Skirmish Saturday Night Part Two: Song of Blades and Heroes

On Saturday evenings this fall I am hosting a Skirmish Game Night on Saturday evenings. The Family and I sort of started last week with a game of Frostgrave, but this week OTHER people showed up as well! Other Tim, Dave, Patrick, And Rick came out to play with us!

I wanted to playtest the A Song of Blades and Heroes scenario I’m planning to run at ToonCon in a couple weeks. As the Family had already played the scenario on Sunday and Other Tim was stoked to play some more Frostgrave and/or not so keen to try Song of Blades and Heroes they went off to play Frostgrave in the other room, while I ran the others through building SoBH warbands and ran the ToonCon scenario for them…. (you can see the game report for that game here: Skirmish Saturday Part One: Frostgrave.

It was really good to see Rick and Dave and Patrick (who played this game with me) as I don’t think I’ve seen (or at least played games with) any of them since… last fall…? 

SCENARIO

The scenario, as with last week,  is designed for four players on my mountain pass terrain board – though we only played with three this time (I’d thought of bringing out my Halfling Warband again… but couldn’t locate the warband roster so ultimately decided just to run the game – and the dragon if it showed up).

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.

Anyone knocked down or failing morale automatically drops the egg. 

There will be a deck of four cards (well… three, this time…) each with a factions name on it. At the beginning of each turn the four (three!) cards will be shuffled and then they will be drawn randomly to determine the order of the factions 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 immediately swoop down and try to recover the egg - attacking anyone carrying the egg.

FORCES

A fair bit of time was spent coming up with new warbands for the Skirmish Saturday Campaign…

Dave borrowed my loaner “Goblin Spam” warband, Rick brought some of his son’s (who also used to game with us) old LOTR figures and Patrick brought some of his own figures – it’s too bed the picture below turned out so crappy, because he’s really come a long way with the painting! So awesome!

The Dark Mantle

Jorlund – Dark Elf Leader

Q 2+, C 3, 88 points

EVIL! Heavy Armour (it’s under those heavy cloaks), Leader

Loos – Goblin Standard Bearer

Q 4+, C 2, 15 points

Standard Bearer

5x Goblin Warriors (Nogg, Crad, Truj, Shos, Brez)

Q 4+, C 2, 15 points

5x Goblin Light Infantry (Orch, Lesh, Pinn, Dorg, Crod)

Q 4+, C 1, 8 points

4x Goblin Archers (Nich, Onjj, Plug, Drin)

Q 4+, C 2, 21 points

Shooter (Medium)

Jackson’s Jedi

General Jackson – Human Infantry Leader

Q 3+, C 4, 70 points

Leader

The Boot – Human Warrior

Q 3+, C 3, 30 points

Boromir – Human Warrior

Q 3+, C 3, 30 points

Virgil – Human Elite Archer

Q 3+, C 3, 50 points

Shooter (long), Unerring Aim

Legolas – Elite Elf ARcher

Q 2+, C 3, 70 points

Shooter (long), Unerring Aim, Good Shot

Curly - Dwarf Warrior

Q 3+, C 4, 34 points

Short Move

Stormy – Halfling Veteran

Q 4+, C 3, 18 points

Short Move

Nuri Lord of the the Frosted Vale

Nuri Frostbeard – Dwarf Commander

Q 2+, C 3, 95 points

Leader, Fearless

Burik One-eye – Elite Warrior

Q 3+, C 4, 46 points

Short Move, Steadfast, Fearless

Valia Peakmaiden – Elite Warrior

Q 3+, C 4, 46 points

Short Move, Steadfast, Fearless

Alvin “Bootless” Goodbarrel – Halfling Theif

Q 3+, C 1, 16 points

Short Move, Stealth, Free Disengage

Maggdella – Elite Dwarf Crossbowwoman

Q 3+, C 3, 38 points,

Shooter (Medium), Short Move, Good Shot

Duri Frostbeard– Elite Dwarf Archer

Q 3+, C 3, 38 points,

Shooter (Medium), Short Move, Good Shot

THE GAME

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

Rick, Patrick and Dave setting up.

Rick went first with General Jackson’s Jedis – within a turn they were within a single move of grabbing the egg!

By the second turn he’d grabbed the egg and was headin back towards his table edge. The ponderous goblin mob and slow moving dwarves were starting to look like they might not have a chance. Then Dave got lucky giving the Goblin archers a group move at the end of his turn and they got three actions – he swiftly skirted around General Jackson’s Jedis and spread out to block the way…

Patrick also got lucky with some activations and hurried his leader ahead to try and block the way…

Oh, and then the DRAGON showed up on the third turn!!!

I thought the arrival of the Dragon would end things rather quickly- and there were a few times where it looked like it would be all over, but then Patrick would slmost literally pull it out of the fire and turn the tables… it took me a few turns to figure out how to actually USE the dragon… flying is awesome (with the free disengage against non- flying creatures). It allowed me to just leap up out of any situation that looked bad an stand back and just try to fry people with the dragon’s breath weapon (C 5, Shooter: Long!)

Also in the same turn Burik One-Eye, one of Patricks Elite Dwarf Warrior knocked down General Jackson,  and then Nuri Frostbeard took him out with a Gruesome kill – the subsequent two morale checks saw the majority of General Jackson’s Jedis flee from the table!

I’d even snatched up the egg and was ready to fly off with it at one point!

But Patrick’s bloody FEARLESS Dwarves would rush in a knock down the dragon! GAH!!

At one point Jorlund – Dave’s Dark Elf Leader charged into combat with Virgil – one of Ricks remaining warriors – who was surrounded by Goblins. An incredibly unlucky bit of dice-rolling saw Jorlund taken out of action! Luckily Dave had taken a Standard Bearer – the first time anyone’s taken on in one of our Song of Blades and Heroes games – and was able to use it’s Rally Around the Flag ability to keep his remaining goblins from fleeing off the table when their leader fell!

(I may actually have to look into getting one for the Halfling Hollow Defence Committee!)

When the Goblins finally got it together again, they surrounded Virgil and ganked him (leaving Rick with just “The Boot”) .

And the egg is back at the center of the table where it started… if they’d just left it there we might have let bygones be bygones and called it even… but nooooooo… those greedy dwarves actuall thought they could get it off the table.

The Amazing thing is they very nearly did! They got it to within a move or two of their table edge before I’d finished off the last of them… It was a bit of a slog as they were severely hampered by their Short Move and being further slowed by the heavy egg.

Then the remaining GOBLINS made a grab for it and started sprinting down towards THEIR table edge!?

And then THEY nearly made off with the egg!!!

In the end it was a very good game. I think they scenario will work fine for the convention! I’m not sure what to use for warbands (as I will be providing them all). I am reluctant to use any SPAM warbands (lots of low quality troops) – they are tricky to use – especially for new players. I am also not so sure about using any troops with Short Move… as others could easily rush to the center of the table in a turn and be off with the egg before they even get anywhere. Although that didn’t really happen this time. Short move being slowed by the heavy egg, though, made it really hard for the Dwarves to get anywhere once they got it… still… even so they very nearly made it to their edge with it…!?

POST GAME

Two of Ricks main guys were Greusome Killed and gone so he didn’t even bother with the post game sequence – he’ll be starting with a totally new warband the next time we play SoBH (though it may be identical to the one he used last night…).

Two of Patricks Dwaves died of their wounds (Valda Peakmaiden and Maggdella – both the female dwarves in his warband!?) and Nuri Frostbeard received a serious injury that will bother him until the end of his days (permanent -1 C!). Burik One-Eye will be -1 Q for his next game, due to his minor injury. Eveyone else managed to heal up quick enough… He didn’t make much income and was only able to hire a replacement Elite Warrior – Ertha Peakmaiden (Valda’s sister, perhaps…?)

FIVE of Dave’s goblins died. Another three will miss the next battle and two more will be -1 Quality for the next battle. Jorlund was also seriously injured and was permanently reduced in combat ability! Luckily Goblins are cheap and two new light infantry and an archer were hired to replace some of the lost Goblins…

Next Week…?

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Hopefully I’ll get a bit more painting in this long weekend and be able to post some progress before next weekends skirmish games! Amanda’s been talking about having a one –on-one game of Frostgrave BEFORE the next weekend – so perhaps there’ll be a game report for that if we find some time…