We decided last night to play a game and it’s been a while
since we played straight up Song
of Blades and Heroes, so I threw together this quick little scenario
for the family….
SITUATION
The lesser known Greek Hero
(unknown, really) Penthylos once sought to make himself rich and gain glory by
invading the land of the Amazons. “There just a bunch of Women,” he thought,
“We shall be back by the Anthesteria and rich beyond imagining – with gold, and
slaves, and perhaps even a wife or two!”
He took with him 100 of the best
Greek Hoplites he could buy with his meager means and set off across land and
sea to the lands of the Amazons.
Things did not go well for him.
And so it was that he found
himself and the last remaining men of his expedition running ragged, hunted,
through the wild mountains of Amazonia desperately trying to shake their
pursuers and make their way back to more “civilized” lands.
If they could make it through
this one more pass they would be beyond the reach of the Amazons and safely on
their way back home…. Or so they hoped…
SCENARIO
The Greeks start in one corner
and must exit the opposite corner. Half the Amazons are guarding the pass, the
other half are in the pursuing force and will enter on the Amazons second turn.
To win the greeks must get half
their forces off the opposite corner of the table and Penthylos must be among
those that escape. If less than half the Greek force escapes or Penthylos is
killed or captured, the Amazons win.
Just to keep the Greeks going,
any slain Amazons will reappear at the entry point for the pursuit force the
next turn.
FORCES
The Greeks
Penthylos – Greek Hero with
Sword and Shield
Q 3+, C 4, Leader, 70 points
5x Greek Hoplites – Spear and
Shield
Q3+, C 3, 30 points
2x Greek Psiloi – Javelins
Q 3+, C 2, Shooter (medium), 28
points
The Amazons
Iphianassa – Amazon Leader with
Sword and Shield
Q 3+, C 4, Leader, 70 points
2x Amazon Warriors – Spear and
Shield
Q3+, C 3, 30 points
2x Amazon Slingers - Sling
Q 3+, C 2, Shooter (medium), 28
points
2x Amazon Elite Archers – Bow
Q 3+, C 3, Shooter (long),
Unerring Aim, 50 points
1x Amazon Archer – Bow
Q 3+, C 3, Shooter (long), 46
points
THE GAME
(Remember: click on the pictures
for a bigger version)
The Boy played the Greeks and
Amanda and The Girl split the Amazon forces.
The Small party of Amazons
guarding the pass on the border of their lands.
The Greeks, The Amazons in their
way, and Freedom Beyond!
Amanda trying to remember the
rules (I guess it HAS been a while – though we were just playing Tale
of Blades and Heroes on the weekend and they’re not THAT different…)
TURN ONE
The Greeks make a break for it,
trying to swing wide around the Amazons guarding the pass. I should have made
part of the rough ground bad-going…
On the Amazons end of the turn,
one slinger moved forward and flung a stone off at one of the Greeks which
bounced off his shield. Then the Girl rolled a Turn-Over and that pretty much
settled the game…
Turn Two
The majority of the Greeks
sprinted past the Amazons before the pursuit force even entered the table…
On the Amazons end of the turn
one of the Warriors guarding the pass rushed down at Penthylos hoping to slow
him at least until the pursuers caught up!
She thrust at him with her
spear!
Penthylos side-stepped and cut
her down!
I think another Turn-Over was
rolled before they all could go.
Turn Three
The Boys dice, on the other hand
were HOT. It helped that he played it careful and kept Penthylos within one
Long Stick of all his troops thereby being able to confer his Leader bonus to
all. By the end of the turn a number of his hoplites were but one move away
from freedom!
At this point the Amazon Archers
climbed to within view and shot down on of the fleeing hoplites!
Turn Four
Three of the Greeks fled off the
table, though another one or two probably could have, The Boy kept a few on to
protect Penthylos, in case things went south for him.
The Amazons advanced hurling
stones and arrows as they went. Again on of the warriors got into contact with
Penthylos.
Turn Five
One of the Greek Hoplites
stepped in to help Penthylos – he had a spare action so he made it a Powerful
Blow and outnumbered the Amazon with Penthylos standing there… I guess The Boy
had to had a bad die roll at SOME point in the evening! The Hoplite was knocked
down.
Penthylos, however, used the
distraction of the attacking Hoplite to slip away with the remaining two
Greeks. The prostrated Hoplite was left among the Amazons to die, I guess…
Seemed like a bit of a
cake-walk for The Boy. Not sure how I would have changed it. I suppose
making more parts of the pass hard-going would have slowed them a bit and made
it more likely that the Amazons made contact. Had I let the Amazon Pursuers arrive on their first turn, they could very well have been on top of the fleeing Greeks before the latter went anywhere - if they had unlucky activation rolls on their first turn. The Girl did have some bad luck
with the dice rolling two Turn-Overs at critical points… Q3+ Humans with a
Leader are a pretty effective lot.
We definitely need to play more of this. The kids were
pretty excited about it because we’re reading a lot about Ancient times right
now. I need to think of some scenario I can use my few Egyptians and Nubians in
(as we have mostly been reading about that the last couple of weeks).
I’m not quite sure what to do next. I also recently picked
up a print copy of Song
of Shadows and Dust from Book Depository and pdfs of Song
of Shadows and Dust, Flying
Lead, Hearts
and Minds, Fear
and Faith, Kooky
Teenage Monster Hunters, AND MORE
Drums and Shakos (all from Saber’s Edge - thanks
Paul!) and I still haven’t gotten in a game of Of
Gods and Mortals or A
Fistful of Kung Fu and I should really be playing some more play-test
games of Power Legion!? Too many games, not enough time!! I think I’ll get some
more games of plain old SoBH this week – because we know these rules inside out
and hopefully that will get us back in game-playing mode and a little more
stoked to read through the rules of the others.
I have to say I’m pretty stoked
to Try Fear and Faith and Kooky Teenage Monster Hunters. I’ve been dying to
find an opportunity to use THIS
GUY and THESE
GUYS in a game for AGES!
Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:
Hopefully more SoBH game reports… and pictures of the Romans
I’ve been working on this week. The copy of the Storm of Swords unabridged
audiobook I requested through the local library arrived… 37 discs… 49.5 hours…
I have some painting to do! (I hope they’ll let me renew it – there’s no way I’m
getting through all of that in three weeks!)
Cool, I want to see more scenarios inspired by greek myths - maybe also against savage creatures? ;)
ReplyDeleteThanks! I do have a lot of Greek Mythological Beasties - Cyclopes, Hydra, Centaurs, Satyrs, Harpies, Brass Bulls, etc... The Boy also wants to try battling against those so we'll probably have more games with Greeks in teh not-too-distant future!
DeleteThis looks like lots of fun.
ReplyDeleteThanks! It was!
DeleteExcellent. This is very much something I want to do. Your post provides me some inspiration to get painting the odd Greek figures I have.
ReplyDeleteCheers!
DeleteA beautifully painted bunch of guys. At first though I thought one of the gladiators was armed with nothing but a couple chickens.
ReplyDeleteThanks Baconfat!
DeleteI'm not sure if I would want to laugh at or be very afraid of a gladiator armed with a couple of chickens... it's a fine line...