SoBH Battle Report : Quest for a Magic Item

I had a second day working from home yesterday, so my lunch break was spent running another Song of Blades and Heroes battle with my youngest son. This battle was over much more quickly than the previous one, so we didn't have to take a break mid-point during the game to continue in the evening like last time.

We both decided to use the same forces as last time as we had become familiar with them (and it saved time by us not having to devise two new warbands). My son was the defender so he set up the board and then rolled the scenario - Quest for a Magic Item. We then placed the three magic item tokens (purple counters) by each of the terrain pieces and kicked off the game.

Starting set up - orcs to the left, humans to the right

We both moved up our forces as quickly as possible to try to gain the magic items. The human archers decided to have a bash at really long range (at a -4) and only just missed out by one point on killing one of my orc archers!

In the second turn, the orcs moved a few but then double-failed to activate. The humans managed to get into the woods and found that the magic item was located there. It was a magic sword (+2 Combat until a 1 is rolled). The orcs would now need to run full tilt to try to stop the archer getting off the table.

The humans find the magic sword

It was at this point that we forgot about the 2AP required for actually picking it up. The orcs managed a few triple activations and got closer to the archer with the magic sword, who was able to get within one move of the board edge and safety. The rest of the humans moved to block the orcs from trapping the archer.

The orcs advance rapidly to stop the archer with the magic sword

I was having a lot of luck with activation rolls, so my orcs advanced very quickly and managed to slay one of the human archers. The humans double-failed to get the archer off and had no other moves this turn.

Victory is in sight

The orcs managed to close the gap and would most likely have caught the archer next turn if only he would double-fail. He didn't and got off the board with the magical treasure.

The final result was a win for the humans.

Victory Points : 

Orcs = 1 point (1 for 25pts of kills)

Humans = 3 points (3pts for getting the magic item off the table)

Campaign total : Orcs = 7, Humans = 9

It was a fairly easy win for the humans, but if we had remembered the 2AP treasure pick up rule, it might have turned out differently.

 

Next game, now that we are becoming more familiar with the rules will be the start of a proper campaign hopefully. The humans will keep the sword as a reward and the orcs the treasure from last time. I will try to work out some campaign rules for treasures and reinforcements.

Midgard : Scenario 4 : Prelude

Carrying on with my Midgard campaign, I have just had time to collate my thoughts and get something down on the blog ready for the fourth scenario, Take the High Ground (Scenario 3 from the rulebook). I need to do a fair bit of preparation for this scenario as it requires a few things to be sorted before playing. I need to source the new commander figures to replace those that were lost in the previous game, some kind of markers to represent the special zones on the playing area, and also find a way to represent the hill.

Britons advance uphill towards the Romans

As I don't have enough figures for the reinforcements rolled for at the end of the last game, I have had to replace a few units with alternatives of around the same value. I think this makes for a more "realistic" mix of troop types, that is, more basic troops and not too many specialist troop types...

 The Briton army for scenario 4 (97/210=307pts):

• Bellicus 3 (47pts)
• Maviloduus 2 (32pts)
• Magunum 1 (18pts)
• 2x Warriors 3 (@22 = 44pts)
• 4x Warriors 2 (@17 = 68pts)
• 2x Archers (@15 = 30pts)
• 2x Slingers (@10 = 20pts)
• 1x Skyclad (16pts)
• 2x Mounted Warriors (@16 = 32pts)

This force is now just over the 300pts limit, but I am OK with that. It is more than enough to enable me to play Take the High Ground - I want the Britons to appear to be getting the upper hand whilst Romans to appear a little weaker and desperate for reinforcements.

The Roman army for scenario 4 (85/161=246pts):

• Caecilius Rufinus Pulcher 3 (43pts)
• Gaia Pomponia Thrax 2 (21pts)
• Marius Pollux 2 (21pts) 
• 2x Legionaries (68pts)
• 1x Auxiliary Archers (29pts)
• 1x Auxiliary Spearmen (24pts)
• 2x Cavalry (40pt)

I had to fudge my normal way of trying to run this game by adding extra troops to the list otherwise the Romans would have been seriously outnumbered and it would not have made for a fun game. This change works quite well for the Take the High Ground scenario as some of the defending force is held off the table until later in the game; this would represent the later arrival of the cavalry reinforcements.

SoBH Battle Report : Treasure Hunt

This week is half-term week. Unfortunately, I was unable to get any time off work whilst my youngest son is over. However, we decided that we would try to play a game or two in the time we have available.

This lunchtime, and for a bit after work, we were able to put together a small game for Song of Blades and Heroes. My son had a bit more time available to ponder his plans than me, so he created a fresh human warband, whilst I used my already extant orc rabble.

Apologies for the picture quality - they were taken very quickly on my phone as I had limited gaming time to fit into my lunch break. Also, I didn't get time to take a picture at the end of each turn, so this is a brief summary of the skirmish.

The human warband (2 archers, 1 heavy infantryman, 5 barbarian warriors)

The orc rabble (3 archers, 1 orc warlord, 5 orcs)

My son set up the table, we rolled for a scenario (Treasure Hunt) and set to.

Starting positions - orcs had priority

The game didn't start out too well for me as the orcs refused to do what I wanted of them. I moved half of them up to try to get to the objective treasure token by the building, which worked, but ended up stringing the other half of them out with no force cohesion trying to get around the building to flank the humans. One of the archers failed to move for several turns and one of the rabble always failed the activation (I activated with 3 dice to get to the hilltop treasure token at the end of each turn and he failed every time).

The humans moved up nicely in a shield wall formation with archers on the flank who would try to get the treasure token in the forest and use the shield wall as cover for on the way back. They took a few pot shots at the orcs by the building but their arrows failed to find their marks, except for one (see below at the end of the post).

Turn 2 - The orcs reach the 1st treasure token

The orcs continued to fail their movement rolls but eventually got to the treasure token on turn 4. They were shot at all the time, but the humans failed to make any impact, especially when they failed to activate on the first roll of their turn 4. The treasure token turned out to be Fools Gold, so the orcs tried to head over to the second treasure in the woods as the humans seemed to be stalled. However, one was shot along the way, which left it open for a human archer to check out the token; it too turned out to be Fools Gold. The orc trying to climb the hill failed his activation yet again.

Turn 5 - the 1st treasure token turned out to be false

The orcs on their flank were slowly getting too close for comfort, so a couple of human warriors peeled off to deal with threat. They piled straight in and took out an orc warrior.

Turn 6 - the melee begins in earnest

The next turn saw the orcs cut down in great numbers, including a couple of Gruesome Kills. The orc leader did, however, manage to kill the human heavy infantryman for a slight bit of retaliation. All the orcs retreated towards their base edge, and one of the orcs left the board (rolled a triple 1). This took the orcs below the fifty percent mark so a Morale check was carried out which meant further retreats.

Turn 7 - the orcs take a battering

This actually panned out well for the orcs as it returned them to very close to their board edge and the final treasure token on the hill. The humans, thinking that their adversaries would get away with the treasure, ran pell-mell after the orcs - you would not believe how many triple activations happened over the next few turns for the humans.

Turns 8 & 9 - the orcs go after the treasure - the humans chase them down

Turn 10 - the orc leader grabs the treasure

The orcs, having grabbed the treasure headed towards their board edge, but the humans closed in on all sides trying to cut them off. Again, triple activations all round whilst the orcs barely managed single activations. However, at turn 12 the luck began to run out; a double-fail on their second roll stopped the human advance.

The final turn began with an orc triple activation which got both the leader and the archer off the board with the treasure.

Turn 13 - The orcs leave the table with the treasure

The final result was a Draw.

Victory Points : 

Orcs = 6 points (5 for the Treasure, 1 for 25pts of kills)

Humans = 6 points (150pts of kills - if 2 more points value of orcs had been killed, victory would have gone to the humans - i.e. if the archer was a warrior that was left, then the humans would have won)

It was a close run game to begin with, but then the tide suddenly turned and a whole swatch of orcs got Gruesome Killed in one turn leading to all but two of the orcs leaving the table. The orcs were on the back foot then (with lots of poor activation rolls to add to their woes - so many 1s), but the humans' luck ran out on the 12th turn and moved to the orcs to get them home with the treasure on the 13th turn.

 

We encountered a weird thing that we could not find covered by the rules - an archery attack led to an orc  rolling a 1 with a -1 penalty = 0. The human archer rolled a 3 with a -2 penalty = 1. The rules state that a Kill needs the attacker to double the defender's score. Unfortunately, any value above 0 is infinite - so was this a hit, a Kill or a Gruesome Kill? We decided that as the scores were so low we would just count this as a hit. If the scores were higher, we decided that a difference of 2 would mean a Kill and a 3+ would mean a Gruesome Kill.

Orctober

As much of the fantasy gaming blogosphere seems to do something for Orctober, I thought I would add my efforts into the mix...

A few months ago, against my gaming fiscal limitations, I purchased a bunch of figures from Australian miniatures producer Medbury Miniatures. I had happened to come across the Good Beans! blog a few months earlier that detailed a Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle game that really piqued my interest. As a result, I looked up the figures used in the skirmish battle and that led me to a small purchase of 21 orc miniatures.

I already have a largish collection of (unpainted - eek!) Lord of the Rings Mordor orcs, but they are in very limited poses. From the 30ish grunts I have (about three sprues), there are only 12 unique poses (14 with a couple of weapon swaps), so a lot of repetition - not good for a rabble-type army. So, for the figures over the 14 count, I will try to do a few hand-swaps and maybe some green-stuff mods to give a little more variety, but it will still leave me with a fairly small number of unique individuals. This is where these wonderful Medbury orcs come in handy - they boost the numbers of unique figures quite significantly.

So, without further ado, here is my first batch of 14 unique GW orcs...

Orcs with hand weapons and shields

Two of these orcs are built from the same original dolly

Two weapons + two bodies = 4 variants

Orc archers

And here are the Medbury orcs - I have only got as far as preparing them in readiness for undercoating. Many were single piece figures, but a few required adding a shield, a few needed their hands drilled for the polearms (metal spears were included, as well as some resin polearm heads) and the banner to be added, and one still needs an arm sticking on - the superglue just wouldn't work on this one for some unknown reason. A little bit of extra work and a punctured thumb - ouch! - later and here we are...

Orcs with 2-handed axes

Orcs with axes and separate shields (arm needs affixing)

Orcs with hand weapons and some separate shields

Orc archers

Orcs with polearms - metal hafts with resin heads

Orc banner bearer

They scale in pretty well (one or two individuals are a wee bit larger) and certainly look the part. As there are still a few more packs available, I am probably going to order them at a later date to make even more unique poses for my orc rabble. I would like to get these painted and based before making any more purchases.

Including my orc leaders and heroes, and maybe by adding in my GW Morannon Orcs and Uruk Hai, I should have a handy sized force for skirmish gaming, whether using Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game, Dragon Rampant (2nd Edition on its way - and onto my Christmas list - soon), or Midgard: Heroic Battles.

 Now, who do I front them up against? 

RPGs or Tabletop Battle Games?

I was lucky to be the right age when D&D first came to the UK in the mid-late 1970s. A couple of school friends introduced me to the game (Basic D&D - the Blue books), but also many gaming clubs formed in local church halls etc. at around the same time. These venues allowed like-minded teenagers to get together and play in the realms of our imaginations with the plethora of Role Playing Games (RPGs) that then came out at that time.

It was with my school friends and at local clubs (where I met some very dear friends) where I played a huge variety of those RPGs; mainly D&D, Runequest and Traveller. I tried others, but these were the main three I stuck with.

Advanced Dungeons and Dragons

So, although I generally played in games classed as RPGs, where most of the action took place in what is now termed "Theatre of the Mind", occasionally with a handful of miniatures thrown down on a hand drawn map, I became aware of others playing what were termed "wargames", where dozens or even hundreds of miniatures were laid out on what were to me as realistic a table as could be made at the time.

I have played many iterations of wargames over the last few decades, from small skirmish level games (5-10 figures on a table) up to battalion level wargames that involved several hundreds of miniatures. I was always drawn towards the spectacle of the big games with all that wonderful eye-candy, but found I kept coming back to the smaller games. I guess that this was due to a number of reasons; I was used to small-scale gaming with RPGs, I could only afford a handful of figures a week on my pocket money allowance and a game could be got going if fewer miniatures were required, and finally, the prep for large-scale games must have been mountainous what with all the cleaning, glueing, painting and basing that had to be done for the miniatures, not forgetting all that wonderful scenery that had to be purchased or made.

So, as time wore on, and real life got in the way (work, family etc.), my exposure to gaming gradually decreased to the occasional play-by email game often set up by one of my earliest gaming buddies from the first wargames club I attended; although I managed to run a few games during that time too. I also kept up a long distance rapport with a few friends via weekly emails where we would chat about gaming and other related subjects.

Once I had become a dad, I often thought about gaming with my kids but the opportunity never really arose until the Lord of the Rings trilogy of films came out and a new game was released and supported by Games Workshop via the Battle Games in Middle Earth monthly part magazine. I bought a copy each time one was released and subsequently built up a large collection of figures. This prompted me to (re)paint a horde of my old RPG figures, which meant that I was able to play a few tabletop wargames with my kids.

This re-introduction to gaming led me to eventually join a local gaming club where I started to get back into RPGs (mainly D&D) again, but I didn't really get into playing any wargames other than Lord of the Rings at home. Since then I have moved away from that area, but losing one RPG gaming group was remedied recently by joining a new one. So, my RPG gaming itch is being scratched. However, I still hanker after playing with miniatures on the tabletop.

I like all aspects of tabletop gaming but due to my current situation, I am only really able to play online RPGs and, on occasion, a wargame or two with my sons when they come to visit. A lot of my sparse free time is spent procrastinating and playing solo games, of which thankfully there are now quite a number (Five Leagues from the Borderlands, Rangers of Shadowdeep, and game books like Lone Wolf and so on). I have also started a sporadic Midgard campaign (yes it is still running in the background but it takes a lot of prep, so I have to choose my days to play carefully), and I keep toying with Frostgrave and its stable of companion games amended for solo play.

I think that most of my game style choice is circumstance, but despite that, over the years, I have also tended to gravitate more towards RPGs and smaller skirmish tabletop games where progression of troops and characters plays an important part in building a narrative rather than the more static emphasis on troop and leader stats in wargames that tend to re-enact certain historical battles - although large wargames do use command and control it is at a more over-arching level. I guess I want to be a hero in my gaming experiences rather than seeing if I was a better general than an historical counterpart? My large-scale wargames therefore tended to be more along the lines of "What if?" scenarios that do not involve famous generals or battles.

This blog post started out as just a random idea and I just splurged my thoughts onto the page. I haven't really gone into the whys and wherefores of the various aspects of each style of gaming as that was not really my aim. I guess this is just a procrastination piece, trying to develop an argument as to why I like both styles of game and how I got to the situation of having to choose between the different styles.

Summary? Purely from my own perspective, large-scale tabletop wargames are great if you belong to a club and/or have a circle of friends and family that wish to play continually in order to get some value from the preparation and numbers of minis required, whereas RPGs excel for small groups of friends to get together anywhere (including online) and begin to play as literally nothing is required except a character sheet, a few dice and maybe a copy of some kind of Player's guide. I guess I am kind of in the middle with my current situation, playing mainly RPGs and small scale tabletop wargames. That said, I guess it all depends upon personal circumstances and not any real preferences as to game type?