Our Song of Blades & Heroes campaign finally kicked off on Tues, Feb 1, at our regular game night at Dragon's Lair San Antonio. It is a somewhat narrative campaign insofar as I have come up with a background story based on the following poster (click to open up the poster in a new window). 

So, several intrepid warbands start making their way towards the Wizard's realm, intent on procuring work from him and keeping other warbands from doing the same. The following folks were on hand that night, playing their warbands as listed below:

Alec - Highlord Alaric's Retainers / Warmachine Dwarves (good)

Chip - Udder Devastation / Tauren Warband (neutral)

Grant - Xenomorphs! / Alien brood mother and brood (evil)

Johnnie - Griffins of Akkylannie (good)

John - Ogre Roaming Warband (evil)

Mark - Venom, Inc. /  mercenaries (mainly Reaper) (neutral)

Roaming through the wilderness, the warbands matched up and battled as follows. 

1) Venom, Inc. and the Ogre Roaming Warband roamed the vast forest adjacent to Tré Bliege's realm, only to stumble upon one another. As the warbands jockeyed for position, Venom, Inc's leader (a "supposedly" neutral drow priestess) bolted for a hill in between the two groups. As she was now out of shouting range of the rest of Venom, she would be on her own for a while and eventually would be set upon by the brutish ogres. As the rest of Venom finally arrived at the foot of the hill to see their leader in a desperate bid to hold the hill, they manage to watch as the ogres put her down with a gruesome blow. Most of Venom's warriors would flee the catastrophe to leave the hill to the ogres. The ogres would hold the route to the wizard's realm and continue on, while Venom, Inc., would have to find another way in. The Drow priestess would be saved, however, to lead Venom forward from this defeat. 

2) Through a rough, mountain pass in a Heavy Rain, the Griffin warband had a couple of narrow passes to make it through to the lands lying outside Tré Bliege's realm. They did not, however, expect to have to battle Xenomorphs! in the process. They would try to breakthrough, using the narrow passes to their advantage, splitting up into two groups. However, a gruesome kill began a cascade of morale problems for the Griffin warriors, who would flee the field in hopes to not be infected by the alien invaders, and instead to find a better way to the wizard. 

3) Udder Devastation found Highlord Alaric's Retainers holed up in some ruins, with a makeshift shrine in its center. With but a single torch in the group, the Tauren Shaman leader Hulok Trailblazer ordered the fiery destruction of the shrine, an affront to the gods of nature. As the group surged forward, dwarf crossbow bolts whizzed by but failed to stop their advance. Dwarves would begin to fall once the Tauren got within range and the bearded ones were seen to be close to breaking, but the drilled Dwarven training of the crossbow warriors put Hulok down, and the torch bearer would be the one to break and run out of the clearing with the only other means to burn the shrine down. Udder Devastation would surrender the area to the Dwarves, with Hulok managing to survive but heal poorly. 

So three warbands have made it (or very nearly made it) the the wizard's realm. These 3, then, are likely opponents as they search for the wizard's keep to inquire about the job.

Blake and I get together occasionally here at the office for a wargame over my lunch hour. Today we played Song of Blades & Heroes as an intro game for Blake. He has put together a warband of Celtos Orcs which look really good on the table. My Tauren Warband (affectionately named "Udder Devastation") has seen lots of action but they are a 50/50 bunch that I'm still learning to play with. 

   

We went over the campaign rules but essentially played a straight up game to get him used to the conventions of SoBaH. His warband missed a couple rounds early on which hampered his maneuverability while I was able to get in position to avoid his mounted orcs (they are designed to be hard hitters) and hit his lesser units. I managed to gruesome kill with a long shot and caused morale rolls, which became a theme of the game. 

   

Pictured at left are the Mounted Orcs, which I was able to avoid the whole game. Meanwhile, shown in the picture at right, my Scytheclaw raptor, Thangal (tank) and Morova of the Sands initiate combat and begin to break the Orcs. Morova would knock down the orc grunt facing her (with spear), and Thangal would gruesome kill him as he lay, prompting the others to take morale cks. The orc Leader is the one with the sword. The raptor rushed in and on the turn he makes contact he gets a +1 since he has the "Dashing" skill. This resulted in another gruesome kill for which morale had to be taken again by the orcs, making the leader run off the board, which took the orcs below 50% -- which caused yet another morale check. In the end a single orc would remain to surrender the field...

My minis are from the WoW minis game. I have finished repainting Thangal, the black Tauren and have him statted up like a shaman tank. The raptor I have not touched and will not do too much to it since I like the paint job on him (just needs some wash on the gold jewelry and feather highlights). Morova of the Sands is the female with the moose horns. I have done extensive work on her and stil have some to go (the rest of her cowl and the horns, both on her head and her cowl, as well as those sticking out of her shoulders. The other two I have yet to start. The paint job they come with is pretty (just) table-ready, but they repaint pretty easily.

Mark and I threw down some SoBaH a couple weeks ago, his hodge-podge crew called Venom, Inc, taking on my Tauren Warband, Udder Devastation. We used it as a practice game to iron out some of the campaign rules, so we rolled for Initiative, then Terrain (hilly, no fantastic pcs), then weather (Magical Storm), and Scenario (Place of Power). I had the only Magic-using model in the game so made it a priority to get to the Place of Power. I never left but being strewn with rubble we ruled that it was rough terrain so it made it difficult for me to maneuver, and when I did manage to get in position to attack, Thangal my tank, got knocked down... It was a fun game with Mark and we played again the following Tues night (no pics then though, which is good 'cause I got my Tauren tail handed to me, both in SoBaH and in HotT).

Andrea's remarks about my High Elves got me motivated to actually photograph and post my finished elements I added to my High Elf HotT army, taking it to 48AP. Several of the stands are shown below, including the finished Lion Warrior stands (click for larger images). 

In anticipation of starting our own Song of Blades & Heroes (SoBaH) campaign, I ran an impromptu couple of rounds to introduce everyone to the campaign rules found in Song of Deeds & Glory. There were a total of 7 of us ready to play, so, being the campaign GM I opted to run the first round as a referee (which helped in that I could look up rules and spend time reviewing the campaign rules without the pressure of being in the middle of a game). The participants and their warband names were as follows:

Well I got my first addition to my 48AP High Elf army just about completed. It's one of six White Lions of Chrace that I'll add in as two elements of Warband. These are the first edition LIon Warriors sculpted by the Morrisons when they were at Marauder Miniatures, but later folded into the Citadel/GW lines. As with my Phoenix Warriors, these guys will differ from my main color theme in that they are a more "earthy" palette of tans, browns and bronze, with orange for an accent. Their ribbons/sashes will be blue to tie them into the main color of the army. I'll update as I get the unit finished. This particular mini still has some final touches to go - lion claws, repaint the headband med blue and put a wash on the Elf's hair and hairband. The others are in various states of "finished-ness"...

We had a respectable turnout for Game Day on Sat, June 5, with Mack, Grant, Bronco and a new fella playing a couple practice games. Not bad for vacation season. I showed up a bit late (daddy/coach duties) and sat and painted with Mark. I gave Mark a couple pointers on sprucing up a stand of Knights that he was working on - a little washing, a little drybrushing - and I put together my Artillery unit for my HIgh Elves. I cleaned up the crew as well, and even put paint on some White Lions of Chrace (which will fight as Warband). All in all a productive afternoon and great time talking with some buddies that dropped in (Alphonso, & Brian - who was just out of surgery and a surprise visitor!). So a good start to 7 pts of my 25AP that I need to bump my HIgh Elf army up to 48AP for next months tournament. Take care all! Hope to see you next month!

Ok the roster for this weekend's campaign is shaping up. You can keep track of it if you click here.

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The real world has kept me busy but I finally find time to post results from our HotT-Hammer Non-Con II tournament, held April 18 in San Antonio.

After scoring zero points in round 1, Nathan stormed back to take First Place! His first tournament with his first army - a Demon Plague Army of Nurgle! Congratulations to Nathan for an awesome win. Just hope you didnt have to pledge too much to Nurgle for the win, Nathan!

He and Grant were tied going into the final round and faced off for the championship - winner take all! Grant ended up losing with his UNA army (3-1 in their first outing also!) so he finished second overall. Impressive as well...

All told, we had 13 participants play HotT on the day for which I am truly grateful. John and Alejandro came in from Austin even (thanks to his wife as she went solo with birthday party duties!!). John brought a zombie army that was incredibly frustrating to play - several of us had our own 'zombie encounters' where we mowed down untold numbers of zombie horde just to see them come back to thwart any attempts we made to win the game. I know I got his army down to 11AP lost , only to end up on the down side of a close tie. Bronco and Brian played their first games of HotT this weekend and are now hooked and building their own armies for future events! Final standings on the day were as follows:

1st - Nathan Torok - Nurgle
2nd - Grant Hopwood - UNA
3rd - Mack Harrison - Skeletons
4th - Cameron Radetzky - Picts
5th - Johnny Rod - Romans
6th - John Neff - Zombie Hordes
7th - Blake Radetzky - Empire, Nordlanders
8th - Scott Davis - American War of Independence
9th - Chip Aaron - Scorpions of Dirz
10th - Alejandro Neff - Goblins
11th - Brian Bird - Greeks
12th - Mark Leroux - High Elves
13th - Bronco - Fire Giants of Surtur

 

Here are a few photos from the event taken by Bronco. The first shows Grant (his daughter at left), and Cameron in the foreground, with John and Mack (I believe) in the background. The other photos are from the game that Bronco and I played, using Mack's Fire Giants vs my Scorpions. Clik on the thumbnails for larger pictures. More photos to follow as I receive them...

Thanks and congratulations go to all players, and a BIG thank you to Dragon's Lair, who opened their doors an hour early for us. I look forward to playing more HotT in the coming months with a one-day campaign coming up May 22, a Game Day in June on the 5th, and our big Double-Size HotT-Hammer tournament in July (17th pending confirmation).

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HotT-Hammer Non-Con Tournament II
Sunday, April 18, 2010
11am-5pm
Dragon's Lair - San Antonio
Corner of Fredericksburg Rd & Medical Dr (Fred & Med)

-24AP army per HotT 2.0 rules
-same army will be used throughout the tournament (no substitutions)
-4-round Swiss Chess format
-60mm frontage
-prizes sponsored by tournament GM and by Dragon's Lair

Players are encouraged to bring their own armies, their own terrain and stronghold(s), and dice, rulebook, roster(s) and pencil, though we will have extras of everything on hand to loan out.

Hope to see you there,
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