We also got some Firestorm Armada played which I intended to also take some snaps of but forgot so apologies for that!
Game one.
As this was the first time my friend had ever played SOBH I let him have a re-read of the revised rules and then use the war-band builder to come up with a 300 pt war-band.
He decided on group lead by a character he uses for D&D called Leroy. I did write the war-bands down however I have lost the bit of paper (typical). I believe he went for him as a Hero, Q3+ C4.
He was accompanied by a couple of archers who had good shot, shooter long, Q4+ C3. and 4 rat-men at Q4+ C4 with poison, and free disengage.
I went for a Leader, Assassin, Combat master, C2+ C3, three - shooter long, good shot, C3 Q3+, and two mounted Q4+ C3.
I did double check with my opponent but he had intended to leave out any one with the leader special not seeing the point of it.... he quickly went "ah" and would try it in the next game!
We decided to use a fair size table with plenty of terrain. We came up with a scenario rather than just straight out kill each other. Each of the small flames/corners of the shrine outer wall could be checked for magical emeralds. once adjacent a model could spend actions searching, they then role one D6 for each action and on a 6 they find one, on a 2-5 they fail and on a 1 there is nothing there and no one else can search it.
The aim was to then take these off of the table as loot however we would not allow anyone back on to the table once they left!
We both began to the bottom of the table as depicted above (not where we are shown above!)
The lack of a leader quickly showed as Leroy rushed ahead whilst his low Quality comrades caused turnovers with minimal movement. The bulk of my force managed to advance in step with one of the mounted troops rushing to the shrine.
The rat-men particularly got stuck at the back!
My second mounted trooper decided to challenge Leroy.
Success a knock down!
The other mounted man found a jewel and quickly rushed off to pass it on to a musket man to leave the table with it.
Leroy failed to regain his feet and was struck down.
One of the rat-men also managed to leave the table with a jewel but most of the remaining troops were killed or fled from failed moral tests.
A victory for my noble(ish) forces!
Game Two
We then played a repeat of this with the same set up however different starting points and objectives, this time we scattered the possible jewels around the table and the aim was to bring them to the magical fire/well in the middle of the shrine and then throw them in all at once (this would only work once) for each jewel thrown in a D6 would be rolled and for each six more than ones rolled the lead character (or who ever threw them in) would be allowed to improve the Q or C rating for the next game!
Again Leroy rushed ahead!
At this point I realised I did not take as many photos as I meant to (sorry about that!)
the short version is that Leroy made a rush with one jewel and got into combat with my mounted troops again and finding himself outnumbered quickly died. The rest of his force came on piece meal and were chewed up allowing my leader to attempt the victory throwing three stones in.... and rolled no sixes nor any ones... all of that for nothing! another victory on points killed however.
Game three
For game three we rebuilt our war-bands and created a new setting on the table.
The objective here would be to capture the village because of its magical blood crystals.
I went for a similar war-band as before but dropped assassin from my leader leaving him as a combat master.
I also dropped one mounted figure and made all three shooters also have unerring aim.
My opponent swapped Leroy out for a Huge bugbear with the leader trait Q3+ C5... He also dropped his archers and went for all rat-men C4+ C4 with long move and stealth.
Using my leader to improve the activation quality of my troops I made good speed to the village, worrying about this the bugbear again abandoned his poorer quality troops leaving them to fend for themselves!
A scary sight especially when your expecting him to mix it up on a modified C7 !! which would finish off most of my force with ease...
Luck however was with me a fortuitous turn over allowed be to conduct a group activation on my musketeers.. hoping to get a knock down I was pleasantly surprised to roll a 6 to his one... a kill and with the first shot of the game his point sink leader is dead!
It then took me a fair while to chase down the rapid rat-men who with long move were a pain to get to grips with, he used stealth to good use preventing me from shooting anyone else the whole game!
I did however manage the victory - I think the sight of his dead bugbear threw the whole game plan off!
Game four
The final game I can talk about here (due to lack of photos for everything else d'oh).
Again we kept the same war-bands as in game three and went for a full change of scenery.
The setting here was the rampaging bugbear and his rat-men have captured a village and the local lord wants his water wheel working again!
We both expected the bridge to be pivotal, I hoped my ranged advantage would allow me to pick his fast rats off as they broke cover to cross the bridge.
Hesitant after the last game the rats kept well into cover and approached the bridge very cautiously, the bugbear keeping bits of terrain between him and me at all times!
This allowed me to capture the bridge easily...or so I thought.
You maybe able to make out the rat-men in the tree-line below and above.
Forming my three shooters on the bridge with my leader and mounted man in close to support I felt confident with how this was going!
So confident that when a move left a rat-man in range I used three actions to charge in my mounted man!
Unfortunately what happened next occurred so fast I only captured the end of it by photo...
My knight failed to kill the rat and instead over the next turn he was knocked down and killed as the rats (lucky dice here) managed to swarm my firing line before it got off a shot in anger.
Some back and forth saw one of the rats killed and both of us had figures knocked over and recoiled until his bugbear managed to charge on to the bridge smearing one of my men into a small blood stain on the stone work, this gruesome death sent all but one of my remaining men fleeing from the bridge, he was promptly eaten by the bugbear on his next turn..
My leader attempted to charge in and take him on but was knocked over and then outnumbered found himself being devoured, this caused the last two guys to flee again.
The final man gave up - finally a victory for my visiting friend (in fairness he should have had more luck in the last games it was a much closer set of battles than it may seem!)
Once again these elegant rules provided us with hours of varied fun and entertainment I heartily recommend them to anyone.
Thanks for reading.
Indeed a great set of rules for pickup and play :D the lack of pictures isn't a problem just means we need to play more.
ReplyDeletemust be said I learnt a lot during my first battles. The extra quality from leader really can make a difference and you can't rely on trying to make all your models better q. The hero trait is really not a substitute for this unfortunately and resulted in my forces spreading out as I'd start to move a couple of models and then pass over the turn. Thinking some move is better than none I'd then start again with my hero which resulted in him charging off alone.
The 2nd warband I feel was much better. The one time I broke cover proved to be a mistake but I felt sticking with it against you was a good choice. I think next time savage might get added to all the troops. SOBH really does favour the melee but you have to watch shooting units as you have no recourse and things like focus firing really will punish you. Gives me a lot to think about but had a great time and now chomping at the bit to do more.