Campaign for Ravensflight - Journey to the Vale of Ravensflight

I've been kind of wanting to run a different sort of role-playing game since the Soulbound campaign kind of fizzled... and was thinking of using Five Leagues from the Borderlands for generating the events of the campaign, but maybe using A Song of Blades and Heroes for combat resolution (and maybe elements of Tales of Blades and Heroes for non-combat task resolution...?) 

It has been almost a decade since I last played A Song of Blades and Heroes - the last catalogued play on Board Game Geek was in November of 2015. The following year I picked up ADVANCED Song of Blades and Heroes (ASOBH) when it was released... but then never really got around to playing it until NOW!? 

Tuesday evening Amanda, Finnegan, Orion and I got together to make up a warband/adventuring party and played out a quick encounter to learn the rules for ASOBH!

The basic background I had set out for the campaign was there has been a protracted period of instability caused by a war (and/or civil war) followed by a plague. Their retinue was journeying to a remote region of The Realm that has fallen into chaos. The knight or baron that used to oversee the region had marched off to war a few decades earlier and never returned. Whether appointed to do so by a higher authority (the king or queen him/herself, or maybe a Duke...?) to bring the region back under control and help protect the common people or even permanently take control of the region themselves... or they were just going there on their own thinking there could be money to be made and opportunity to begin carving out a kingdom by their own sword... 

It was up to them how their party was formed... They could be a knight and their retinue... They could be a wizard with apprentices and guards... They could be a anarcho-syndicalist commune that each take it in turns to act as a sort of executive officer for the week but all the decisions of that officer have to be ratified at a special biweekly meeting...?

They chose the former option. Orion decided to play a Knight of the Realm - Largely as an excuse to finally paint her Emelda Braskov miniature from Warhammer Quest: cursed City! She is Lady Ismira - the daughter of the Knights that had left on campaign over two decades earlier, before their daughter was even born, and had never returned. Lady Ismira is leading a retinue to reclaim her ancestral lands! 

I said each could play about 100 points worth of stuff - which would make the warband/retinue about 300 points - the suggested size for an average game. Orion's Knight was just over 100 points. 

Amanda took an Assassin and a Veteran Archer. The Assassin, Megan, was trying to escape her life before it was ended prematurely by rivals or friends of victims bent of vengeance. Along the road she met up with Lady Ismira's retinue and offered up her services as a "scout". Amelia - the Veteran Archer - is the older sister of one of Finnegan's characters, who went off to serve in the army after her younger sister was conscripted - to protect her! 

Finnegan ended up with THREE characters! First was Ralores, an apprentice spellcaster, who'd spent almost all of his life living in the Capital serving the Grand Wizard of the Realm. At some point the Grand Wizard of the Realm decided Ralores was a little too "sheltered" and needed some "practical" experience of magic - and the world around them. So when a request for a wizard to accompany a Knight of the Realm on a quest to retake their ancestral homeland came up, Ralores was volunteered for the job! 

The others were Luciana, the younger of Amelia the Archer, a peasant who was conscripted to serve in the Realm's Army near the end of the long wars. She was trained with the Crossbow and fought in many battles alongside her sister under the command of Lady Ismira! And finally there was Yodrick, who had joined the Lady Isimira's Retinue after parting ways with a mercenary company he'd served with for many years during The Wars. 

They also decided they needed a pack animal and found on of my Dungeons and Doggies miniatures that fit the bill... and then a wee child they figured could be the "dog handler". 

I had determined that the Kingdom would be predominantly human. The society/technology level is very much early mediaeval-feudal. Dwarves and Halflings are common enough. Though halflings generally keep to their own in their own rural communities. Dwarves are often free tradesmen or miners. 

Elves are a bit less common. They very definitely prefer to keep to themselves in their own kingdoms deep in the forest or islands off in the sea. 

the adventure began with the group marching along a route they hoped would take them to Lady Ismira's ancestral homelands - a place she had never before visited! 

One afternoon they found their way blocked by a small group of shabby little ratlings, intent on robbing them! 

Lady Ismira's retinue held their ground! 

(I know... using unpainted miniatures... Finnegan insisted on wanting to use his own miniatures... which he has zero interest in painting... ever... and I didn't want to wait a week to play... so I allowed it just this ONCE)

(and now I have to paint his miniatures for him!?) 

Wow! Gregarious Ratlings with a leader can really move! in a turn or two they were upon them, swarming Lady Ismira and Megan the Assassin... er... SCOUT! 

Yodrick stepped in to aid Megan and knocked away one of the Ratlings, then moved to attack one that was swarming Lady Ismira, only to be stabbed in the side with one of their cruelly sharp rusty blades and topped over, blood pouring out of him... 

A ratling armed with a sling loosed a stone and hit Megan square in the forehead and she pitched down, quite unconscious! 

things were not looking great... the player were wondering if I was going to TPK the lot of them on THE FIRST GAME!? 

Eventually they got control of the situation, thanks in large part to Ralores, the Apprentice Spellcaster, who EVERYONE had expected very little from... but ended up being EXTREMELY helpful, being able to put hostile ratlings to sleep with his magiks! It didn't kill them or take them entirely out of the action... but it effectively removed them, if only temporarily, from the action and made them very easy to despatch! 

After the ratlings had been killed or driven off, they checked on Yodrick only to discover he'd bled out and died. Megan was in a very bad way as well - she'd been concussed very badly and in a coma-like-state. They draped her body over Hamlet the dog and hurried on their way hoping to come across a village that might have a healer! 

(she will miss the next encounter and the one after that will be at reduce Quality!) 

And thats where our story ended for the first session. Hopefully we'll be playing again next week and this will go a little better than the Soulbound campaign! 

I still have game reports from last week to do... but this was too much fun and I just would not have been able to concentrate on those until I got this out of my head!!

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. 

30 Games in 30 Days (Week Two)

I mentioned last week that our challenge for the month of September was to play 30 different games for each of the 30 days in September. Here is what we've played for the last week. 

5 September - The Family played Frostgrave with Other Tim....



While I ran a game of Song of Blades and Heroes for Rick, Dave and Patrick... Not sure which to count for our game for the day... is it the game THEY played or the game I played...? I'm going to go with the game the majority played and say Saturday's game was Frostgrave.

If you missed it, you can read the reports of those games here:

Skirmish Saturday Part One: Frostgrave

Skirmish Saturday Part Two: Song of Blades and Heroes




6 September - For some reason the kids wanted to play Gift Trap Sunday evening... so we did...



7 September - On the holiday Monday we played an other episode in out on-going fantasy role-playing campaign that is sort of based on Song of Blades and Heroes...



8 September - On Tuesday the kids and I played Ventura



9 September - On Wednesday the kids and I played a quick game of Set before heading out to D&D 5E Encounters at the DRagon's Den Games (only to find out all they were doing was making new characters and The Boy already had his made... so we looked around a bit and wandered back home...)



10 September - On Thursday the family sat down to our first ever game of Puerto Rico.



11 September - The kids and I played Empires: Age of Discovery.

Later, in the evening, Amanda and I went out to play our semi-weekly Savage Worlds/Realms of Cthulhu/Masks of Nyarlathotep campaign... (and my character - that I've been playing since January - died a grisly death at the hand of some crazed egyptian cultists in rural England...?)

We're scheduled to play some more Frostgrave tomorrow, so we'll have to find something else (something quick and short) to play in the afternoon as we've already played Frostgrave this month...

We actually played three completely new (to us) games this week; Ventura, Puerto Rico, and Empires: Age of Discovery. All three were quite good and I'd really like to play them again... alas they are long games so I'll probably wait until October before having a go at them again as we have the Challenge to think of!

Two weeks from now is ToonCon!We'll be playing a LOT of different games there! In the end I think we'll end up playing far more than 30 games in the 30 days.

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…