lot of infantry. Opening up the box, we come first to the plastic bag containing the actual blocks and the paste-ups for them. Personally this made a problem as they where very hard for me to remove, this might be due to my clumsiness, but it might not be. It is recommended that you attach with good care and not in a rush as soon as you got the game so you can touch your fantastic new game.

The map is not that solid, but it still works good for me and you can easily see what it means as you are reading the rules, but there was a print error and the heraldic shield of Mar had to be added, from one of those rather hard sticker papers, and you had to cut it.

The rules I found quite easy to read, and in a nice and easy to understand layout. It also had good examples. The last thing in the game box was the the dice, and they scared me, as the last time I rolled those type of dice they was very much against me.

The game cards is in great need of sleeves as they are booth sensitive and hard to shuffle as they are, they do look quite good though. The event card has easy to understand text and a well designed style.

The movement in the game, with the borders being the limit for how much army to move, does work good, but might be a bit of different thinking if you are used too having roads that limits the troupe amount allowed to move.

The battle, is good as you can see with the block system. I find the system wonderful, but I can see people how would not like it. Either due to few dice, or due to many dice. This is not a game to play if you want to roll 40 dice at a time, but it is not a game for you if you don't want to roll dice at all, or just a few dice. For those of you that have not played a block game yet, this is the system used in Hammer of the Scots (and in Crusader Rex too). You're troupes have a power/life indicator that is changed as you rotate the block, it also have a priority and a number value in the bottom right corner. First the defending player rolls all his troupes with the A priority, each die that is below or equal to the number on the block you are rolling for is counted as a hit, and your opponent rotate down the power of the strongest of his blocks a step for each hit (the strongest block might change, and then how to rotate down change). Then the attacker rolls his A and so it continues for each priority character (A-C), then after those you start with A again. In Hammer of scots this just h appends three times and then the attacker have to flee. The defending player might choice to flee earlier instead of rolling dice, as can the attacking player.

The fog of war system, with the excitement of not knowing what and who will be hiding on the other side of the block that you feel a need to attack, or who is it that is coming towards you, do you need to better your defenses, or is it just a faint, a few week troupes. Not knowing whats coming, is a really important aspect of the game and the game system.

Wintering is a very important part of the game, in difference to Crusader Rex, the block game I have previously played, this is not just about balancing the castle limits, it is also about controlling areas where nobles come from, as they convert to your side if you holds them. This is the key too the game, and also the goal with the game, to control the nobles.

Reinforcements are an important aspect of the game, and it is, I think essential for the Scots player to get his play of this correct. This might be the key to turning the game, how the Scots player deploy, how the English man deploy and how both draws their reinforcements , this is much more important than how you roll dies.

This is a game I would recommend people who as I , are just getting in to block games, although the bad paste-ups is a problem, and personally a knife and some cutting was necessary to make the blocks to be unmarked. A utility knife is really your friend for this. If you are usually in to Eurogames, do not like luck based games or don't find the theme interesting you should avoid this game though.