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.

Song of Blades and Heroes Solo Battle Report: Dark Ages on Fire!

 

 

 Don your helmets and grab your battle axes, it's time for another Song of Blades and Heroes (SBH) battle report.

Scenario: The situation is, a Viking raiding party (played by me) consisting of a berserk leader, 4 spear men, 1 axe man, and an archer are raiding a Saxon outpost. The Saxon defenders (played by my opponent, me, making the best moves possible) consist of a hero, 4 spear men, 1 heavy infantry, and an archer, situated on the tower. I rolled these forces up randomly and are more or less within 10 points of each other, with a slight advantage to the Saxons.

Win Conditions: The Vikings can win by burning down the tower (using the flammability rules in Song of Wind and Water). Each spear man carries a torch and will set fire to the watchtower on a 4+ attack roll. It must burn for 2 full turns after being set ablaze. A tie would be capturing the cart laden with supplies (being in base contact with it at the end of the game). The Saxons can win by repelling the attacks for 10 turns or eliminating/routing the Viking invaders. On with the show!

The Viking forces

The Saxon forces defending the watchtower

Song of Blades and Heroes Battle Report: Zombies everywhere!

 

About a week ago, I decided to play a solo game of Song of Blades and Heroes out of the blue. I have been working on cutting out paper miniatures for a few months, trying to decide on a scale and a set of rules. Finally, I made up my mind and brought forth SOBH to the table!

I waited until my son was about to get home from school to play so that he could possibly join me. He never did, so I played it out myself. I did get to try out some of my new terrain from Battle Systems, the graveyard set! I also bought the blacksmith shop and village. Pretty cool stuff!

Anyways, here's a quick battle report, as I like to make blogs about my hobby...It's a little hobby in of itself!

I came up with a simple scenario on the fly. The heroes must destroy the Zombie King breaking the curse on the graveyard. There were 11 zombies and 1 Zombie King. Their opponents were a group of heroes, consisting of a dwarf warrior, 2 human warriors, and 2 elf archers. I had played this same heroic group against some goblins the previous day, so just used the same band from that game (some pics of that game at the end of this post). All minis are either purchased One Monk Miniatures or free forum hoard minis in the downloads section.

A simple warband, not very well suited to take on the undead!

Song of Blades and Heroes: Treasure in the Desert

 

This is a fantasy battle report for Song of Blades and Heroes! Had a little time to get in a game. The scenario is "Treasure Hunt." All terrain pieces are dunes and block line of sight unless two models are on the dunes or touching the dunes.

Tundra Warriors

Desert Raiders

Random Warband Generator for Song of Blades and Heroes Engine

For use with SBH or any SBH rule system

Want a little spice in your solo/solitaire Song of Blades and Heroes games (or other games using the same rules engine)? Try this! I cooked it up in a few minutes so it might not be all that great. This can be used for solo and cooperative games.

Random Warband Composition for

Song of Blades and Heroes Engine Games

-Build a warband for yourself of any point value

-Roll 1d6:

1: the enemy has 50 more points than your warband

2: the enemy has 25 more points than your warband

3-4: the enemy has the same amount of points as your warband

5: the enemy has 25 less points than your warband

6: the enemy has 50 less points than your warband

-Roll on the enemy roster until you meet or exceed the total point value above

Sample enemy army list

Roll 1d6 for the overall commander

1-4: Orc Boss Q3+, C3 Leader pts 60

5-6: Orc Shaman Q4+, C2 Magic-User 38

Roll 1d6 on this list until you meet or exceed the point value of your band:

1-2: Orc Warrior Q4+, C3 pts 23

3-4: Orc Archer Q4+, C3 Shooter: Medium pts 29

5: Elite Orc Warrior Q3+, C3 pts 30

6: Orc Savage Q4+, C3 Savage pts 27

As I said, this is just a draft. Add profiles to your liking, 4-8 is probably the butter zone with a 1d6 or 2d6. Please enjoy!

The Orc Fortress...A Song of Blades and Heroes Dungeon Crawl!!

 Hail adventurers! Herein lies the account of another venture into the depths of a dungeon using the Song of Blades and Heroes rule set with the Song of Gold and Darkness dungeon crawl rules. As usual, I am using the fantastic fan-made expansion for SGD called Deep Dark Dungeons (DDD). Read on after the link if you're interested in seeing what happens! Plus, check out my custom-made orc dungeon table at the bottom! Enjoy and happy holidays!

Same composition as last time's party just different miniatures. Dwarf, Swordmage, Acrobat Thief, and Crusader. Maybe they'll have better luck!

Return to the Drow Priestess' lair...A Song of Blades and Heroes dungeon crawl

The four mighty heroes! Crusader, Acrobat Thief, Dwarf Warrior, and Swordmage.

 Herein lies the picture diary of our four brave protagonists as they attempt to hunt down and slay the evil Drow Priestess! I used the rules from Song of Blades and Heroes, Song of Gold and Darkness, and the custom tables from a fan-made companion called Deep Dark Dungeons, which is a great little addition to the dungeon crawl rules for SOBAH!  If you wish to take a step into the dungeon, then read on!

Song of Blades and Heroes solitaire photo highlights, Orcs vs. Humans!

 It's been a while! I've been meaning to get a blog post up and now I actually have some worthwhile content. I've played a couple solitaire games of Song of Blades and Heroes against, well, myself. Here's some highlights of a battle I fought with a raiding party of orcs and a detachment of knights with a wizard battling over a "Place of Power."...Also, I wanted to test out my new Black Friday deal camera, so here's a quick highlight reel!

The battling was fierce at this point, when I remembered "Hey, I've got a new camera to try out!" You can see casualties mounting off the table to the right.

The orcs get stuck in with a knight..The ever out of range (and out of focus!) wizard watches on.

The blue and red knight keeps the orcs at bay whilst the human leader (purple guy) and his trusty companion survey the fight.

The orc leader rallies his archers near the forest with shaman in tow.

Just showing off my scratch-built mausoleum, well, aside from the doors.

Finally, the wizard joins the fray attempting a transfix...The green knight steps up as the red/blue one gets pushed out of combat!

Both human and orc combatants are thrown to the ground as the orc leader engages the wizard, oh no!

I didn't get a pic of it but the next turn the axe-wielding human leader dealt the orcs a decisive blow when he charged the leader and cut him in two causing most of the orcs to flee and the rest to quit the field. See, he wasn't just hanging back to give orders, just waiting for the right moment to show the humans who's boss!

 I really like playing Song of Blades and Heroes solo. Playing both sides can kind of seem drab in a lot of games but with the activation system in SOBAH, it keeps things tense. I just need to work on my skirmish tactics. Even playing alone I'm not that great!

 Hopefully I'll get a bunch of pics of the plethora of new minis I've finished painting up. Happy holidays, folks!

Sunday Dungeon Crawl Madness!!!! (Battle report)

 This Sunday I was home alone, so decided to do a little solo dungeon crawling. The rules I used were Song of Blades and Heroes and its expansions as well as the fan-made expansion Deep Dark Dungeons. I'd advise you to check out both!

Our brave adventurers from left to right: Drakus, Tristin, Snibly, and Gilna.

The dungeon layout.

Fightin' Fungi

A new Kickstarter out there for some really cool fungusmen miniatures!! But that's not all, you can also get the rules for "Fightin' Fungi," a standalone game based on the Song of Blades and Heroes skirmish game engine. Personally, I've pledged at "Mature Spore" to receive a PDF and a hard copy of the rules. They can be used either by themselves or you can use them to expand on the Song of Blades and Heroes, which is what I'll be using them for. The new advanced magic system really caught my eye and I can't wait to try them out!!