Origins!

The last week in June was Origins Game Fair, a four day gaming convention in Columbus, Ohio. A group of my friends and I go every year and it’s always a good time. This year didn’t disappoint in the slightest.

Thursday – Day 1

I was helping Privateer Press run a Warmachine/Hordes tournament so I had to be at the convention center around 9am. I got my badge and my pre-reg tickets (not a fun prospect this year) and was the Co-tournament organizer for the morning and most of the afternoon. After the tournament was finished I wandered through the Dealer‘s Hall seeing if there was anything that I wanted/needed to buy. In the end, I went ahead and picked up the new Risk’s and Rewards card for ATZ by Two Hour Wargames. As an added bonus, I got Red Sand, Blue Sky for half off. There has been a lot of talk of that game on the yahoo board and I could pass up the 50% off sale!

The only game I played in before heading to sleep was Assault on Vault 51. It’s a fallout scenario using the Mutant’s and Death Rays rule set produced by Ganesha Games. It had a wonderful looking terrain and the game was well thought out and provided a ton of enjoyment. I am going to keep my thoughts and game recap to a minimum since I don’t want to spoil it for anyone who is going to play in it. After the game it was around midnight and since I woke up at 5 am to get to the convention on time, I didn’t feel all that bad for cutting out early.

Some of the beautiful terrain used in the Assault on Vault 51 game!

Spending: $20

Friday – Day 2

I got to the game room a bit early so I had some time to kill. As I was wondering around, a game of Deathrace (based off the Warlands system) was starting and even though I told them I couldn’t stick around for the while race, I jumped in. The rules are quite simple and the game itself was a lot of fun. I was bumped by a car during the first turn and that player managed to do a critical that killed my driver. It turns out with all the crashing and bumping that no car survived to the first ‘curve’. I was killed by my awesome ram in the back of two vehicles (after using nitro of course).

If you look closely, there is a car barely over the start/finish line (way behind yellow), that's me!

Again I was helping run a Warmachine/Hordes tournament. This only was a 2 caster/’lock, 50 point beast/warjack and it was a whole lot of fun to watch. Since we had an odd number of players and the second TO left to hang with his father for a round, I even got to play a Haley/Striker list against a Cryx player. Due to the number of players, the tournament ended a bit early so I spent the remainder of my time wandering about the game hall before my game that night. I picked up a couple of block die from Impact miniatures and some counters from Litko (http://www.litkoaero.com/)

In the evening, I played in an “Adventures in Lost Lands” game (by Two hour wargames) ran by Ed himself. There were 8 players so we split into two groups of 4 (with a bearer apiece). This game was a lot of fun. For some reason, the fates were against my side and we had to deal with a couple of feeder dino’s (which we wounded and sent towards the other group), Trogs (which we handled without any issues), Early Man (who surprised us and kill most of our team’s bearers) and second dino (who turned out to be a meat eater). We managed to kill it, but one of us was wounded in the process.

See the other dino's flee in the wake of KONG!

While trying to skin that dino (to prove their existence), three PEF (that’s possible Enemy force) showed up right on top of us… One of those PEF turned out to be King Kong! I fled when he came “In sight” but the others fled when Kong went after one of our hunters. Of course, we flee towards the other group and after losing one of their hunters, manage to kill Kong (amazing die rolls I might add). I didn’t make it off the table. I was attacked by the other of those PEFs after Kong ran through and we grouped back up. A great game!

Afterwards, I found a group just starting Red Dragon Inn and sat down to play. It was great fun and I even managed to win the game allowing me to have a chance at a prize. I rolled amazing (a 17 on a d20) and got Street Illegal for free.

Spending: $25 (but I knew I was buying Warlands when I came home)

Saturday – Day 3

This day was jammed pack with gaming starting at 8 am and heading straight through until 4pm. First up was “Wings of War” with miniatures. I really enjoyed the game with its simple rules and quick play. Due to an error in scheduling, a second group of people showed up to play at 9am and we all just played a huge 4 on 4 battle. Great fun… I can’t remember the young lady that showed us how to play, but I can tell you that she was a fighting ace taking down at least 4 planes in the short time we played… Even got me on turn two (took 4 damage cards that were enough to destroy my plane).

After that, it was time for some Savage Showdown in the Iron Dynasty campaign setting. The book is not out, but they are hopeful for Gencon. When I signed up, I wasn’t so excited about the setting since it’s ancient Japan with steampunk included, but I couldn’t find any other Savage Worlds non-RPG so I figured I’d take a stab at it. The game was a lot of fun even if my side (with the designer no less) didn’t manage to win. Each team had a clockwork vehicle of some sort, a magician of some sort (a wild card) and a couple of units (some samurai and some ‘shooters’. I was playing the vehicle (which tried to go toe-to-toe with the other vehicle and was destroyed). The system plays great as a skirmish wargame, but the point system can be easily abuse. I figured that I enjoyed the rule changes and the game enough that I’ll probably pick that up in the end.

The two steampunk vehicles command respect (at least their's did).

Final scheduled game for the day was a Battlestations game called Bot Wars ran by one of the designers (Jeff instead of Jason) and it was a hoot. There newest release is a mini-campaign where the bots have gone crazy and are attacking the humans (and the rest technically). We barely managed to survive the game. The only major beef with the convention games is that the returning characters can be a pick strong which really can have a huge impact. Our game was super rough since we had a level 6 pilot that was awesome at flying the ship, but the scenario we played was all about fighting robots. A friend of mine said his game was a mess since they had a level 6 marine who single-handedly fought most of the robot attackers! I’m glad that our game wasn’t that one-sided.

After that, it was back to the dealer’s room to again look about. Due to how much fun I had playing the Lost Lands game, I picked up a bunch of prehistoric models (mostly dinos, but I did pick up some prehistoric men).

Most of Saturday night was a trip to the Sausage house that we always go to. It’s has an all you can eat brat buffet with all the fixings. My only gripe (and it’s minimal at best) is that I eat too much good German food and am a mess for the remainder of the night (it’s also disheartening to leave the convention for ~2 hours, but I wouldn’t miss “Sausage Fest” for anything).

When I got back to the convention, a friend of mine (Justin) bought All Thing Zombie including some Rebel Mini 15mm zombies/survivors. Since we had some free time and didn’t have anything lined up, we put together a little scenario and played through the game. It was a bit rough to remember all the rules and such (it’s one thing to read the rules, it quite another to actually explain and play it). Still, with a lot of page flipping, we got through the game pretty well. Both of us had a Rep 5 survivor (star) and a Rep 4 grunt so things weren’t as bad as they could have been (like lower rep civies). I think we ran into only a couple of minor problems on our trek across the board (to a car park).

Spending: $60

Sunday – day 4

I had a single game lined up due to one getting cancelled. It was another from Ganesha Games called Song of Armies and Hordes. I wasn’t going to play this since I’m not a big fan of large scale battles, but in the end I stuck it out and played in it anyways. In the end, I’m glad I did; using their activation mechanic made famous in their “Song of…” series, it played fast and fun. Honestly, there were just a couple of minor changes to the core mechanic, but really made the game a lot of fun.

The Dwarven and Elves clash!

Afterwards, I went back into the dealer’s room for some last minute buys. I first picked up a copy of Bot Wars complete with autograph! Next, I picked up three boxes of Starship Trooper models (costing 5 dollars a box), a dreadnaught for my ‘space marines’ (I have a couple of squads from Space Hulk) and some of the Iron Kingdoms RPG miniature line (including a bridge troll for use in Blood Bowl). If that wasn’t enough, I bought more dinos and lions for gladiator gaming (when I finish reading the book of course).

Spending: $80

Somewhere in there I played in a Leviathans demo from Catalyst games. It has some really cool ideas to it and I can’t wait to see some of the finished product. I wish I would have taken more pictures of it since my memory is fuzzy on when I actually played it. The system is easy. You pick a weapon that has a color code which coincides with a die type (I’m told that the polyhedron dice are ‘weighted’). To that add any addition dice for ‘crew’ (green die) and a die from the target (its speed & trajectory). With those dice, a final normal d6 is rolled to determine location (much like in Warmachine for the column). Sum the value on the dice and check to see if equals or exceeds the armor value in that space that location is damaged and whatever was ‘there’ is gone. I guess the idea is the hull of the ships are standard, but the ‘slots’ for each ship are going to be customizable. We will see once it gets closer to release on the full rules and the like. If I didn’t have a bunch of other game systems sitting in the house, I’d probably get into it.

Final Thoughts:

Origins Game Fair is always a fun time and if you can make it, I recommend going. Nothing many of the big game companies there, but don’t let that stop you. The dealer’s room has more than enough stuff to keep a gamer like me happy and the games being played are always fun to watch and play! I can’t wait until next year.

Saving Private Ryan - the Return!

The heroes make their way back to Death’s Hill with the evil statue (smaller now due to the loss of Flashfire).

The first two turns go without much incident. The statue creates a guard on each turn and the heroes move up slowly (The three slow moving models are now in a group and are being ‘commanded’ by Jareth).

On the third turn, the statue fails to create a guard even with a hero reroll. Most of the heroes again move forward, but Xaria casts a 3 power transfix which does nothing and Erdan shoots, but does nothing.

On the fourth turn, the statue creates a guard, but uses the final hero reroll in the process. Xaria casts a magical bolt and Erdan shoots, but again nothing happens.

See what strategy can do for the game - Go Leaders!

On the fifth turn, the statue makes a fourth guard. The slow-moving group has finally made it to the edge of the hilltop. Xaria again tries to transfix and Erdan tries to shoot a guard to no effect (I’m seeing a pattern here).

The sixth turn happens with the statue creating a guard and Jareth failing 2 dice on his activation ending the turn. Thankfully, the seventh turn, the statue does nothing. Pip, Selena and Durgon move onto the hilltop and Xaria fails to cast a spell and the momentum shifts (she failed 2 activation dice).

The eight turn sees the first hero death as Pip falls to his aggressor (the classic 1 against a 6 - 3+1 v 3+6). The statue transfixes Selena. Durgon kills the fallen guard (that Selena knocked down) and Selena shakes off the transfix effect, but little else happens (Xaria casts a low powered bolt, but the guard is unaffected – and ends the turn in the process).

The ninth turn has a guard knock down Selena, but no other guards manage to exploit the opening (I thankfully rolled a lot of ones for the guards) and the statue fails to do anything. Selena stands up while Xaria fails to transfix the nearest guard. Durgon and Erdan climb to the top of the hilltop.

If I lose one more model, I'll have to take a morale check.

Turn 10: Selena is powerfully attacked and is killed (with a second guard in contact and the powerfully attack, it was 0 to 3 in favor of the guard). The guard to attack Durgon rolls snake eyes and the turn ends there for the statue. Durgon kills the guard in combat with him with a powerful attack.

Turn 11: Durgon is attacked twice, but is pushed back and then pushes his second attacker back. The statue tries and fails to entangle Erdan. All heroes are now on the hilltop.

Turn 12: The first guard moves but can’t attack Durgon. The second guard powerfully attacks Durgon, but is knocked down in the process. The Statue fails to make a guard.

If we can get rid of these two guards, we might have a chance!

Erdan kills the fallen guard, but fails to make his terror check and can’t move into melee with the statue (he moves to help Durgon with the last guard instead). Xaria casts a powerful transfix spell at the statue and even with its magic resistance, it fails the roll and is transfixed! Jareth makes his move and attacks the transfixed statue with a powerful attack but fails to destroy the mighty statue. Durgon knocks down the final guard.

Turn 13: The guard stands but does nothing else while the statue remains transfixed. Erdan knocks down the guard again and this time can move into melee with the statue. Durgon kills the final guard and moves into melee with the statue. Jareth again tries to defeat the statue, but fails.

Turn 14: The statue fails to recover from the spell and Durgon destroys the statue with a powerfully attacks (6+3 v 5+3).

Injuries:
Pip: Serious Injury
Selena: Full recovery

I get 30 gold for winning the scenario! However, the scenario states that I should get 20xp for destroying the statue and 4xp per guard. In the base campaign rules, that would be 40xp. If you include the 8 guards I killed in the first game (can’t believe that I killed that many guards), I should have about 72xp or 144 points to buy characters with – almost three times what I can do with my current funds.

So, to update this scenario to the campaign rules in Song of Deeds and Glory (if I may be so bold), I’m going to state that killing the statue is worth an extra 1d6x5 gold coins and each guard killed is worth a single gold (perhaps there were some precious gems used in the rituals)... With my dice rolls, that’s an extra 30 gold for the second game (If you think about it, my average with 5 guards killed would be (~57.5 gold and a campaign point, close to the purchase power of 40xp). If you add the 8 gold from the guards killed in my first time, I have a total of 83 gold.

In searching the surrounding lands, we stumbled upon an old alehouse which we manage to cut a deal with the proprietor and will always have a stock of ale if we need it. Durgon all shook up about the loss of Flashfire and injured forgot about the ale we found, but decides to learn the trade from the current brewmaster and is making some pretty good ale (added the special Brewmaster to Durgon).

With my stash of gold I recruit a human warrior (Q3+ C3) for 30 gold and a human barbarian (Q3+ C3 – Fearless, Giant Slayer) for 42 gold which leaves me with 11 gold. With the campaign point, I purchase “Retaining the Initiative”.

The experience: This scenario is still fun and worth a second go. First of all, I rolled a lot better this time. There weren’t as many turnovers as in the first game and I think that was in part me remembering to use a group move for the slower lower quality characters. I had to take a chance with my heroes when I first went on the hill and I paid the price really early. Losing two characters so quickly made me pretty worried about the ending (lethal against personalities is scary, but really makes this scenario shine). With only 4 members left another death would have been a morale check and we saw what that could do. In the end, casting a transfix spell on the statue was what really won the day.

Song of Saving Private Ryan - Game 1

I located a four scenario campaign called Song of Saving Private Ryan by Aleksandar Saranac for the Song of Blades and Heroes rule set. It turns out that it is to be played solo (the rules have how the enemy warband is to be played). I decided to go ahead and try the first scenario since I hadn’t heard of anyone trying the games from the yahoo group. To that end, I worked a new warband using my knowledge of a couple games and my idea to play them in the new campaign system (found in Song of Deeds and Glory). Before I pass judgment on the campaign rules, I wanted to try them out a couple of times.

You know things aren't going to end well when you can roll a die cocked without anything in the way!

Here are the new Saviors of the Savage Lands:

Jareth - Personality (60)
Quality 3+, Combat 3
Special Rules: Leader

Xaria - Personality (38)
Quality 4+, Combat 2
Special Rules: Magic-User

Erdan (50)
Quality 3+, Combat 3
Special Rules: Forester, Shooter: Long

Flashfire (56)
Quality 4+, Combat 3
Special Rules: Animal, Blast, Flying

Durgon (50)
Quality 3+, Combat 4
Special Rules: Fearless, Heavy Armor, Short Move

Pip (23)
Quality 4+, Combat 2
Special Rules: Free Disengage, Shooter: Short, Short Move, Stealth

Selena (23)
Quality 4+, Combat 3
Special Rules: Free Disengage, Short Move

Warband changes: The first major change is the addition of a seventh member. Due to the fact that in the campaign rules your starting number of models determines the maximum number allowed, I wanted to add an extra character. I’ve also noticed that a ‘horde’ of models is not necessarily a bad thing either when trying to gang up on someone. This allows me to have 14 models if I ever get that big. Of course that means that Erdan had to lose a point of combat and Pip lost both a combat and a quality to make room. The biggest change is to Flashfire having to rework the specials and combat around to get a better quality. It remains to be seen if Blast is worth the points.

Changes to the scenario one: I couldn’t find anything to use as the flat hilltop that was suitable so I changed the hilltop to be 12x12 inch (30x30 cm). This allowed me to use a piece of cork laying about the basement. Other than that, I went ahead and played the scenario as written.

One thing I noticed is that I have very little in terms of ‘trash’ terrain: rubble, boulders, hedges, trees and the like. Perhaps that should be my winter month mission since it is barely 60 degrees in the basement at the moment.

Turn 1: The Statue rolls two successes and creates a skeletal guard. All is looking good until Flashfire fails 2 activation dice and the two Halflings don’t get to go!

Turn 2: Statue creates a second guard. Both guard hold position. The uphill climb is taking its toll on the heroes, especially those with short moves! Flashfire (not surprisingly) rolls three ones for activation and stays put.

Turn 3: Statue fails to create a guard (failing on the reroll as well). Erdan aims and fires at a Guard with no effect (1+2 v 2+3), Durgon moves slowly up and Pip fails to activate enough to move (passes the turn in the process).

Turn 4: Statue creates a third guard and all guards hold position. Jareth fails to activate on snake eyes!

The two halflings are lagging behing the rest of the group

Turn 5: Statue creates a fourth guard. Selena fails to active enough to move which causes a turnover.

Turn 6: Statue creates a fifth guard (using its last hero reroll). All heroes move closer except for Erdan (turnover on Xaria’s turn).

Turn 7: Statue gets two successes and creates a sixth guard. There are heroes within a long band of it so there is a chance that it will try to entangle if it gets three successes on its activation. Erdan aims and fires at a Guard but again with no effect (1+3 v 2+6). Xaria casts a magical bolt at a guard (1+2 v 3+2), but the guard shrugs off the attack. Durgon finally makes on the hilltop and Flashfire blasts into two guards with no damage (3+4 v 3+5 v 3+6). Pip moves closer, but Selena stays put.

Turn 8: Two guards move and attack Flashfire and both are knocked down for their trouble (3+4 v 3+2 and 2+6 v 3+4), but the third guard manages to kill Flashfire (1+3 v 3+5). A guard moves to attack Durgon, but is pushed back (4+5 v 3+5). The statue has nothing within entangle range so creates another guard! Erdan moves into melee with a fallen guard causing a gruesome kill (5+6 v 2+1), but all the undead are a high enough quality that all morale checks automatically pass... Durgon pushes his opponent back with a powerful attack (4+5 v 2+4). Xaria casts a magical bolt at the other fallen guard but doesn’t kill it (0+5 v 3+3).

Durgon is managing to keep alive with overwealming odds. How long can it last?

Turn 9: The fallen guard stands and moves into melee with Erdan. A guard moves and attacks Durgon but is knocked down (4+6 v 3+5). A second guard moves in and attacks (3+ 3 v 3+3 ), followed by a third guard who attacks (2+2 v 3+3) and pushes Durgon back! Durgon moves back into melee and kills the fallen guard (6+ 3 v 3+5). Erdan gets pushed back from his attack on a guard (3+2 v 2+5). Xaria tries to transfix one of the guards, but it manages to shrug off the spell (3 powered spell, but no 1s rolled).

Turn 10: Durgon is attacked by a guard (4+3 v 3+2) and pushes it back. A second guard attacks but both are evenly matched (4+1 v 3+2) followed by a third guard that attacks (3+3 v 3+4), but his heavy armor saves him! The statue fails to do anything. Durgon gets a single success (out of three mind you) and does nothing. The turn passes.

Turn 11: Both guards powerfully attack Durgon, but nothing happens (2+6 v 3+5 and 2+5 v 3+4) and the statue still does nothing. Xaria transfixes a guard (another 3 point spell that a guard fails), but Erdan fails to kill it (5+1 v 2+6). Durgon kills one of the guards attacking him (3+5 v 2+2). Both Pip and Selena move closer to the action and Selena tries a shot, but it is highly ineffective (-2+4 v 3+6).

Turn 12: The transfixed guard can’t shake off the effects, but a guard finally manages to kill Durgon (3+1 v 3+6). The statue finally creates a new guard. Erdan again tries to kill the transfixed guard but fails again (5+2 v 2+5). Xaria tries to transfix another guard, but moves a bit forward instead (the turn switches however).

Turn 13: The transfixed guard shakes off the effect and the statue creates a new guard. Erdan pushes the warrior back (3+5 v 3+3) and Xaria casts a low power transfix spell, it manages to work on a guard (rolled a single power spell and it works, but at the cost of the turn).

Turn 14: A guard moves and attacks Erdan, but is killed in the process (3+6 v 3+1), but another guard takes his place. The transfixed guard is still transfixed, but the statue finally can cast a entangle spell powerful enough to hit Erdan who fails the check!

The heroes are slowly losing their numbers and their foothold on the hilltop.

Erdan easily shakes off the effect, but does little else. Xaria casts a powerful transfix spell, but the guard resists. Pip finally makes it to the battle and attacks the transfix model, but can’t strike true (5+3 v 3+6). Selena moves up, but she and Jareth do nothing.

Turn 15: In a lucky break (hopefully), the transfixed guard rolls snake eyes ending their turn early! Pip powerfully attacks the transfixed guard killing it (5+4 v 2+4). Erdan also kills a guard with a powerful attack (3+4 v 2+1). Xaria tries a low powered transfix, but fails.

Turn 16: A guard moves and pushes Erdan back (3+4 v 3+5), but the guard that attacked Pip does nothing (3+2 v 3+2). Xaria again transfixes a guard, but Erdan fails to kill it (5+1 v 3+4). Pip knocks down the guard in front of him (3+4 v 2+2) and Jareth moves on the platform killing it due in part of Pip’s ‘distractions’ (5+3 v 2+5)!

Turn 17: The first guard shakes the transfix spell and the second guard moves into melee with Jareth while the statue makes another guard. Erdan attacks, pushing back his foe (3+5 v 1+5) and moves to aid Jareth. Selena fails to activate and causes a turnover (this could be the end)!

Turn 18: The guard attacks Jareth, but is pushed back (2+5 v 2+2). Erdan is pushed back by the other guard (2+4 v 3+5) and the third guard knocks him down (3+5 v 3+6). The statue makes a fourth guard. Erdan stands up and powerfully forces a guard down (3+2 v 2+2). The turn ends with Selena (rolled double 1s).

Turn 19: The guard moves into contact and attacks Erdan but is repelled (2+5 v 3+2). Selena is attacked but strikes her foe down (2+6 v 3+3). The fourth guard moves to an open position against Erdan and knocks him down (2+4 v 3+4). The statue entangles Selena. Erdan gets up, but does nothing else. Selena breaks free of the entangle spell, but gets knocked down by her foe (4+4 v 3+6). Jareth moves against the fallen guard and kills it (5+3 v 2+1). Pip moves to protect Selena and manages to beat back a guard in the process (3+3 v 2+3).

Turn 20: Erdan holds his own against a guard (3+3 v 3+3) and Pip knocked down the first guard, but get knocked down himself by the second guard (3+4 v 3+3 and 2+5 v 3+6). The statue doesn’t do anything. Erdan and the guard exchange blows (3+5 v 2+6) while Pip just gets up (the momentum shifts).

Turn 21 (whew): The fallen guard arises and Pip is gruesomely killed by the other (1+1 v 3+5). Most of the warband flee (Xaria's at the edge of the board). Thankfully, that is not 50% of the warband yet. Erdan is pushed back by the guard (3+2 v 3+5) and the statue does nothing. Erdan moves back and attacks (3+5 v 2+4) pushing the guard back. Xaria moves closer, but the momentum shifts (again).

Turn 22: Erdan is attacked by all three guards. The first moves and is knocked down (3+2 v 3+1), the second is also knocked down (2v6 v 3+3) and the third is pushed back (1+5 v 3+1). Erdan attacks but doesn’t kill a guard (4+1 v 2+5). Xaria inches closer, but again the game shifts.

Turn 23: Erdan is knocked down (2+5 v 3+6) by the first guard and is gruesomely killed by the third guard (1+4 v 5+5). The two resulting morale checks have the remaining heroes flee off the board.

Injuries:
Durgon: Moderate Injury
Erdan: Full Recovery
Flashfire: Dead
Pip: Full Recovery

I manage to find 15 gold. At least all remaining characters gain an experience point. I also explore the countryside about Death’s Hill (and it is now being referred to) and find a lone keg (Durgon is quite happy).

The experience: I really liked this scenario. It was quite fun and was really tense throughout the game. I’m amazed at how many turnovers I had. I know that I should expect a couple throughout the game, but there were a couple times that it was just crazy! When most of my warband fled, I should have had Erdan also move back, but I was really getting tired since in the end, him being unsupported killed him (gruesomely I might add). Thankfully a gruesome kill doesn’t automatically kill a character in the campaign or I’d be done for (or if it does, I can’t find it).

Origins 2009 Report

Finally Origins has come and gone and I can finally stop working on the games I’m running and start working on actually playing games. At least I can say that a good understanding of what to do and what not to do for conventions. For those who don’t know, Origins is a gaming convention that takes place around the end of June in Columbus OH (its official title is Origins Game Fair). It’s a five day event that has a little bit of everything a gamer would want! Board games, miniature games and RPGs go on throughout the day.

Thursday

We got to the convention center around 10am and after a brief visit to get my badge and a small tour around the miniatures room, it was time to check out the Dealer’s Hall. I used a lot of restraint and didn’t buy anything, but I used the time to mark where I would be making the trip back at a later date.

At 1pm, I headed to play in a Fear and Faith (F&F) demo by Ganesha Games ( http://www.songofblades.blogspot.com/ ). When I got there, Andrea (the designer) was explaining the rules for the game. I jumped in as the zombie player and got trounced handily. It turns out that my opponent had played the fantasy version of the game and wanted to see the differences. Of course before I sat down, each of the human survivors were given a single grenade. It was a slaughter! Still fun though.

2pm was a Battlestations game by Gorilla Games ( http://www.battlestations.info/ ). Again I got to play with the designer (Jason) and they were trying out their new expansion that will be released at Gencon. For those that have never played, Battlestations is a light RPG/board game that the players are all characters on a space ship completing missions for the UREF. Each character has a race (which gives a special ability), 5 stats (Engineering, Piloting, Combat, Science & Athletics) and a profession. Mechanics are simple (2d6 + stat vs. Difficulty number) and the action is quite entertaining. There are rules to advance your character and the like (and with clones, you can never truly die if you don’t want to). The game was a blast and I had so much fun, I went back for more.

Every year, my friends and I head to Schmidt’s for “Sausage fest” ( http://www.schmidthaus.com/ ). They have an all-you –can-eat sausage buffet with all the trimmings. Add a 32 oz beer and a cream puff for desert and you got a German experience to knock your socks off! It’s been a tradition since we starting going to Origins and I’m sure it will continue!

I did get to play a demo of Squadron Strike ( http://www.adastragames.com/ ). Once you get your brain wrapped about the 3D nature of the game, it’s pretty fun. I wanted to play in a full fledge ship to ship battle before I made any commitment. Unfortunately for me (but fortunately for my pocket book), I never got into a full battle over the weekend…

Friday

9am: I actually ran a Starmada: Battlestar Galactica game ( http://www.mj12games.com/ ). I had 2 players show up so I gave them two ships apiece and let them tear into each other. Due to the amount of work that I was doing for the SBH game, I didn’t have much in the way of scenario or terrain, but the players didn’t seem to care! In the end, the colonial forces wiped out the Cylon attack force with minor damage to the Pegasus.

1pm: I had a single player for my Song of Blades and Heroes game from Ganesha Games so after a quick rule discussion, we started playing the game. The player caught on really quick and it was good fun. It’s too bad more people didn’t want to jump in, but that’s due in my opinion two major reasons. One, the Warlord/Reaper guys already do a huge dungeon game complete with an awesome Hirst Arts( http://www.hirstarts.com/ ) setup (something I didn’t have with my converted Mage Knight figures and simple vinyl dungeon tiles). Secondly, there was a ton of SBH games running throughout the convention (too much of a good thing can still lead to too much).

After a quick peek into the Dealer’s Hall (I played the reprinted Tales of the Arabian Nights board game by Zman games – which I would have bought had they not sold out of it) and a little dinner, it was back to the miniature hall. I went to play a playtest of the Tales of Blade and Heroes, the new RPG from Ganesha Games. Personally, I’m a little leery of playing RPGs at conventions having too many bad experiences to count, but I really like the miniature system and the designer is awesome so I figured what the heck… Also, I wanted to see if I could adapt the rules for use as an expanded SBH miniatures game. The system was quite entertaining (the exploding 6 mechanic and the boosts were a great) and although I don’t think I’d ever play it as a pure RPG game, it has a ton of potential for use in the SBH miniature game.

Saturday

9am: Again a Starmada: Battlestar Galactica game and this time I had six players (I even had someone with generics, but I just didn’t have the space). Each player had a single miniature (granted it was about 1000 pts worth) and it was a slugfest. In the end, the Cylon players managed to destroy the Atlantia and cripple the Pegasus having only minimal damage to a single baseship. I was pretty glad that the scenario yielded a 1-1 overall!

~2pm: Due to the previous game running a bit long and the reasons above, I didn’t have any players for my second SBH game on Saturday. It’s unfortunate that I spend all the time, energy and money getting the game ready and not having any players, but there wasn’t much I can do. Thankfully most of the stuff that I prepared for the SBH game, I can reuse for my own personal games so I’m not too worried! Actually, I learned some valuable lessons in game presentation and scenario design that should help me in the conventions to come. I was a little disheartened, but I used my new found freedom to get into a second Battlestations game (Note: the second game was great has well. I tip my hat to the brothers).

~7pm: Due to dinner running over, I was unable to make it back in time for either of the games I wanted to play in. The first was a Hordes of the Things (HOTT) tournament. I did stop by and watch some of the action, but never got into a game. The second was a game using the “With Hostile Intent” rules (a great name for a spaceship combat game in my opinion). In the end, I spent the time moving from table to table watching all the different games being played.

Sunday

8am: I played in a Ghostbuster game that was a blast. The presentation was wondrous and the game play was perfect for early morning of the last day. We defeated the bad guy (you know the one) and walked away with a cool sticker showing off my ghostbuster skills (not mine, I couldn’t hit anything really).

The rest of the day was making my way back into the dealer’s hall to buy all of my needed purchases. I learned how to play Steam – the ‘remake’ of Age of Steam. It’s more forgiving than AoS so I might buy that as soon as Tales of Arabian Nights arrives. Due to a calculation error, I spend a little more than I wanted to, but nothing that I can’t handle pending I don’t buy any miniature stuff for a while (like until Gencon).

Notable purchases:

All Things Zombie (ATZ): Haven – I even got a quick demo by the Ed (the designer). I really need to finish my zombies and pick up some modern figures for use in ATZ and F&F. As an added bonus, I got 5150 book 1 for 10 bucks ( http://www.twohourwargames.com/ )!

Song of Splintered Lands: I knew that this was going to be an auto-buy since I have all the rules in the SBH series. What I didn’t know that I would be leaving the booth with ~50 dollars worth of their beautiful 15mm figures. I’m in the process of removing 15mm from the scales I play in, but these miniatures are beautiful and work awesome side by side with the larger 28mm cousins.

Savage Worlds – Fantasy Companion: This was a complete impulse buy for me, but due to a blog that I follow I picked it up. I have used the Savage World system for Dark City Games solo adventures and I’ve also seen people using the Savage World rules for purely miniature game so I figured that this would help me expand the rules ( http://www.peginc.com/ ).

Spaceship models: I bought a second Prometheus from the Iron Wind Metals booth ( http://www.ironwindmetals.com/ ) . The one I have will need some serious work since the engine piece doesn’t match up with the ship hull. I figured that I could use the second one for some serious BSG actions! I also bought a couple of ships from Ninja Magic ( http://www.ninjamagic.com/ ). Mainly the main colony ship from Homeworld and a couple of BSG inspired ships that actually are in the BS Prometheus fan story.

Dominion: Intrigue – The expansion for Dominion was out and I saw people walking about with it all weekend. The game itself is a good one so I really wanted to pick up the expansion. I have not been disappointed yet, although the new actions cards are a bit strange. I’m not sure why they needed to make it a fully playable game on its own (it has the needed VP and money cards), but I’m not going to let that harm my view of the game.

Final Thoughts

Origins Game Fair is always a great time! I enjoy the weekend of gaming and although I didn’t get to play all the games I wanted to, it was still a lot of fun. Now I have to relax and read all the books I bought from the convention and get ready for Gencon.

No 'games' to report

Okay, so another month goes by with little actual gaming occurring. The big issue is that I do find time to play games; every Thursday I go to the local game store to play either Warmachine/Hordes or MonPoc. Warmachine was in the mk2 playtest for April which was very exciting! It changes a lot of what has come before, but I find myself wanting to play games with the new set. It's a nice change.

I'm still working on the both the starmada and SBH scenarios for Origins. I have to make sure that I have enough stuff for a decent game, but not alot in terms of packages. I don't want to have to drive myself so I would really like to limit it to a case or so.

My current project is making the room monsters and the assorted accesories located in the dungeon. I am in the process of taking a bunch of my old mage knight miniatures and rebasing them for the game. Hopefully, I'll have that done in the next few days and I can begin to playtest what I got...

The Dungeon - SBH

Since I am going to be running a dungeon crawl for 6 players at Origins using the Song of Blades and Heroes rule set, I need to work out how I wanted the game to flow for the event. The first test was to figure out what sizes or rooms and corridors that I'll need to make the game fun and challenging. Although I would love to have a huge 3D dungeon for the event, I just won’t have the needed place to carry and store it.

So, a while ago I picked up the game Dungeon Bash from The Other Game Company (TOGC) and while cleaning my gaming area found the tiles that I had made for that game. I figured that I’d use those as a starting point and move from there. The Dungeon Bash rules also have a random dungeon generator so I figured that I could use that to create my dungeon. The tiles are your standard D&D variety. All corridors are 2 squares (read inches here) wide with two room sizes - small (4 by 6) and large (6 by 8).

Due to the ability for players to bring their own warbands to the event, I need to have a warband that comes completely from the printed rosters to test out my ideas than the one I normally play. Looking over the rules for dungeons, I came up with the following:

1x Elf Archer (55pts)

2x Dwarf Elite Warrior (46pts apiece)

1x Human Warrior (30pts)

1x Halfling Thief (16pts)1x human Mage (40pts)

1x Human Leader (60pts)

Total: 293 pts with 100 pts of personalities

I'll eventually need to create 6 warbands for the game so I'm not sure if I like the multiple race types in this one. Only more playtesting (and seeing what model I actually have) will determine this. I also want to limit the number of figures in the warbands that I create (although 7 isn’t a bad starting point).

A couple of rule tests:
1. Each player (and monsters) will be given a card to determine the turn order for that round. I think that will be the easiest and give some randomness to the turn order. I haven’t decided how to move the enemies in the event yet since the rules for failures.

2. At the end of the player’s turn, they will check for wandering monsters by rolling 2 dice. If doubles are rolled and it is equal or greater to that player’s wandering monster number (WMN), a wandering monster group will be placed in some cool fashion. A player’s WMN starts at 6 and will lower by one each turn it is unsuccessful.

3. Normally monsters will not have enough treasure on them to matter, but after each monster killed, 2 dice are rolled. On doubles, a number of treasure cards will be drawn determining the worth of the stash. Some especially powerful creatures will add a die to this roll (still looking for doubles).

4. Each character may carry a single treasure load without penalty. Big creatures can carry 2 and huge can carry 4 without penalty.

For the game, the normal sized creature group was about 100 points and the wandering monster groups were either 2 orc warriors (1-2), two orc archers (3-4) or one of each (5-6). The ‘quest’ room was around 150 points.

Note: the first of the two numbers for the combat results is the die roll.

The 'start' room with the Heroes all inside.

Turn 1 and 2: Heroes start to move up to the closest door. Both corridors are long and complaex (I rolled really high for both).

Turn 3: My human warrior end her turn next to the door finding a large room with 4 orcs and a single treasure (I was places a treasure horde on a 5+, but I might change how this works)! The mage casts transfix at the closest warrior and successes. One of the elite dwarf warriors moves into the doorway. I also rolled double 5 for the wandering monster roll (WMR) and 2 orc warriors appeared down a second hallway. Both orc Archers activate and shoot at the dwarf with nothing happening (3+3 v 5+4 and 1+3 v 4+4).

The heroes are being flanked as most are doing battle in the large room.

Turn 4: My elf archer moves and attacks but doesn’t manage to score a hit (2+3 v 6+3). The dwarf move father into the room to attack pushing his opponent back (5+4 v 5+3).The human warrior moves in and knocks an orc warrior down (2+3 c 1+3). The Mage casts bolt at the transfix model, but the effect doesn’t seem to do any harm (1+4 v 6+3). No wandering monsters (needed to roll double 6s). The orc archers shoot at the halfling and the elite dwarf warrior but nothing happens (2+1 v 5+1 and 4+3 v 5+3). The orc warrior shakes off the spell and attacks but is knocked down by the dwarf (3+3 v 4+4).

Turn 5: The leader moves to engage the orc while the human warrior power attacks the fallen warrior scoring a gruesome kill (4+5 v 2+2). One the orc archer runs to the door and opens it and the other archer runs off the explored area.

Playtest thought: I determined that the next wandering monster would include any model that fled from a battle. This won’t be an issue when the complete dungeon will be set up for the event.

The elf archer attacks the warrior but merely pushes it back (5+3 v 5+1). Both of the dwarves move with the second one making an attack. Due to the door instead of being fallen, the model falls (1+4 v 3+1)! Still no wandering monsters.

Playtest note: Since the door was ‘opened’ by the archer, perhaps he should have just been placed one base width through the door.

The Orc warrior attacks the human leader killing him (6+3 v 2+2). The elf human warrior and mage flee 1 move (It should have only been the elf since no other characters could see the leader, but I was messing up how the +1 Quality for the leader was working so it kind of balances out – I’ll know next time).

Turn 6: The mage transfixes the orc warrior and the elf archer aims and finishes it off (3+5 v 1+2).One of the dwarves power attacks the orc archer killing him (4+4 v 3+1) while the second dwarf picks up the treasure. The orc warrior pushes his target (4+3 v 5+3)

Turn 7: The elf archer moves up and power attacks the warrior knocking to the ground (6+3 v 4+1), but the orc warrior stand and attacks and pushes the human warrior back (5+3 v 3+2).

Turn 8: Heroes surround the final orc and a dwarf gruesomely finishes it off (6+3 v 2+0).

Turn 9: Heroes discover a small room with a mummy and two skeletal archers (no treasure). Both skeletal archers attack the human warrior – the first manages to knock her down, but the second can’t kill her off (4+1 v 1+3 and 5+1 v 6+2). The mummy (the reaper model) moves next to the fallen human warrior who tries to flee but is killed instead.

The human warrior must have found an old crypt.

Turn 10: The elf aims at the mummy and hits it with a lethal shot (6+1 v 1+2) making its quality 6+. There are still no random monsters (my WMN is now a 1). The skeletal archer fails two dice and that round ends.

A clean shot from the elf archer strikes the mummy wounding it!

Turn 11: The elf archer rolls three 1s ending the hero’s turn. I also roll doubles and 3 orc archers appear. One of the orc archers attacks the Halfling knocking him to the ground (5+1 v 3+1 – normally a push back, but can’t due to the fact that there is a model in the way).

There were a couple more turns (4 to be exact), but most of them were spent attacking the mummy in the doorway and the orc archers that appeared in a separate corridor. At this point, I had ran out of time to play so I decided to roll up the whole dungeon to see what it looks like once complete. I stupidly didn’t keep track of the amount of time played so that will have to be in the second test. All in all, it was a good playtest. I have some ideas for the set up and the like that I’ll need to get finished as soon as possible so I can try them out. I have about 2 months to finish everything.

As you can see, it was a big dungeon complex. I wonder how long it would have taken to actually 'explore'.

Still alive

I know that It's been a while since I posted on this blog. It's not that I have stopped or anything, but the recent couple of weeks have been too cold to make it to the game area. The major problem with a walkout unfinished basement. It's gets pretty darn cold in there if it's cold outside!

Still, I'm working on a couple of games and with Privateer Press talking about not going to Origins, I am working on a different idea to get a free badge. Table Top Gamers (based in Ohio and an awesome bunch of people) are always looking for help and I might bring SBH to Origins for a couple of 2 hour sessions. I'm hoping to have about 4 sessions to learn the rules and a couple of sessions of a four-for all!

Stay tuned...

Song of Blades and Heroes - Against the Nephew

So when my Nephews came for a visit this past Friday, the older one (who is 10 and named Dakota) saw that I still had a game set up on my game tables and asked what all parents and uncles want to hear: “Can we play this game?”. Of course, one I set the other nephew (name’s Trace) up on the game cabinet, I started to determine the teams. Once he said something, I figured the easiest to explain and set up in a small amount of time was Song of Blade and Heroes (it was). I have a bunch of figures laying about the tables and start to determine the warbands.

After some cajoling, he decided on the heroes so I took the villains. After looking through my minis and the rule book, I settled for these warbands. I used just the profiles found in the main rulebook so I could explain quickly and get going. We didn’t have much time and I didn’t want to disinterest him…

The forces have started to move together!

The Good (297pts)
2x Dwarf Elite Warriors @ 46pts
1x Elf Archer @ 55pts
5x Human Warriors (30pts)

The Bad (294pts)
3x Orc Warriors (23pts)
2x Orc Archers (29pts)
3x Goblin Warriors (15pts)
2x Goblin Archers (21pts)
1x Small Dragon (80pts)

I took the dragon mainly due to the fact that I was running out of green-skins and it fits the needed points perfectly. Besides, I should be able to handle the specials.

After the warbands were determined, I quickly went through the rules and the game was on. I helped him with tactics since I’m sure that he hasn’t done any wargaming, but he picked it up pretty fast and was starting to enjoy himself. The best part of the game was the play by play of the separate battles when the dice were rolled. I wish adults could keep that kind of imagination!

One of the elite dwarves is surrounded, but is managing to stay alive. It doesn't look good for the dragon.

Due to time limitations, we didn’t get the complete game in, but the forces of good were definitely coming out on top. Perhaps, I’m going to have to ask for a rematch when he comes back down!

The battle when Grandma called it - It was dinner time (Notice that the dragon is holding its own on the right flank).

Rescue the Priestess - SBH game

Saviors of the Savage Lands – Rescue the Priestess

With the priestess in the hands of the Wolfen, Jareth and his band knew they have but one chance to save the priestess from a grisly fate. With only Pip slightly wounded, they stalk Onyx and his gang back to a heavily forested location and wait for their forces to split up before rushing in to save Verlia.

Everyone in the band was healed except for Pip who was +1 Quality. I don’t have any Fame points and my money is fairly low so I press on with what I got. Hopefully there won’t be any major issues…

Scenario Rules:
I decide that for the rescue that the Wolfen warband is split into two forces. Half are guarding the priestess and the other half off doing ‘something’. I also decided to play with the 400 point Wolfen warband I created in the previous game (see that post for the Wolfen stats). For reinforcements, I’d roll 1d6 at the beginning of Onyx’s turn. If the die roll plus the turn number was 7+, the reinforcements would arrive in the middle of the left or right side of the battlefield and activate normally. In order to free the priestess of her bonds, a single model in base to base contact must take two actions in a single activation. If I can manage to free the priestess and get her off the board without her fleeing or being killed, I’ll receive 50 silver pennies once I get her to the shrine. Models killed before the reinforcements will only grant half their cost for VP purposes (rounded down).

The Wolfen (399 pts)

Guarding force
1x Hunters @ 57 (56 was a typo)
3x Fangs @ 51

Reinforcements
Onyx @ 132
1x Hunter @ 57

Okay, this being my third or fourth game of SBH, I am still learning the strategy for the system. I haven’t played much DBA/DBM so the doubling method isn’t my strong suit. So when I set this game up and play it, I got killed in turn 2! Yep, turn two. I think the entire game (including set up and writing down the action) took 10 minutes TOPS! My problem is that I placed Jareth in front of Erdan and Durgon as a screen and a Fang attacks Jareth knocking him down. I roll 2 dice for Jareth’s activation and I fail both. This passes the turn over to the Wolfen and the Fang in combat with Jareth makes short work of him (6+5 vs 2+4). The resultant leader loss makes two of my models flee off the board (I’m only about 1 long on the field anyway). The 50% warband check results in everyone but Durgon retiring from the field.

So, I do what any person growing up in the computer age does… I press the ‘reset’ button and chalk that up as a learning experience and reset the game to play it over. No one (including myself) wants a 2 turn battle report! For all results below, the die roll is the second number for all combats so "5+4" means that I rolled a 4 adding to the modified combat score of 5.

The terrain is set up as a nice wooded area that the Wolfen can get plenty of ambushes if they can manage it.

Turn 1 & 2: The Heroes move up and so do the Wolfen (no reinforcements).

Turn 3: Erdan aims at a Fang and knocks him prone [5+4 v 2+4]. Flashfire engages the lone Hunter. Durgon moves and power attacks the fallen Fang killing it [6+2 v 2+5]. No reinforcements, but the Hunter attacks Flashfire after a Fang moved up to help (I rolled 3 dice, but only got a single success), but the Hunter is knocked prone [4+1 v 4+4]!

Turn 4: Durgon moves and attacks fallen Hunter, but are evenly matched [6+3 v 3+6]! Erdan moves to attack the same Hunter, but manages to kill it [6+6 v 2+5]! Flashfire attacks the Fang and kills him outright [5+5 v 3+2]. The single remaining Fang makes a morale check and moves back a move (50% total warband). The reinforcements arrive on the right side of the board and both begin to move into range.

Turn 5: Erdan and Durgon move to help free the priestess. Onyx attacks Pip knocking the Halfling prone [5+6 v 3+5].

Turn 6: Durgon frees the priestess and the Heroes surround Onyx. Erdan power attacks Onyx, knocking him down [5+6 v 3+3], but the heroes can’t capitalize. Onyx attacks Jareth after a Hunter moved into contact, but they are evenly matched [3+5 v 2+6].

A huge melee occurs. Flashfire must be busy cleaning her claws after the kill (note the new bases)!

Turn 7: Xaria casts a Power 1 transfix at the Hunter and he fails the check becoming transfixed (I rolled a 1). Erdan power attacks Onyx, but they are evenly matched [3+5 v 2+6]. Jareth attacks the transfixed Hunter killing him [4+6 v 3+5], but he ends the turn due to two failures. Fang attacks Erdan but are evenly matched [3+3 v 3+3]. Onyx attacks Jareth, but is knocked down [3+1 v 3+4].

Turn 8: Erdan power attacks Onyx, but again they are evenly matched [5+3 v 2+6]. Then Jareth attacks and Onyx is wounded [5+3 v 3+2], but the turn ends due to two failures. Onyx gets up and attacks Jareth pushing him back [3+5 v 2+3].

Turn 9: Durgon power attacks Fang, but is saved by his heavy armor [4+3 v 3+5]. Xaria casts a power 2 transfix at Onyx, but he shakes off the effects. Jareth attacks Onyx, but is pushed back [3+2 v 3+5]. Erdan power attacks Onyx knocking him to the ground [3+6 v 3+2]. Pip power attacks Onyx, but it knocked prone [5+3 v 3+6]. Pip uses his last action to stand. Onyx attacks Erdan, but again is knocked prone by his actions [4+1 v 2+4]!

Turn 10: Durgon lunges at the Fang pushing him back [4+5 v 2+6]. Both Erdan and Pip attack Onyx wounding him [6+4 v 2+4] and [5+4 v 2+5]. Onyx again tries to hit Jareth, but is knock prone [3+3 v 3+6]!

The final moments of Onyx as he is seriously wounded (at 6+ quality), fallen and surrounded by heroes!

Turn 11: Erdan finally kills Onyx [6+1 v 2+2]. The heroes surround the lone Fang and Durgon moves up and knocks the Fang to the ground [4+2 v 2+2]. Jareth makes the killing stroke ending the game [5+5 v 1+5].

Wrap up: What a difference the reset made. I think I’m starting to figure out the strategy - at least a little bit. Of course, good die rolls helped out a ton (the reinforcements coming a bit late and all the fallen results on Onyx when he was attacking). In hindsight, I had an action remaining in turn 2 to engage Erdan with a Fang and I should have done that instead of staying at range or moved so he was outside 1 long. The result would have been the same (Erdan would have been combat 4 to the Fang’s 3), but I probably would have moved Durgon first to help the combat values a bit. A model with tough and hero is a very rough combatant. Even when the model is at a quality 6+, you can’t count them out due to the free success!

I was awarded 50 silver pennies (and 50 fame points) due to freeing the priestess and I gained a whooping 318 VPs. Since all my heroes survived, I have 6 shares so everyone is awarded 5 XP. After paying for upkeep, I have 99 silver pennies remaining. Perhaps I need to make rules on how you can buy magical items and the like in this campaign. Currently, money is only used for upkeep and to purchase Mercs.

XP values after this game:
Jareth: 9
Xaria: 11
Erdan 12
Flashfire: 7
Durgon: 7
Pip: 8

I might spend 10 XP to make Erdan a personality. Then I can buy Hero once I get enough XP, but I’m torn on my own rules. I want ‘personalities’ to be rare which is why you have to spend XP just to become a personality, but I only have 12 XP after 3 games.

Final Thoughts: Now I know that some people would scoff at the reset that I did since I’m playing a campaign. Don’t worry; I feel a little bit dirty about it as well. Once I finished my first turn with Jareth in the lead, I remembered how brutal the Wolfen in combat were. I thought of moving him behind my front line (like what I did in the reset), but decided to just roll with it (see where that got me). So, I still had some time to play and I already had the game set up so I just started over (plus, who would have thought that I would have done so awesome in the second attempt). My second reason for the reset is that I needed a write up for my battle and a two turn game would have been pointless. At least with that much XP, I can start testing the campaign system (even if it is my personal creation). I did roll to see what happened to Jareth just in case I wanted to use the original results (he would have suffered a minor wound being +1 Quality for the next game).

Escort the Priestess - SBH game

While Durgon and Flashfire recover from their wounds, Jareth is enlisted by the local church to escort a priestess of renown to a nearby shrine. The only issue is the shortest route is through Wolfen lands. The Wolfen are very territorial, but hopefully a small band of adventures will be able to slip through undetected.

Being down two characters and two still recovering from their wounds, I am in a real pinch since my total combat value will still be used for the game (300 points). To that end, I enlist the use of some followers. I figure with two spearmen and a swordsman that I’ll have enough muscle to get through the Wolfen territory. Also, it’s all I can buy with my fame points so it will have to do. Followers don’t add to your total combat value so it’s a good way to supplement your warband if you have the fame points.

I roll for the enemy warband and it’s going to be 3/2 bigger than my own. That’s means I’m going to be facing off against 400 points of Wolfen. It looks like I’m going to be hard pressed in this game.

The Wolfen (399 pts)

Onyx @ 132
2x Hunters @ 57
3x Fangs @ 51

Models from Rackham - I got a great deal on them

Onyx – Personality (132)
Quality: 3+, Combat: 4
Special Rules: Big, Hero, Long Move, Stealth, Tough

Hunter (57)
Quality: 4+, Combat: 3
Special Rules: Big, Forester, Long Move, Stealth, Shooter Medium

Fang (51)
Quality: 4+, Combat: 3
Special Rules: Big, Forester, Long Move, Savage

Here are the stats for the Priestess (named Verlia):

Verlia – Personality (65)
Quality: 4+, Combat: 2
Special Rules: Cleric, Fearless, Independent*, Magic Resistance, Pacifist*, Short Move, Stealth, Tough

New Special Rules:

Independent (0) – Models with the Independent special rule do not gain the benefits (or penalties) from a figure with the Leader special ability.

Pacifist (-5) – A model with the Pacifist special ability is oppose to the use of violence as a means to settling disputes. As such, this model may not move into base to base contact with an enemy figure, does not grant any modifier in hand to hand combat and may not initiate combat with an enemy figure.

Scenario rules

If Verlia makes it across the board in 10 turns or less, the player will gain 10 x # non-killed models in silver pennies. If it takes 15 turn or less, the payment is 5 x # non-killed models in silver pennies. If she makes it across the board at all, it’s 3 x # non-killed models in silver pennies.

Since this was played solo, I had to set up the ambush rules. The Wolfen does not start on the board, but roll a single die on their turn to determine if they are placed and get to take actions. Each model in the enemy warband will take a Quality test rolling 3 dice to determine how far they must set up. On 3 successes, not within 1 medium; on 2 successes, not within 2 Mediums bands; on 1 success, not within 3 Mediums bands and at no successes, must be set up at the board edge.

Turn / Activation #
1 / 6+
2 / 4+
3 / 2+
4 / Automatic

Turn 1: Jareth rolls a 1 and 2 and the activation ends with only Erdan and Pip moving up. The Wolfen do not activate since I rolled a 2 for them.

Turn 2: The Heroes all move up and the Wolfen again don’t activate [1] - Dice rolls in bold.

Turn 3: Heroes move up and are close to the center woods. The Wolfen activate this turn with a roll of a 6. Onyx passes 2Q and sets up within 2 M. The Hunters pass 0 and 1Q and the Fangs pass 0,1 and 2Q. With the Wolfen having Forester, there is going to be a lot of ambush bonuses (I rolled up the terrain randomly).

It's an ambush - Protect the Priestess at all costs (road from terrain pack by Your Move Games)!

Turn 4: Erdan takes a shot at the Fang in the open, but misses [3 + 2 vs. 3 + 5]. A Hunter was closer, but due to Stealth and next to the woods couldn’t be targeted. I assumed that a character could then ignore that model for targeting purposes. Onyx moves up and with the help of a fang, kills a spearman [5 + 5 vs. 2 + 3].

Turn 5: Erdan shoots at Onyx (closest in view), but fails to hit [5 + 1 vs. 4 + 5]. The swordsman moves next to Onyx and the spearman attacks [4 + 1 vs. 3 + 1] and forces Onyx to retreat. Xaria tries to transfix a fang with a 1 power spell and succeeds as it rolls a 1. Onyx attacks swordsman, but are evenly matched [5 + 1 vs. 2 + 4]. A hunter ambushes pip and kills him [5 + 3 vs. 2 + 2]. The transfixed fang rolls 3 dice, but fails all dice.

It's looking grim for the heroes with Oynx blocking the route out!

Turn 6: Erdan shoots at the hunter than just killed Pip and knocks him down [5 + 2 vs. 3 + 2]. Xaria casts a spell and fails two dice so this will end the heroes’ activation. She wants to spell the knocked down hunter, but the better target is the transfixed one and kills it [4 +5 vs. 3 + 1]. She was outside the short range band on the fallen model, but not the transfixed one. I went with the better kill chance. Onyx attacks the swordsman and knocks him down [5 + 4 vs. 2 + 4]. The Fang next to the swordsman gruesome kills the fallen warrior [6 + 6 vs. 2 + 4] – he’s savage after all! A fang ambushes Jareth after the heroes retreat and they are evenly matched
[5 + 3 vs. 2 + 6]!

The Hunter in the forground is 'Fallen' (notice the new counters).

Turn 7: The Spearman attacks and knocks a fang down [4 + 6 vs. 3 + 3], but the heroes can’t capitalize since Jareth rolls two failing activation dice and the turn passes. The fallen warrior stands up, but then Onyx fails two dice as well and can only move up.

Turn 8: Spearman gets 3 successes and power attacks a fang knocking it down [1 + 6 vs. 2 + 3]. Jareth rolls 3 successes and power attacks the fallen model but can’t get a kill stroke [4 + 1 vs. 3 + 2]! Xaria moves back and spells the fallen fang [4 + 6 vs 3 + 4] killing it! Onyx power attacks the spearman and gruesomely kills him [5 + 5 vs. 1 + 2]. The heroes move back, but Xaria flees. On the 50% loss morale check, Verlia flees and the heroes have nothing to escort and retire off the board.

Wrap up: What a mess. The Wolfen builds with how the terrain was set up were brutal. Being able to avoid the penalties from the forest with a big move made them a tough opponent. Add in the fact that they are Big and with ambush, they are a force to be reckoned with. At 132 points, I was worried on how much I spent on a single model, but Onyx was worth every penny. I guess the next campaign game will be to save the priestess!

I was awarded no silver pennies since I lost the priestess, but I did gain 102 VPs. With 4.5 shares (Followers count for shares, but don’t actually gain XP), Jareth and Erdan gain 2 XP. Pip and Xaria gain 1 apiece. Pip is again wounded (+1 Q per rulebook this time), but at least I’ll have my full warband for next time. I’m down to 61 silver pennies after paying for the upkeep costs on my warband (after each game, you lose a number of silver pennies based on the number of characters played in the game) and the lost followers. I’m still working on this part of the campaign rules so things might be changing as I play

Final Thoughts: I don’t want all these games to be on equal footing so that’s why I made a table to determine the amount of the enemy’s point total based on the heroes warband, but an extra 100 points might be a bit too much! Of course, if I would have rolled 2/3 of my warband size, I wouldn’t be complaining. I do need to tweak that chart to make the values a little closer. Lastly, I’m not sure if the point costs for the new special rules are right, but since they were used on a model that didn’t adjust either warband’s size; I’m okay with them for the time being. Honestly, Pacifist probably should be adjusted (or just be a scenario special) since that model can just be ignored by the enemy since it can’t do anything in the battle in anyway.

New Campaign rules

Followers: Each character participating in the game may locate a follower for the upcoming battle by spending fame points. The point cost of the model is the amount of fame points that must be spent in order to recruit the follower. The follower’s point cost must be less than or equal to 2/3 the recruiting character’s point cost (round normally). Followers count for purposes of XP shares, but do not gain XP. If killed in action, must be paid 1/10 their point cost in silver pennies (rounding up) or 1/5 their point cost in fame points (rounding normally). A follower that survives the battle may be kept for the next battle by spending 1/5 their point cost in fame points. A follower will stay around for a total of 2 battles before seeking instruction somewhere else.

Upkeep costs: At the end of the battle, a number of silver pennies must be spent for the warband’s general upkeep (provisions and maintenance). The cost is dependent on the number of models participating in the game. Followers count for this total, but Mercenaries do not. If the group does not have enough money to pay for the upkeep, each model that did not get the required upkeep makes a 2 dice quality test. Each failing results lowers the quality or combat of the model by 1 for the next fight.

# of models -> Cost
1-3 -> 10 SPs (Silver pennies)
4-6 -> 12 SPs
7-8 -> 16 SPs
9-10 -> 22 SPs
11-12 -> 30 SPs
13-15 -> 40 SPs

Character Advancement: The following table shows the number of XP needed to move to the next level in both quality and combat. To add a special ability, it cost the special’s point cost in XP (so heavy armor cost 5 XP). In order to add any of the personality specials (Leader, Hero Tough, etc), you must first spend 10 XP to become a ‘personality’ and then they cost as above. After any expenditure, remember to recalculate your character’s new point total.

Quality / Combat / XP
-- / 1 / 1
5+ / 2 / 4
4+ / 3 / 9
3+ / 4 / 16
2+ / 5 / 25

So to raise your combat from 2 to 3 costs 9 XP points.

That's it for now. Look for the Priestess rescue in the next episode!

Kill the menacing Chieftain - SBH game

“Brave Men and Women – we are in desperate need of heroes to find Or’lath and his band of murderers. He is wanted by the crown for multiple attacks of the surrounding farms. A reward of 65 silver pennies will be given to the band that can kill Or’lath and 38 silver pennies for the death of Murlk, his Shaman. Others in service of Or’lath will be worth a nominal amount”

That is the posting that got Jareth into this mess three days ago. All of dirt, grime and crappy rations were worth it if they could get the drop on the huge bugbear Or’lath. Even after finding the trail, it was still mid-day before Jareth and his friends finally found the Chieftain and his minions that were running amok in the nearby countryside. The stage was set near a burnt out husk of a farm building…

This is the first battle for Jareth and his (self- proclaimed) Saviors of the Savage Lands (see earlier post). The mission is simple; kill Or’lath the Bugbear leader and/or his Shaman Murlk to save the nearby farms. This game was played with the Song of Blades and Heroes rule set. I decided that it would be easiest if I just played against a normal 300 pt warband to get myself re-acquainted with the rules before I made a large campaign out of the thing (I played a quick game at Origins – I split a force with a very cool gent who let me kill both of his savage orcs in two combats. Yep, I can sure roll 1s with the best of them). Both the Chieftain and the Shaman would be rewarded for cost in money if they were killed during the scenario but other models would be worth 25% their cost (not sure what the money is going to be used for just yet). The total amount in money would also be the amount of fame points (used to buy followers) that the characters would receive. Experience will be determined on the models killed in cost/10 with surviving characters getting a full share and OOA (out of action) models receiving one half share rounding all fractions normally at the end (not sure how I’ll handle XP yet either). Yep, I’m making these rules up as I go…

All Models from the ‘evil’ band were taken straight from the rulebooks. There were:
1 Bugbear Chieftain @ 65 pts
1 Orc Shaman @ 38 pts
3 Hobgoblin Bowman (used crossbowman stats) @ 38 pts
3 Savage Orc Warrios @ 27 pts
Total cost: 298 pts.

Here is the board layout. I didn't have a 3' square felt so I made do with what I had.

Turn 1: Heroes are considered the attackers and go first. I activate Erdan with 2 dice and roll snake eyes. Play passes to the Villains (or as I called them, baddies). Have played this game before, the quality 4+ figures all stay close to the leader to help them with their activation dice (now to be called AD). The three archers get an impressive group move that gets them close to the defensive hill in the middle.

Turn 2: Most heroes move up, but Xaria fails both AD dice and play passes with Flashfire getting a chance. The evil band continues to move up. Two archers attempt to shoot Jareth (one even aims) but both fail to do anything

Turn 3: All the heroes actually get to move forward and are taking command of the hill. Durgon get surrounded by three attackers and is unable to stave off the incoming attacks and is killed [6 + 3 vs. 3 +1 (die rolls in bold)].

The situation right before Durgon is slain. Notice how far up he and Pip are.

Turn 4: Erdan shoots at an archer making it ‘fall’, but Jareth fails 2 AD and the turn passes to the Baddies. The chieftain moves up to Pip with a buddy and slays him [6 +5 vs. 3 + 2].

Turn 5: Heroes seeing their chances dwindling conducts an all out advance towards the chieftain but Flashfire gets only a single success and can’t press the attack. Jareth recoils from an attack which allows Flashfire to be surrounded by enemies and is killed by the chieftain [5 + 4 vs. 4 + 1]. Heroes must make a morale check due to being at 50%. All heroes flee one or two movements but none off the board.

After the heroes fled from the loss of Flashfire. Perhaps it was just a strategic retreat?

Turn 6: (The turning point for the heroes. I was so ‘inspired’ by the action; I had to go tell my wife!) Erdan moves forward ignoring the closest savage orc (Erdan is worth 60 pts so he can ignore a model that is 27) and shoots the chieftain [6 + 5 vs. 1 + 4] slaying him! One bowman flees the board. The elf moves forward with grace and determination shooting his bow and manages to catch the chieftain square between the eyes felling him. All the evil models move to get close to the shaman.

The lone elf makes ready his bow...

Turn 7: There is an ineffective shot from Erdan, but Jareth knocks a bowman down. The bowman stands just as a buddy helps knock Jareth down.

Things don't look good for the Jareth (who can barely be seen).

Turn 8: Jareth stands and Erdan shoots killing an orc warrior [4 + 4 vs. 1 + 3]. Jareth gets surrounded by three attackers and is gruesomely killed [6 + 3 vs. 2 + 1]. The remaining heroes must take two morale checks which doesn’t make either run off the board.

Turn 9: Erdan moves, performs a powerful attack and gruesomely kills an orc warrior [6 + 4 vs. 1 + 2]. This forces two morale checks (the kill and @ 50%) and most flee at least one movement. The shaman flees off the board. Interestingly, the now lead model made 6 successes @ 4+! The Orcs try to consolidate, but with 4+ quality, it’s slow going.

Turn 10: Xaria moves to cast a level 1 transfix spell on an archer behind cover who fails the check [3]. Erdan aims at the transfixed model killing it [5 + 5 vs. 2 + 2]. The remaining archer gets 3 successes, moves and aims at Erdan pushing him back [3 + 3 vs. 1 + 3].

Turn 11: Erdan shoots archer knocking him down [4 + 4 vs. 3 + 2]. Xaria seeing an opening moves and casts a power 1 spell at fallen archer, but it resists [2 +3 vs. 4 + 3]! The archer only gets a single success and stands.

Xaria in the forefront trying to slay the knocked down archer!

Turn 12: Erdan fails on 2 AD [2, 1] and play passes. Archer moves up to attack Xaria and they exchange blows with no real victor [1 + 3 vs. 2 + 2].

Turn 13: Erdan moves and attacks archer but merely pushes him off the hill [5 + 4 vs. 5 + 2]. Xaria casts a power 2 transfix spell at the archer and it fails [4, 1]. The final warrior moves to engage Xaria, but the archer is still transfixed [4, 2, 1].

Turn 14: Erdan again fails on 2 AD and play passes. Warrior attacks Xaria and the Mage manages to push it back [2 + 3 vs. 5 + 2]. The archer still transfixed [5, 3, 1].

Turn 15: Erdan shoots at transfixed archer and kills him [3 + 6 vs. 5 + 3]. Xaria fails to activate. The final warrior rolls 3 AD, but only gets a single success. Move to engage Xaria.

Turn 16: Erdan gets 3 successes and performs a powerful attack with Xaria by his side gruesomely kills the final warrior [4 + 4 vs. 1 + 1].

Post game report: The heroes gained 98 silver pennies, gained 98 fame points and also gained 195 exp. With only 4 shares that gives 5 exp (195 / 10 / 4 = 4.8 rounds to 5) to both surviving members (namely Erdan and Xaria) and 2 exp (195 / 10 / 4 / 2 = 2.4 rounds to 2) to the rest. Both Flashfire and Durgon received grievous wounds and will miss the next scenario. Jareth and Pip were wounded and be a -1 combat for the next game. It looks like I’ll need some reinforcements if I plan on winning the next one!

Final analysis: This game rocked. I was on the ‘edge of my seat’ the entire time. It played quick and the action was awesome (you can see the measuring sticks I made in the pictures which helped a ton. I definitely need to make range sticks for shooters). After the heroes lost 3 of their numbers, I thought I was going to have to follow Or’lath and his band in a campaign considering how awesome they were doing (and it looked like the heroes were going to be wiped out)! The tide turned when Erdan shot and killed the leader since I had just reread the rules that morning and could skip the closest warrior. Like I said, I had visions of Lord of the Rings during that and had to explain my excitement to my wife (much to her chagrin). Actually, if you think about it, Erdan did almost all the work himself (Xaria transfixed the archer that allowed Erdan to finish him off).

The only issue with this game is that I played it to the last model. Once both personalities of Or’lath’s warband were dead or had fled the table, the rest should have dissolved away (they didn’t have any reason to continue really) and I maybe I should have stated that in my pregame decisions. Another sore spot I had is once the heroes had been taken to 50% and no casualties on the other side, it felt dirty of me to continue the game (none of their personalities were gone at that time however), but I don’t have the answer on how to fix that one. Of course, that would have ended it in turn 5 and I’d not have had the joy of the Erdan shot! Perhaps some self preservation check or some such.