Video Game / Blood and Iron

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Blood and Iron is a Roblox first-person shooter taking place in the Napoleonic Wars, created by CoderQwerty. It is not to be confused with Guts & Blackpowder, a similar game that was inspired by Blood and Iron.

Two teams of up to 20 players each fight each other in a team deathmatch (TDM) gamemode across almost 30 maps. Combatants include the big players like the United Kingdom, Russia, Prussia, and, of course, France, while other, lesser-known factions like the Duchy of Warsaw, Spain, and various German states are also playable.

Players can play as one of several different units, such as Infantry, Skirmishers, Artillery, Cavalry, or Militia. They can also select different classes, including as an infantryman, an officer, a sapper, or a musician. All classes have a melee weapon.

Play the game here.

Blood and Iron provides examples of:

• Acceptable Breaks from Reality: In the map Foggy Marshland, you can drown if you stay in the marsh for too long, even if your head is above the water. This avoids players camping in the water.
• Artistic License: Quite a lot, although most of these are justifiable and/or minor, and some of them are Anachronism Stew.
  • Regiments can appear in maps based on real life battles that they shouldn't appear in, such as with the Irish Legion in the Bridge of Arcole.
  • The French 1er Regiment de Tirailleurs de Garde uses rifles. In reality, the French Army in the Napoleonic Wars rarely used rifles as Napoleon personally disliked them for conflicting with his army's doctrine and having high manufacturing costs. Some regiments like the voltigeurs of the Tirailleurs de Corse did use rifles, but for the most part, the French Army did not focus on them.
  • Some nations have inaccurate victory themes. For example, Nassau uses Willhelmus (the Dutch national anthem) while Bavaria uses Bayernhymne, which wasn't made until 1835, twenty years after the end of the Napoleonic Wars.
  • The Brunswick Ducal Corps uses the Duchy of Brunswick flag, which was formed in 1815 but after the Napoleonic Wars.
  • Prussia and Austria can use sappers. In reality, the Prussians and Austrians didn't have dedicated sappers or lack thereof, but rather "pioniere" (pioneers), with more duties than sappers and organized separately from the infantry.
  • Due to the fact that some uniforms for nations are in different eras (like post-1806 Prussian uniforms or post-1812 French uniforms), it can create oddities like not matching with other regiments that are not affected by uniform changes, or appearing in maps where the uniform should be older/newer.
  • All French line infantry rankers wear two crossbelts on their torso, when only NCOs like corporals, sergeants, and sergeant-majors would have them.
• Anti-Infantry: Essentially the purpose of cavalry, especially the Lancer and Hussar classes. They can run down a stray ranker and easily slash them to death.
  • Artillery can also do this, potentially cutting down several infantrymen with a single canister shot.
• Anti-Structure: Ironically, sappers are the primary anti structure class, as they possess giant axes which can destroy fortifications very quickly, while pressing x with the hammer and shovel is an alternative way to destroy them, albeit slower. Uniquely, other than shooting at it, the shovel is the only way to get rid of dirt built by sappers.
  • Artillery can also be good at anti-structuring via round shot, although this is rarer and more situational due to the possible position of the cannons. Irregulars that spawn with axes, hammers, and mini-hammers can fulfil this role as well.
• Awesome, but Impractical: The Line Infantry musket is the classic weapon of the Napoleonic Wars, and it has a bayonet which is helpful in CQB. However, the bayonet makes the range poorer, and the reload time is lengthy, to say the least.
• Bayonet Ya: All Line Infantry muskets have a bayonet equipped, which can be used with X. It is a very effective weapon, as it deals the same amount of damage as the sword/sabre but with higher attacking speed and range, plus it has the added benefit of dealing bonus damage to horses. On the other hand, it is still pitiful at damaging sapper fortifications and its hitbox may be an issue in close quarters, forcing you to use a different sidearm if you have one.
• Everything Fades: Subverted. The bodies of the fallen never despawn, making scenes like this common across the battlefield.
• Friendly Enemy: Musician players (particularly fifers) are notorious for doing this. Though most of the time they're genuinely trying to be peaceful, some actually use this to their advantage to get close to the enemy and strike them when least expected.
• Lethal Joke Weapon:
  • The.... Branch, which only Irregulars can get randomly. Though it only tickles sapper fortifications and you're slow when carrying it, the Branch can kill players in two hits, so even dishing out one hit will severely wound a player and force them to be a lot more cautious.
  • The Mini Hammer, again for Irregulars only. Though it is statistically the same as the knife, it has a unique property; extra damage to fortifications. This means they will absolutely shred sapper defenses, especially if assisted by other players, so even though the hammers don't do much damage, they're still good support items.
• Mechanically Unusual Class: The Irregular (colloquially Partisan) class is a very unique class, where its main gimmick is essentially having randomized loadouts per round, unlike the other classes whose loadouts are preset. Although it means you will get shoddy loadouts (like a knife and a scythe), you can also get pretty decent or good loadouts (like a rifle and a hand axe or a light musket and a sabre). As a result, the Irregular can become a Quirky Bard kind of class. Another unique factor of the Irregulars include having access to weapons other classes would not get, like scythes, big hammers, mini-hammers, etc. Irregulars, however, are rare, as only Spain, Warsaw, and Russia have access to them.
• The Musketeer: Rankers of the Infantry and Skirmisher units.
• Player Mooks: Every soldier in the game is nondescript and expendable. Besides customizing their appearance, you can't affect the player character.
• Shovel Strike: Irregulars can have a war shovel as a part of their random loadout. It is powerful, able to kill players in just two hits, although it suffers from being slower and not having the ability to destroy fortifications as good as the Axe and Hammer.