Heroes of Baler

June 27, 1898, Baler, Principe District, Luzon Island (Philippines). With the arrival of the Filipino insurgents from the Katipunan and in the midst of the Spanish-American War, a Spanish detachment made up of 53 soldiers and the local priest took refuge behind the walls of the town church, remaining completely isolated. Thus began one of the longest sieges in history that lasted 337 days, where the Spanish, despite suffering so many hardships, defended the last Spanish overseas position with great heroism. It would not be until June 2, 1899, when the act of capitulation was signed. Discover and enter a siege so unique to this exciting.

Heroes of Baler On April 27, the US fleet of the Asiatic Squadron, commanded by Commodore Dewey, left Hong Kong for the Philippines. On May 1, he reached Manila Bay and defeated the Spanish fleet, commanded by Admiral Montojo, resulting in its entirety being sunk. The Cavite arsenal and plaza surrendered to the Americans the next day. The Battle of Cavite marked the beginning of the end of the Spanish presence in the Philippines. On May 19, Aguinaldo returned to the Philippines on a US ship to lead the revolution, which spread throughout the island of Luzon. At the end of May, news reached Baler about the start of the war against the United States and the defeat of the Spanish fleet in Cavite. These were some of the last news received by land from abroad since the rebels prevented the passage of news through the mountains. The Spanish in Baler were completely cut off.

The Filipinos tried at all costs to demonstrate to the Spanish detachment that the war had ended, but despite the numerous attempts at parliament that occurred during the months of siege, the Spanish refused to capitulate and surrender the plaza outright. After numerous attacks and attempts to take over the church by the Filipinos, it would not be until the morning of June 2 when Martín Cerezo began to reread the newspapers that Aguilar had left behind and those, he thought were Filipino forgeries in order to confuse them. for them to give up. In one of them, he found a small review that made him see that the newspapers were true, as well as his news: he realized that the war was over and that there was no point in continuing to fight. The review, within the section of military destinations, was the announcement of the new destination in Malaga of the lieutenant of the scale of the Infantry reserve Francisco Díaz Navarro. Martín Cerezo had coincided with the officer, of whom he was a close friend, before he was assigned to Cuba. Díaz had told him that at the end of the campaign he planned to request a transfer to the Andalusian capital, where his girlfriend and her family lived, so Martín Cerezo accepted the news as true and, by extension, all the newspapers and news that Aguilar had left for the that finally, that same day, the capitulation of the Spanish detachment took place.

THE GAME Heroes of Baler is a tactical game where players will take control of one of the two available sides (Spanish or Filipino). Both sides are asymmetrical so that the victory conditions and the way of playing are different for each side. Throughout the game the players (besieger and besieged) will try to achieve victory by carrying out firefights, raids, artillery attacks, repairs, trench construction... This is a game for 1 to 2 players with a game length within one and two hours. In the two-player game each player will take the role of besieger (Filipino) or besieged (Spanish). In the solitary mode, the player will take the control of the Spanish as besieged faction. Each game turn represents approximately two months of siege. The main panel represents the town of Baler with the church that the Spanish defended in the center and around it the Filipino bahays and trenches. In addition, the board shows two exclusive areas one for each player. Based on an game system which mix hand management and action points, the turn begins with the initiative phase where each side will try to seize the initiative in turn order. Next, in turn order the players will play their event phase where they may play up to two event cards and may play support cards to power up the played event(s) if they meet the requirements. Once this phase is finished, the events phase takes place where the Spanish player will have to deal with the lack of food that triggers the beriberi epidemic and the desertions while the Filipino side will have to deal with the supply of supplies and from the turn 4 with E.E.U.U. The player with the initiative will proceed to perform a mandatory firefight phase. After this phase comes the action phase. In turn order, players will play the rest of the cards in their hand as action points. The player second in turn order will proceed with the second phase of mandatory shootouts. Finally, a maintenance phase is carried out where the players will check victory conditions, take enemy fog of war cards and decide whether to give them to the enemy in exchange for a common card or keep them in their discard and prevent the enemy from obtaining that card. Finally, the military units are replaced in empty guard posts and detachment area, leader check rolls are made, and the next turn is prepared finally.

Components: • 1 game board • 110 playing cards (55 in Spanish and 55 in English) • 55 cards solitaire mode (27 in Spanish, 27 in English and 1 help card in both languagues) • 6 help sheets (Two sets of 3 sheets in Spanish and another in English: 2 competitive mode help sheets and 1 solitaire help sheet) • 3 cloth bags (Blue for Spanish player, red for Philippine player and black for solitaire mode). • 190 counters (160 size 2x2cm. aprox. 0.8x0.8inches + 30 1.5x1.5cm. aprx. 0.6x0.6 inches) • 2 rulebook (Spanish and English) • 2 scenario book (Spanish and English) • 10 six-sided dice (5 blue dice and 5 red dice)

-description from designer