New Song of Blades and Heroes Campaign

Because ONE skirmish campaign just isn’t enough… I’d decided to run a concurrent A Song of Blades and Heroes-Song of Deeds and Glory skirmish campaign! The Family and I kicked it off Sunday afternoon by making some new warbands and trying out a scenario I’m thinking of using for the Demo I am running at ToonCon 2015 this September!

SCENARIO

The scenario is designed for four players on my mountain pass terrain board. The players groups have heard a dragon that lives in the pass has laid an egg – a rare thing – and many would pay a high price for such a thing. Their respective groups have been waiting and watching for a moment when mama dragon is away and now is the time!

Each group starts on a different side of the table and must set up within 1 Long of the center of that side, up to 1 Medium from their table edge. Dice to see who chooses and sets up first.

A solitary egg is set in the exact center of the table. It takes an action to pick up the egg (though dropping it is a free action). It cannot be picked up in any enemy are in contact with the egg or when in close combat contact. The figure carrying the egg is slowed due to it’s bulk and weight – Long moves become Medium, Medium moves become short, etc. Mounted characters would have to dismount to pick it up and then remount (each an action) – but I won’t be giving anyone mounted figures when I run the scenario at the Con and no one took any mounted characters when we played it.

There will be a deck of four cards each with a factions name on it. At the beginning of each turn the four cards will be shuffled and then they will be drawn randomly to determine the order of the fations during the turn. On the second turn a fifth card will be added in for the Mama Dragon! If on any turn the Mama Dragon’s card is the first drawn the Mama Dragon returns and all hell breaks loose!

The Mama dragon will enter from one of the mountain tops and will immedidately swoop down and attack anyone carrying the egg. If no one is holding the egg the Mama dragon will swoop down and attack anyone nearest the egg! Or maybe she’ll just pick up the egg and fly off… I’ll be refereeing the scenario at the convention, so I’ll play it by ear…

Mama Dragon

Q 2+, C 5

Flying, Huge, Long Move, Shooter (Long), Terror, Tough

Yeah, that will be bad news when she shows up…

FORCES

Our new Warbands ready for action…

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

The Halflinghollow Defence Committee

Randall Ferfut – Halfling Leader

Q 3+, C 3, 54 Points

Short Move, Leader

Baldwin the Bold – Halfling Wizard

Q 4+, C 1, 26Points

Short Move, Magic-User

5x Halfling Spearmen – Nigel, Noddy, Francis, Terry, and Orville

Q 4+, C 2, @11Points

Short Move,

Clement – Elite Halfling Archer

Q 4+, C 2, 24 Points

Short Move, Shooter (Medium), Good Shot

2x Halfling Veterans – Sandy and Grenf

Q 4+, C 3, @18 Points

Short Move,

3x Halfling Villagers – Hollis, Berg, Kinkle

Q 4+, C 1, @6 Points

Short Move, Shooter (short)

5x Halfling Archers – Corky, Narned, Finkwit, Albernak, Ronwen

Q 4+, C 2, @17 Points

Short Move, Shooter (Medium)

The B. A. M. (Bad Ass Mothers)

No really, they’re all mothers… and they’re bad ass!

Human Infantry Leader

Q 3+, C 4, 70 points

Leader

Human Wizard’s Apprentice

Q4+, C 1, 30

5x Human Warriors

Q3+, C 3, 30 points

Human Elite Archer

Q3+, C 3, 50 points

Shooter (Long), Unerring Aim

The Clan of the Broken Mug

The Girl’s Kobold warband consists of:

Yimoyik – Koblold Leader

Q 3+, C 2, 44 points

Short Move, Leader

Shlugak – Koblold Shaman

Q 4+, C 2, 33 points

Short Move, Magic-User

Koblold Chosen Archer

Q 4+, C 2, 26 points

Short Move, Gregarious, Shooter (Medium), Good Shot

14x Koblold Warriors

Q 4+, C 2, @15 points

Short Move, Gregarious

Clan Splinter Maw

The Boy’s Goblins consists of:

Draxes Splintermaw – Goblin Leader

Q 4+, C 3, 45 points

Leader

Molusk – Cave Troll

Q 4+, C 4, 54 points

Big Savage, Slow, Tough

Bugbear

Q 4+, Combat 3, 35 points

Slow, Big, Long Move

Hobgoblin

Q 4+, C 3, 27 points

Gregarious, Heavy Armour

Orc

Q 4+, C 3, 23 points

4x Goblin Warrior

Q 4+, C 2, @ 15 points

2x Goblin Elite Archer

Q 4+, C 2, 26

Shooter (medium), Unerring Aim

THE GAME

Setting up.

The Halfling Hollow Defence Committee – ready for action!

Everyone else ready to go!

On Turn one the Halflings get the first move and steadying make their way forward…

The better quality Humans surge forward! Yikes!

Oh, and they shot Clement (my Elite Archer) and knocked him down.

After the B.A.M. the Kobolds went! Their leader scorred THREE activations, used two to rush ahead and the third to inspire the group of Kobold Warriors behind him to activate as a group… a Q4+ with +1 for leader and +1 for being “Gregarious” they only failed on ones…

They, for whatever reason, were not-so-motivated… perhaps it was because there was a DRAGON somewhere nearby!?

So the Koblold Leader was left out in front on his own with a small smattering of “loyal” Kobolds following half-heartedly at a distance…

The Halflings went first on Turn Two (at least it wasn’t a DRAGON!). After Clement got up and moved forward, two of my regular archers – Corky and Narned) climbed the trail up to the plateau to find two goblins there – Corky got an arrow off – a goblin recoiled… then Finkwit rolled snake-eyes for his activation and that was it for my turn…

Round about the beginning of Turn Two…

Amanda’s Mothers went next surging forward and surrounding the Dragon’s egg. Her archer got another shot off at poor Clement – rolled a 6… +3 is 9… I rolled a one… +C of 2…. Yeah, that’s a gruesome kill – He took and arrow in the neck and gurgled up foamy blood while leting out an unearthly squeal that chilled his fellow Halflings to the bone…

So… they all left… about half of them were within Long of poor dying Clement so then all had to take a Morale test – they did okay as Randal Ferfut – their leader – was also nearby. Only about half of them failed and only one or tow ran far enough to end up off the table… Unfortunately Randal then wet himself and fled the field… triggering another round of morale tests and that took most of the rest off the table…. And then the rest tested one more time (because they were well under half strength) and that was that…

The Girls was having a hard time with the dice rolling as well and not getting her Kobolds going… a few made it to the height of the pass and engaged the Women waiting there.

The boy’s goblins and such made it there as well and also engaged a few of the women - who were fighting a delaying action against the Kobolds while the rest scarpered with the egg.

Three of the Warrior Women (including the Wizard’s Apprentice) went down in that delaying action, but it worked out as the rest made a clean getaway!

No Dragon showed up!

POST GAME

Afterwards we sorted out all the campaign stuff…

One of the Warrior women and the Wizard’s Apprentice died of their wounds, but the other made a quick recovery. They collected 140 gold  - 20 from income, 20 from their exploration (during which they were ambushed by lizard folk – but killed their leader and looted him for the gold) and 100 for the egg. Everyone surviving got their first experience point and Amanda decided to hire another Warrior (to replace the one lost), a second Archer, an Assassin, and an Eagle!

I collected 25 gold – just enough to hire a replacement Elite Archer (he is named Kane). I also found a Keg during my post-game explorations.

The Girl’s Koblolds didn’t lose any of their number and collected 15 gold. They got lost during their post game explorations and will have -1 to initiative at the start of their next game.

The Boy’s goblins also suffered no losses and collected 10 gold… The shambled by a roadside shrine during their explorations, but paid it no mind…

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Painting update…? I’m working on a few Wizards and Wandering Monsters for Frostgrave. I also have some  more ECW stuff sitting ont eh wowrkbench… and other odd and sundry bits.

I’d like to make some more ruined city terrain as well – so I can had TWO boards to play on (or just cover a bigger area on a table).

Next game will probably be Skirmish Saturday Night – will we be playing Frostgrave or Song of Blades and Heroes…? Stay tuned to find out! 

Another Expedition into Felstad

We played a third game of Frostgrave Saturday evening. This time I was just me and the family – as Other Tim (and everyone else threatening to play) were unable to make it. This was only the second expedition into Frostgrave for my Wizard and crew as they sat out the last game. It was Amanda’s Wizard’s second expedition as well. Both the Kids tried out new warbands for some reason - I'm not really sure why…?

FORCES

My remaining thugs (Big Joe, Fats McPhee, Mad Marvin) were shaken by the death of their pal Crouchy Fred (in our first game ) and decided to take their cut and then split in the middle of the night. Giselle the Thief also decided there was easier livings to be made in warmer places and hit the road. Luckily Felkazaar the Magnificent was flush with cash after his first expedition and was able to hire some better members for the crew. He found another Ranger (Neil), an Apothecary named Tucker, two Knights (Bramlin and Reginald), and an expert Treasure Hunter named Liam…

With the gold she got in the last game, Amanda hired ANOTHER Archer and a Treasure Hunter. She still hasn’t bothered to name any of them.

The Boy started a new warband this week – this time a Lizardfolk Witch Warband lead by Sillitha, Speaker of the Serpant, and Skenth her apprentice. Filling out the warband was harsuk the Barbarian, Nethil the Infantryman, Missgyal the Lizard-at-Arms, two Thugs names Gith and Gurth, and a Thief named Nesath.

The Girl ALSO decided to start a new warband this week – now SHE’s running a Necromancer named Thesira Eloudrana and her apprentice Aminira. There’s also a Knight, four Thugs, a Ranger and a Thief.

THE GAME

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

Initial set up.

I’d meant to start using wandering monsters this game, but then when we got going I just kind of forgot… next time I’ll place all the monsters by the table edge – ready to rush towards the excitement to remind myself!

I had the initiative on the first turn and started off by having Felkazaar the Magnificent blast one of The Boys minions with an elemental Bolt! Ba-ZAM!

He was... unimpressed.

Looks like an easy grab for Trevor, Bramlin, and Bertram, but that’s a Necromancer in the background! As it turns out her Necromancer didn’t do much – it was the Ranger that brought down my poor knight… luckily Trevor and Bertram were able to grab that loot and make it off the table!

Amanda’s Wizard cast a Fog – that would remain for the entire game – and effectively kept her safe from my bolt-blasting wizard! Two of ther archers then took down another of The Boy’s Lizardmen and he was  not-so-happy about that either… and was just about ready to pack it in and suggesting he should probably go back to his old warband… but he soldiered on…

By the end of the turn, however, both his Wizard and Apprentice had whisked away two treasures with Telekinesis – into the ready arms of waiting soldiers – who, a turn later hauled them off the table!

The Girl’s minions start moving forward after making two quick grabs of easy treasure.

Amanda’s spellcasters made good use of Blinding Light – effectively taking two of The Girl’s minions out of action for most of the game – the casting rolls were 16 and 18 – so the thugs (with -1 willpower) had little hope in recovering before the game was over (one did, on the last turn, but was too far away from the action to really help out).

Amanda’s Treasure Hunter and both thugs grabbed treasures on the first turn – the archers with the Wizard had ran into contact with another, but had them whisked away by The Boy and his Telekinesis casting apprentice.

The Treasure Hunter and one of the Thugs would make it off with their treasures, but the other Thug and Ranger were beat down mercilessly by The Boy’s Lizardman barbarian and had their treasure taken away.

Rob the Ranger covers Liam and Neil and they make off with two treasures of their own.

Felkazaar the Magnificent decided that four treasures was enough and decided to call it a day and let the Elves and Necromancers minions fight over the remaining treasure.

Amanda’s Wizard successfully teleported herself next to the remaining treasure on the table… but then was unable to pick it up (as she’d used here non-move action to cast the Teleport spell…

The next turn – after fighting off one of the Necromancer’s Thugs - she picked it up and started dragging it away.

She would drag it another turn, but that was it. The Elves were being attacked on two sides. The Nercomancer’s minions were right there trying to get that last treasure chest – and The Lizard Witch and Apprentice kept sniping at them with Bone Darts – eventually the Wizard, the Apprentice, and all four Archers were taken down… The Lizard’s slinked off and Necromancer claimed the last treasure.

POST GAME

Amanda had lost nearly all her warband – the Wizard, the Apprentice, the Ranger, all four Archers and a Thug were knocked out of action. Checking afterwards the Thug and one archer died of their wounds, but everyone else was able to make it out alive and will be ready for action next time we head into Frostgrave – though the Wizard had a “close call” and lost her sword... The wizard gained another 160 experience (100 for treasure, 60 for casting spells) and that will level her up twice! Among the Treasure she found 6 gold, three potions (Elixer of Speed and two Potions of Invulnerability), and 3 scrolls (Wall, Beauty, and Circle of Protection).

The Boy only lost those two Lizards that were taken out on the first turn – both of them recovered. His witch gained 320 experience (150 for treasure, 90 for casting spells, and 80 for taking out two enemy soldiers – all with Bone Darts!). Among his treasure he found 240 gold, two Grimoires (Illusionary Soldier, Raise Zombie), and a Robe of Arrow Turning.

The Girls lost one thug in the whole adventure – who turned out to be okay (though two others were blinded for most of the game and effectively useless). She gained 220 experience (70 for spells, 150 for treasure) which will her up twice. Among the three chests she dragged off she found 180 gold, two Grimoires (Absorb Knowledge, Skatershot), and a Magic Bow (+1 shooting) which she game to her Ranger

Bramlin recovered quickly from his wounds and will be back in action next game. I scored a whopping 380 experience points (40 for taking out Finnegan’s lizard minion in the very first action of the game, 70 for spells, 200 for treasure, 20 for my laboratory, and 50 for the Absorb Knowledge scroll I found last game and used at the end of this game…) that got me 3 level-ups which I’ve decided to improves Fighting, Elemental Bolt, and Telekinesis with. Amongst the treasure I found 270 gold, two Grimoires (Sphere of Destruction and Blinding Light), two Potions (Strength and Toughness) and a pair of Boots of Speed – which I passed on to Liam the Treasure Hunter.

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

I have some more ECW stuff on the painting table, along with some assorted critters and monsters to use as Wandering Monsters in Frostgrave (toads, big cats, more trolls, skeletons, etc.) – but I’m not really sure when I’ll get much of a chance to do any painting in the next week… I had hoped to carry on with our Role-playing Campaign this afternoon, but for a second week in a row the other family can’t make it… perhaps we’ll start a new Song of Blades and Heroes skirmish campaign…?

Halflings, Horsemen, Covanenteers, and an Ice Troll

Another odd assortment of items rolling of the paint table – just to keep you on your toes and guessing at what the hell I am up to!

(or perhaps you’ve all stopped bothering with the guessing and have embraced the random and are ready for and expect just about anything at this point!)

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

Halfling elements for Hordes of the Things.

I know… you’re wondering “what the hell? Is he suddenly back into Hordes of the Things!?” Not so much… Well… Actually, I did pick up DBA 3.0 recently and that’s got me thinking about all things DBA and HOTT-ish… but really the reason for painting these was of the “low hanging fruit” variety. I had startlingly few Halflings to finish up to say “These are all DONE!” and I like saying (or typing) “These are all DONE!” (“These are all DONE!” – see!).

The figures above are from Games Workshop. They are © and ™ Games Workshop and painted by myself and posted here entirely without their permission.

The Last Two Halflings… now these are all DONE! The figures are from Reaper Miniatures. The one on the left is an odd one – he’s got a musket over his shoulder and looks a little inbred-hick-ish…? And he stands nearly as tall as some of the shorter human figures I have!

And now that all the Halflings are DONE, I’ve updated the 28mm Medieval and Medieval Fantasy Gallery

Troll painted with blue skin = Ice Troll!

Figure from Ral Partha

Dismounted ECW Cavalryman from Dixon Miniatures

Dismounted Scots Cavalrymen from Dixon Miniatures.

I don’t know what brought these on… We’re heading into the rennaisance with our history readings, so I got thinking about the English Civil War – which I have many figures for – and Flashing Steel – which I have yet to try out…

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Planning a game of Frostgrave on Saturday. Hopefully have a report up on Sunday. 

Frostgrave Again!

Thursday was a busy day! First my old friend Mike stopped by earlier in the day to play some Song of Blades and Heroes (a report on the ensuing shenanigans can be found HERE!. Then in the evening Other Tim stopped by to play another game of Frostgrave!

Despite putting a rush on to finish up his Cheesecake Warband,

John was unable to make it… something about a wedding anniversary… excuses, excuses…

Amanda WAS available to play this week so I quickly helped her make a Wizard and hire and adventuring party and then set up a game for everyone. As there was four other players I sat out of this one. My hope is by our next game (hopefully next week) I’ll have the BIG table in the hobby room cleared off so we can set up multiple (smaller!) games – that will hopefully go a bit quicker (as it was, once again, a very late night!).

FORCES

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

Amanda’s Elfie Warband: Thaumaturge, Apprentice (who used to moonlight as a pole dancer before scoring the apprentice gig!), Ranger, there Archers, two Thugs, and a war dog.

Other Tim also started over with a brand new warband – they weren’t painted – which proved costly to him… so if he uses it again I’ll post a profile of them next game…

The Kids used the same warbands from the previous game - except that The Girl’s Thief and one of The Boy’s Men-at-Arms had to sit out the game due to injuries. The Boy added and Infantryman to his warband and gave the +2 (Fight) Magic Sword to his Knight (+6 Fight! Ouch!). The Girl also hired a new Knight for her adventuring party.

THE GAME

I had read about someone playing a co-op game on the Lead Adventure Forum Frostgrave Board and thought that was a great idea, but I didn’t end up having enough time to sort something out so we went with the standard throw-down-some-treasure-and-fight-each-other-for-it scenario…

My policy has always been: if it ain’t painted, it don’t go on my table… Other Tim seemed to have forgotten that and showed up with his new warband almost entirely unpainted (mostly just primed white…). For some reason I let it go… so all the white little orc/goblin/kobold-ish dudes running around – those are Other Tim’s frozen minions. For what it’s worth, showing up with an unpainted warband sort of didn’t work out for Other Tim… I don’t think he was able to roll anything higher than a 10 all game… and I saw at least five 20s rolled in combat against him! PAINT YOUR FIGURES – it’s super bad luck otherwise!

Initial set up.

The funny thing was that Amanda and the Boy were opposite each other – Amanda has a Thaumaturge and The Boy had a Necromancer – which are opposing schools of Magic… AND Other Tim and The Girl ended up opposite each other, and THEY have opposing schools of magic (Summoner and Sigilist).

The Girl’s Sigilist and party all set up in one place.

Amanda’s Thaumaturge started things off, sending one Thug to quickly grab… um… a magical potted plant? I guess so…? One of her archers leapt up on top of some rubble and loosed an arrow at some of Other Tim’s frosty looking goblins. It bounced off the frozen skull of the Knight.

Action Pose!

The Boy and his necromancer…

The Girls’ gang snatched up three chests rather quickly – these two in the picture and a third in the building behind them.

Amanda wasn’t going to stand for that and so her archers pin-cushioned the poor thug that had picked up the chest and her Apprentice successfully cast Push on the knight- shoving him back several inches on the tabletop.

The Necromancer and his minions spread out quickly grabbing a lot of loot! Unfortunately the Necromancer had the worst time casting spells. I’m not sure if he successfully cast a single spell the whole game. His Apprentice had a bit more luck – which he constantly gloated about to the old wizard!

Mayhem!

The Girl’s Knight rushed the Elves Apprentice, but this didn’t turn out well – the Ranger rushed in to the Apprentice’s aid and the two of them took down the knight in short order!

Other Tim was having the WORST time – as I mentioned before he pretty much lost every combat he was in and at least half of them he lost a guy outright. By the end of the game he’d lost SIX of his warband and countless imps and zombies!? He decided to call it a day and slunk of the board with just two treasures casting Imps into the mess as they fell back.

Amanda realized The Girl was going to successfully make off with four chests and she only had one.. the boy had already taken three off, so her only chance was to rush clear across to the other side of the board and try and prevent The Boy from dragging off the last two! 

In the ensuing fray The Boy’s necromancer took and arrow from one of the Elf archer which took him down to ONE HEALTH (he’d also lost a lot due to failed spells earlier) so he decided to scarper. The Necromancer’s Apprentice stuck around - and gloated a bit – only to be TAKEN OUT by one of the Elves!

Despite these setbacks, The elves were slowed by a number of Imps the Orc Summoner cast into the mess from the table edge and that sufficiently slowed them up enough that they were unable to catch up with any of the Undead hauling away the final two treasures.

THE END GAME

After the dust settled the various adventuring parties checked on their wounded and looked over the various loot they’d made off with…

The Girl’s War Dog and Knight will be missing a game due to grievous injuries, but the Thug was only lightly wounded and will be back at it next game (along with the Thief that had to sit out this game). Looking over the treasure in the four chest she made off with, she found she’d collected 250 gold, a Robe of Arrow Turning, a Grimoire containing instructions to learn the Push spell, 3 Scrolls (Illusionary Soldier, Control Undead, and Decay), and 2 Potions (Healing and Strength). She also gained 240 experience, which gained her two new levels and brought her to 390 total XP – so she should have little trouble gaining at least one more level next game!

The Boy’s Necromancer really hauled in the loot – FIVE chests containing 590 gold, 2 Grimoires (Mirraculous Cure and Mud), a Fate Stone, and 3 Potions (Invisibility, Invulnerability, and Demon in a Bottle!). The Apprentice – his only tabletop loss- turned out to be just fine. He gained 290 experience which brought him to a total of 430XP and three new levels!

Amanda’s War Dog died. She only managed to get one treasure (the potted plant!?) But hidden in its roots were 150 gold and a grimoire containing the spell Crumble. She ended up with 160 experience – and a level – mostly from successfully casting a lot of spells and taking out a demon with one of those Banish spells.

Other Tim had lost SIX guys – a knight and five thieves! Luckily only one of the thieves actually died and the rest were totally fine (ashamed of their lack of paint they just scarpered at the first sight of combat!) … I forget what he got for experience and in his two treasure chests…? He assured me they’d be back next time – with more paint on them!

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Halflings…? I’ve (mostly) finished up a few elements for Hordes of the Things – just need to get them on bases. Might get in another game or two over the weekend…? So perhaps some more game reports!