Shameless plug! Firebrand: new skirmish rules based on SBH

[HYPERPOWER!]

Hi guys,

Pardon the shameless self-promotion.

I've just got a project published on Ganesha Games (click here!). Here's the official word:

Demons visit the planet of Edell in the guise of gods and goddesses. They plot to twist the laws of this world to serve their kind. Four demons compete for the loyalty of Edellian people. Their followers, divided by their allegiance to one of the four, strive to bring about their patron’s dominion. A secretive order of knights-hexer works to weaken the churches and stop the demonic invasion.

The Game
Firebrand is a tabletop game based on the award-nominated Song of Blades and Heroes. It aims to deliver consistent and intuitive gameplay with an original and engaging setting.
 
Features
Setting. Firebrand presents an unconventional fantasy world where nothing is as it seems. Take up the cause of one of four theocracies and fight for its patron demon’s dominion, or join the ranks of the knights-hexer and protect humanity from its own saints.
 
Map-based campaigns. Firebrand introduces a map-based campaign where each region will provide the player with different benefits. For example, capturing a town with a knightly order will allow you to enlist heavy cavalry, a village with a college of magic will let you hire a mage, and so on.
 
Orders. A new system of orders allows soldiers to retain cohesion and act as a single unit on the battlefield. Heroes and soldiers alike fall in line to march, charge and fire volleys when ordered.
 
Siege equipment. Cut swathes in enemy ranks using catapults and ballistas, dig trenches to funnel your opponent into explosive traps and strengthen your spell-casters by bringing solar furnaces to the battlefield.
 
Detailed magic system. Wizards, necromancers and telepaths will join your company, bringing with them spells beyond those available to an ordinary mage. The wizard will rain fire and lightning from every direction using powers of teleportation. The necromancer brings your opponent’s own soldiers back to life and places them under your control. The telepath subverts those yet living to your will.
 
50 pages plus covers full color PDF, with inksaving version
FIREBRAND IS A STAND ALONE BOOK BY TOWERCAP GAMES, DISTRIBUTED BY GANESHA GAMES. NO ADDITIONAL PURCHASE IS NECESSARY TO PLAY.

I hope you give it a go! I'll take all the feedback I can get. (:

Cheers,
Michael

[robh]

Good luck with the game.  Hope the effort you put into it is well rewarded.

[deathjester25]

Does this game use blocks of infantry like warhammer or is it more like SAGA with groups of skirmishers? Would you be able to tell us a little about the army lists? Can i use pretty much whatever i have?

[Relic]

Would like to know more about the army / warband? Usage. Is this skirmish or an army game

[fourcolorfigs]

Love those page shots!  Looks intriguing!

[HYPERPOWER!]

Hi guys,

Thanks for your interest.

Firebrand is a skirmish-level game based on the Song of Blades and Heroes rule set. Unlike SBH, there's an emphasis on larger groups and group movement cohesion, so you'll usually end up using groups of 3-5 models. There's still a lot of room for individual models to do their thing of course. Let me know if you'd like me to explain the difference between the way my game treats orders and SBH in detail. I'd like to avoid unwarranted walls of text here. (:

Firebrand includes a pretty detailed and original native setting. While there are no elves or dwarfs in the game world (it's more Black Company and less Tolkien), the soldier profiles listed in the book will cover most high fantasy races. If you're interested in playing games set in the official setting though, you'll mostly be fielding humans.

Some of the features that I'm particularly happy with are the map-based campaigns and a new magic system.

The players will duke it out over territories with the winner capturing the territory and its holdings. The holdings controlled by the player determine the type of units she'll have access to. Holding a village with a wizard's tower will let you hire a wizard, etc. Some of the core soldier types will be available to players throughout the campaign of course.

Magic's changed since SBH. The necromancer, for example, can now raise the soldiers who died during the game. Depending on the necromancer's skill (and your luck with dice!), the risen soldiers will retain some of their original traits. SO, if a necro raises an archer, there's a good chance the archer will come back to life as a mindless shuffling zombie. If the necro rolls well though, the zombie will remember how to shoot the bow, etc.

There's been lots of changes and I really hope you guys will give the game a go.

Cheers,
Michael

[Relic]

Sounds good. Just bought my copy

[Gibby]

May be a purchase from me too, as I like SBH but find it sometimes lacks depth. If you fancy writing a wall of text I'd love to read the differences!

[hjorhrafn]

I'll second what Gibby wrote.  I'm curious about the changes you've made, especially to the magic system, as that is one of SBH's weak points for me. 

[tomogui]

And I'll third it! Tell us more. I have SoBH and I like its freewheeling devil-may-care attitude, but would often prefer to play something with a little more depth.

[HYPERPOWER!]

Sounds good. Just bought my copy

Thank you very much! I'd love to know what you think of it.

To the rest -- I'll post a few paragraphs directly from the rule book that are relevant to your questions.

Issuing orders
A soldier with the officer trait can use an action to issue orders to a group of other soldiers. Being issued an order allows a soldier to perform an action without having to attempt activation.
A soldier cannot attempt activation if it has already performed an action as a result of being issued an order during the current turn. Conversely, a soldier cannot be issued an order if it has already attempted activation during the current turn.
A soldier with officer can use an action to issue an order to at least two and no more than five other soldiers. The soldiers being issued an order must have at least one other soldier participating in that order within one short.
At least one of the group of soldiers being issued an order will need to be within the range of the officer trait.
If a soldier has a hostile soldier within one short and line-of-sight, it will not be able to be issued an order.
There are four orders that a soldier with officer can issue to a group of other soldiers. These orders are charge, march, siege and volley.

Here are the rules for the "march" order:

March
If a soldier with officer issues a march order to a group of soldiers, the soldiers being issued the order can move up to one medium without having to attempt activation.
Each soldier being issued a march order must move in the same direction or towards the same point as the rest of the soldiers in its group.

Here are the basic rules of spell-casting:

Casting a spell
A soldier with the magic-user trait can use one or two actions to cast a spell.
Once activated, a soldier must declare which spell he is attempting to cast, then perform a magic test. A magic test is a quality test taken using three dice.
There are two categories of spells in Firebrand – basic spells and advances spells. Every soldier with the magic-user trait can cast any of the basic spells, but only specialised spell casters, such as a soldier with the magic-user (wizard) trait, can use advanced spells.
To cast a basic spell, a soldier must use one action. To cast an advance spell, a soldier must use two actions.
The number of winners when performing a magic test determines the strength of the spell. Chapter 6 lists and describes the spells that a soldier may cast and their effects according to the number of winners the soldier has rolled when performing the magic test.
If a soldier rolls three duds when performing a magic test, it will miscast the spell. If the soldier intended to cast a basic spell when it miscast, the following will happen in order:
1) Each soldier within one short of the spell caster, but not the spell caster himself, will suffer a free hack with a combat score of zero;
2) The spell caster will fall;
3) The spell will have no further effect on the game.
If the soldier intended to cast an advanced spell when it miscast, the effect of miscasting the spell will vary with each advanced spell. Chapter 6 describes the effects of miscasting advanced spells.

Here's a basic offensive spell that can be cast by mages (non-specialist spell-caster) and specialist spell-casters such as necromancers and telepaths:

Fireball
A fireball spell strikes all soldiers within one short of its target point. The number of winners that a player has rolled for the purpose of the magic test determines the range of the spell.
One winner rolled for the purpose of the magic test allows the soldier to cast the fireball up to one long away.
Two winners rolled for the purpose of the magic test allow the soldier to cast the fireball up to one long and one medium away.
Three winners rolled for the purpose of the magic test allow the soldier to cast the fireball up to one long, one medium and one short away.
The fireball spell does not have to target a soldier. It may target the ground instead, as long as it fits within the range rules described above and the caster’s line-of-sight.
The fireball spell will trigger a free hack against the soldier at its target point with a combat score of three. Every other soldier within one short from that point will suffer a free hack with the combat score of one.

And here's a spell that can be cast only by the telepath:

Mind control
A soldier with magic-user (telepath) can cast mind control to take control of a hostile soldier.
The caster must have the target soldier within line-of-sight and no farther away than one long.
The number of winners that a player has rolled for the purpose of the magic test determines the number of actions that player can take with the target soldier – one action per winner.
When the spell is cast, the target soldier can take a resistance test to attempt to resist its effects.
If a soldier miscasts mind control, it will gain the delusional trait until the end of the game.

The rules are written in a pretty dry language to try to avoid ambiguity, but the book is full of examples to illustrate them.

I plan to run a game this weekend and, if all goes well, will post a battle report on this forum. Hopefully, that'll answer a few more questions you may have. And if not -- just buy the book! P:

Kind regards,
Michael

[deathjester25]

Sounds pretty cool. How many models per side does it work best with?

[HYPERPOWER!]

Sounds pretty cool. How many models per side does it work best with?

You'll usually start a campaign with 300 crowns to spend on your company. This'll let you field about 10 soldiers in the first game. After each game, the size of the company will escalate by 100 crowns. This will likely translate into another 3-5 additional soldiers each game, depending on the soldiers you choose to enlist. Remember that you can also spend your payroll on equipment such as barricades, ballistae and catapults.

The number of crowns players will spend on their companies each game will always be equal. If one player fields 400 crowns worth of troops and equipment in a game, the other player will spend just as much. The money is supplied by their factions, but the factions' treasuries are finite. Once a faction's treasury is depleted, that faction goes bankrupt and the players fighting for that faction will not be getting any more reinforcements -- their companies will essentially enter a sudden death mode, so to say.

Kind regards,
Michael