Monday, November 9, 2015

New Song of Blades and Heroes Campaign - sort of...


This past weekend I started off a new A Song of Blades and Heroes campaign. Large parts are borrowed from Song of Deeds and Glory (character development, injuries and survival, etc.), but I’ve added a bit more of an area control element with options to use as a more abstract area control game or with a map. I don’t completely have the rules completely hammered out, but when I do I’ll probably post them here. The first bit of Saturday evening was just going over what I had so far with the players that showed up. As I didn’t have  a map prepared yet we went with the more abstract area control element to begin with.

To save some time most of us decided to use warbands we’d created a month ago for the new fall campaign and I decided, instead of doing a bunch of erasing on our campaign sheet to start them as they originally were, we would just use them “as is” with the losses taken and experience gained as I think each warband had only played one game.


GAME ONE

The Girl’s Kobolds fought Rick’s Adventurers over a shrine/temple site.


SCENARIO

The rolled the Take The Land Scenario – victory points were awarded for holding each of three objectives for a turn (which were pretty much ignored) or whoever defeated their foe (either from eliminating them from the table or forcing them to surrender) or if either group held all three objectives at the end of a turn.


FORCES

The Clan of the Broken Mug (The Girl’s Kobold warband)
Territories: Village, Pasture

Yimoyik – Koblold Leader – 1XP
Q 3+, C 2, 44 points
Short Move, Leader

Shlugak – Koblold Shaman  – 1XP
Q 4+, C 2, 33 points
Short Move, Magic-User

Koblold Chosen Archer – 1XP
Q 4+, C 2, 26 points
Short Move, Gregarious, Shooter (Medium), Good Shot

14x Koblold Warriors – 1XP each
Q 4+, C 2, @15 points
Short Move, Gregarious


Jackson’s Jedi (Rick’s Band of adventurers)
Territories: Village, Wood

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


THE GAME

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


Rick and The Girl set up and get started.


The Girl’s Kobolds swarm the mountain pass!


After a marathon like dash one of the girls Kobold’s snuck past Rick’s adventurer’s to grab the third objective location (which the adventurer’s had failed to post a guard on!?) winning her the game!?

I totally didn’t see that one coming… Koblods FTW!

It did not come without a cost, however. A Koblod chosen archer and a Kobold Warrior died in the engagement and another was injured (but will recover by next game!).

Tha Adventurer’s only casualty, Virgil – the Elite Human Archer, died of his wounds as well!

The Clan of the Broken Mug gained a Temple/Shrine site and collected 15 gold from the existing village and pasture. Not really enough to replace her losses…

Jackson’s Jedi slunk back to their village and only collected 15 gold as well…


GAME TWO

In the second game – played concurrently with Rick and The Girl’s – Dave’s goblin horde four The Boy’s new Bugbear warband over The Vale of Horses a broad pasture with a herd of wild horses… I think both warbands were thinking they would be mighty tasty!


SCENARIO

They rolled Burn Them Out scenario – Dave’s Goblin’s were defending a new barn they’d erected for the horses of the vale when The Boy’s Bugbears came along wanting to burn it down and scatter the Goblins to claim the Vale of Horses for themselves!


FORCES

The Dark Mantle - Dave's Goblins
Territories: Village, Wood

Jorlund – Dark Elf Leader – 1XP
Q 2+, C 3, 88 points
EVIL! Heavy Armour, Leader

Loos – Goblin Standard Bearer – 1XP
Q 4+, C 2, 15 points
Standard Bearer

5x Goblin Warriors (Nogg, Crad, Truj, Shos, Brez) – 1XP each
Q 4+, C 2, 15 points

5x Goblin Light Infantry (Orch, Lesh, Pinn, Dorg, Crod) – 1XP each
Q 4+, C 1, 8 points

4x Goblin Archers (Nich, Onjj, Plug, Drin) – 1XP each
Q 4+, C 2, 21 points
Shooter (Medium)


Clan Break Skull - The Boy's Bugbears 
Territories: Village, Wood

Nasdreg XIV – bugbear Leader
Q 4+, C 4, 65 Points
Slow, Big, Long Move,  Leader

Horgrift – Bugbear Elite Warrior
Q 4+, C 4, 47 points
Slow, Big, Long Move, Steadfast

Thrklod - Bugbear Warrior
Q 4+, C 3, 35 points
Slow, Big, Long Move

Manchuck - Bugbear Warrior
Q 4+, C 3, 35 points
Slow, Big, Long Move

Thur - Bugbear Warrior
Q 4+, C 3, 35 points
Slow, Big, Long Move

Vlur - Bugbear Warrior
Q 4+, C 3, 35 points
Slow, Big, Long Move

Old Ronrut - Bugbear Warrior
Q 4+, C 3, 35 points
Slow, Big, Long Move



Dave’s Goblins all set up within one Long of the “barn” in the center of the table. The Boy’s Bugbears could set up within one Short of any edge – but not within one Long of any of Dave’s Goblins. Three of them are carrying torches (marked with red glass bead)


The Bugbears rushed in smashing and stomping – but the Goblin’s held them off – for a spell…


Bugbears were even knocked down!


A gruesomly killed Goblin caused some of his kin to run, but they quickly rallied and continued their brave defence of their ramshackle barn-like building.


Eventually they started suffering more losses…


Finally a Bugbear broke through and set fire to the building. At that point the Goblins decided to call it a day and fled!

The Bugbears only suffered one casualty – Old Ronrut. Old Ronrut wasn’t long for this world anyway, and died of his wounds.

The Bugbears added the Vale of Horses to their territories and collected 15 gold from the Village and Wood they already owned. Not enough to replace a good old Bugbear warrior like Old Ronrut, but that seems to be a common theme to this first round of the new campaign system…

Dave’s goblins suffered even worse… Two of his warriors had been gruesomely killed on the battlefield. He’s suffered six other casualties as well – four spearmen and two archers. Luckily none of them actually died! Two suffered serious enough injuries that they will miss a game, two others will be -1Q for their next game and the other two will be fully recovered from their (relatively) minor injuries! Dave collected 15 gold for his Village and Wood.


GAME THREE

After Dave and The Boy finished up, Patrick and I set up a game. My Halflings had discovered an old Witch’s Cabin in the woods and decided to claim it as our own. just after our arrival Nuri, Lord of the Frosted Vale, and his band of Dwarvish thugs arrived and decided the old witch should be under THEIR “protection”…

SCENARIO

We rolled the Place of Power scenario – which we decided should be the Witch’s Cabin.


FORCES

The Halfling Hollow Defence Committee
Territories: Village, Field

PIC
Randall Ferfut – Halfling Leader  – 1XP
Q 3+, C 3, 54 Points
Short Move, Leader

Baldwin the Bold – Halfling Wizard – 1XP
Q 4+, C 1, 26Points
Short Move, Magic-User

5x Halfling Spearmen – Nigel, Noddy, Francis, Terry, and Orville – 1XP each
Q 4+, C 2, @11Points
Short Move,

2x Halfling Veterans – Sandy and Grenf – 1XP each
Q 4+, C 3, @18 Points
Short Move,

3x Halfling Villagers – Hollis, Berg, Kinkle – 1XP each
Q 4+, C 1, @6 Points
Short Move, Shooter (short)

5x Halfling Archers – Corky, Narned, Finkwit, Albernak, Ronwen – 1XP each
Q 4+, C 2, @17 Points
Short Move, Shooter (Medium)


Nuri, Lord of the Frosted Vale (Patrick’s Dwarves)
Territories: Village, Wood

Nuri Frostbeard – Dwarf Commander – 1XP
Q 2+, C 3, 95 points
Leader, Fearless
(Originally he was C4 but was seriously injured in battle over a Dragon’s Egg

Burik One-eye – Elite Warrior – 1XP
Q 3+, C 4, 46 points
Short Move, Steadfast, Fearless

Ertha Peakmaiden – Elite Warrior
Q 3+, C 4, 46 points
Short Move, Steadfast, Fearless
No XP because she was a new recruit, replacing her sister Valia who died in the battle over the Dragon’s Egg

Alvin “Bootless” Goodbarrel – Halfling Theif – 1XP
Q 3+, C 1, 16 points
Short Move, Stealth, Free Disengage

Duri Frostbeard– Elite Dwarf Archer – 1XP
Q 3+, C 3, 38 points,
Shooter (Medium), Short Move, Good Shot


THE GAME



The Halfling Hollow Defence Committee, lead by Randall Ferfut, spies Nuri, Lord of the Frosted Vale, and his band of Dwarvish thugs crossing the creek beyond the Witch’s Cabin.


Slowly, but surely the brave Halflings advanced and advised the Dwarves this was now part of Halfling Hollow and they’d best clear off!


Duri Frostbeard stepped forward and put an arrow through poor Orvill Softoes


Due to the Greusome nature of Poor Orvil’s death, the courage of some of the Halflings wavered and they were temporarily put to flight.

(At least it wasn’t a total route like when Kane Pickledrum took an arrow in the throat at Dragon’s Pass…)


Terry Baconrind stood firm, not wanting to leave the side of his fallen comrade. Nuri Frostbeard himself charged in against him, hoping to set the rest of the Halflings to flight.


Inspired by Terry’s stand the rest of the Halflings recovered their courage and returned to the fight. Francis Breadboard was the first to come to Terry’s aid.


The rest of the Halflings swarmed in as the situation with Terry and Francis looked pretty desperate with all the Dwarves ganging up on them….


Then Ertha Peakmaiden cleaved poor Francis Breadboard and his giant shield in two…


The hideous cry and fountain of blood set many of the Halflings to flight AGAIN! Terry Baconrind himself could stand it no further and turned to flee, only to be cut down by Nuri Frostbeard.


Hoping to capitalize on the flight of the Halflings Nuri Frostbeard, Burik One-eye and the traitor Alvin “bootless” Goodbarrel, surged forward to keep them fleeing. But Ronwen  Clearbrew caught Nuri in the thigh with a well-placed (lucky) shot and caused him to stumble, at that moment Corky Oldroot fired a second shot and caught him in the chest – under his arm – and Nuri Frostbeard fell…


The Dwarves held steady, but traitor Alvin “bootless” Goodbarrel was shaken and fearing the retribution the Halflings might exact on him should the rest of his Dwarven companions fall, fled, temporarily and sought cover behind Ertha Peakmaiden. Alvin’s flight was cut short when Ertha chided, “are there no MEN among your kind…?”

Sandy and Grenf Burfoot, the two most experienced in the ways of war took this opportunity to charge Burik One-Eye – hoping their numbers might take the giant of a Dwarf down. Nigel, inspired by the brothers, joined in.


Before the Massive Dwarf could be taken down, however, the rest of the band came to his aid. Sandy was taken down by Ertha Peakmaiden, and then finished off with a quick stab from the treacherous Alvin… Burrik took a wild swing with his axe and took Nigel’s head was cut clean off.  With the loss of his brother on one side and being sprayed with Nigel’s blood from the other, Grenf lost his will to carry on and turned to flee, only to be stabbed in the back by Alvin…

This put the rest of the warband to flight again…


With all of the spear swordsmen gone, Randall Ferfut rallied the remaining archers and made one last desperate attempt to drive off the dwarves under a hail of arrows.

Alvin caught one of those arrows and was taken out of action. Then Ertha Peakmaiden was also felled by and arrow – though there may have been some dark magic at work as well…


Burik One-Eye, fearless and enraged, charged the Halfling archers on the hill and, despite being surrounded and outnumbered, cut three more Halflings down before they finally gave up and fled…

The Halflings losses were severe. Orvill Softoes, Francis Breadboard, and Nigel Withershins were all brutally slain in the battle. Sandy and Grenf Burfoot and Terry Baconrind died of their wounds later in the day. Ronwen Clearbrew’s leg was shattered and won’t be able to fight for some time. Hollis Neircreek and Corky Oldroot were also wounded in the fight, but will likely be back on their feet in short order… a paltry 15 gold was raised by the village folk… not nearly enough to equip and train up enough new villagers to replace these losses….

The traitorous Alvin Goodbarrel’s injuries proved grave, but, unfortunately not fatal…  Ertha Peakmaiden died of her wounds and Nuri Frostbeard’s injuries required expensive surgery – depleting the Dwarves coffers… The old witch better come up with some good potions, because this foul little patch of the valley was hardly worth the blood that was spilled over it otherwise…

Amanda also had a warband present Saturday night, but being the odd one out decided to have an early night – we had been out late the night before at our biweekly Savage Worlds/Realms of Cthulhu game. Perhaps her women warriors will see some action next week!

Hopefully by next week I’ll have finished up the campaign rules and we’ll forge ahead with some more of this campaign!


Saturday had been a busy day. Before these skirmish games in the evening…


I’d hosted a four and a half hour, five-player game of Warrior Knights… It was pretty awesome. The Boy and I played with Bruce (who runs the Savage Worlds/Realms of Cthulhu game on Friday nights), Bob (who plays in the Savage Worlds/Realms of Cthulhu game on Friday nights), and my friend Jasper who I haven't seen since he moved away to Edmonton a dozen years ago... despite the fact that he moved back to Saskatoon a few years ago, we just haven't had the opportunity to meet up...? Hopefully I'll see him again before another decade passes! 

Oh, and the kids and I played an ECW-DBA game on friday - if you missed that report…


Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Working on some English Civil War horse and 40K Imperial Guard. Hopefully I’ll be able to post some pictures of those before the week is though. 

No comments:

Post a Comment