SBH battle report, Songs of Stillburg - scenario 1

[phreedh]

As mentioned in other places, me and my cousin have now played the first scenario in my latest project (fantasy adventure games with mainly vintage Citadel minis, and Songs of Blade and Heroes as a rule set). Basically, I'm the DM/GM/Referee or whatever you'd like to call it and my cousin gets to play through a series of linked scenarios.

We played the first scenario last week, and I've posted a batrep on my blog today. As I'm not that keen on double posting behemoth battle reports, I'll simply link to my blog:
http://iloapp.godzilla.se/blog/ministuff?Home&post=22

The forces included are a brave band of heroes and militia...


...and a host of quite nasty undead.


Apologies for wonky photos, I'm not seeing eye to eye with my camera as of late.

[Centaur_Seducer]

Great start Really look forward to the updates!

[Luckyjoe]

Very good report. I'm looking forward to the next one, also.

Luckyjoe

[phreedh]

Cheers guys. Luckyjoe, I know you play some SBH too. I've thrown up a post on my blog on the house rules we use. Some quite fundamental changes there, as we think an SBH game can end too quickly with the standard rules. I'd post it on the ganesha forums if it wasn't for the fact that most people there seem to think it's sacrilegious to change the rules. 

http://iloapp.godzilla.se/blog/ministuff?Home&post=20

[Funghy-Fipps]

Excellent write-up and pictures, Phreedh!  Your SBH house rules are interesting too; might have to give 'em a shot.

[Thantsants]

Cracking battle report and a great looking table - shame about Raab but I suppose it all adds spice to the campaign! 

When's the next gripping installment!? 

[Luckyjoe]

Hi, Phreed. Thanks for the link to your rules. You have some interesting ideas that I'd like to try. I had noticed the instance in your report where the skeletons were transfixed and figured that was probably a house rules adaptation. We like SBH but have noticed in our games that low qual warbands tend not to do well because of activation failures and cascading morale fails. Also had the problem with the crumbly Undead. I think you came up with some good (dare I say? ) fixes. I'd like to see how a horde warband of Kobolds could do with your mods.

Luckyjoe

[phreedh]

I think you came up with some good (dare I say? ) fixes. I'd like to see how a horde warband of Kobolds could do with your mods.

I think they'd work pretty well and make for a more "filling" game. We played a zombie horde game a while ago, that's when we started to tweak the rules. I controlled 300 pts worth of zombies (38 of them!). First zombie kill was a gruesome and about 10 zombies died due to the Undead morale rule. We changed that trait on the fly and all of a sudden we had a very enjoyable game!

Cracking battle report and a great looking table - shame about Raab but I suppose it all adds spice to the campaign! 

When's the next gripping installment!? 

Yeah, pity about Raab - but really, it was a stupid move by my "opponent". =D But fun, it made good sense story wise. Raab overestimated himself and underestimated the skeletons' fighting proficiency! Who but a dunce barbarian would do that? Now he goes in the SBH-box for pick-up and play games. One of the ideas with the campaign is that characters die and their models should not be re-used.

Don't know when we'll play next, hopefully soon. My cousin's wife is expecting a baby boy in a few months which will restrict our gaming time. =)

[Thantsants]

Congrats to the expectant mother and your cousin!

Wait till the little one is walking and picking your minis up off the table mid-game!

Oi that one's not dead yet! 

[Rich J]

******I'd post it on the ganesha forums if it wasn't for the fact that most people there seem to think it's sacrilegious to change the rules. ****

Don't think that is true to say ... only real time that people say anything is when the house rule either breaks the game or is 'fixing' something that isn't broken, normally because the OP isn't playing it properly in the first case. Undead failings have come up a bit as like Andrea has pointed out numerous times the undead figures were supposed to be a one or two figure point 'filler' in the warbands ... their Italian clubs and playtesters seemed to run mixed warbands ... most players over here at least tend to be in the 'race' warband mode. SO when people started taking complete undead groups it was hard ... hence the fixes on the group and that will be added to the core rules.

Rich J

[phreedh]

normally because the OP isn't playing it properly in the first case

Yup, that's the thing there... We're not playing SBH "properly" - though I think a better word would be "as designed". As a pick up and play game it works great out of the box, as long as you have a mixed warband and play the metagame (ie ALWAYS include a leader, etc). As an engine for a story line campaign, it doesn't work that well without tweaks.