Thursday, February 13, 2014

Another Song of Blades and Heroes



Following hot of the heels of our  first game we played another game of Song of Blades and Heroes Thursday afternoon. 

As soon as we finished our first game Finnegan started pouring over the rules and started making up his own warband. Where there weren’t stats for what he had or wanted he very quickly figured out how to make his own with the point formula in the book. Before this afternoon’s game he helped Keira make up some stats for some of her figures which weren’t easily covered by the stats given in the book.

We tried a slightly bigger game with 300 points.

I think tomorrow I’ll have to roll out with a warband of my own…


SITUATION

The kids didn’t come up with a reason for why their warbands were fighting. Afterwards Keira explained to me she was very disappointed about this. I agreed – it’s always nice to have some  sort of context in which these battles take place (which is why I love campaigns...).

FORCES

Finnegan’s Ferocious Monsters

Ogre Cheif (72 Points) Quality 4+, Combat 4, Big, Long Move, Leader

Gnoll Guard (39 points) Quality 3+, Combat 3, Savage, Big

Bug Bear Warrior (35 points) Quality 4+, Combat 3, Slow, Long Move, Big

Minotaur (54 points) Quality 4+, Combat 4, Savage, Long Move, Big

2x Gargoyles (@38 Points) Quality 4+, Combat 3, Flying

=276 points


Keira’s Defenders of the Realm

Human Leader (60 Points) Quality 3+, Combat 3, Leader

Human Magic User (40 Points) Quality 3+, Combat 1, Magic User


Elf Elite Archer (70 Points) Quality 2+, Combat 3, Shooter (long), Unerring Aim, Good Shot

Snake Person (56 Points) Quality 3+, Combat 3, Shooter (long), Tail Slap, Aquatic

Small Dragon (80 Points) Quality 3+, Combat 4, Flying, Big, Shooter (long),


THE GAME

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)


Finnegan plotting out his Ferocious Monster Warband of DOOM!


Keira’s defenders of the Realm.


Finnegan’s Ferocious Monster Warband of DOOM!


The battlefield and starting positions.

End of Turn One – both sides making some cautious Free Moves.


Then Keira got things going by moving up her band and raining arrows and breath weapons down on the monster warband. The arrows were ineffective… The dragon’s breath weapon, however, knocked over the Minotaur!


On the monsters turn one of the gargoyles swooped in and attacked the Elf Elite Archer….


…and killed her!


The Bugbear charged in but didn’t have enough actions to actually attack the Young Dragon. The other Gargoyle also swooped in but didn’t have enough movement to make it into contact with anyone.

Then I think Finnegan rolled two fails on an activation roll and the turn passed back to Keira.


Keira’s Young Dragon attacked the Bugbear, but got knocked down for her efforts.

This is super bad getting knocked down on your own turn as all the enemies within reach could charge over there and have a stab at the downed opponent. So Keira did what she could to protect the downed dragon – for starters the mage Transfixed the Bugbear…


…and then the Snake-person cut down the Bugbear! That’s how it’s supposed to work: TEAM WORK!


Then her leader charged in and cut down one of the Gargoyles!

Things weren’t looking great for the Monsters.


On Finnegan’s next turn the Minotaur finally made it into combat, attacking the Snake-person


And knocked it down.


The remaining Gargoyle stepped in and killed the downed Young Dragon.


Then the Gnoll and Ogre Chief came charging in.


Not sure why I took this picture. Maybe the mage tried to do something but failed…?

I think the Human Leader and Gnoll traded blows but tied and nothing happened.


The Lizard-Person got up and ducked out of combat with the Minotaur – dodging his free hack.


But the Minotaur just followed the Snake into the swamp and cut it down.


The Human leader failed morale and fled the combat with the Gnoll – ducking the free hack. The Gargoyle swooped in to attack the Human Magic User… must have been a tie, nothing seems to have happened…? (this is what I get for posting game reports after midnight… I start to forget what happened…)


The Gnoll followed up but was beaten back – recoiling from the Human Leaders blows.


The Ogre Chief the charged in past the Gnoll…

At this point Keira conceded. We probably should have let Finnegan take free hacks at the Leader and Mage… but decided not to and let them go…

Another fast, furious and fun game of Song of Blades and Heroes. What warband will I roll out with tomorrow…? Dwarves? Elves? Some variety of Humans?! HOBBITS!!?

We’ll have to get Amanda playing this over the weekend.

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Probably another game report! We’re having FUN with this!

5 comments:

  1. Another fun report.

    I have some of those minis. (and hobbitses as well)

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  2. Great reports.
    I have the game, but have yet to play it. Seems to be a great game to game with the kids.

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  3. SBH are my favourite fantasy rules - easy to learn, not-so-easy to master, and they do a great job of getting out of the way and letting you just play, dammit. For a quick fantasy game (30-45 min) it's the berries. I'm glad you're enjoying it.

    Also highly worth checking out is 'Flying Lead', the 'military' version (for want of a better term) of the same base engine. It's a little more complex (but only a little, and in a good way) due to some added/tweaked rules that specifically model gun fights. We've used it for WWII and modern era (Afghanistan, Somalia), and it's perfect for gaming squad-level engagements.

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  4. Good stuff, Tim - love the minis and terrain.

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  5. Thanks guys!

    Though I am quite happy with Force on Force, I am definitely going to try out "Flying Lead" at some point. Fear and Faith is also on the list of Ganesha Games to try out!

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