SOBH - Fantasy Adventure [Giving it a try]

[Sangennaru]

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.

[southheaven]

Tried SW as a roleplaying game and as a wargaming system both didn´t 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.

[Sangennaru]

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).

[southheaven]

I used master from Gamemaster, a roleplaying expression.

So, yesterday we had a first game of SoBH. 400 Points of Humans vs. Undead. I didn´t take that much pictures since i couldn´t 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 didn´t 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.




After killing the dreaded Lich, they took watch over the entrance to the village.

[**GS**]

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

[PatrickWR]

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.

[southheaven]

Thanks for the compliments.

@Patrick Yes, we use the most recent rules, 5.0 i think it is. But we didn´t 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 didn´t take any pictures, we think that the rules are too much depending on chance. You can´t really plan your move since you don´t 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 we´ll stick to Matakishis CROM, which focuses more on single figthers than small troops, but that´s ok for us, especially with the rules additions we have added.

[obsidian3d]

You can perform group actions if you have larger warbands. I've used it when playing zombie hordes against opponents with smaller numbers.

[sundayhero]

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.

[southheaven]

@sundayhero Well, actually i´m stealing ideas from a lot of places. Yes, the table surface is selfmade. It´s a roll up gaming matt i made from canvas, cheap acrylic you get in the DIY, some paint, flock, oregano(can´t stand the smell anymore ), 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!

It´s 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.

The piece of bark on the right is pressed into the mixture.

[aggro84]

nice looking boards!
the vegetation looks very natural.
the minis look good too!
 

[OLeary]

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.

[Blackwolf]

Those boards look spot on

[Dr. The Viking]

MAaaaaaaan that looks great!

[Imp522]

Your boards do look good. I have to try out the dried herb thing one of these day's.