Song of Blades and Heroes - An Experiment in Hand-Drawn Maps and Dice as Figures

Ganesha Games has been my jam for the last few months!

I came across a post recently on Facebook about a guy playing One Hour Skirmish Ancient & Medieval Skirmish Wargames. What intrigued me was that he did it all with pen and paper. I thought that idea was great, as I have been thinking of doing this myself. I think reading about it got me kicked into starting it.

 I've been wanting to play Song of Blades and Heroes again for a while now but just couldn't get myself to set up the table, even if it doesn't take too long. A light bulb switch went on in my head, if this guy can do it with OHS, why can't I do it with SOBH (or any wargame, for that matter)? What all did I need to do? Of course, I had paper. I figured 2 sheets of 11x 8.5" would do for a playing surface. Then I could scribble up some terrain with my primitive artistic abilities. I decided the 15mm measuring sticks were just too long, so I shortened them by half and glued them on toothpicks. I remembered I had some old 5mm dice for counters. Then I was ready!

I did a test page of scribbles and that got my creativity flowing. I searched the web for pictures of other peoples top-down maps. I scrapped the test page and moved on to two pieces of cardstock. What follows is my chicken-scratch battle board. Ain't she a 'bute! 

 

In all its glory!

Red vs Blue and measuring sticks.

 

I actually used the test page to make it "hinged" so I can fold it up and put it in a folder (or "peachy" as we call them here). So I was ready to start! Probably took me an hour to draw up the map. Nothing fancy needed, whatever makes you happy. Let's go!

 

Scenario: Treasure Hunt 

 

The treasure tokens.

The treasure was placed randomly by dropping them onto the map and moving them towards the nearest terrain feature.

The forces consisted of four human warriors (1 pip), two human archers (2 pips), and a leader (3 pips), straight from the rule book. I decided on a mirror match, as it was just a test. Next time I'll do something fancy. 😊I was playing solo, so made decisions for both sides. I randomly deployed the reds and, well, they pretty much all lined up by the objectives!

Red won the placement roll and deployed close to the objective.

 

Blue was deployed on the other side by the ruins.

Round 1 - Red rolled higher for deployment and chose to deploy close to the treasure chests. Blue rolled higher for activation and so moved first. Red moved in second.

End of round 1.

Round 2 - Blue marched forward and two warriors came into contact with the treasure! Both didn't find anything and it is for certain that the treasure chest is behind the fallen tree! Next it is red's turn. The leader moved up one medium, so is within range of the his +1 to quality. Now the warrior closest to the log activates on all three dice and passes all three. I determined that the log was rough terrain and dropped his medium move to short, leaving two activations. He moves into contact with the treasure and hopes for the best. Both red archers move into position at 2x long range and miss the warrior at the edge of the woods.

Blue better get a move on!

Round 3 - With all but one warrior out of range of the blue leader, the warrior in the woods (I accidentally flipped him to an archer but reviewed the footage and switched him back) desperately tries to activate on three dice. He passes two and is able to engage the warrior adjacent to the treasure. After another warrior engages red's leader, an archer fails three activations and turns it over to red! The warrior next to the loot tries a power blow in melee killing a blue warrior! Next, a red warrior rushes up and knocks down a blue archer. The nearest warrior dices on 3 and rushes the fallen blue, cutting him down! Red makes some moves to further screen the blue team and the leader makes a power blow on the blue warrior, pushing the warrior back one base.

What you see...

 

What I see...

Fallen is not good in SOBH!

...The outcome is usually death!

 

Round 4 - A desperate move sends the blue warrior over the log and into contact with the red warrior with the treasure. An archer moves into position and performs a power blow and downs the blue warrior!The leader jumps over the log, slashing his sword through the fallen warrior with a power blow (and was outnumbered by 3!).

 

Not looking good for blue.

Round 5 - A blue archer activates on three dice and makes a desperate shot (hoping for a gruesome death) but misses. A blue warrior moves into combat and gets knocked down. The leader fails two activations and moves feebly into position with one die. Red's warrior takes the treasure and hops on the other side of the log. A red archer charges into melee and power blows a blue warrior to death!

"Charge!"

With little hope of me winning, the game is ended.

 

I guess there were trophies handed out...According to AI!

I called the game at this point. Was a fun and successful experiment. Hope you enjoyed!