Song of Blades and Heroes

[Dibbler]

 

Played my first game(s) yesterday! First game was undeads vs. goblinoids + human archer. Both were pretty green, we assumed, mistakenly, that the vampire was a leader, and i had 60pts (out of 300) invested in archers. Clear loss!

 

Had two more skirmishes, both more balances :)

 

Do you guys typically use the supplied army lists, or build you own with the formula? I'm thinking about making "data cards" for my painted minis :)

Profile cards sound cool. I know a lot of folks go here: http://www.mtgcardmaker.com/

to make their profile cards.

 

Lastly, archers can be good. In fact, the last guy who beat me used nothing but archers.

 

 

Played Around with it a litte:

 

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/24269977/Dragon.jpg

 

Seems a bit hard to get the Q/C values right. I think a template for SoBH needs more focus on those, they are basically what you want like 90% of the time. Nifty idea, tho. Perhaps I'll play around with open office a little, try to make a template of sorts. How big should it be? The warband sheet at the back of the book assumes very little space per mini, and I think that's fair. Q,C, cost, special, perhaps a picture. That's it, really! To make it fit in a magic sleeve or not, that's the question.

 

I saw the nice army roosters on page one. They look lovely. However, I want the possibility to combine the minis myself, and to have 1-3 cards per mini (Flit could be small or big. The ghosts could be ghosts or spectres. Most could be leaders. Choice is nice ;) )

 

I pretty much want a deck of cards to pick an army from (yes, I want to sell this game to my gaming circle ;) )

 

As for shooters:

 

Good, but not against undead. (-2)

 

My opponent had an undead-only army! I got in one shot, I think, and that guy got up again!

Edited June 24, 2013 by Dibbler

[Tom T]

Played my first game(s) yesterday! First game was undeads vs. goblinoids + human archer. Both were pretty green, we assumed, mistakenly, that the vampire was a leader, and i had 60pts (out of 300) invested in archers. Clear loss!

 

Had two more skirmishes, both more balances :)

 

Do you guys typically use the supplied army lists, or build you own with the formula? I'm thinking about making "data cards" for my painted minis :)

We started with the army lists, then later went to the builder. But we had a problem with my buddy building (really) unrealistic all super duper trooper warbands. So one night I did the same with my gobbos and wiped him out pretty quickly. (I think I went with a Leader and a couple of sub-Leaders and loaded up on archers with Unerring Aim, Good Shot, and Shooter, Long . . .) After that he agreed to go back to the supplied army lists/rosters. But we talk about and agree on any changes ~ like making my Goblins Gregarious. Character or Warband advances in the Campaign are only limited by what's available in the rules and your accumulated Campaign Points and Gold and Experience.

 

These days we start with 600 Point Warbands for our Campaigns. Something came up Friday and we weren't able to play. We're 8 Battles/Scenarioes into our 6 Point Campaign and are tied 3:3. At this point, counting his Leader and Magic User he's got ten Dwarves mounted on wolves (so much for the Dwarf Short Move!) and seven dwarf crossbowmen (Shooter, Medium) and a young dragon. >mutter mutter< I'm running a Goblin Leader, two sub-Leaders, a Sneak, a standard Bearer, 5 warriors and 15 archers (Shooter, Medium).

 

Since we've been buying troops as we're able most of them have different amount of experience points available. I'm one Battle from being able to upgrade my archers to Shooter, Long. I'm hoping that will be an answer to his mounter, Long Move, heavy hitting Dwarves . . . !

[Dibbler]

That sounds like an awesome amount of die-rolling and paper-work!

So, there are broken builds? How is the overall balance of the game?

[Tom T]

It's all pretty amazingly quick and easy. We're using Song of Blades and Heroes and Song of Deeds and Glory. All the post-Battle stuff is handled by a couple of quick rolls right after the game. Minimal paperwork, I run an index card cheat sheet of my warband with their stats and experience points, and a sheet with the Battle, what scenario, winner, results and gold and Campaign Points. All real fast.

 

I wouldn't say the builds are broken. But you can build some pretty rough stuff if you want, or if you're a 'power gamer'. The whole thing really does come down to a balancing act and I really enjoy the "tension" in our games. And yeah, we are playing with more figs and higher points than recommended. Works fine for us! :)

 

Really like the card you did! Sweet!!! That's exactly what I'd like to do for my figs, and be able to just let my friends pick out what they want. Also, I'd suggest using bold for anby personality traits just to make it easier to keep track.

 

Hope your friends like it too! Good Luck!

[jdizzy001]

That sounds like an awesome amount of die-rolling and paper-work!

 

So, there are broken builds? How is the overall balance of the game?

I've seen a number of reviews which do indicate that yes, dwarves are pretty stout. However, since the game runs on a scale of 2-6 for quality, 1-6 for combat, and a mathematical formula to determine point cost, the game is very balanced (in my opinion). Die rolling isn't too bad, and there is very little paper keeping.

[kitchen_wolf]

The points for those dwarves seem off. At Q 3 C 3 Mounted, Long Move ten of them cost 620 points, C 4 720 points. That's before adding specials such as Leader. And you can't claim the bonus points for short move and then claim your mount's high movement rate (but you could ride a vicious turtle with short move - few can stand before a charge of the Chelonian Hussars - most folks need a chair by lunchtime).

 

You can get a free automated warband builder here:

 

http://www.ganeshagames.net/army_builders/SBHbuilderRevised-v1217.html

[Talae]

Where is the best place to look for rules and clarification about terrain? I am wondering about what comes into play and how (higher ground, stairs, cover, etc.).

 

I am hoping to use my terrain from WWG, like my new pirate ship and all the other stuff I already have.

[kristof65]

So this game just came to my attention recently, and I'm going to try it out.

 

Does anyone know if the printed rule book is available through distribution channels, so my local store could order it?

[Tom T]

The points for those dwarves seem off. At Q 3 C 3 Mounted, Long Move ten of them cost 620 points, C 4 720 points. That's before adding specials such as Leader. And you can't claim the bonus points for short move and then claim your mount's high movement rate (but you could ride a vicious turtle with short move - few can stand before a charge of the Chelonian Hussars - most folks need a chair by lunchtime).

 

You can get a free automated warband builder here:

 

http://www.ganeshagames.net/army_builders/SBHbuilderRevised-v1217.html

You're Right kitchen_wolf. They are!

 

But we're playing a Campaign. So he was able to buy his Long Move mounts (in this case wolves) with the post-Battle Gold he accumulated. {Now I'm out of wolf figs too!!! And Everyone knows Gallant Goblins ride Wolves & tha Dirty Dwarbs ride Goats! Or cows. Or sheep! } Somehow I don't seem to have SDG on this laptop. but I think they were 15 GP each(?).

 

AND if I win a combat and dismount someone his dawggie runs away ~ since he bought mounts and his characters/figures don't have the appropriate skill. If I Kill the figure, and they don't survive their post-battle roll they AND their dawggie mount are gone. Done. And I get scenario VPs for both of 'em!

 

Or, i guess I should say, that's how we play it.

[jdizzy001]

So this game just came to my attention recently, and I'm going to try it out.

 

Does anyone know if the printed rule book is available through distribution channels, so my local store could order it?

You can order it from Lulu.com, or directly from Genesh games. There is a hard copy but I don't know if you can order it thru retail.

 

 

 

Where is the best place to look for rules and clarification about terrain? I am wondering about what comes into play and how (higher ground, stairs, cover, etc.).

 

I am hoping to use my terrain from WWG, like my new pirate ship and all the other stuff I already have.

All the terrain rules I have read I found in the core rule book. They mostly dealt with covering terrain. Just off the top of my head, I think high ground awards a +1 bonus to your C roll (but I could be wrong). If you cant find anything … make it up! A good rule of thumb I adopted from D20 is +/- 2 rule (or in this case +/- 1 rule). If you think it should have a bonus award a +1 (higher ground) if you think it deserves a penalty give it a -1 (shooting beyond your range as a shooter [by the way, that is a change that was made in the revised rules. If you are shooting beyond your max range you take a -1 penalty now, not a -2]).

Edited June 26, 2013 by jdizzy001

[kristof65]

 

So this game just came to my attention recently, and I'm going to try it out.

 

Does anyone know if the printed rule book is available through distribution channels, so my local store could order it?

You can order it from Lulu.com, or directly from Genesh games. There is a hard copy but I don't know if you can order it thru retail.

 

 

I'm not really asking for my own benefit, but for my FLGS. We started a new game group there about six months ago that meets weekly, but plays different games every week. A few games have been popular, and the store owner has started to stock those games. I'd hate to introduce a game that was popular that he couldn't stock.

 

OTOH, I suppose, he can always sell Bones to the players.

[kitchen_wolf]

Andrea is pretty good about answering questions - especially if it's something like "Can we stock your games?". The contact page is here:

 

http://www.ganeshagames.net/contact_us.php

[Kengar]

The yahoo group is the best place to ask rules questions. It's pretty active.

 

http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/songofblades/

 

EDIT: & Andrea checks it regularly.

Edited June 26, 2013 by Kengar

[louism]

I would love to see a combined effort to build stat cards for the Vampire package (and maybe some add ons as time goes by).

 

It's not mine, but someone from the SBH Yahoo Group started this...

 

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Ag7WeAh30rD2dDJPdW91Um9MZ0YzaUdnUHlXOUhGcVE&usp=sharing

 

Also, I think Andrea is still planning on doing an "official" set of stats for the whole Vampire set but I don't know the current status of that.

[Talae]

 

I would love to see a combined effort to build stat cards for the Vampire package (and maybe some add ons as time goes by).

 

It's not mine, but someone from the SBH Yahoo Group started this...

 

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Ag7WeAh30rD2dDJPdW91Um9MZ0YzaUdnUHlXOUhGcVE&usp=sharing

 

Also, I think Andrea is still planning on doing an "official" set of stats for the whole Vampire set but I don't know the current status of that.

Thanks! Also, that would be awesome!