Friday Night Fights

It's been quite a while since Song of Blades and Heroes got taken out, so Friday evening my bride and I took it for a spin. It was a similar matchup to our last game at Gnomecon last year. She used her undead things and I played with the heroic human village defenders.

The custom board is still in good condition and suits the game perfectly.

Early in I managed to knock down a skeleton who was standing right at the bridge with a bow shot so I sent the nearest model (my commander) over to finish him off.

My dice rolls were clicking so Captain McGurk and one of the spearmen confronted the horde head-on. This may have been a mistake.

It didn't take long for the dice to right themselves. Grrr.

Once she figured out the tactical importance of outnumbering enemies in close combat, the steamroller really picked up some steam.

And in short order I was reduced to two archers. Barry, shown here, gave a good account of himself  knocking down two enemies.

Make that three! His pal Chad makes his way over to help.

The party doesn't last and Barry is taken out. Chad makes a break for it but is caught by the Wraith Lord. A miserable defeat for the townsfolk.

The victorious general with her mascot

She said I also had to show on my blog that ALL of my guys had been killed. 

Next time Honey, next time...

Gnomecon Day 1

Well, Gnomecon got under way Friday and I had a blast! I ran my SBH during the afternoon and got some good reviews on the board I built ( yay validation! ) and had three terrific games. The setting was the village of Gnome Bend whose foolish occupants had stolen a skull from one of the graves across the river. Game one was against Philip who took charge of the skeletal horde led by Badash. I took command of the Village people, led my Charles McGurk on his high horse. The skeletons shambled out from the graveyard and down the road as the village guardians moved out to meet them. After a great deal of back and forth, the bridge proved to be a brutal choke point and the hordes were whittled down. They gave as good as they got and I had only two of my guys left at the end, but all of the undead had been vanquished. 

 McGurk gets to work

 Stemming the tide

Philip - good luck with the new job too!

 The second wave of the assault on Gnome Bend was a small group of wraiths and spirits led by Kaspar the Wraith Lord. Rick (of Dystopian Wars fame) took command of the ghosts and figured out right away the right way to use them. They were able to ignore the woods and river and came swooping straight across. I got a little disoriented and foolhardy and Rick took full advantage. His snack bourbon triumphed over my beer and without much effort, Kaspar swooped in, snatched the skull of his bride which the villagers had stolen days before (represented by an orange four-sider because I forgot to pack a suitable trophy) and made his way back to the crypt. A victory for the bad guys!

The minions arise!

And this is what happens when I drink on an empty stomach. Stupid decisions. McGurk gets in WAAAY over his head which he won't have for much longer.

See? The swordsman ran over to assist but to no avail.

The spooky crew grabs the loot.

And takes it back to the crypt.

Rick with his minions. 

Round three had my wife take control of skeletons and the spooks against the villagers joined my Algor the Green Mage and McGurk's brother, McGurk. Empowered by the return of the Skull of Sheena and still cranky, the undead sought to wipe out the hamlet of Gnome Bend. The fight was tense, much fun and went to the wire. 

 Typical of my dice rolls all weekend.

 The Wraith Lord and a Wraith just finished off Algor.

 McGurk's brother has second thoughts about all them skeletons.

Wifey turned the crypt into a "Dead and Injured" box. 

This was two consecutive activations. My wife' trip-ones and my 1,1,5. Yahtzee!

A swordsman and McGurk left against Badash, Kaspar and two skeletal archers!

And in the end, McGurk was the only one left. The horde was put back to sleep, for now.

While we were playing that, my son and his buddy played Monsterpocalypse and had a heck of a time. I may pick it up, it looks pretty slick. 

After dinner we all played a round of the Great Space Race. Since it was late and it was a bit explainy, we only completed one lap before calling it a night. Clayton won the race by a large margin.

Day two details to follow... teaser: I get stomped in Flames of War and play some Wings of War.

Oh, and I sold off four Blood Bowl teams and some 40K stuff. Made a nice chunk of change on the weekend.

Song of Blades and Heroes

I've made some progress on my SBH board for Gnomecon. I still have a little bit to go but it is starting to look quite presentable.

In other news, the MSH game for this Saturday should be a go. Hooray! I haven't gotten in a good old fashioned wargame in a while.

Those pictures...

Alright, here are some pictures of the board and some of the decorations. I'm doing that third building - it's still bare foamcore and balsa right now.

Wifey and I playtested the forces I had assembled for the con last evening. I'm glad we did - it was a heavily one-sided affair in favor of the Men, her Undead took quite a beating. I think the "Undead" trait may be a tad over-costed. I re-did the Undead force using Ganesha's online force-builder tool and tweaked it a bit so that the Undead have competitive Q and C scores. She really enjoyed the game so I imagine we'll be playtesting again soon.

I think the ongoing scenario for the con will be inspired by Army of Darkness, with the Undead attacking the village looking for the Necronomicon. I'll set it up for three or four waves of the walking dead. No 1973 Delta 88 tearing through Bad Ash's hordes though - that'll have to wait until next year.

Song of Blades and Heroes

So I've decided to build a themed battle board for SBH. I'll be taking to to Gnomecon in April and run demos Friday - maybe Saturday too if I decide to bail out of the FOW tournament. I'm using a 2 x 2 sheet of styrofoam insulation. Here are some pics of what I've done so far:

So I've gouged a river through it and planted a bunch of fence-posts around the cemetery. I've also made a bridge - it's pretty well done. I spackled the river last night to smooth out the edges a bit. I guess my kid and I need to play a few games here soon to get real familiar with the rules :)

Song of Blades and Heroes

Picked up "Song of Blades and Heroes" recently. My son and I have played one game thusfar - he's got some undead and I'm using humans. The miniatures are from Splintered Light - the Logres Army  and the Wraith Lord army box sets. The minis are tremendous and I strongly recommend them for 15mm fantasy. I just got back to painting them a couple of days ago - they'd sat primed for a couple months. Here are a couple of pics.

The finished guy at the bottom is my Druid, "Greenteeth." The ghosts are pretty close to being done - may throw some lighter grey / white at them.

Song of Blades and Heroes is a neat little fantasy skirmish game with simple mechanics and lots of good campaign potential. My only problem with it so far is that undead are damn near impossible to kill with archers. The game is inexpensive - I think the PDF was in the $5.00 neighborhood.