Lead Adventure Forum

Miniatures Adventure => Fantasy Adventures => Topic started by: southheaven on January 18, 2013, 09:23:45 PM

Title: SOBH - Fantasy Adventure [Giving it a try]
Post by: southheaven on January 18, 2013, 09:23:45 PM
Iīve read through the rules and they seem to be alright for a beer'n'prezel kind of game. The focus seems to be more on the story telling point, than the actual simulation of a battle.

The good guys i did some time ago. They were a quick paint job since they are only intended for roleplaying needs. They are plastic miniatures from some board game. I donīt know wether they are from GW or The Dark Eye. The house i build years ago and never finished it. :( I might use some other fences since i build them at the same time as the house and they are pretty simple constructed.
(http://i359.photobucket.com/albums/oo34/iggy/P1190109_zps2e3f5131.jpg)

A slightly better picture of the miniatures. As a group thing they all have some green part on them.
(http://i359.photobucket.com/albums/oo34/iggy/P1190102_zps7e04c01d.jpg)

So hereīs what iīm working on right now. Mantic zombies and the elves you got with the LotR magazine from GW.
(http://i359.photobucket.com/albums/oo34/iggy/P1190100_zpsd6c90454.jpg)

To try the game i will play three scenarios. In the first, the good guys will have to get a magic item from the woods which is protected by elves(high quality). In the second they will have to protect a village from the hordes of zombies(low quality) and skeletons. And in the third one they will have to go to the cemetary, where they will face the evil magician himself and his minions .
Title: Re: SOBH - Fantasy Adventure [Giving it a try]
Post by: obsidian3d on January 18, 2013, 09:27:51 PM
That sounds like a fun series of games to me!
Title: Re: SOBH - Fantasy Adventure [Giving it a try]
Post by: Sangennaru on January 18, 2013, 09:56:58 PM
SoBH is a great ruleset, with some major bugs though. How do you manage with the effect of arrows? and the whole point system is quite not working, since in the official army lists there are some pieces that are incredibly more powerful than others.

You pieces, anyway, are very nice and inspiring. i'm shure you'll have great games, expecially with a proper storytelling! ^_^
Title: Re: SOBH - Fantasy Adventure [Giving it a try]
Post by: southheaven on January 26, 2013, 09:15:40 PM
So, following this thread: http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=49989.0 i started to build the following three houses for the second scenario.

(http://i359.photobucket.com/albums/oo34/iggy/P1270008_zps207123a8.jpg)

(http://i359.photobucket.com/albums/oo34/iggy/P1270009_zpsfecc8c32.jpg)

For the first building i used styrofoam glue, but then i got the glue gun out and every thing moved faster(although i burned a finger like every time i get the glue gun out. :P )
The right house in the first picture will have a balcony and the left one a part of the roof for the miniatures to stand on.

I might build 2 or 3 more using this technique, once i have finished those till next friday. :P

Oh, and here is a crappy picture of some skeletons.
(http://i359.photobucket.com/albums/oo34/iggy/P1270012_zpsef0e9073.jpg)
Title: Re: SOBH - Fantasy Adventure [Giving it a try]
Post by: Theatralic on January 27, 2013, 09:45:36 PM
This looks very promissing , looking forward to more :)
Title: Re: SOBH - Fantasy Adventure [Giving it a try]
Post by: DeafNala on January 27, 2013, 11:11:19 PM
This looks very promissing , looking forward to more :)

I agree: this is a Project with TREMENDOUS potential...& a lot of VERY COOL minis. I too will be following your progress. Keep up the FINE WORK!
Title: Re: SOBH - Fantasy Adventure [Giving it a try]
Post by: Sangennaru on January 27, 2013, 11:22:46 PM
my only concern: there's no inside. That might not be a problem for a usual WH scenery, but for a skirmish... that's a loss! On the other hand, working this way allows you to sculpt at least the double in the same time!
Title: Re: SOBH - Fantasy Adventure [Giving it a try]
Post by: Sangennaru on January 28, 2013, 07:08:01 AM
Pretty easy to abstract the fighting in houses and to use tokens to indicate someone is in a house and what level of the house they are in.

for skirmish? Not really convinced. Maybe it's better just to consider the houses as "closed"... ^^
Title: Re: SOBH - Fantasy Adventure [Giving it a try]
Post by: southheaven on January 28, 2013, 07:33:14 PM
my only concern: there's no inside. That might not be a problem for a usual WH scenery, but for a skirmish... that's a loss! On the other hand, working this way allows you to sculpt at least the double in the same time!
I totally agree with you that a terrain piece that is just impassable terrain is a waste of opportunities. On the other hand from my personal experience houses with insides are overrated. Thatīs why i allways try too give the terrain pieces more than one level like the balcony or the climbable roof, which in my opinion will find more use in a game so that all the time spend fully decorating a house is not justified.
Title: Re: SOBH - Fantasy Adventure [Giving it a try]
Post by: Sangennaru on January 28, 2013, 07:37:22 PM
I totally agree with you that a terrain piece that is just impassable terrain is a waste of opportunities. On the other hand from my personal experience houses with insides are overrated. Thatīs why i allways try too give the terrain pieces more than one level like the balcony or the climbable roof, which in my opinion will find more use in a game so that all the time spend fully decorating a house is not justified.

a good point, actually. Probably that is more valid for fantasy than modern (i mean, gun fighting), because a complex house inside is just a place like another to melee.
When you have short-range shotguns, grenades, overwatches, counter actions and such the value of the insides grows pretty much.
Title: Re: SOBH - Fantasy Adventure [Giving it a try]
Post by: smokezombie on January 28, 2013, 07:39:31 PM
I like the house with the platform in the top pic, I have a very similar house ( also unfinished) with a first story floor leading out to nothing.
I think I am
Going to copy your platform. I think your pic might just have given my the kick up the bum to finish mine  :D cheers.
Title: Re: SOBH - Fantasy Adventure [Giving it a try]
Post by: southheaven on January 28, 2013, 09:21:55 PM
I was in a Murnauesque Mood :D
(http://i359.photobucket.com/albums/oo34/iggy/P1290013_zps5915266b.jpg)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcyzubFvBsA (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcyzubFvBsA)

The picture could have been awesome, if i had finished the buildings allready. ;) Today i only managed to get the Lich done. Will post a better group pic of all the undead later.
Title: Re: SOBH - Fantasy Adventure [Giving it a try]
Post by: Paleskin on January 28, 2013, 09:31:53 PM
Interesting,the games should be fun,never been disappointed with any sobh games we have played
Title: Re: SOBH - Fantasy Adventure [Giving it a try]
Post by: Sangennaru on January 28, 2013, 11:50:29 PM
The way I see it is the person inside the house would either be at a window or door or defending a set of stairs as they are the most effective positions to be in re house to house fighting. I have played skirmish games where the people in a house were abstracted and it worked pretty well.

The other option is to make a few interior maps of the houses and have the figures in buildings transfer to the interior map when they enter the building. Those starwars clicky figure game maps in style would be more than sufficent.

the abstracted way of gaming is shurely a good one, i've used it myself most of the times. But it lacks some of the spirit of the skirmish. But probably it is more for a gunfighting game than a melee one.

Using the maps separately is pretty clean for gaming, but there's some losses on the modellistic part. Still better than build a whole city with the insides. (which is probably the way i'd follow! Definitely not the most pratical one!)
Title: Re: SOBH - Fantasy Adventure [Giving it a try]
Post by: southheaven on March 07, 2013, 06:55:51 AM
Is there a way to play SoBH with multiple players say one GM and a bunch of players, each controlling a small warband? The rules fit well for One-on_One or solo play, but i couldnīt find any hint on such a combination.
Title: Re: SOBH - Fantasy Adventure [Giving it a try]
Post by: Sangennaru on March 07, 2013, 07:00:52 AM
i played skirmishes with up to 4 players splendidly, just rotating turns in the standard way.
If you want something better, you can also give some "special powers" to a player that controls environment and PNGs, but there might not be major changes in the gameplay!

A little offtopic, i started skirmishing using Savage Worlds rules... and they are pretty sweet as well! The only bad thing is that stats are not balanced, and the "point cost" system is a little ridicolous. But it is the same for SOBH, so they are even now. both of them are interesting rulesets.
Title: Re: SOBH - Fantasy Adventure [Giving it a try]
Post by: southheaven on March 07, 2013, 07:46:06 AM
Tried SW as a roleplaying game and as a wargaming system both didnīt work out for me that well.

I find it a little bid odd, if i, as a gm control say 600 Points and both players have 300 points each to use the standard rules of 2 failures per activation. While thinking about it two possible solutions come to my mind. I will either split the 'evil' force in a number of groups matching the players or as i have read on some blog about a really big SoBH game will 'allow' myself an additional failing activation for each additional player.
Perhaps i will use both alternatively, the first version, if there are eg small groups of bandits flanking the characters from both sides and the second for really large hordes of creatures.

[EDIT]I think it is time to post some pictures again. :o
Title: Re: SOBH - Fantasy Adventure [Giving it a try]
Post by: Sangennaru on March 07, 2013, 11:17:21 AM
mm, i had the same problem when we wanted to skirmish between three people. and basically yes, we just gave to one player the control of two battlegroups, with different activations.

what i don't understand clearly is why you call it "master", instead of "player with monsters"... master is usually used to  control the game through exceptional powers, like deciding the line of actions of the environment. This way there's just a player who uses monsters that do not level (maybe).
Title: Re: SOBH - Fantasy Adventure [Giving it a try]
Post by: southheaven on April 29, 2013, 07:57:22 AM
I used master from Gamemaster, a roleplaying expression.

So, yesterday we had a first game of SoBH. 400 Points of Humans vs. Undead. I didnīt take that much pictures since i couldnīt find my memory card. What i learned from the game is, that lethal is, well, lethal. I took a Cleric and two Undead Hunter, which turned out to be more that effective. We both made many tactical errors, the undead player tried over and over again to group activate his zombie horde instead of activating them singularly, one of my undead hunter didnīt do nothing instead of charging into close combat to aid his comrade and we both learned later in the game how powerful transfix is.
These mistakes along with luck on my side AND bad luck on the undead players side lead to a massacre of the undead.

With the death of the zombie lord the game ended since i had lost my cleric and a undead hunter so far whereas the undead player only had a fistful of zombies left.
(http://i359.photobucket.com/albums/oo34/iggy/Fantasy/P4290025_zps8358dc7b.jpg) (http://s359.photobucket.com/user/iggy/media/Fantasy/P4290025_zps8358dc7b.jpg.html)

(http://i359.photobucket.com/albums/oo34/iggy/P4290026_zps056c326c.jpg) (http://s359.photobucket.com/user/iggy/media/P4290026_zps056c326c.jpg.html)

After killing the dreaded Lich, they took watch over the entrance to the village.(http://i359.photobucket.com/albums/oo34/iggy/Fantasy/P4290027_zps13189759.jpg) (http://s359.photobucket.com/user/iggy/media/Fantasy/P4290027_zps13189759.jpg.html)
Title: Re: SOBH - Fantasy Adventure [Giving it a try]
Post by: **GS** on April 29, 2013, 08:35:40 AM
A beautiful table you have!

SoBaH is one of my favorite systems. I specially like the turnover rule.

Keep us informed how the games go.

GS
Title: Re: SOBH - Fantasy Adventure [Giving it a try]
Post by: PatrickWR on May 01, 2013, 10:48:26 PM
That game looks great!

I'm a long-suffering undead player in my club's SBH games, so I'm using to losing horribly and slinking back to my lair in defeat. Are you using the Revised rules? The Undead special rule has been tweaked to make it a little bit less catastrophic re: gruesome kills.

Another house rule that we've used in our games has been to allow undead figures to receive group move actions from any figure that costs more than 50 points, rather than just leader figures. This allows wights, banshees, ghosts, and other mid-level figures direct mobs of skeletons and zombies around the table, without running the risk of exposing a leader figure to death.
Title: Re: SOBH - Fantasy Adventure [Giving it a try]
Post by: southheaven on May 10, 2013, 12:17:46 PM
Thanks for the compliments.

@Patrick Yes, we use the most recent rules, 5.0 i think it is. But we didnīt even use moral rules since i forgot about them. ;) We only used the lich terror, which had no effect on my brave undead hunter.

So, after our second game, where i sadly didnīt take any pictures, we think that the rules are too much depending on chance. You canīt really plan your move since you donīt know how much miniatures you will be able to use in the end.
A second thing that buggered us is that SoBH is not really a fast game. At least not fast enough for us.
SoBH is by far not a complete failure, and we will probally have another game in the future, but in our gaming group weīll stick to Matakishis CROM, which focuses more on single figthers than small troops, but thatīs ok for us, especially with the rules additions we have added.
Title: Re: SOBH - Fantasy Adventure [Giving it a try]
Post by: obsidian3d on May 10, 2013, 05:22:37 PM
You can perform group actions if you have larger warbands. I've used it when playing zombie hordes against opponents with smaller numbers.
Title: Re: SOBH - Fantasy Adventure [Giving it a try]
Post by: sundayhero on May 10, 2013, 05:48:50 PM
Beautiful table surface you've got ! Any other pics or links for it ? Did you made it yourself (modelling flock, etc..) ?


The way you're making buildings seems very eficient too.
Title: Re: SOBH - Fantasy Adventure [Giving it a try]
Post by: southheaven on May 11, 2013, 11:29:28 PM
@sundayhero Well, actually iīm stealing ideas from a lot of places. :D Yes, the table surface is selfmade. Itīs a roll up gaming matt i made from canvas, cheap acrylic you get in the DIY, some paint, flock, oregano(canīt stand the smell anymore :P), moss, sand and kitty litter. Basically you mix the sand, paint and acrylic from the tube and splash it really thick on the canvas. Then you scatter different types of flock, moss and dry herbs or mixtures thereof on the still wet mixture and press it a little into it. Let the canvas dry for about two days(enough time to get yourself new socks and renovate the room you made the mess in) and cut it loose. Voila!
(http://i359.photobucket.com/albums/oo34/iggy/P5080006.jpg)
Itīs actual gras in the background since i put the mat on a table in the garden.  ;) This one is 90x120cm and i made two of those to put them side by side or let them overlap for 120x120. And it is really no joke, that this is a really messy procedure since the colored acrylic will glue the flock literally everywhere.

Here you can see another gaming surface i made using the same technique on a piece of styrodur.
(http://i359.photobucket.com/albums/oo34/iggy/PB290086.jpg)
The piece of bark on the right is pressed into the mixture.
Title: Re: SOBH - Fantasy Adventure [Giving it a try]
Post by: aggro84 on May 12, 2013, 12:23:14 AM
nice looking boards!
the vegetation looks very natural.
the minis look good too!
 :D
Title: Re: SOBH - Fantasy Adventure [Giving it a try]
Post by: OLeary on May 12, 2013, 07:22:40 AM
That is excellent. I use a lot of things from around the house on the cheap like oregano, birdseed and paprika, but I've never used kitty litter. I have 3 cats, so I've got litter. Now I'm asking myself why I've every paid for fake sand.
Title: Re: SOBH - Fantasy Adventure [Giving it a try]
Post by: Blackwolf on May 12, 2013, 07:36:08 AM
Those boards look spot on :-*
Title: Re: SOBH - Fantasy Adventure [Giving it a try]
Post by: Dr. The Viking on May 12, 2013, 08:19:11 AM
MAaaaaaaan that looks great!
Title: Re: SOBH - Fantasy Adventure [Giving it a try]
Post by: Imp522 on May 12, 2013, 01:04:03 PM
Your boards do look good. I have to try out the dried herb thing one of these day's.