First game of ASOBH

[psullie]

Played my first game of Advanced Song of Blades and Heroes last Sunday. Used my old Citadel RuneQuest minis (plus a few others) as I'm looking to play skirmish battles set in Glorantha

AAR and commentary on my blog. Cheers

[nervisfr]

It's better with the link 

[Harry Faversham]

If I may be so bold...

http://www.posullivandesign.com/content/advanced-song-blades-and-heroes

 

[psullie]

Sorry chaps and thanks Harry,

[Harry Faversham]

It was too good a read to resist it! ASOBH is one of my favourite rulesets... although, I'm still after mi' first victory with my skeleton warband agin the Magnificent Seven Dwarfs!

[nervisfr]

If I may be so bold...

http://www.posullivandesign.com/content/advanced-song-blades-and-heroes

 

Thank you too for the link.
I'm a big fan of the AdSOBH rules too !

[DivisMal]

I'm deeply in love with the standard SoBh and all its derivatives. Of course, I bought ASOBH the moment it was released, but I haven't tried it yet. I must say my booze-blasted brains didn't quite get all the changes and whether I like them or not!

[Kamandi]

I'm quite fond of original SoBH and Mutants & Death Rays. I'm not so sure about the later iterations like ASOBH, Gods, Fistful of King Fu where the other side gets a reaction role on failed activations. The reaction roll makes it more complicated and less fluid without making it any more fun to play.

[The Bibliophile]

And I feel quite the opposite: the reaction mechanic makes the game so much more interesting in my opinion.

As for differences between ASBH AND SBH, besides the reaction rule and the expansion of spells, not sure what real differences there are to find intimidating.

[DivisMal]

And I feel quite the opposite: the reaction mechanic makes the game so much more interesting in my opinion.

As for differences between ASBH AND SBH, besides the reaction rule and the expansion of spells, not sure what real differences there are to find intimidating.

Must say, I haven't tried with the reaction mechanic, and how it works.

My main "concern" (it's actually just personal preference), is that I would have liked it to be developed into another direction. I would have liked clear stats for armor and weapons (I use such a system in my normal games of SoBH) and found the rules for weapons counter-intuitive. I'd maybe also liked more stats (since it's a bit crowded to put EVERYTHING into just Q and C).

But as I said, it's a personal preference. I had hoped the A in SoBH would be more daring. The spells are good and probably it's a better game and as you rightly said allows 99% of SoBH rules to be translated into ASoBH without difficulty.

But maybe I can now also ask a question:
Already in SoBH I found troops with Q 5+ or 6+ very tough to play. Is the reaction mechanic not punishing these further? Or how does it integrate into the elegance of a SoBH turn? What's your opinion about that?

[psullie]

But maybe I can now also ask a question:
Already in SoBH I found troops with Q 5+ or 6+ very tough to play. Is the reaction mechanic not punishing these further? Or how does it integrate into the elegance of a SoBH turn? What's your opinion about that?

Okay I'm not at all an expert, but in the above game the trollkin were Q5 C2 with Block & Gang traits. They ended up being the winning element. First off I kept them with 1x Long of the Mistress troll whose Leader trait gave them a +1 on all Q & Activation tests, I also kept them in base contact with each other so I could Group Activate, rolling once for all four models.

I found that reaction rolls worked well, it allowed for movement and actions outside of turn which really affected play. One of my pet peeves with most games is that during your own turn you know where the enemy is and that it'll stay there, with reactions you opposed could move, fire missiles or fight, which mixes it all up.  And they're free, failing a reaction doesn't incur any penalties. I was able to move my gang of trollkin at least twice during the game because of a reaction roll.
On another level it also makes rolling three dice a little riskier even for Q2's as even one failure could change the dynamic of the turn.

[nervisfr]

And I feel quite the opposite: the reaction mechanic makes the game so much more interesting in my opinion.

As for differences between ASBH AND SBH, besides the reaction rule and the expansion of spells, not sure what real differences there are to find intimidating.

i second that !

The game get more fun and add strategic choice. Even a lone failed dice action could be now dangerous with the reaction rules.
Some new traits give the low quality troops more chances to move if well use with leader or dicipline master...

[Hobgoblin]

And I third it! The reaction thing really keeps the opponent involved. Here, I think the "roll the very di(c)e that failed" principle is a good one - so the opponent is hovering over the roll, ready to pounce. More decision-making, more options and more tension.

I'd agree with nervisfr, too, on low-quality troops. If you're using Q5/6 troops, they're probably animals, or not much more than that (e.g. trollkin!). So the Discipline Master trait works really well with a beastmaster-type figure. The Discipline Master can give a pack of lumbering monsters or savage beasts a brief chance to activate efficiently - but they'll typically outrun him in the process of attacking.

[Kamandi]

I found that reaction rolls worked well, it allowed for movement and actions outside of turn which really affected play. One of my pet peeves with most games is that during your own turn you know where the enemy is and that it'll stay there, with reactions you opposed could move, fire missiles or fight, which mixes it all up.  And they're free, failing a reaction doesn't incur any penalties. I was able to move my gang of trollkin at least twice during the game because of a reaction roll.

I think you've convinced me to give the reaction roll a try next time I play SoBH.

[DivisMal]

And I third it! The reaction thing really keeps the opponent involved. Here, I think the "roll the very di(c)e that failed" principle is a good one - so the opponent is hovering over the roll, ready to pounce. More decision-making, more options and more tension.

I'd agree with nervisfr, too, on low-quality troops. If you're using Q5/6 troops, they're probably animals, or not much more than that (e.g. trollkin!). So the Discipline Master trait works really well with a beastmaster-type figure. The Discipline Master can give a pack of lumbering monsters or savage beasts a brief chance to activate efficiently - but they'll typically outrun him in the process of attacking.

OK, you two. Thanks nervisfr & Hobgolin, I guess, that I'll give the reaction roll a chance. That actually made me very curious!