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?

Historical Holiday Interlude - Warwick

My partner and I got away for a mini-break to Warwick last weekend. We spent four glorious days exploring the quiet town of Warwick and the much busier home to William Shakespeare, Stratford-upon-Avon.

We had a few walks around Warwick town during our long weekend stay; we had the time to look at the two "gates", the Lord of Leycester's house and the castle. We also spent a long, leisurely day in nearby Stratford-upon-Avon where we went all Shakespeare by seeing his Birthplace, Anne Hathaway's House, and paid a visit to the RSC theatre to see a modern rendition of Measure for Measure.

Apologies for the lighting - it was a very sunny day

As this post is to be mostly about the medieval things we got to see on our visit to Warwick, I have only included photos, for my reference purposes, of Warwick Castle itself. The castle, and its grounds, is great for a family day (or two) out; we barely scratched the surface of what was on offer as there are plenty of things to do and see. We watched a rather spectacular falconry display that involved birds of prey from all over the world (the Andean condor is simply enormous), a trebuchet demonstration, and took part in a couple of guided talks which included a potted history of the castle and tales of a few of its ghostly residents.

Inside the castle - Guys tower, barbican and Caesar's tower

The castle started out as a typical Norman motte and bailey fortification completed in 1068. From an information post on the mound, it seems that it was built on or near the site of an Anglo-Saxon burh - I have yet to read up more fully on that. The wooden keep and palisades were rebuilt in stone at a later date and then fell into disrepair before the barbican and gatehouse were constructed in the 14th century. The castle was then added to, and left to go to ruin, at various times over the intervening centuries, culminating in what we see today. 

On this visit, I wanted to find out a bit more about Guy, Earl of Warwick. The reason being is that before I moved to where I currently reside, I lived in Kent. One of my local pubs was called the Guy, Earl of Warwick and there were several other pubs on, presumably, a similar theme - The Bear and Ragged Staff being one of them for instance. Unfortunately, I was unable to get around all of the exhibits, so missed out on that particular period of history. That said, I am assuming that one of the main towers is named after him - happy to be proven wrong if anyone knows if the tower is linked to the pub's namesake...

Guy's Tower

Zoomed in a bit

Guy's Tower from the castle battlements

Our walk around the walls, combined with the potted history tour, led to the other main tower, currently named after Julius Caesar (some kind of Victorian style renaming to make it sound more grand apparently). It was originally named after Poitiers, the site of a battle that one of the earls of Warwick was rather successful in and made a huge fortune in ransoms at, but that was deemed too much of a linguistic mouthful so was changed to something easier to say apparently.

Caesar's (or Poitiers) Tower

I have just noticed that most of these photos are on the wonk. That is my fault as they were taken with my phone camera and it was a very bright day, so I literally could not see my phone screen whilst taking them.

We didn't get to do our usual 4 hour marathon tours of each display and museum within the castle; that will have to be left for a return visit one day. As a result, a lot of the history that I normally pick up on did not get filed away in the old grey matter. So, apologies for the history-lite report.

It would be remiss of me to not include a picture of the rather spectacular trebuchet found within the grounds of the castle. There is a short interactive show about one of the sieges of Warwick castle that included the use of the great trebuchet. The show was a bit meh in terms of the acting, but I guess it was aimed at families with kids. However, the loading and firing of the siege engine itself was good to watch.

Trebuchet

Warwick is a very quiet town (well, it was whilst we were there), so it is a good place to visit for a relaxing weekend away. There is just enough to do to take up your time in an enjoyable way. As we missed a fair bit due to our trip to Stratford-upon-Avon, we decided to leave some of the things to do in Warwick until the Monday, but, unfortunately, almost everything was closed. There are a couple of interesting museums, a number of medieval gates/houses, as well as easily two days worth of perusing at the castle itself to fill your time.

Ghosts of Saltmarsh (#16) - The Emperor of the Waves II

Day 23 continued - aboard the Emperor of the Waves

Navda scouted ahead, he crept down the stairs to below decks, but just scant moments later we heard a cry of alarm. He had become entangled in an almost invisible web. Dharion cautiously approached the entangled rogue and began to cut him loose, but within moments of Navda's arms becoming free a giant wolf spider dropped onto him and bit him. A sling stone from me and a Firebolt from Gladreth killed the arachnid.

Thinking that the danger was over, we began to cut Navda free again but another of the weird gribblies we had previously seen in the cabin on the deck dropped down and sprayed Navda in the same gossamer thin web. Luckily, we were prepared for this and Navda was able to break free almost instantly. I attacked the beast with my mace, but Druss clove it in two with his great sword.

We passed through the curtain at the bottom of the stairwell, and filed into the main area below decks, only to be confronted with a huge swarm of smaller spiders, scurrying hither and thither. They spotted us and made for us so we had to use every means possibly to squash them before they bit us. Unfortunately, our encounters with their giant cousins were not at an end, as another wolf spider dropped onto Dharion. Luckily he was able to finish it off before it caused the party any greater concerns. Drakkon and Navda finished off the spider swarm between them soon after.

Whilst we regained our breath, we decided to carefully burn away any webs we could see and take stock of our surroundings. Around the main corridor/room we were in, we could see six doorways and a hatch in the floor directly below the grate above. We decided to investigate the doors one-at-a-time starting with the one in the left wall, and determined to move around them in a clockwise fashion.

More action aboard the Emperor

A quick look at the large hatch in the floor before we started showed us that it appeared to have been unused for some time. 

The first room was full of leaf litter into which was intermixed a fair amount of human bones. We ignored the grisly contents and after a little searching found a stone-tipped spear and a small wooden shield with a spider-like design on it. We decided to take these items with us and resealed the door.

The second room's door was difficult to push open, much like the door on deck above us. The room was again full of webs, which made progress through the room very slow. We burned the webs as we went and eventually found four cocoons hanging from the ceiling. We decided to cut one down to see whether they contained innocent victims or more spider-like critters that we would need to destroy.

Unfortunately, the cocoons contained grotesque blue-skinned beings with four red eyes, long tongues, and very sharp teeth. As soon as the first was cut open, the other cocoons began to wriggle. Not liking this one bit, I decided to use my Burning Hands spell to destroy them if I could. As fire seemed to have a goodly effect upon the spider webs elsewhere on the ship, I thought that maybe this would be no different. My hunch turned out to be sound as the spell I cast upon the two cocoons within range caused the demons within untold pain as they struggled free from their bonds.

A frantic melee erupted wherein Druss killed one of the beings just before I was struck unconscious by another.

From the tale told after the fight, the demon that struck me down Rampaged and also almost killed Drakkon, but the barbarian struck back at it and killed it. Navda shot the third one and the final demon was killed by Drakkon. Gladreth's Shocking Grasp spell appeared to do very little damage to the demons, so she spent most of the rest of the combat trying to revive me.

Once the demons were destroyed, I was finally brought round and given a Healing draft. I regained my wits and said a Prayer of Healing to restore the rest of my companions.

We searched the room and I was able to find a pair of gold earrings and a jewelled necklace; both appeared to be worth some money.

The third room appeared to be a wrecked bed chamber. The bed and dresser were in pieces and there were more webs everywhere.

Navda realised that clearing out the ship was going to take quite a lot longer than the three hours we were allocated, so he returned to the deck to instruct the dwarf rowers in the jolly boat to return to their ship and inform the captain of the situation.